Ductu Myrkul's Story

She smiled at laura leaning in a bit, "Well, um, we kinda can't tell between mankind so Myrkul names you all our creators. There's just you, the emperor, your names, and what uniqueness we feel of your mind outside it. The fallen Emperor did not carve in the Altar of Myrkul a Dicta for your faces before he died."

The emotion on her face hardens, "We will protect you from ætherkinds at all costs. Celestials will be tolerated unless the Emperor of Mankind bids us deal with them. Demonkind will be destroyed. Sylvankind was not a focus of the fallen Emperor."

Ductu put the host's finger to her chin looking at June, "Maybe I could learn faces? How do you tell the difference between each other? All the meat looks the same from inside."

She stares at June's eyes, "Is it the color on the front of the eyes?"

"Yeah. Nadya Alexeev. My English is pretty good, but that's because I learned it in the camps. I'm russian." She said simply and moved to the edge of the beaded curtain, peering past it curiously, but not stepping back there at all. "I haven't spoken it in ages though. I think I've forgotten a lot by now." It wasn't like people spoke Russian here, and with no family, well. Who was going to enforce the language in her head?


"Are there lots of kids cases? There can't be too many right? I mean, people here are mostly nice to magic users."

None of this was making sense to June, and that was saying something, so she just offered the other a non-committal shrug. "Something like that I suppose." She muttered in reply. "Honestly... I think you just need to spend some time out in the world to figure things out. You know a few millennia or so, it might do a mind some good." June added taking a quick look at the time on her watch. "Either way, you'll be fine... just you know steer clear of whatever made that hole." She said to Ductu before slipping out of the shop and disappearing.

Meanwhile Laura was helping Nadya settle in as best she could, "Russian huh? That's interesting." She said as she reappeared, setting a mug of hot chocolate in front of the small teen. "I think my old boss's aunt is Russian.. or something like that. I forget, she comes in here occasionally though."

Nadya beamed and cupped her hands around the hot chocolate. "Thank you!" She declared and smiled down to the cup, before blowing on it so she could take a sip. It really was the weather for it, wasn't it. She glanced around and frowned. "Oh. June left." She murmured, uncertain. Did that mean she was on her own? June must have a lot of faith in Laura and her family as refugees then. "And I guess. My family lived in an area of heavy bombing during an invasion, a while back." She hesitated. "three years." The words were hard to even admit. "My dad died, then a year later, my mom did, on our way to a refugee camp. It's not really a safe route, you know?" War zones rarely were.

The girl managed a bright smile. "It's okay though! I miss them, but I'm fine now. And June said you were nice, so I'm sure I'll be happy here."

A girl in a dirty disused hoodie wobbles toward the water from the city center. The screaming of that voice and the rewriting of creation. Then an earthquake that broke both her host's legs. Nearly an hour later she removed her hosts legs from the rebar concrete and put back together. Her host lost a lot of blood she couldn't replace but at least the legs still worked. She'd ran on them nearly 10 miles. Ductu's dusty boots padded up to where a small girl is sleeping. The symbiote's seared mental impulses momentarily considered eating her. A rather rude thing thankfully higher thought won out. She needed water.

Ductu hobbled over to the waterline and cupped at the surface to drink. It gave a strong hissing noise as motes of Ductu annihilated living things inside the host's mouth.

Nissa only slept for several minutes or so. She woken up as soon as she heard faint water splashing breaking the sounds of the mostly flowing water which to her means someone has arrived to beach possibly to tell her more stories about Wing City! Tiredness turns into excitement as she flow over to see this visitor.

Nissa stopped. The visitor was a strange lady in a dark dirty disused hood mostly hiding dirty and bloody clothing; it was a weird thing to see especially mid noon. From what she looked like she would have lots of interesting stories to tell, maybe even about Wing City! Today hasn't been that fun of a day considering not many had came to the beach today and even the few who didn't tell any stories to her. Nissa tried her luck again and made her first move to this figure.

