The Whisper of the Maddened Son

The first thing I noticed was how dimly lit this room was. I could barely see my hands if I brought them to my eye level. I turned around, looking for some light. I found it, a greenish light seemed to come from a table in the room, I could see figures standing against the light. They were tall and bulky, but as I got closer, I needed light. It was too dark where I was.

As I got closer I slowly managed to notice that there were figures on the other side of the table as well, and what the table was truly projecting. A spherical object, with symbols around it and something that I guessed were numbers. And on the other side, I saw, as a bulky metal chestplate, with a winged skull, and they were tall. Far taller than anyone I´d seen, and their faces seemed to reflect the dim green light, and then I froze in place.

My eyes locked with the form of a figure, that even under the pale light obscured by the oppressive darkness of the room, froze me to the core and made me feel a rush of emotions that I cannot describe. It was a strange mix of joy and willingness to follow. I…

"Sevetar, dispose of him." I heard someone say, in a flowery language that I had never heard but for some reason I understood. Someone turned to me and grabbed me by the throat and left the room.

As I panicked several things went through my mind. Sevetar, dark room, metallic chestplate with a winged skull, holographic sphere with symbols and numbers around and a single conclusion came to my mind. A conclusion that made my skin shudder. What did I do to deserve this? I don't know, but I have to say something or I´ll die.

"Wait, I can be useful to you."

He did not react.

"I know things. Just like the Primarch knows."

He tightened his grip. Great, I indicated I was a psyker, great idea.

"Stop. I am not a psyker. I just know stuff."

I could barely breathe now.

"Jago, Jago Sevatarion stop. Please, I can be useful to the Legion. I know you suppress it, you bear your father's curse, please." I begged. It was honestly the only card I was pretty sure he would react to, and he did. With a speed I barely registered he pushed me against the dim halls of the ship, he took a flaying knife from his armor.

"If you know things then speak them." He said, his tone deeply metallic, uniform and deep.

I honestly do not know how I did not shat myself at that moment, and he knew.

"You are Jago Sevetarion, First Captain of the 8th Legion. You bear the curse of the Nighthaunter, though you suppress your psychic potential willingly." I quickly said, far too quickly almost.

He rested his knife on the left side of my face. "Do not repeat yourself."

"If things continue as they are, your father will destroy Nostramo and abandon the Legion." I could feel blood coming from beneath my ear, a harsh pain coming alongside it. He was on purpose pressuring the nerve with the blade.

"Your father will go mad and forsake you." I hastily continued "You will stop suppressing trying to save him, you will fail." The cold lifeblood of my veins continued to flow, until he stopped pressuring and released me. I hit the floor with a large thump.

"If you know stuff, then tell me. Piamen, our next target, how will it be?"

"Good, I know this one. I am quite fortunate it seems." I thought to myself.

"Human world. You will face no difficulties. You will take one of their ships and drop the remains of the dead crew on the population below. The population would be gathered to celebrate a falsely reported victory over the Legion. Your father will be aboard the ship." I quickly said.

He thought for what seemed an entire hour to me and then grabbed me again. He ran faster than I had thought him to be capable, everything was a blur at best as we moved.

Nothing this large should move this fast.

And then we arrived at our destination, perhaps 2 minutes had passed since he started running, he put something in my hand and left.

I looked around. It was still dark, but I could hear people talking, mortals talking. I think Sevetarion dropped me in the lower decks.

Thankfully these were people whose life was shaped by the deeds of the Primarch in Nostramo. No crime would they commit, and they help a soul in need, for that is what a civilized people were expected to do. To follow the law, and help your brethren, that is what Nostramans learned under the Primarch, through the use of fear.

Someone came to me, clearly noticing I was blind in that environment, which was fortunate as I needed help to survive. He asked me many questions. Where I came from, for it was clear I was not Nostraman born. My iris was green tinged with hazel and the whiteness of the sclera clear in my eyes, something that contrasted with the Nostraman born or Legion warriors charcoal color of their eyes. Why was I here? What was my role in the legion?

My answers were less than satisfactory to them, by virtue of my situation. Terra was my home technically, even if I had never beheld it in this millennium. I had no role in the Legion, for I was meant to be disposed of as I had been seen in the Primarch's war council and yet Sevetar spared me for the moment.

When I mentioned Sevetar, they questioned if it was the first captain. I confirmed it, and they did not believe me. I showed them what he had given to me, the coin, and they could not believe me.

