Mada 'Plinth' Myrkul's Story

Fates Envoy

Ean smiled as the chaos sorcerer said his peice. All then slowed to a stop, to a cease. Nothing was amiss to anyone else, they wouldn't even notice the lapse of time, as there was none for them.

But the sorcerer would notice, he would notice as well when Ean stepped from his place aboard his ship and walked calmly and with absolute confidence into the newly tainted space in which his forces had battled. The captain walked by Jackson, who stood frozen with a grimace on his face as he fired at the sorcerer. He walked past Kath, who was in the process of making another charging meteor leap at the sorcerer, hoping to stop whatever spell he thought was being cast.

Ean calmly and smoothly walked up to the sorcerer and smiled.

"Funny how things work out isn't it? You stand here, thinking all is right with your plans and that everything has gone as you wanted, but you never even realized who you were standing against did you."

Ean gestures around him, and the chaos of the warp begins to fade and fall away. Order Reasserts itself and everything begins to return to the way it was before either the sorcerer or Ean had ever stepped into this plane. "You see, you and I don't actually matter to any of this, things work the way they will, regardless of our intervention. That's something the imperium never really got, though the Emperor himself understands it just fine."

"The warp, and chaos, existed long before anyone noticed or cared about it. The immaterium has always been there, side by side with the material realm. And both planes have always been ruled by one thing... fate."

"The thing is, my dear Abrubhor, that all knowing, all powerful entity called fate... she doesn't like when people change her designs. And when people do that without her permission, they get punished. They end up facing something far worse then she had originally designed."

To demonstrate this point, Ean placed a hand on Abrubhor's body, and he would be made then to witness his coming fate. In an instant of roiling memories and images, the sorcerer witnessed the pain and suffering he would go on to cause, the glory and power he would reach, and the fall he would face at the hands of those determined enough to stop him. But alongside this was another vision, the visions of all these events brought much quicker and with greater ferocity. He would die before ever reaching ultimate power, he would be ruined and obliterated and made as dust before the wind. These visions presented themselves to him and as fast as he could conceive of ways to beat them, the visions would change and ever worse and increasingly more horrible fates would be presented to him.

Ean would stop at this point and sigh. "It's all the same to me, good man. My people will be leaving this planet, and nothing you can do will stop them from escaping. A little spoiler, Akio, making me proud, masters the artifacts power, and shatters the barrier of chaos you erected around him. Kath uses his overcharge to it's utter limits and relocates everyone, running them out of the labyrinth to Franklin, who already has the drop ship ready to launch. Plinth and my crew, everyone you try and kill here, they escape. Oh sure you bring hell upon wing city, but even that doesn't last long. The emperor and his space marines were already alerted by Franklin. By the time any sort of stronghold is set here, they'll be crashing down hard and burning you out. Like they've done a thousand times before, like they'll do a thousand times after."

"However, you have a choice in this matter. You can choose to fall back, prolong the sorry state of your existence and maybe even be successful in some manner before your demise. Or you can stay the course, fail again as usual, and face against the fury of fate herself."

"The choice is yours" Ean's parting comment as he turned and walked away from the sorcerer, vanishing once more into nothing, as things resumed their normal pace.

Revenge of a fated nation

Time came again to be and in the rolling dunes of the wasteland the pitter-pat of clear drops fell from a placid blue nothing above.

Though when time ceased to tick and Ean shifted the river of fate a certain stain on reality persisted. Ean's will drove the plane skies above the Psi-forge to abate to that clear desert blue it once was. The oncoming Black Storm remained as it ever was. Outer layers of the psi-forge while no longer a flare had long since passed the point of no return. Its time spent enough to draw the attention of an unnatural storm brought to existence by a fallen nation. One that could not more than Abrubhor avoid their own connection to fate. Where the fallen nation would slumber in the necropolis to outlast fate at the heart of the Black Storm was where the Fallen Emperor now lies. A city built atop a weapon designed by humankind whom would never see beyond the first few moments of its birth.

There below buildings a trundling heart of a colossal artifact machine to fight the control of Aetherkind and their control over the fate of humankind. After those first newborn days the machine consumed greedily destroying everything it touched as the swirl of the storm first began and distended the demiplane on which the machine resided. Celestialkind came to put a stop but proved too late as their failure cost the destruction of a deity that went too close to its bleak hunger for outsiders. A desperate call saw the machine walled in by a bulwark in the Angel Ophaniel to contain the artifact's advance and thus quell the core expansion of the Black Storm evermore.

The Black storm quickly grew to fill its new confines and eternally tore at Ophaniel. Then among his endless titanic wall the creature Myrkul's Vein found a single cut in Ophaniel's flesh opened by the Black Storm. No small creature to be denied vented direct power to force into the Bulwark a bleeding scar. Soon a seeping wound emerged with the leviathan worm on the opposing side to gain an entrance to wider reality. A thousand nails in the flesh of the Ophaniel now hold the wound open. The tide of the Black Storm following an inexorable undertow crawling out with them.

Myrkul's Vein through study of its environment, the only other creature birthed by the Fallen Emperor to protect the Necropolis, knew only how to call the storm to a place not to send it away. That endless hunger is not easily pushed away. Drops from the sky coated what they could touch and proved far more viscous than water. The Black Storm moved slower now but the small rivulet of blood from Ophaniel still flowed as the Black Storm advanced toward reality. That runny ectoplasm of destroyed planespace and a bleeding bulwark rains from the sky as constellations of slowly circling black stars flared to life. The end would wait, for a time, but it was still coming. An isolating eye would set upon the facility breaking the connection to all but the immaterium. If daemonkind were to retake the facility they would have to find the connection to reality there. A part of the corrupt facility now lurked in the immaterium broken off from its changed remainder.

The Jinhai, however, had no intention to remain in a facility soon walled off with the immaterium their only exit. Their Almanac as unchanged in Myrkul re-informed them of the storm. Their muted haste unchanged as they clung to Akio's heavy form to avoid the warp's pull at first.

Recurrence of confusion

Laughs from the Daemonkind sorcerer rose her from cover the blinding golden sun of the light of Humankind at her side holding chaos marines at bay. Drops of bright red blood shed from bullet-pocks that shattered her chest armor as it tore into flesh underneath. Plinth would neither give up on humankind nor neither give in to Aetherkind.