Hey there!

Nissa said in a welcoming tone.

Green glowing eyes with a copper patina for whites looked back at the fairy as Ductu's host had cybernetic implants. Ductu stopped drinking and sat on the wet beach just head of the waterline. Her legs were encrusted brown and Ductu pulled up a pant-leg momentarily to inspect the damage. A moving silty bar like sand dunes occupied a good portion of the shin which grew out in leafy damask patterns where Ductu reinforced around both shattered tibias. Black silt motes which composed Ductu weaved in and around the host even through her skin. It made the host more muscled for her age.

Ductu used cups of water to clean off the dried blood on skin between areas of the lingerie pattern. While the mouth moved and the body followed it wasn't the human host looking at the miniature girl, "Hello, Sylvankind. I see it must be safe here. It is dangerous in wing city right now. If you know my host she is unable to respond I cannot fix her yet."

Yeah, I hear lots of crazy stories about there.

Nissa replies with showing that she agrees, knowing some of those crazy stories she has been told...

Nissa however, never met someone so damaged before now being able to look at the whole body of the hooded figure, sure some have fled to here with bad wounds but never look this defeated before; Nissa would have been more disturbed if she was older and less stupid though. Nissa didn't just see a badly damaged woman but also an epic adventurer who barely made out of deadly world and is now resting waiting to tell her tales to any curious person.

Naturally Nissa wanted to here those tales first and flow to the hooded figure's level to ask her this:

Speaking of stories, Do you have any epic stories to tell?

The fairy was never taught manners or getting to know a person first and all that since she was born in a place that people do visit but never live in or at least live with her.

Ductu laid back on wet sand breathing heavy against her host's powerful need to sleep. If she allowed the host to sleep she knew full well the body wouldn't come back this time. Now that she'd gotten some water Ductu hurriedly pushed it into the host trying to bring up blood pressure. Some of Ductu's color was coming back as she considered what to tell to the Sylvankind so that the host wouldn't fall asleep.

Ductu took one long deep breath as her kind among the subbeings were one of the few that still remembered. She recounted a pale copy of their history, "Of this place I only have ours. Perhaps the Aetherkind Deiyi is listening. Thousands of years ago before the fall of the mage Karsus that killed the God of Magic. But that was not the first plot to murder Aetherkind that thought themselves untouchable. Deep within the multiverse our plane resides a testament that true power lingers. The tampering of Aetherkind of particular interest of the then Emperor commissioned an artificer to change the nature of magical power available to men of his plane. In time he was successful with full backing of rare power belonging to one of few nations of mankind that our plane had ever known. In creating the entropy demiurge it consumed the structure inside planes to create more energy than individuals could muster alone. Its only noxious emission negative energy such that powers the undead. Contained within a plane of its own making deities were truly denied the nation freed of the yoke of their fate. The nation thus prepared to survive the fall of Karsus biding its time in a place denied to Aetherkind and their deities. We were created to ensure the holy necropolis persisted throughout the fall of Karsus without corruption or undead taking over however long the troubles lasted afterward."

Ductu looked out at the lake, "Our Emperor was betrayed by that same artificer with his own vision of the future for his kind. Perhaps we were what he intended to create. The plane's vision of the past was cloudy on the day of such death of knowledge. Time went on ever more but as we changed to meet challenges so did our intellect."

"We ascended one day when Myrkul's Vein was given a locus for its power the largest of our kind. It gave our minds a home in which to reside. Now able to see the fence that protected the plane from aetherkind held firm against our own exit. It took a thousand years for the whole of our kind searching to find a way out and we have. Myrkul forced open a crack into the plane of Genesis where we now build our forces to return and protect humankind from the capricious will of Gods and Aetherkind once more. So we find ourselves unprepared serving a new Emperor of Mankind unwilling to tell us his will as the creature Ifrit Aetundai crawls into this world at wing city. Another Aetherkind or diety willing to reduce this plane to some alien order unfit to Mankind. This is the first city to suffer but not to fall. It is broken but not gone. Now in Genesis the the lesser overbeings of our species pour through the crack to muster a resistance through the crack into our black storm. Myrkul has taken the first initiative in counter to the Fallen Emperor's Dictum in the history of our species. Myrkul chose to give itself Dicta. Myrkul chooses Mankind that capricious deities which limit or seek Mankind's destruction in whole will fall."

