//------------------------------//
// Mercy 
// Story: Emperor 
// by dominatusimperator 
//------------------------------//

	The killing blow was forthcoming, my sword prepared to cleave her in twain. Her terror was almost palpable. But it was a clean terror. It was not terror of death that went through her mind. It was fear for her subjects. She knew that if I were to kill her nothing would stop me from ending the lives of those that survived behind her. Normally, that would not have changed my mind, were it not for another realization. I realized that her mind was human. Not human like, mind you. Human, exactly the same. Why was a human mind trapped in an Equine body? I sheathed my sword. 

The Xenos blinked. Fear was still radiating from her mind, but it was now mixed in with a quizzical curiosity. As I strode passed her towards the six survivors, she tried to block me, now fearing that her hopes were for naught. I pushed her aside with my mind. The purple one was now fixing me with a pain filled glare. I estimated that there were two more minutes of life for her. A mere two minutes. Although with what I was planning to do, she would have a whole life time ahead of her. However long that was. 

I reached out with my mind, the warp flooding through me. Its first action was to try and destroy my mind, hatred, rage, lust, scheming, all flooded through me in equal measure. I fought back with my mind, and the power flowed through. I was briefly aware that I was flaring with golden light, and that the white Xenos was shouting in alarm. I saw the town flooding with light. I imagined the Xenos alive. I believed. Ironically, faith will allow a man to do anything. I had faith. The question that must always be posed is: faith in what?

Did it matter? The results were the same. Where there was once a desolate once village full of corpses, there was now a populated town, staring at me in fear. The only sign of the death that occurred was the charred ground where the Neverborn had ended its days, and the blood that still covered every surface. The six were healed and now looked around, puzzled. The blue one shouted in her mind that I needed my face bucked in. The purple one was more rationally minded. She asked herself almost immediately the cause of my sudden mercy. The white one with both wings and horn was relieved and amazed in equal measure. I was certain that she was gaping.  

I was once again struck by the sheer humanity of it all. Xenos have minds that are completely different from mankind’s. That is why mankind is supreme. It is not just the body, it is the spirit. The Eldar, therefore, although almost human in appearance are not equal to man. They possess not the mind. These Equines possessed the mind. It was eerie. Never before had I seen such a thing. 

Swallowing my thoughts, I turned to walk out of the village. I sensed the blue one  charging towards me. I spun with such rapidity that the Xenos barely had time to flinch. One did not need to be a Psyker to see that she expected to die again. I merely held out my index finger in a warning gesture. The Xenos sank to the ground. I turned and continued my exodus. 

How was I to return to the Imperium? It was necessary that I return to my people. The government was not fully established when Horus had rebelled, and it was fully susceptible to corruption and religious infiltration. It was imperative that I returned. Without me, Mankind would only last another ten thousand years. That was unacceptable. 

However, the fact of the matter was, I was in another world. Even the warp felt slightly different here. Cleaner, even. Perhaps it wasn’t the warp that was different here, but merely the way it expressed itself. That was a thought worth investigating. Perhaps if I could find a way to enter the warp-

“Why?” The White Xenos ruler asked. 

I paused.

“Why show mercy?”

“We are more alike than you think, Xenos.”

She paused, this time. 

Then she said something that took me by surprise, “Have you a place to stay?”