Under her helmet came a defiant scowl with a small fleck of blood, "I am the Mada of the fulcrum in the fight for Humankind against Aetherkind! No chains profane or sacred are unbreakable. Your soldiers may be safe from the Living Emperor, sorcerer, but not from me. If it takes me ten thousand years."

As the diaphanous cloud launched her over cover she pulled the censer burning with gold light into her hand. The chain wreathed itself around her fingers anchoring the ball of the censer to the back of her hand. Though through a floor falling away into the warp she raced toward chaos marines, human souls screaming desperately for the pain to stop, time froze.

Time resumed as the clawed gauntlet flaming strands of gold rammed itself into a chaos marine's face. The metal of the mask caught fire shedding more light as she melted through it.

Her strained voice calling out a hymn to the Humankind that once was even with the screaming transparent face in that hollow armor under her fingers is shown more by gold fibers, "Myrkul's will to burn the taint that becomes you. My will to suppress the one that controls you. The Living Emperor's will to give succor to those stolen from his service. Together the Mada break the chains that bind!"

Her other hand slammed into the chaos marine's chest and pulled away thin red threads that bound the sigils of Chaos to that soul. The clawed gauntlet smoked as she used her waning strength to strain them. Ean most certainly could hear as the threads of fate snapped as the sigils turned to dust. Other remaining sigils on the armor faded the golden threads marched down the violent red armor.

Broken and bleeding she stumbled onto a former Space Marine's soul now in control of the body they's been imprisoned for so long. She said haggardly to him, "I, Plinth, forgive you for your heresy to me marine. Your service to the Living Emperor is not yet done but ask in my name for mercy for actions done without agency."

Her arms quake as does her smile, "I have lost a lot of blood. Ensure that hope for your brothers does not die."

For a moment, everything was black.

Akio could feel the weight on his mind, the ever pounding feeling against his soul not proving unbearable, to say the least. He couldn't see. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't even move. The only thing he could do was wait and try to wait calmly. That being said, he was getting a slight feeling of panic drifting into him, his doubts coming forth in his mind. What if he'd made the wrong choice? What if he were to be left to this damnation for all of eternity? He would not only be trapped here, but he'd let his lineage succumb to the same fate.

No, he thought to himself. Trust your ancestors...trust your judgement...

He pushed the high-tension thoughts from his head. He meditated. He waited and waited until something would begin to happen. He found a zen in a quiet place and used it to his advantage...to settle for peace of mind. Peace of body.

And then...he felt a stir. A swelling surge of energy growing within him. His other two essences within himself began to spread outwards, mixing with this well of power that seemed to be coursing through his system. At first, the essences seemed to combat each other, fighting for a place within Akio. Or maybe they were combating a new arrival. He began to separate the three, giving them each a place within his body. He began to feel lighter on the mind and heavier on the body as he thought he could hear something. Something very faint. Something very far. And it was getting closer.

The essences no longer were mixed and unshaped, but formed a flow in his head...a balance in his mind and a core in his body. The core was split into three different lines, all connected to his mind. One was dark blue, the essence of Shadow. One was bright magenta, the essence of Myrkul. One was shimmering white, the essence of Blood.

And like breaking the surface from underwater, he began to adapt and conform to his body. He began to feel a muscle move, his leg twitching slightly. Grasping hold of that feeling, he tried to bring it under his control and possess his body with his mind. He could feel a sense of familiarity, but also a sense of foreign appendages that weren't there. He was having a harder time grabbing hold of those. But the essentials were obtained. Legs were in working order, arms in the same condition. He even felt an oddly perfect sense of weight in his right hand...the weight of the Ancestral Blade he'd brought with him to this new body.

He could breathe again.

Inhale...

The first rush of oxygen permeating this new body he inhabited sent all kinds of feelings down through his soul. Relief on his older side for finally obtaining access to that precious life source. New surges of cooling and relaxing of rigid muscles and inner organs brought by a long lost feeling of circulation through the body. His third tether, the Essence of Myrkul, began sucking up this oxygen and clinging to it so as to never be let go...so as to feed this new energy supply within him.

Exhale...

His senses had all but come back to him. His dry mouth was bring wet with his own saliva. The air reeked of a surprisingly strong scent of wildly uncontrollable magic of some kind...Chaos, his mind recalled. He could barely hear a familiar voice calling out amidst the blackness. "I hope that's a humankind in the Zhou. Wake up! We're out of time the black storm is here! Forget the remainder you need to get us out of here!"

He inhaled. He couldn't help but feel like the voice was calling out to him in particular. Forget what? he wondered.

Well only way to find out.

He exhaled and opened his eyes.

The scene was definitely chaotic. He saw way too much at the same time. He saw everything progressing as normal, the fight between the Space Marines and the forces of Chaos continuing at a breakneck pace. He saw the tear in the realms in which he'd Shadow Dashed through and he spotted the ship from his vantage point. Only…his viewpoint was drastically different. Everything felt smaller. And he caught glimpses of something right in front of him…a terrible blackness that was sweeping through. Something asteal in the back of his mind told him this unperceived threat would be upon them soon. He remembered the mission and why he'd come down here...to retrieve the artifact.

He looked down and saw an amazing thing. His body was coated with crystalline-like scales and his chest seemed to glow with an exterior energy of some kind...the energy he now possessed. His feet were elongated and had claws on their toes. He glanced down at his hands and saw more of the same…well two sets of the same anyway. In his right hand held a crystallized sword that maintained the same grip he had on it before. It looked different the way it almost appeared jagged and crude in make. And yet, he knew it was as sharp as ever. They still felt foreign to him, but he could feel appendages in his rear, on his back, and even hanging by his side. Taking a slight glance behind him, he saw wings and a tail.

Akio was a dragon now. He was the artifact.

And as quickly as that realization was upon him, the sorcerer’s long winded speech had begun. The next thing Akio knew, he was being surrounded by this hardened energy, a barrier of some kind. He knew the corruptive properties of the substances said sorcerer had been using, so he didn’t dare touch the stuff. But it was impeding their escape and he had to find a way around it. Or through it by non-physical means.