With the huge monologue the hooded figure gave about the multiverse and a bit on Wing City, Nissa was naturally mindblown by all of the story she was given, not just the sheer information but what was in all of that made Nissa overjoyed to meet this hooded woman, even if some of it flow over her tiny head, part of her felt that she didn't need anymore information or stories but this multiverse is huge and there's a lot to discover and learn, Such as who is this 'Deiyi' person.

"Wooooooow!" Nissa exclaimed; overwhelmed. "You're a real adventurer! My name is Nissa Rosetta and I'm overjoyed to meet you adventurer! I must know your name!"

Ductu was feeling less tired as the host's blood pressure recovered and stood to her feet with a totter. She didn't need a long stream of knowledge to keep the host's brain from giving up and could afford something more resembling conversation. The thin lips and patina eyes smiled at the small fairy, "Hello Nissa Rosetta of Sylvankind. I suppose it is my purpose to go on adventures though we do not usually take humans. I am a Ductu of Myrkul's Vein. Names are given to us by others."

A right hand grew black then larger as Ductu pushed mass out of the human's skin an onto it instead. Lithe pointed silty-surfaced fingers grab at her host's cheek and shake it lightly, "I don't know the name of the host. Do you happen to recognize her, Nissa?"

Nice to meet you Ductu!

Nissa responded with, trilled to see this adventurer; The fairy smiled even more hearing that she does indeed go on adventures! Though as Ductu asked about her host, Nissa became slightly confused.

Nope, I don't know who you're host is.

Nissa replied as she didn't know what to say though the fairy wouldn't have recognised the hooded woman's host anyway. Nissa afterwards for a second was thinking about what else to talking about so then she asked.

What do you like to do, Ductu?

Ductu made an effort to smile with her host, "It is okay, I will find the host's home eventually. It is good to meet you too, Nissa. Right now I'd like to clean my host's things. The clothes are dirty but everything is still quivering from the earthquake. I guess I could use the water."

Her balance was quite good but the ground was indeed rioting even at this distance. Ductu kept her feet as hips jostled up and down. Growls came from Ductu's stomach she hadn't fed the host a day, "Do you know where there is food? Jinhai provide food for us but there are none near here. The Jinhai in the city say it may be unsafe to be near water but my host needs clean water and the city's sources are poisoned."

She looks with patina cybernetic eyes around the beach in both directions, "Though, I think we should find somewhere more comfortable."

A lurking horror?



Genesis was a thing very bland to many creature's reckoning as beautiful as it was. Even so, a rainy thunderhead of roiling black was not unusual for this land. This different one drained inward with violent implosions of purple thunder. Gigantic worms lept from it into the sky as another raced in from the heavens from above the cloudline to hammer a new void. The earth shook slightly from that strike of one of the lesser Overbeings Myrkul summoned.

It was a good estimation of their powers at scale to terraform a nearby area. A request of due worth was made by another that has a need for convalescence in somewhere more forested. A verdant impulse of constructive idea injected into the land. It thundered past Odona through the ground a faint rumble that exploded rows of trees from the grass. Though the lesser overbeings chattered as busied again they were with incantations in the sky. Ignorant of Celestialkind Odona as they were provided an unusual quantity of cognizance crystals to practice their crafts. Some to instantiate and others to reconfigure.



It also made evident a thin line of smoke now set against the larger thickets of trees. A small cottage set among the waving wheat and smelled vaguely of burnt cookies if one could smell quite that far. The first Ductu that had set upon Terra brought her host back to Genesis. Separate for now 'Neural Saint' endeavored to teach the Ductu how to cook.