They explained what it meant, as I could not recall it. As long as I held it, it meant I was under his protection, a gang custom taken from their sunless homeworld.

I guess he did indeed spare me for the moment, but I could not survive from favor alone. I needed food too, and I was getting hungry.

I had to take on the role of a menial, doing what the crew asked… And it was a pain. I lost the notion of time in that work.

When Sevetar came looking for me again. I was on the ground against a wall, sleeping.

He woke me up with a kick to my legs. I guess the lack of a name forces things like that. I groaned in pain, but I slowly got up.

"How was your week?" he asked. Had a week passed? God the lack of light makes time keeping hard.

"I hated it, Sevetar" replied. I extended my hand revealing the coin he had given me. "This is yours i believe."

"What can you do?" Those red helmet visors could be terrifying at times, why had he also come here fully armored and armed. I did not like the fact that he held his chainglaive. It was a threat, as if I needed threats to answer honestly. I am no fool. "You know more than you should, so what could you do for the Legion?"

I breathed deeply. This was the moment of truth. Either, I die, or I live.

"This Legion is made on the premise of Fear. I do not know how you employ it, but knowing your Primarch´s upbringing, you only flay and skin and torture to inflict it. So I believe you could do it with someone who did not do that for information gathering."

He did not move a single inch, no reaction at all. "You will explain your case to the Primarch, personally."

I nodded, before he started walking, I quickly followed behind, trying to keep up with him. I was moderately successful, though if I am to be honest I do not know how long we traveled again. I had to run to keep up with him, and so when he stopped in front of a large metallic door, the first thing I did was use a wall as support and breathe, and I breathed a lot in that moment. I was tired.

I rested until Sevetar grabbed me, and threw me to the other side of the door. "God don't these people have manners?" I thought to myself.

I did not think that for long. As I was met with the same feeling I had felt when I froze in that room.

"Sevetar tells me you offered your services to the Legion," a voice said from somewhere behind me. The door must have closed without me noticing it. "He tells me you know more than you should." It was a harsh voice, eerily cold and raspy. The Primarch´s voice.

I proceed to kneel towards the interior of the room. It was Konrad, there was no point in trying to point myself to him. He would move as he pleased to instill fear in me.

"He did not lie, Primarch. I do know more than I should." I simply replied. I glanced around the room, it seemed cold, far colder than the ship previously. I felt my heart rapidly beat, much more than before, and sweat flowed down from my face like tears.

"Why should I believe a word of what you say." he said calmly. I was pretty sure he was directly behind me.

"You have no reason." I answered. "I am a man that should not be here. I should be in the dirt, my body long devoured by bacteria far before mankind colonized its first planet. Whatever power brought me here. I do not know. But I can serve."

He did not answer back so I continued. "I know of your curse. You see a future."

"The future" he corrected his voice so close to me that I could feel his breath in my skin. He was directly behind me.

"A future." I continued "I know the circumstances of your upbringing, though not details. I know what you suffered, though I will never truly understand it. I know what the vision that you had when the Emperor arrived at Nostramo speaks off. I know of the headless Ferrus, I know of the crowned Aurelian and the torn Dorn."

I felt a gust of air pass my skin. He moved somewhere else. "Your service," he said.

Perhaps I had convinced him that it was worth at least finishing this conversation.

"The 8th is a weapon of terror. But fear alone is not needed to achieve goals. During a war there was a officer of Jermani origin"

"Make your point." he said bored.

"Of course. An officer of one of those countries developed an interrogation technique that was based upon the kindness shown to others. He would go on walks with them through a garden for example, being the definition of a kind gentleman, and make innocent statements whose accuracy was not yet known. Like the guns on your planes shot yellow tracers when on low ammo. To induce the prisoner to correct the statements. My proposal is using your Legionnaires´s passtime as the route of the walk, presenting the pieces of art that they make akin to a museum, as potential fates so that the prisoner knows what fate awaits should they not cooperate with the legion."

"Why should I employ you for this… thing" the Primarch said, hardly impressed by my words "When I have a dozen others who could do it."

"Because," I began, forcing myself to stand upright despite the terrible weight of his presence, "I alone in this ship did not live a life of misery and pain. Because I have known love, just as I have felt hate and fear."