His sword? He knew it was tethered to him by blood and as such remained incorruptible, but he didn’t know of the crystalline part of it, whether that was truly the sword he knew or just an extension of it…a carbon copy. For now, he wouldn’t chance it. The Shadow Dash would only work if he had a clear line of sight towards his objective, which this barrier blocked all viewpoints. Shadow Magic wouldn’t do him much good either.

But he had a third option now…another essence stored within him and dying to be used. Myrkul’s Essence.

He went deep into thought, deep into the back of his mind to try and find an answer to this power. He considered reaching out to his Ancestors once more for figuring this out, but tried to see if another presence within him would answer.

“Myrkul.”

He’d heard the word being said many a time since joining Captain Ean and his crew, but the word still sounded so foreign on his tongue. From what he’d gathered, Myrkul was an entity in the back of everyone’s mind…a being that could be spoken to if necessary. A guide to Akio’s new abilities and capabilities, he figured. And he was hoping that calling him by name would prompt a response.

“What is your will, Dragonkind?”

Even while he may have been expecting some kind of response, the voice in his head caught him off guard. It was surprisingly…robotic. Not it quality, but in tonal structure. It could almost convey emotion through the tone of voice it used, but it was off in some ways. Detached. Conveyed more of the opposite really. The fact that Myrkul referred to him as Dragonkind didn’t help that either, but Akio could assume such was true now. He did adopt the body and all it’s namesakes after all.

“I request guidance,” he answered back, “Guidance on how to tap into this…essence. I must save your allies from the destruction of Chaos and Demons, but I do not know the body I am in nor the abilities I possess.”

Myrkul's voice rumbled the floor of the mind as a leviathan of mind leaned closer to hear. The different flat-emoted cadences borrowed from other conversations as some rising wind threatened, "Your mind's eye is now mutable, former Humankind, the soul of Humankind cares less for its meat than its will. You are not the present. In Ex Libris you are all Akios that have ever been. What is now will always have been so."

A small memory shot through the blue link to Myrkul of a small smattering of text, "Thus spoke the Dragonkind Ex Libris: I do not cause an avalanche from the power underneath all things, Myrkul's Vein, I am the avalanche. I am in my enemies. I am in my obstacles. I am in the world both reside. That I end means I simply choose to rest. By my roused will I carve unto the landscape how things shall now be in that moment I choose to look away from the self."

It added in that mid-conversation cadence it had between sentences, "Akio is shadow's cataclysm. Akio is nature's violent course. Akio is mankind's smoky lance of wrath. Align the Akios' eyes to the present with a will from any fullness of understanding of all Akios' nows that have ever been. Beware, no muscle incompletely understood can truly be strong."

The speech felt broken and foreign, but in his head…somehow it made perfect sense. He had to concentrate on becoming one. He couldn’t think about the three abilities as separate powers…he had to think of them as one surge of energy inside him. It was less about adapting to this body and more about allowing this body to adapt to him. His muscles. His intentions. His will. Align himself and he could use this power as well as any of his other ones.

“Thank you, Myrkul,” he expressed his own gratitude before turning his attention towards the barrier in front of him and focused. He closed his eyes and thought about bringing the forces inside of him together…harmonizing his priorities with his spirit, his mind, and his body. His spirit was of an ancient heritage. His mind was of a shadowy complex. His body was of a Draconic Awakening. And while his essences had different goals to achieve, all stemming from different backgrounds of his life and wishing different futures, they all had one goal in this current moment. They all wished to fight.

With a roar that wasn’t his own, Akio felt the power of white hot energy building in the pit of his stomach, rising to the back of his throat. It was violent, but tranquil. Steady, but explosive. And he expelled this intense energy forward, out of the open maw he still wasn’t used to. He had yet to speak an English word in this new form and the first thing out of his mouth was the answer he’d been looking for.

The barrier didn’t stand a chance. It melted from the sheer strength and potency of the blast. Three powers combined to break down and dismantle the force the Sorcerer had elected to use unto him. His blood remained uncorrupted, nor did his unyielding composure waver, even if the intensity of the blast may have made others think it had. Though there was a difference in appearance. Not many would notice it, having not seen the dragon before. But Plinth would catch a symbol etched in an odd light on Akio’s Crystalline Dragon Forehead. It was a circle split into three different portions, a dot in the epicenter of each portion. It looked like a three-faced Ying-Yang symbol, a sign of mastered equilibrium beyond the standard for those of a Taoist faith.

But it didn’t stop there. Akio had made an entrance into Dragonhood by blasting through the barrier and he continued by unleashing more brightened energy onto the corrupted soil. His stance was steady despite the suction-like vice the Warp had on the area and he could feel his mind attempting to be tainted by the very air around him. And still, he remained incorruptible. Not by the build of the body, nor by the sway of the mind that prevented his essence from being dragged into a chaotic lack of control, but by his blood. His heritage…his soul…they worked together to keep him tethered to reality. They kept him sane. And he stood still, a beacon of light surrounded by the redness of Chaos.

Akio occupied the dragon.

Everything he torched around him was purified by his soul, rebuilt by his body. The corruption that had plagued the land was reverting it’s course. The hue of destruction would slowly be giving way to that of a much brighter force, one whose composition would trifle with most and come away free. One whose will was aligned to destroy those that wished to hurt Humankind…no, people. The personal word rang strong in his head as he remembered who he was fighting for. His friendship in Captain Ean. His family who was always by his side. The tides within him shifted slightly as his true essence broke through, one that couldn’t be controlled by the waters he occupied, but could be harnessed.

His Draconic eyes glowing, his gaze shifted to the Sorcerer, who would realize what kind of power he’d allowed his enemy to take. It wasn’t Zhou alone that was the force to contend with. It was whoever the Zhou aligned with. And that was someone who already had a personal leverage over the will of the Warp. Someone who could once withstand it and now recede it.

Someone who was already inside his enemy’s head.

“Abrubhor,” he spoke, his voice deeper and much more masculine, “Your corruption stops here.”