The human looked out the window with her patina-colored cybernetic eyes. At the current rate she might starve. Ductu wasn't a good cook. Though she zoomed in as far as her eyes could go to see those huge-ass worms smacking down a mountain. Once she could walk again she had her brand new heart set on going outside. It hurt her new lungs to breathe let alone talk. She couldn't do anything energetic for a while and Ductu couldn't help her heal.

Then she smelled the oven and yelled, "DUCTU! You're burning the cookies!"

A coughing fit from the girl ensued as a fleet-footed black creature darted across the house.

Plans best laid

Myrkul pondered the Umbralkind they'd seen on terra. A mighty foe indeed and it hadn't the resources yet to move against the creature. The Core Way gate limited Myrkul and all its overbeings. There was much to do and not much to do it with.

Myrkul's indistinctly sourced voice echoed to the Living Emperor, "I perform your wisdom, Living Emperor. The Aetherkind limite Humankind by Dicta shall their control be broken. We will await the arrival of your progeny. Quarters are under construction for Gunnac and others. Though we cannot yet easily move them here ourselves. They must find strong ones known as psykers to create an anchor external to the overbeings upon which our will can rest to retrieve them. We are aware one such psyker is being reconstructed inside a Wen near the point of Tiff."

A Zhou's memory came to the forefront of its mind as Myrkul rejoined with its sub-beings spread through the multiverse. It played the

Myrkul made a short announcement, "This is now known: The Umbralkind Draco is remembered to be assaulting a place known as the silver palace. I am not yet certain to how current the Zhou's memories are but we know the Zhou to be on Terra. I have not yet experienced the fullness of its time."

Rumbling sparkles continued as information filtered up through its extensive memory, "This is also known: The progeny's existence known as Roboute Guilliman may have entered Pramia. Jinhai noted a disturbance in the Way network and studied it with Gunnac's imperial technology and your soldiers of utility whose names are not known to us. The Gunnac Umbercaller wishes to attempt to bring Jinhai to find and rekindle him."

Adolefactus brought over a small orb and dias to where the Emperor stood. He waited patiently until Myrkul's pronouncements ended. His voice though lacking a mouth was warm, silvery, and far less inexpressive than the other beings here, "It is good to you, Living Emperor, If I may interrupt. I keep the broken spirits of the fallen about in case we can find a new meat box to put them in. Easier said than done I'm afraid. We wouldn't want to accidentally corrupt them but we can't well let the Atherkind or Chaos have them either, mmm? I can't fit them all in one source of the fallen but perhaps you have something you could do with them? They sleep forever but are otherwise unharmed.

The spine-headed humanoid shrugged, "Or I could put them back in the wall I suppose. More things to dust."

Planning

"So that fiend has been causing trouble in other areas as well...I should not be surprised, the forces of evil are always working. In that case, my Son Roboute Guilliman and his forces of Ultramarines shall go to this 'Silver Palace' and assist the defenders In driving away his forces. As for additional psykers, feel free to assign a psyker to them for there are a bit of psykers within Imperial cities most running amok keepin gtheir powers hidden, using them for good and evil. And as for the the fallen...I shall gather them into myself. Its the best place at this point for they shall have peace in death. And it is better then forgotten and stored away." The Emperor replied and he paced back and fourth. To stop the enemy at every point was their mission, whatever Draco had planned it was no doubt adding to his army of damned creatures. It was best if they act instead of shy away.

"While we are still discussing things, I deceted a presence that entered this plane. It is not your kind as far as I know. Is it an enemy?" The Emperor spoke as he looking in the faint direction to where he felt the unknown presence.

A Strange Place Indeed
As Ondona continued forward, her attention focused in the skies. Beings spawned from the sky each time shaking the earth below. It seemed this land was full of life. However something in the air caught her attention, as a Goddess of the Hunt her nose smelled something burning...burnt cookies? That was not something that she did not expect. As she followed the small a trail of smoke filled the air, along with voices.