I took a deep breath, feeling the intensity of his gaze. "Fear is as strong as iron, my lord, but iron will break before it bends. And Fear is a tool that slowly kills the soul. It will break its users, forgetting the inherent value of a human life."

The Primarch thought long, something rather rare for one so known for outbursts, before giving an answer.

"My brother of Olympia would say iron is unyielding… Show me the value of such a method then." he said, and the lights got stronger allowing me to see where I was. I thought I was in the Primarch´s quarters, but instead I was in a room holding a prisoner. He was a mortal, tied to a chair gagged and deafened by something in his ears. He was unarmed and for what I could see he had been untouched by the Legion .In front of him was a table with a dataslate on top of it, an automatic translator, and a free seat.The Primarch was nowhere to be seen.

Fortunately, there were a few flesh sculptures on the other side of a glass window. Sevetar arranged and deduced everything from my words alone. They saw directly what I meant and now are using me as a test dummy, great.

I slowly seated myself on the chair. It was strangely comfortable. I guess after sleeping for a week on the floor a simple chair would be comfortable. And proceed to read the data slate.

For some reason I could understand the Nostraman runes. Not like I am going to complain.

Captured on the first engagement with the Legion, a mortal crewman. Well I guess to work I have to go.

I removed what deafened him and told him to speak only when questioned, cooperation is for his best interest and if he understood to move his head slowly from top to bottom in a continuous motion.

He did. Good, that is great. I removed his gag, and pointed at the flesh sculptures.

"Those are your fellow companions. They were most uncooperative. I would suggest you do not follow their example." After a few moments for the autotranslator to give the words in his tongue his eyes widened in fearful understanding and nodded vigorously as I´d instructed him to before.

I carefully scanned the data slate for information I was meant to obtain from him. World leadership only. I guess it was truly a test.

"So I heard you vote for your leaders and policies. Do you think you voted right last election?" A lie, I had no idea what their governing method was, I just threw a democracy because it was the easiest to think about.

After the autotranslator finished he answered back. They did not vote for their leaders. Only their ruling body. They had a royal family.

"Would you say they deserve keeping their position?" I asked for self indulgence.

"Not after being blind to the right choice." He said fearfully..

"Would you please tell me if there are any young members in this royal family?"

He proceeded to detail every single branch of the family tree that he could remember, which to be fair was not much, but it was at least 5 or 6 targets for the legion to hunt and exploit.

I proceeded to ask more questions, asking about their ships and the equipment of their men, looking for more detail. He complied with answers to everything.

After I was done, I put the data slate on the table again and shouted in the Nostraman tongue. I was done and they could take the prisioner.

The Primarch came into the room from behind the prisoner. With the lights on I could see him, even if they were dim. He was pale as I expected, but I had never expected so pale. His skin was like soft snow and his eyes darker than the black. His face shifted ever slightly, from gruesome smiles that would frightened even the most fearless of warriors to a curious frown. I was so transfixed on him that I did not comprehend what he came here to do until he killed the prisoner with a quick, decisive blow to his neck, decapitating him with his own hand as if it was a blade. After that he turned to face me.

"I will entertain this, for now. You are for now a Legion officer, with that comes a standard salary as well as lodgings in the upper decks, though for you… You will be near my quarters. I do not wish you out of my sight."

I could only nod in acceptance, my survival was guaranteed for now.

"You said things to Sevetar that I wish to know their context, but for now I need your name."

My name… I could give him my name, my birth name. That is a name, but it feels so out of place. Perhaps I should choose a different one, my old life is dead, and now only I amongst mortals, remain to remember it amongst a galaxy of slaughter and carnage.

Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

Know this as you read the words in these pages. The only point of the words written are to record what little remains of an age long gone. An age where I was born and was taken from to serve the 8th son. An age where mankind hadn't yet left its cradle, whose greatest achievement in manned space flight was to reach Luna and plant a nation's flag on it. A time where the world still held its deep oceans and whose land was split into nations. A time where mankind was experimenting with its first Artificial Intelligences, the very thing that you know as abominable. In those times it was not known as such.

These words are not meant to condone or to condemn whatever ideas in here. They are simply to record the memory of an age that is now but legend, and whose knowledge of their tales be lost in this galaxy after the terrors of Old Night.

That is why, know this as you read this book.

Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

That was the first thing I did after settling in my room. It was a large room, with all the things you could expect, and even more "modern" items that would be familiar to me. A portable cogitator atop a desk that was strangely familiar in terms of design,built inside a smooth dark and sleek case of a material that seemed between plastic and steel. Whatever operating system it was, some things never changed, there was always a word like program in it. Unfortunately I could not find the equivalent of Excel pre-installed here. I really hope the joke of Microsoft Excel being lost in the dark age was not true.

The bed was big and it's mattress, made in legion colors like everything in here, was very soft crafted from a material I had never seen in my previous life much like the sheets or the pillow.

Time passed, at first an hour, then a day, then a week, before someone came looking for me. He knocked on the metallic door, I opened it and was met with the gaunt face of a legion serf. He was holding himself by a staff, he had no hair and he was visibly exhausted.

"The Primarch asks for your presence in his chamber" said, his voice raspy and tired. I nodded and asked his name.

"Ekra Trez," he answered. I closed the door behind me, slowly walked towards the Primarch´s chamber down in the hallway, while talking to him.

"You are the Sin Eater?" I asked. He nodded "I am Melkor." I replied back and I moved my right hand forward for a handshake. He took it hesitantly. It seems handshakes fell out of favor in the Millenia.

We walked silently until we arrived at the door of the Primarch´s inner sanctum. It was steel plated inlaid with various runes. Trez opened it, and I got in after him.

If my room was spacious, this room was gargantuan, well in truth it was not a room, it was effectively a palace. Everything sized for a Primarch, even the smallest chair was taller than me, a pen the size of my hand. It was marvelous. And at its center, in the largest room, there was a large oval obsidian table with 20 Primarch sized chairs. For his brothers I assume. From the corner of my eyes I could see other rooms, but unlike this one, which was organized, focused with its singular purpose, the others were chaotic. The only thing that seemed passable was the armory, and even then I could just glimpse at it, I did not know how things fared in its depths.

I was so enthralled by the table´s chamber, with its rich tapestries and decorations that I did not notice the Sin Eater kneel on the floor, nor did I notice the presence of the one that had demanded it.

"Do you play regicide?" the Primarch asked, and I quickly turned to him. Nothing this large should be this silent.

"I do not… It was not a thing where I came from," I answered, inwardly thinking that no being should emit such a need to serve as he did. And this was Curze, the one renowned to have the least presence of them all. He was clothed in his famous dark feathered cloak, and for once he seemed to have taken care of himself to a degree. There was no grime or soot he would later have when the madness and despair in him was too great to have him care himself like a lord of men. And yet for all the beauty, nobility and presence he held it was not hard to feel afraid of him…

That was his presence, fearful loyalty that was what his presence inspired. Fear of his retribution and a need to serve…And not even a man lost in time was immune to the creations of this age.

He simply nodded, putting a board on the obsidian table.

"I could learn of course. If you wish me to play." I quickly added.

"Trez, Melkor sit." he said, and Trez moved to grab another chair stored at one of the room´s dark corners and sat. I followed suit after his example, getting another of these chairs, made so that mortals could sit at a Primarch´s table in his inner sanctum.

I sat on the board's other side, directly opposite to the Primarch, while Trez sat to his side, almost at the table´s head.

Curze started to speak about the pieces, as he carefully arranged the board, what they did, how the game worked, and other such things. I quickly grasped the basics of it, after all it was not too dissimilar to chess, more pieces and a different board but the essence was there.

He most likely noticed this, for when he finally finished setting the board he told me to make my move.

"In my time, there was a game not too dissimilar to this one. Chess, the game of Kings it was called. It had many variants." I said as I took my first move.

"Ironic, as this one is about the death of kings" he replied as he made his move.

It took a while before I answered back… "Death or not, a game is a game."

He moved his piece quickly, as if he had always known what would be my move. Hardly surprising, a mortal was playing against a Primarch after all.

The rest of the game would be like this, a mortal carefully weighing options while the Primarch moved in the next instant with a frightening surety.

"You told Sevetar I was going to destroy Nostramo." he said as he cornered one of my pieces.

"I did. I also told him you would abandon the legion to die." I said, moving one of my pieces to threaten his left flank.

As expected it was not truly a threat. "The Emperor gave me the legion to expand the Imperium in the crusade. Why would I do that?" he said as he neutralized my advance.

"Because you hate it." I answered. "You hate your legion, you hate that they enjoy the sowing of fear without understanding your values."