Fate, oh what a word that was. How many people always belive in fate. Oh he beloved part of it, they were all destined on the road of fate, however no one has ever said that they could take any turns while on the road. He of course understood this all too well. Of course, his chained puppets were breaking free of their binding..

Despite the corruption being pushed back from the new occupied relic, and the tear in the warp had been closed. Oh,

His mission may have slowly have been failing. The However, the sorcerer chuckled. Ignoring Akio who spoke to him almost as if a worm tried to speak to him he turned to Ean. Even as he showed his his 'fate' and the 'pain' that came with it he chuckled. "Fate? Yes we all have one destined fate. No matter who we are....However that does not mean we can change the wheels of fate. To make thing run in your favor...Fate getting their revenge?...Such a paltry saying...You may have have stalled the uninevetable...However your efforts are...Not enough..."

The ground seemed to rumble as more tears opened up. The warp was not being denied. It could never be denied. "Yes, only the Emperor can contain this now. It is true if I continue this course I shall be destroyed entirley...However I am no fool to stay here...This place has already been claimed by the warp, only a throughout cleansing may purge this area...Enough time to continue with my plans...You may think you are winning however as you can see your efforts are futile...However I belive I have done what I have needed here..."

A tear in reality opened up behind the sorcerer with the legions of Chaos and demonic creatures marching from these tears. "It would be best to retreat...As you say only that man can clense this area at this point...Oh...And speaking of that man he should be coming here soon before we can do much...I shall make my exit...The next time, I promise to enslave the people close to you.." The Sorcerer laughed as he escaped through the tear. Of course the forces of Chaos began to storm the area. The corruption now spreading tenfold.

Demons, Chaos Space Marines, and cultists all surged forward into the area. The area was lost, of course a figures presence was felt. He was on his way already.

The End of a Battle
Ean, who had never once moved from his seat upon the Cobalt Glaive, gave a soft and sad sigh at the corrupted sorcerer. "Ya know, I thought he was smart enough to understand, but I guess not. In any case, it's time to go. The Space marines and their emperor are on their way, this event will be contained and the chaos won't get any weaker us being here. Emily, Akio, if you can hear me, move out."

And thus things moved as Ean had stated they would. Kath, seeing Akio had broken through the chaos barrier and provided a slip of an escape route, used the remaining burn time of his overdrive to hyperaccelerate and grab each of the IMPs and Plinth herself, and dashed them out of the place towards the Cobalt Glaive, where Franklin and his team were waiting to pull them aboard the Transport Vessel.

In less than two minutes, Plinth, the IMPs, and even Akio in his new dragon form would be evacuated from the cavern. Kath would be laid out on the transport floor while medics did every in their power to stabilize him. The overdrive caused so much strain on his muscles and bones that most of them had been damn near liquified by it.

Akio would have to fly up to the hanger bay and enter that way until he found a way to either separate himself from the artifact, or change his new body down to size. Plinths unique body structure had the medics confused as to what they could do for her, so they applied pain dampers and did their best to make her comfortable.

The Bridge

"Just finished the Headcount ma'am, everyone who's still kicking is onboard." Claimed the Corpsmen through Emily's speaker.

"About damn time too. All engines full throttle, get us off this rock!" She hollered out to the flight crew, who had been waiting for just that order. The Drives spun up, and the Glaive refitted for flight mode. The "arms" turned and came together, forming the blade shape that was the ships namesake, the wings retracted, and the power that had been pouring through them to provide atmospheric lift was diverted to the engines, which went from a blue expulsion to a deep violet eruption of power, as the glaive leaped forward, cutting through the atmosphere and out into the stars.

At last they were free of the planet Terra, and off on their journey.

With an explosion of light, the Cobalt Glaive appears in the sector.

Ean Falcor stood up from the captains seat, calling out to Emily. "Report"

"Shock Jump Complete sir, All stations intact and verified. Med bay is in overdrive treating wounded, and retrieval is still in the hanger with the artifact. Medics are on site, they want to make sure Akio's consciousness is intact in the artifact, so that when it comes time, we'll be able to separate them safely."

And at that Ean closed his eyes. To the rest of his crew, his face looked relaxed, relieved that everything had gone as well as it had. In truth he was doing everything he could to stop from crying... he knew the cost of what had been done, he knew what their current path led to, and he knew all too well how things with Akio would go.

Even so, he opened his eyes and sighed. "Emily, you have command, I think I'll go down and congatulate my second in person."

He departed for the Hanger, wherein he found Several medics swarming around Akio, who was looking quite menacing in his new body, although he also was nearly as large as the fighter craft in the hanger itself, which would make traveling throughout the glaive... well that'd be dealt with later.

Ean walked right up to Akio and laughed aloud. "Well.... quite a risk you took there Akio... quite a choice to make too.... But I'm glad you did what you could for our boys. Thanks to you, we got out of there, we got the artifact, and we spoiled a chaos sorcerer's fun."

"Not bad for your first day on the job."

The two Jinhai on the bridge followed Ean as he left for Akio. They were silent but not out of communication.

As Akio arrived on the deck the Jinhai individuals clinging to him considered the course of events chattering to each other by contact though ones such as Akio or Ean could likely hear the communication whispered through the aether. Jinhai were, if anything, always carrying a functional concern of privacy. The voices at their own scale all identical with only hours of individuality between them.

((The Psi-forge is imploding. It will need to be replaced.))
((The Living Emperor has been informed by Myrkul. A new template has been suggested by the Living Emperor.))
((Where was the tainted humankind delivered?))
((It was sufficiently engaged with the Mada that the overbeing could retract it to Genesis.))
((It will be contained. Investigations are underway by Adolefactus for templating use with the Multorum.))
((The Multorum must also be stabilized so it can be recorded and improved.))
((How damaged is the Mada?))
((Unknown. Twelve-many should suffice for this task.))
((How much of gathered resources were left behind?))

A deeper voice came in a twelve-many that organized,((A third. It is a significant amount of resources to leave behind and will cause long-term issues with Daemonkind. The remainder stored in Dragonkind Akio will be sufficient to pierce to the bulwark egress nexus point but allowances will need to be made to stabilize the Black Storm's ingress to the plane.))