Soon the Godess stumbled across a house, the smoke had originated from here and she could see movment. "Oh...I think someone may need assistance. Follow me Royka, while we are here let us be on our best behavior." The Goddes sspoke as the figure replied. "As you wish mistress, I shall assist in any way I can."

With that the pair hurried to the house.

A reticent watchful eye

Myrkul helpfully flipped through the almanac to the page where the Ductu and her host were busy in convalescence. It was a top view though desaturated in places where the black creature with long lithe fingers could no longer see. There was a girl on top of the counter with a small bedroll just beside the window propped up on a pillow. Scantily dressed one could see on her chest the huge stitched hole where a shotgun blast once caused catastrophic damage. She looked outside at the view. The ductu busied itself with staring into a small brick stove.

The view pulled out slightly to show the comparatively murky view of the nearest observation tower to the location but it showed Odona and her butler approaching the door. In the Emperor's mind the array of spires spreading throughout Genesis might feel quite like peering around a corner through a mirror. Myrkul's voice was unmoved as ever, "We believe the beings to be Celestialkind. We are moved to ignore the Celestialkind unless it harms us in need of other pressing threats. Our lesser Overbeings are present to engage if necessary. They gather knowledge of their skills upon this plane."

The opposing page of the almanac showed a view atop the clouds of Genesis. Between tufts of white shown a miasma of black motes below. Dancing between it all several mile long leviathans small only in light of Myrkul's Vein. Hideously powerful beams of order terraform the grassland below to something they ken to be 'forested'. Others removed the obstacles of rocky places. Though such a thing as 'forest' is quite the nebulous a concept for them and the growths rather strange. Genesis itself seems to smooth their efforts around the edges in sudden seasonal changes and new growth.

Adolefactus entered to answer the Emperor, "I believe the humans would think her a cute sort. Will be nice to have someone other than Jinhai, Myrkul, and myselves to talk to. The daughters of the fallen emperor are still at home in the black storm."

With a hand's flourish he stopped his segue, "Mmm, I digress. The black storm has been inhaling lost souls for many years, Living Emperor. I hope you are hungry, hmmm? A fair bit of the fallen from terra fit in this small bucket. I lost count of the lost souls ages ago."

A nearby hallway sliced closed with a thin curtain of black material as Myrkul willed a new layout into the extradimensional space. Behind the hole that appears then clears the curtain a new hallway greets lined with sources of the fallen much like the one below. These were far more feral colors if not things of a bygone age. Adolefactus kept every lost soul they'd come across in the deep howling nothing of the black storm. Safely ensconced in their own holders across the wall, ceiling, even behind grates in the floor.

"You are entitled to them as well, Living Emperor, but I suggest caution. The black storm sears away their identities and we are unsure what may come of the lost souls.", interjects Myrkul from its glow on the floor.

Adolefactus scoffs miming a pair of air quotes, "Feh, 'Caution' our overbeing says. There might be Gods, demons, or what have you inside those lost souls from the Black storm. It suffers nothing to live. Take due care, mmm?"

"As it must be," Myrkul continued, "We will intercede for the psyker contained within the Wen to find your Son and send him to the aid of the Silver Palace."

Sharing cookie destruction

A lanky light-footed Ductu sat in front of the furnace trying not to let her motes get too close to the flame. She wielded a set of long-handled cooking tools like one would fight a monster. Long fingers swathed around a spatula that gingerly scoops out cookies from the brick-fired oven. Ductu looked around the oven for the 12th but found it missing. Silver-red eyes opened in the Ductu's blank face as to better see and knelt down even further to see into the fire. She'd pushed one of the cookies into the flame and it smelled badly. She most certainly wasn't going to go get it with her fingers!