"That would be desertion of the Imperium, and desertion is a crime. Are you calling me a criminal?" he asked,calmly moving in the center.

"I cannot condemn someone for something they haven't yet done."

Good i was holding onto the game. I might actually draw…

"You told me earlier about my brothers. That you know of the vision I had on Nostramo when I met the… You spoke of Lorgar, Ferrus and Dorn. Can you explain them?" he was boxing me in, i was nearly out of moves, no there was an opening.

"The understanding of those is related to knowledge forbidden by the Emperor." I said as I moved to exploit the gap.

"Then how did you acquire it?"

"Same way I acquired the knowledge about you, your first captain and various individuals. Reading a story that I thought to be a dystopian future of mankind, yet here we are."

"I assume this has to do with your knowledge of ancient Jermani as you said."

"Partially." I confirmed.

He stopped for a moment, before making his move.

"You are an officer of my legion now. You will not be punished for speaking your mind to me here."

I nodded slowly. "I read it in a book. Various books detailing tales of a hypothetical dystopian future. I do not have sight. I have information that was written and I read it."

"And such information told me I would destroy Nostramo, forsake the legion, Sevetar would try to convince me to not do it and he would fail."

"Yes." We were now at the end phase of the game.

"So tell me, what is the most shocking thing in those books?" he asked, almost smiling. It seems he is hungry for knowledge still, just like he had been in Nostramo when he had just gotten his throne, his crown of the sunless world.

I calmly moved my piece, before speaking. "Fulgrim and eight others will betray the Emperor,"

He swept aside the board the moment I said those words, the pieces shattering against the Demigod´s hand with the speed of the movement and just as blindingly fast he ordered us to leave him.

Trez quickly got up, put the chair where it had been and left the Primarch´s chamber. I, on the other hand, did things much more calmly.

Before I left the chamber I finished my sentence. "And you will follow Fulgrim in this."

On the other side, I sighed deeply, in relief and fear,leaning on the metallic wall, all the while I heard the Primarch venting his emotions on the other side. For all the knowledge I possessed, I had forgotten in that room, playing that game, how unstable the Primarch truly was.

I breathed deeply before moving again. I looked for an observatory deck. I wished to see the stars from the void. I asked a man for directions, and eventually. I found one, it was small. Clearly this was not a priority for the 8th, this one most likely had just been left in place, too bothersome to remove when the Nightfall was refitted when Curze had been found.

Window shutter, or something close to window shutters to be precise, were closed, and the button to open them was not reacting.

There was only one reason this would be the case. Warp jumps, we are inside the warp… That was why the Primarch was this calm. That was why he did not kill me once I spoke about the heresy. I owe my life to the warp, and I felt nothing good about it.

I waited there, thinking about it. About what I should do, and how much I should push. How to best do what needed to be done. I waited there for so long that I was thrown to the ground, my head striking the metallic floor with a small "hump" as the ship left the warp.

"Not used to jumps," Someone said, as I slowly, painfully got up. I looked at the voice´s direction, it was Trez. "First time for everything." I replied back.

He nodded, though he most likely thought it to be a joke, and one poorly made at that. "You're the first human the Primarch took a liking to." he said, throwing a small hand sized coin to me.

"I thought that was you." I answered back. He seemed to chuckle at that. "I am in his favor but he does not like me. I calm his visions and archive them, nothing more. I am simply a tool to him."

"Sin eater is not a bad nickname." The shutters started to open slowly revealing the dark void between stars. I looked at them appreciating its beauty. It was the first time I had seen the stars from outside a planet.

"Keep the coin at all times with you. Your life depends on it outside of your quarters." he said as he approached me. "The Primarch gave you leave to be in his chamber whenever you wish."

"It seems he is curious about me," I shrugged. In truth, there was little I could do about it. Among mortals like Trez, my fear of the 8th and his Primarch was irrelevant. Trez was simply another man, though one burdened in his own way. While he was privy to the Primarch's visions, I knew a singular possibility for the future. One the Primarch's was tormented most often with but one that could change, and if it did, Trez would be the one to know, not me.

"Not many would shrug at being in the Nighthaunter´s sight, especially one that enrages him."

He said leaving me alone, appreciating the void of space, to witness the uncountable colors of stars and nebulae for the first time in my life… And it was beautiful, so beautiful unlike this age… A single thought, no, a single ancient quote, came to my head.

Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.

The world has indeed changed.