((The humankind inquiry is relevant to concordance. The Almanac indicates separation is unprecedented after a flash integration))
((Issue of low concern. The Akio self-identity appears undisturbed and untainted. There is time and the vessel will not degrade the original template.))

The deeper chorus of twelve-many spoke once more, ((Agreed, caveat, enforced stability patterns are inadvisable for this template. It can and will shed them. There is too much internal energy pressure for external tampering to be reliable. External construct options are poor to reimplement the Ex Libris psi-seed.))

((External options are undesired, the Dragonkind Akio still constitutes the rights of Humankind.))
((Internal template mutability should first be explored.))
((Pursuit of template infusion into the altar is possible. Almanac informs that the Akio Humankind template is suitably strong enough to preserve its identity for rekindling.
((Jinhai on vessel seek concordance. Mada location is provided.))
((There is concordance. Disperse.))

Jinhai hiding in the folds of Akio's new form poured out from the many small storage volumes they'd hastily crammed cognizance gems into. A larger Jinhai, with twelve sparkling eyes, formed more quickly than the rest and stood two men high. It looked across the scene with disinterest then turned to leave for the Mada.

Four others turned and left to the three humanoid metacreative constructs with their heads in their luminous translucent hands. each recoiled initially from contact as the black creatures hiked up to their heads to stabilize the shards of broken soldiers compressed into an identity. They were still humankind and the Jinhai helped the conglomeration of former Imps organize the pieces of spirit among them to better self-identify. One slowly turned more feminine in nature as Jinhai redesigned it to the growing specification of 'her' as the Jinhai called the being with a growing majority of feminine pieces of soul.

The remainder stood unmoving and identical the concordance having made them all identical personages. Each choosing to be impassively solemn as Ean and Akio talked. They were creatures of patience.

There was a fine line between Shadow Transportation that he had a mastery of and warping to a completely different part of space. When he Shadow Dashed, he had complete control over every aspect from the synapse in his mind to the action performed. He felt like he was a part of the movement, like he embodied it. It felt very natural and very much his own. This warp was different. He had no control over the speed and powering of the warp into space. He was merely a passenger along for the ride. And although he'd taken many a flight in a ship before, even leaped into Hyperspeed before, he had never warped like that amidst all the chaos of battle around him.

Needless to say, he was coping with it...roughly.

When the Warp stopped and all the sights around them was nothing but void and stars, Akio's Draconic legs buckled. He fell onto his hands and focused on breathing. He concentrated hard on trying to keep that nauseated stomach from rolling about too much. The last thing he wanted to do was expel Crystal Dragon Bile all over Captain Ean's Hangar.

Which he now completely occupied.

Now that he could get an area of familiarity to scale his size with, he was genuinely surprised at exactly how big he was. He remembered the tour he had before Arbruhor interrupted their flight with his plight and he remembered distinctly how vast this room had felt the last time he'd entered it. He had the opposite feel now, like the walls were closing in. Everything looked small now, even the varying vessels and spacecraft he'd seen towering over him not too long ago. He also could scale his size to that of the diversely cultured crew around him, the Medics that were examining him were barely as tall as one of his fingers.

He closed his eyes and paced himself. Easy... he told himself, Stay sane. Stay relaxed.

All of these stimuli were hitting Akio at once, but he perceived each one accordingly. He stirred a little less so as not to rupture the hull integrity and bring the vacuum of space in. His movements were hesitant and ginger, aware of the other beings around him and careful not to hurt any of them. He couldn't stand on his legs, he realized as he glanced up and saw that ten feet represented ten inches in his new stature.

This would make traversing the ship very difficult.

"Well.... quite a risk you took there Akio..."

The Draconic Akio grunted a bit as his head turned to gaze upon Captain Ean and his merry chortle, "Quite a choice to make too.... But I'm glad you did what you could for our boys. Thanks to you, we got out of there, we got the artifact, and we spoiled a chaos sorcerer's fun. Not bad for your first day on the job."

Yep...he thought in the back of his mind. He made this choice. He owed a lot to his ancestors for helping him with this decision, but a lot of it was his own perception. He didn't know exactly how heavy this creature he embodied was, but he did know it wasn't going to be as simple as it seemed. Too many things could and would've gone if they'd tried to lift it the original way. No...someone had to occupy this artifact. And while there were many a viable candidate, Akio was the candidate none would expect...the one not accounted for.

So...now what?

Well, his first order of business was to try and see if he could achieve his Human Form again. As much as he wanted to learn about this new form he adopted, he figured aboard the Cobalt Glaive wasn't the best location to do so. Besides...the second mate didn't exactly serve the crew best from the Hangar. The only problem was how was he going to switch back? If he could even do that. His Ancestors could only give cryptic advice that wasn't so cryptic to him, so he tried Myrkul again.

"Myrkul, how would I return to my human state?"

The strange, tonality-jumbled voice answered back: "

answered back from a Jinhai that closed its spark eyes and walked forward for the benefit of Ean and other humankind, "All Akios have only ever experienced their template in single conscious touches. Fully wrought skin of former Humankind now exists only within the sum of all knowledge. A shifter must hold together the congregation of moments in unison."

The faceless Jinhai at least had eyes but this blank face of the Overbeing, paused to think, spoke in broken phrasing its mind made of a concordance of single moments. It tilted the Jinhai's head a like it were a blind man looking with their ears from the area awareness by scry having less concept of directionality.

Myrkul's voice took on an elvish accent as it drew from more specific sources, "Tiri, a blind man not need see himself to know his likeness. Should you gather all of yourselves in a single room, a throng of you among all distinct moments, could you gather all knowledge of what you looked like to shape art in your perfect likeness? Could your blind eye and willful hand convince the scrutinous eyes of reality, 'within this clay lies myself'?"

Ean nodded, turned to Akio and said "Basically, think of yourself as you were, focus hard enough, and you'll be your old self again."

Franklin, who had been escorting Kath to the medbay, stepped up and said "Wait, you understood that? I couldn't make anything out of that jumbled jargon of theirs."