The silver rimmed red eyes turned to meet the copper patina ones and Ductu said to her host, "I pushed one into the fire. They are undamaged. Do you want to eat one?"

The young lady reached out her hands saying hoarsely, "Gimme Gimme! I'm starving! You need to get us some burgers or something!"

The ductu stood up tall onto her tiptoes barely making noise as she partly glided across the brick floor. The small ceramic plate had a number of sugar cookies from resources manufactured by Jinhai. They couldn't get much matter across the Way Gate yet but she had enough food to keep the Host from starving. She offered the food to her host whom took two hands worth then looked outside at a noise.

"Dufto, Therf fomeone oufide!", 'Neural Saint' said with her mouth full. It felt good to get food in her. All she'd had to eat is bread and cookies apparently there wasn't meat in this damn place!

Ductu tiptoed a dash to the far window eying Odona with her silver-red gaze saying across the room, "I know. It is Celestialkind. They stand out to us. And we to them. I will keep you safe, host."

The young girl strained to bend up far enough to see Odona but her destroyed then replaced chest muscles cried murder. She rubbed her sore boob then just opted to eat her cookies. She wasn't running anywhere fast, like.

The Future Of Man
The Emperor watched through the spires eyes and looked upon the one who had appeared in the land, a celestial kind...A Goddess, however she appeared to be far unsure of everything. Almost like someone lost of everything, must have been a Goddess that really did stay out of humanities affairs.

The Emperor soon returned his vision back to the alter and faced Adolefactus. "Cute? I do concede many of mankind would find her...'cute'...However as long as she does not try to cause any trouble she is free to roam around. And as for the 'Daughters Of The Emperor' I am worried about them when the future comes. The Space Marines can change, albeit to a certain extent. The Sisters Of Battle may not be very open to change however if I speak to them personally we may have no problems at all." The Emperor replied before turning to the containers of souls.

"I do not need any souls anymore to preserve my existence. I am no longer strapped to the Golden Throne. However, if there are souls of Gods...perhaps I can use them in a way to help improve my children. Despite the fact that I know one day they will become almost as strong as me, if I can make it possible for them to get to my levels of power then we as warriors of humanity could engage any threat across the stars. But thank you for the offer, I will keep that in mind." The Emperor nodded to himself, he could use this in the future indeed. For the demonic souls they could be destroyed for all he cared.

Baking Disaster
Ondona soon arrived in front of the house, however on closer inspection there did not seem to be any fire. But what was that burnt smell, it could not have just been a burnt cookie..."Excuse us, if there is anyone inside please forgive my appearance. I though there was a emergency here since I smelled some smoke. Is everything ok?" She called from outside.

Her butler by her side, Royka held a random fire extinguisher looking for signs of fire. However with the threat of fire seemingly gone he deposited it inside his suit. "Perhaps we might not be welcome around these parts mistress, surley someone would have looked out the window or through the door when they heard us." He spoke looking at the house.

An icy welcome

As the two near the small hut ductu throws in another bundle of wheat. The trees were new and there wasn't anything else to burn. The jinhai felt any psi machines would disrupt the healing process of her host. Manifested flesh in a living being was a tenuous thing at best. It looked good enough but had the strength and fitness of warm pudding. The host has to make the flesh their own. Especially when such flesh included their heart.

Ductu had the voice of a rocky dune with a black flesh much the same. The lanky neutral shape opened the door sans her fragile eyes shone. Ductu hedges at dealing with aetherkind at all, "What is your will, Celestialkind? Myrkul's vein observes your presence with disinterest."

"Be nice, ductu! Someone came to visit!", came a haggard girl's voice from the opposite window. A fit of coughing stifled the rest of her sentence.

Ductu's voice thinned in a very cold diplomatic tone as eyes emerged, "Come in. Would you like some cookies. They're fresh. I put out the floor but there are still cinders."

Ductu stood aside to move next to her host protectively. The floor next to the hearth is charred badly and in some spots still smouldering. New bundles of wheat for fuel not far away.