Ean shook his head. "Oh, yeah no they're very confusing about their way of speaking, but the idea itself is pretty straightforward. At least, I figure it should be that simple. Honestly I got no clue about any of this... By the way, how's Ms Plinth doing? She in medical with the others?"

Akio was somewhat delighted by the response. Was it really that easy? he wondered. He trusted the sources he had, but he'd never expected such a task to be...simple.

Then again, sometimes the hardest answers to find were the ones staring the seeker in the face.

The answer was to simply meditate. Akio was the most one with himself when he meditated to a point of zen. When he could see past all the conflicts and problems and tune it all out until it was just him and his thoughts. So Akio did so. He got into as comfortable a position as he could manage in this space and closed his eyes. He let go of his inner worries, his clouded concerns and his material thoughts. He tuned out those that were helping him around him, even Captain Ean himself, even his own ancestors. Time mattered not. Essence mattered not. Just him.

In that moment, he began to morph. The crystals that formed his Draconic Body were sinking into the body. His claws slowly retracted and his snout began to recede. The wings and tail tucked in behind his back until they were no more. His stature began to shrink too, the whole crew watching as his body began to look normal again. No more were the scales, but the skin with it's olive-like color. His hair began to sprout from the top of his head, falling around his head in messy fashion. His snout was now stubbier and shorter with two nostrils facing downward, becoming a human nose. His clothes also seemed to sprout around his body, the faded blue kimono and sandals seemingly appearing out of the skin as if they were attachments of Akio. Or maybe his Draconic Form was hiding behind Akio's Form.

Either way, the human that opened his eyes with a casual smile was glad to see the world from his own perspective again. He looked at his fleshy hands that didn't have claws on them and knew that it had worked. Checking himself all over to make sure he had everything in order, he found that he looked exactly like he had when he had jumped into the Zhou. His Ancestral Sword was even sheathed on his belt, unscathed by any of these life-changing events. Of course, he would've known if something had happened to it, given that he still felt his ancestors by his side.

But not everything was the same. He felt a new presence still...another link to another pool of energy. Another voice in his head that could tell him what to do. Another being to seek guidance from. He felt different too...like he was withholding an unbelievable amount of power behind his skin. He felt like he could easily shed this human mold and break out into his Draconic self on a whim. Remembering how massive he was and picturing his Crystal-like body tearing a walkway apart by accidentally morphing was enough motivation for him to keep hold of his current self...to hold back just a tad.

Getting onto his feet felt like slipping into an old pair of shoes as he offered a hand for the Captain of the Cobalt Glaive to shake, "Not bad, indeed."

Lamphouse sated
The eyeless Jinhai channeling Myrkul walked calmly over to Akio to examine him. A lukewarm searchlight peering at Akio to inspect the template shining at it to reveal any cracks of stress in its exterior. The moonlit attention rolled back and forth but spent little time anywhere in particular. Myrkul found it suitable enough that the transition was not grossly malformed.

"We advise caution when attempting slumber. Unconsciousness may release the stronger template.", Myrkul advised curtly.

Then the Jinhai's eyes popped back to existence as Myrkul ceased its direct attention.

Knowledge on deck
A twelve-many and two Jinhai met at the door of medical to join the concordance. They split into two ten-many, only slightly larger than a large burly man, then poured through the door to stand with their heads smashed against the ceiling. They made their way over to where Plinth lay ignorant of the other medics running around the room. Their leather robes and gloves shuffling in some unseen breeze.

"The Mada successfully removed the shroud before becoming unreachable.", said one.
Replied the other, "There are unsealed internal injuries preventing consciousness."

One looked at the working doctors, "The Humankind healers employ direct repair rather than template-based methods. They lack structural knowledge to perform this."
As did the other, "They can be improved directly without compromising the Mada."

An understanding reached they merged hands as two sparks worth of motes crossed the join so three normal Jinhai, four-many, could emerge. They simply walked out of the dense black leather of the robes of the creatures to form their bodies as sparks took their places. Tasked with locating suitable healers one acquired the first healer human they saw, likely a nurse of some kind, walking into them whether facing or not like an oncoming tide. The robe flipped to orient itself with the human anatomy as motes organized the sparks to the chest. Thereafter it imposed upon the worker the Jinhai's structural senses as the others looked for those skilled in surgery. The passing of blood cells, the density of the walls, less all the senses than a penetrative view on the orchestra of parts that made up a living thing. In Plinth they could peer around the curved lines that formed her inner anatomy. Hear the struggling flow of burst veins that poured slowly into her brain. All but the hands were covered the Jinhai could not touch the Mada or they would disturb the concordance inside. The humankind would have to use their own tools.

Slow missiles of dedication the remaining two roved the medical bay until finding two more healers to wear them. They had little awareness of efforts to talk to them except by name and merely walked around, or flowed around, efforts to block them.

The other twelve many removed the shroud from Plinth's pocket to slowly re-weave the matter with sparks of metacreative power. The shroud was indeed something they could repair. While working it simply sat on the nearest occupied bed with a loud splurk of motes splitting to grab supports as to not crush the injured beneath. Consistency of body wasn't something they had abound so sparks came there too, as the Jinhai tended to the patient beneath its hindquarters.

the sole eight-many inquired to any nearby, "Parts are missing from the injured. Do you have spare parts of what is missing?"

Hanger Bay

Ean shook Akio's hand, smiling his sad smile. "Aye to that Akio. Now that your up and running again, I'd like you to join me in a walkabout through medical. Some of our boys are down for the count, they gave everything they had for us, and for you. More than a few of them have broken legs from that stunt with the drop pods. That's deserving of our attention at the least, I think."

He turned then and began walking towards medical, noticably taking the longer foot route rather than the transit station. He clearly wanted to talk.

Intrusion in Medbay

The Medics and doctors were used to screaming patients, death, and any number of things. The Jinhai were not one of them. As the jinhai crowded around Plinth, more than two nurses had shouted at them in anger to get out of their way, one was particularly a frazzled red haired woman named Amalae, and when the Jinhai had deemed to send out the little black men to do what essentially appeared to her as possess the nurses, she grabbed a broom and started swatting at them with it.

One of the older doctors, who had actually seen the Jinhai before on another planet, stopped her and sent her to help another team who was working on Kath.

He stood before the jinhai, and scooped up one that was searching for people to "wear" it, letting it flow over him in their peculiar way. He recieved it's instructions, but then said to it in a very firm but kind voice "I appreciate the assistance, friends, but You need to step clear and out of the way. Our work is hard enough without having to move around you. As to the "spare parts" We keep several fresh amputated limbs in the corpse locker, one level down, seventh door in the back."

Akio nodded respectfully towards the Jinhai, "Understood. And I thank you for your aid during the retrieval for the artifact."

His smile remained cool and unwavering as ever, but as he accompanied Captain Ean to the Medical Bay, he felt the guilt of his actions washing over him. His actions in the Wasteland were noble, smart, and innovative, going a long way in helping the Cobalt Glaive take the artifact and returning to space with minimal casualty. They were also selfish. He couldn't help but question his capabilities in giving the orders he did and how he didn't even consider what the crew thought of them. He didn't even know if adopting the artifact as his own body was a wise decision either. He didn't know what Plinth had planned for it and whether or not his decision would In thinking up his strategy and his method around the enemy, he didn't factor in his own side and how his strategy would affect them until Captain Ean brought it to his attention:

"...some of our boys are down for the count, they gave everything they had for us, and for you. More than a few of them have broken legs from that stunt with the drop pods. That's deserving of our attention at the least, I think."

The Wanderer was silent for a spell, reflecting as they walked. After a moment, he asked, "Captain Ean...was my decision to drop the pods on the shield the right one, in your opinion?"

As they were

The Jinhai were very content to serve Humankind and obeyed quite readily when addressed directly. The broom didn't quite qualify and the hood just expanded upward to keep the nurse's head from being beaten. The other flipped to align with the surgeon aligning with the doctor's body properly as a worn thing should. Jinhai were tools and thought nothing of losing agency in such ways. They dedicated themselves to dealing with the doctor's and the nurse's needs. The third Jinhai continued roaming the bay looking for the suitable pouring around nurses obstinately walking through him without complaint on its own part though the nurses might have much to say about it.

The eight-many, dispatched to a worthwhile task, poured into two four-many Jinhai from the mass then headed to leave. Before it left the sandy-faced creature spoke both flat and tersely, "Rekindled will be deposited here."

Thrones of mankind were things perishable and the Jinhai moved quite quickly down the hall as directed. Their boneless legs stretching quickly from step to step as they splattered forcelessly into workers to reassemble around behind them or skated along walls around obstructions. Knowledge of the ship inherited from concordance of the other Jinhai they understood where to go.

Jinhai as creatures were microscopic blades and the information they gained was a dense and plentiful thing. They had difficulties expressing knowledge to the nurse a smaller pool of qualified knowledge as they possessed. The doctor most certainly was quantified everything he asked for.

In the hall

Ean stopped in the hall, which had become decidedly deserted, and seemed to ponder Akio's question.

Strangely, when he deigned to respond, which wasn't for a few minutes at least, he began entirely differently than may be expected.

"When you and I first met Akio, You asked me to a game of Mahjong. If you remember, I started that game with a winning hand. Some may have called that luck or coincidence." He turned to face Akio here. "There is no such thing. Know that everything happens for a reason, and all of it is interconnected."

He turned back to face down the hall towards the med bay and sighed. "What you did Akio... Was take the best course available. Trust me when I say that had you taken any other path, things would have turned out far worse."

And then he began walking again.

Med Bay, with Plinth

The Doctor wasted no time putting the Jinhai to use, and with his skill in the matter he was easily able to make use of the Jinhai's unique qualities to quickly put Plinth back together. Without them, and in the hands of another doctor, she may very well have been lost. But Doctor William Thatcher had saved the lives of far weaker beings in far more dire situations, and his skill would not fail him here.

Once the operation was done, Dr Thatcher smiled and exhaled with relief, saying "Alright you guys, you can separate now, nothing further you can do for us at this point."

Hanger, with Alexander

Hanger boss April was in charge of checking over Alex and making sure he was properly repaired after his skirmish on the ground. "Hey Feidy, you all good and gowin in there?" She called out to the mech's pilot, looking over a readout displaying vitals and system specs.

Akio nodded as they began walking again, but there was still that shred of doubt in the back of his mind. He knew he had acted on what he believed was the best possible course of action and hearing the same thing from the crew captain was reassuring. But he didn't know how the rest of crew would react to the decision he made. He already felt like a foreigner taking the mantle of first mate away from someone who was probably more dedicated and had much more experience than he did. He didn't want to add to that.

The medical wing was pretty self explanatory. Beds...monitors...dying people...the works. There was probably a significant increase of occupants to these beds than before the attack from the Chaos being had begun. Akio couldn't help but wonder how many of these injuries were caused by his actions. He kept his emotions hidden behind that rugged look of his, but inside he felt unusually nervous. Maybe because he had no idea what kind of repercussions his actions would hold until now.

Only the reactions of the patients around him when they saw the Wanderer would change his emotions...for better or for worse.

As bidden, As needed

As asked of it the Jinhai flowed away from doctor sideways from Plinth's bed their immediate concern resolved. The nurse divested of the sandy black layer as well when the other came poured out sideways as ink into air. Behind them they left surfaces of perfectly clear clothing and uniforms mended down to its faintest torn string. The foundation of their collective's intent absently directed motes to mend the structures under their microscopic notice.

Gathered in the way for only a moment they considered the mada would need time to recover and the humankind would care for them adequately. A new task took precedence in their nearly identical minds that of potential rekindled stored in the corpse locker. A Jinhai would remain to interface with the humankind if necessary. They both looked to the furthest one into the room then turned to leave. Each walked straight past the rocks that were Ean and Akio becoming dark rapids of creatures as they splattered dust motes around the obstructions. If Akio reached out even slightly he could hear the whole of Jinhai thinking. The ones already in the corpse locker were already inspecting bodies to reconstruct. Pages of the Almanac consider the intactness of astral tethers and record discordancy introduced by damage to each head.

Two Jinhai outside make a hard angled turn racing off to the other Jinhai. The third simply looks up and becomes a ascending pile of sand falling as if the world were upside down. It waited there its page idly describing what it saw until it was needed.