Lost daddy's girls

Adolfactus tapped his chin, "You have your own daughters? I mean the daughters of our Fallen Emperor. We haven't even a dozen. It is in them to repair the tainted and regain the humanities of corrupted mankind. Nice girls, most of them. I suppose they're yours by adoption now. One is on Terra being healed by her enjoined transport. A just human in action I hear. Ean Falcor, I believe."

Myrkul's voice returned, "we will endeavour to categorize the fallen souls of the black storm. It will take time."

What a warm welcome
Ondona tilted her head a bit and placed a hand on her cheek as she pondered the two questions. It seemed that the two occupants of the house had two different opinions on deities or celestial kind as they called it. One seemed to disapprove of her presence while the other welcomed her in and offered cookies. With a smile she spoke up. "Cookies? I don't mean to intrude but if you will have us then I would be delighted to accompany you for some cookies. Royka dear, please prepare some tea. Oh! Where are my manners. My name is Ondona, I am pleased to meet you all." She replied giving a curtsy. A sign of respect.

The well dressed man by her side nodded. "Of course mistress, I shall prepare your tea right away. I shall also serve our humble hosts is they so request it." The man spoke Royka keeping an eye on the others in case they tried anything.

Brothers and Sisters

"Daughters of the Fallen Emperor you say, that is rather interesting. I did not expect to have new children this suddenly, especially daughters. But if you say they are capable of repairing taint and regain to humanity of the tainted then they must be rather special. When my sons arrive let us gather the daughters together as well. It would be a good idea for the brothers to meet the sisters and get to know eachother." The Emperor chuckled lightly as this news.

However the Emperor began to feel the event happening at Wing City, the Shadow Legion was taking the moment to attack. However it seems that Draco was not part of the attack. Smart...once inside it would be difficult to get out. He would have trapped himself and risked his own life on enemy territory. However he decided to leave this to the defenders.

"It seems that the Shadow Legion has decided to take advantage. Draco will get his well deserved retribution soon...we must prepare for the arrival of the Primarchs. And the daughters...Hmmm...we should give these daughters a reliable name...Unfortunately I can not think of a name. Its been a long while since I cam up with anything new."

Clarion come to the spark of war

Leaders were rarely far from information and Nuria certainly was among them. Nuria led the forces that stabilized the endless taint attracted to the black storm yet heard of the Living Emperor's name filling the void long left in their creative spark. The Mada attended to the interests of the Black Storm as Myrkul busied itself forcing the bulwark's crack open more. Construction there worked apace and as the hewn voidbound psistone once fractured nevertheless proved difficult to exhume. A throng of Overbeings work tirelessly etching away at an endless black berm clad in white lace. Impossibly tall if one tried to climb the nature of the black storm died entry since the beginning of their time. Now instead a single crack violated the unassailable armor where the hairworm multitude ate at its integrity carefully fighting back the lace as it crawled inward. They'd spent almost all the pure cognizance stones they had to sustain that blasted channel onto Terra. If purified cognizance stones had not begun flowing across from Genesis in a tide of expensive anchor nodes the channel may have been lost. Now littered with ardent efforts by Jinhai the prime egress expanded. The black storm fortified with new income grew a blistering army of automated ferroplasm constructions to protect against incursion. It freed her a great deal of the mundane concerns of wandering planar animals. Most of her Mada attended these new constructions at the moment so there was none to give orders to.

The thin red hair that emerged from the back of her armor lazed in front of her armor in a moment of respite among the din of activity and pulsing threat markers. Quiet inside a repaired wood chair on the veranda outlooking a lighthouse used as a deep observation spire. As one frequenting the Almanac the sheer amount of such riotous activity caused by Myrkul's direct attention on anything brought her to the presence of the Living Emperor. Now she had some free time. Hrm. Perhaps she'd go meet the emperor. Her flowing red hair billowed like fire as the shadows glow blood red around her the long sword now at her side. She straightened her belt leaving for the transportation nexus in the Mada's personal hostel. The Jinhai inquired in wordless attention as to her direction from rivers of dancing motes beneath the floor.