Fixer Upper

The other Jinhai meanwhile had found area the location described. It didn't take very long for them writing a map into the almanac to find a way inside. One inspected drawers full of what was once men, seeing if the seat of mankind could still support a synthetic astral harness to the soul it once contained. They could still reach out to some that the head still resonated with the one that once sat upon it. At least for the humankind. The others they merely categorized as nonhuman closing the drawer behind them. The other Jinhai began categorizing the amputated limbs and other parts. It found a few severed heads beginning a similar process as the first. The other two shortly arrived as black robed humanoids, ignorant of any humans working there until duly engaged, set a head upon an empty table.

They slowly began to build a frame for a humankind around its throne. Nimbus of concordance changes aligned the limbs with the head that it would not reject them. Others poured hands through meat to rescale slightly oversized parts of men that the body would have proper symmetry. Other grey storms swelling black dust through parts purified the limbs of foreign matter then concreted the parts to the growing body. As they worked small containers of the parts they used mounted to stack neatly against one wall even the blood inside them reused. A human that once was slowly had a body built underneath him. They understood gender but little else designing a frame with the parts they that possessed suitable symmetry. Errant tattoos in odd lines and faintly mottled skin colors even as it lay open and glistening as more organs were inserted and fused in their proper places.

One stopped gathering data as they advanced through the stocks to begin the process of writing a new harness within which to thread the animus of the humankind that circled it. As the potential of the synthetic astral harness grew it signaled as if the body were viable to call forth the broken tether. The Jinhai would grab it a concordance of them working together to weld it to the body once more. The spark of humankind rekindled to recover it from the clutches of Aetherkind.

Medical Bay
Most of the occupants of the medical bay's beds were asleep, sedation being seen as a far more preferable state than writhing in pain. The most heavily wounded occupants of the beds were sedated even more so, and the monitors attached to their beds marked them as terminal. These soldiers might be saved, but it was unlikely, and the efforts that would be put into helping them would be better used for those that had a greater chance.

This was the bitter truth of Triage. Ean kept a fair distance away, holding Akio back for the same reason that he didn't approach. The nurses and doctors were still working to save as many as they could. Ean stood silently, his face softened by sorrow yet the unmistakable expression of one who'd seen such things play out was impossible to hide on his face.

It would quickly become apparent to Akio that Ean had not, in fact, brought him here to talk with the soldiers, indeed it would be impossible for them to talk without getting in the way of the doctors and nurses. He had brought Akio here to see what impact his choices had.

In a soft voice the Captain said "Any man arrogant enough to proclaim the fate of another, dooms himself to jaded despair. As I said, your choice was the best one that could have been made, and things would have been much worse had you taken any other path." And here, the Captain turned to Akio. Akio would then see in the eyes of Captain Falcor, with clarity granted by the artifact taken from the wastelands, a wisdom beyond the ken of mortal men. In that moment it would be obvious, for so fleeting a time, that this simple man was anything but. Just as Akio had the wisdom of his ancestors to rely upon, it would seem that Ean had something far deeper, and maddening, that guided his steps.

"As you once said to me 'The principles and values of an individual are never to be questioned'. And that was true." Ean took a flask from his hip and opened it, pouring a drink into the lid and offering it to Akio. "There is a balance to be maintained between the two, between what we need and what we want. Between when the rules should be followed and when they should be broken.."

And Ean said to Akio then. "What is your next move, Wanderer. Will you let the pain caused by your choice wound and cripple you, or will you take that pain as a reminder of the costs of victory?"

Human compassion would be the first thing Akio would display as the guilt of his actions visibly washed over him. His typically soft and easygoing eyes were replaced by hard, black stones that seemed to sink in exhaustion and grief as his gaze passed over each and every individual that sat in a bed at the moment. Some of them got better off than others, but that was luck's intervention. He was the cause of this travesty and a felt every moment of it. It felt heavy.

"Any man arrogant enough to proclaim the fate of another, dooms himself to jaded despair."

Akio turned to the Captain, unsure of where he was going with that statement as he went on. "As I said, your choice was the best one that could have been made, and things would have been much worse had you taken any other path." And then Captain Falcor turned to Akio.

He felt it immediately, the spark of timeless wisdom the man in front of him spoke with. He could see the ripples in his eyes...the sage-like quality of his voice taking on a whole new meaning as Akio began to understand he hadn't been hired by a simple captain of a diverse species with commerce in mind. Captain Falcor was a man with a lot of experience under his belt...in what, he simply didn't know. But he'd long been taught to pay attention when the elders and ancestors of his past talked to him, even if he didn't obey at first. This was no exception.

"As you once said to me 'The principles and values of an individual are never to be questioned'. And that was true. 'There is a balance to be maintained between the two, between what we need and what we want. Between when the rules should be followed and when they should be broken.'"

He recalled the game of Mahjong the two had played in which their first interaction had been made. Captain Falcor had drawn Heaven's Blessing on the initial go, yet elected to continue playing for the sake of conversation and interaction. Even now, Akio wondered why he had done so. The Wanderer had merely followed the wind, as his nomadic nature implied. What was Ean's rationale?

Regardless, the words he'd spoken that day returned home, hitting Akio in the gut and allowed him to regain some of the mentality he had before the fight with the Chaos beings. His mind had been scrambled in a lot of ways, especially with the presence of this new third pool of energy stored inside of him and he realized for the first time that his pulse was racing and his breath was slightly labored.

He was panicked. And that never happened. Not to him.

"What is your next move, Wanderer. Will you let the pain caused by your choice wound and cripple you, or will you take that pain as a reminder of the costs of victory?"

Akio immediately began to regain his composure by slowing his breath down, remembering the course of action he had taken leading up to it. Rationalizing the decision in his head once more. Understanding that these men fought for what was theirs and that they would more than happily give their lives in defense of their commander and their ship as well as any individual said commander deemed worthy of supporting. Akio could feel that as well. His eyes were lax again.

He took a deep breath. That was all the answer the Captain needed.

"Thank you, Captain Ean," he said with a fond smile, "I was losing my way and you have brought me back."