"The Altar of Myrkul, Jinhai. I go to see the Living Emperor.", she said to the Jinhai forming the transport animus. They made room along the prime egress for her.

It hurt immeasurably to be forced through an egress bristling with anchors as her armor dematerialized. Her flesh came next but the stone-humored woman growled with twitching dismantled eyes as veins and bone began to show. In an alcove just off the main altar armor formed then so did the mada. A glowing fringe of psionic psychoportation that writ a life outside-in.

Trying tea time

The Ductu very much hovered around her Host a circling like a naked lanky creature of flat but feminine make. A flat plate made of some material that repulsed deific contact held the slightly too dry cookies. Careful weaponized hands with long fingers held the cookies just so above the girl's mouth so she could gingerly nibble at it. Deific eyes could tell someone had writ an entire new set of lungs and a brand new heart where some weapon of human violence destroyed them with fire. The woman slowly made them real as her soul learned how to express the tapestry of psimass written for her onto reality. It wasn't only the Ductu but a thread of fate now connected them alone. The mark of someone fate had deigned to cut yet a power plucked them from the air and squirreled them away.

In this the Ductu stared at them guarding her precious little thread from the agents of her death. It also became apparent the frayed ends surrounding the Ductu that she hunted down and slaughtered. Those that fate crossed paths to cut the injured girl free. Ends pocked with tubes and etched holes in memory of where slender fingers once dismantled their violent anchors.

The girl replied with a dry cough while taking her cookie, "I'd like some tea! Thank you, sir. The Jinhai gave us a barrel of clean water. I don't think Ductu drinks."

She looked off in a corner where a large ceramic container lay and continued, "I'm Becca. It'd be good to have some company it's been just me and the sky and getting carried around for a while. Ductu's nice but I want to walk around on my own, you know?"

Ductu's piercing silver-red eyes never left the Celestialkind and Becca said worriedly, "Sorry, she's usually more chatty. Come on, Ductu. At least give her some."

The Ductu held out a cookie in her two long chopstick fingers but deeply etched distaste never left those dutiful fixated eyes.

A new arrival

The emperor might certainly feel the new entrant as the pain echoed but not a scream. Adolefactus was the first to speak her name, "Speaking of, Living Emperor, Nuria has arrived. We simply call them Mada. Each has their specialty of certain taints that they are built to purge. Some are more... dutiful than others but they're still good girls."

Adolefactus shifted his feet under his tattered grey robe and shrugged knowing full well why a teleport locus would be spinning up, "The name was writ on the containers from which we took them and the psi-seeds combined with them. The Jinhai are nothing if not practical but we're not particularly imaginative creatures. I'm just good at understanding you humans I do have to stitch your broken parts back to their spirits after all."

A firm if battered young female voice came from down the hall, "Greetings... Living Emperor. I am pleased to see myself that you seem worthy."

A bruised red-haired woman clad in psionically impregnated armor limped down toward them. She had the presence of a strong psyker but carried a restrained slow burn of one not attuned to the warp. The flame surrounding her was not one that pounded itself into reality like the warp did. Even though her person had been pounded through a tunnel of raking pins that would shatter lesser creatures. Passing through the egress was only for creatures forged of sterner things. The smouldering and pile driven psionic shells of lesser daemonkind rotting along the anchors of the prime egress she'd passed through were a testament to that. The Jinhai cleaned the anchors slowly as attendant psionic entities purging taint into safer base entropy.

She was a vessel for another's power in a long connection that led to Myrkul itself. The well in Myrkul filled apace but it was clear a great power exerted a while ago had depleted a good amount of Myrkul's own power. She could yet draw from the depleted vessel. There were remnants of the memory in that well of Myrkul's power of the shot that pounded through a distant bulwark then through a crack in reality.