Chapter 15: The truth within legend
Nidhog153
Warhammer Lore Lover and Nasu-verse enjoyer.
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In the first days of the Aeldari, Asuryan granted Eldanesh and his followers the gift of life. He breathed into their bodies all that they were to become. Yet there was no other thing upon the world. All was barren and not a leaf nor fish nor bird nor animal grew or swam or flew or walked beside them. Eldanesh was forlorn at the infertility of his home, and its emptiness made in him a greater emptiness. Seeing his distress, Isha was overcome with a grief of her own. Isha shed a tear for the Aeldari and let it drop upon the world. Where it fell, there came new life. From her sorrow came joy, for the world of the Aeldari was filled with wondrous things and Eldanesh's emptiness was no more, and he gave thanks to Isha for her love.
-Ancient Aeldari legend on the genesis of their race
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Isha exited the portal, returning to the dark corridors of one of her children's ships. The conversation with the Emperor had dragged up deep memories back to the time after the War in Heaven, before the edict.
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Truly free and unopposed for the first time in eons, she and her children had set out to undo some of the damage that the War in Heaven had left. The galaxy was theirs, but horribly damaged. Entire sections were dark and lifeless; stars drained and planets killed, cores immobile and the atmosphere blown away by radioactive solarwinds. As the only major power left sane and standing, her children proclaimed it their duty to rebuild what they and others had destroyed.
It was a political as well as a humanitarian effort, for the Aeldari could predict their own population growth without enemies to thin their ranks. Expansion was the only method they could realistically come up with in order to ensure a common goal unified their ever growing populace; so the same internal strife that destroyed the Necrontyr did not consume them as well.
Thus, they set forth on their warships, troop carriers, and Talismans of Vaul in order to restore and rebuild with the weapons of war that they had used to destroy.
Isha watched them with pride from atop her arboreal throne as another world's biosphere joined her domain as the gravity tethers from her children's ships pulled another planet away from a red dwarf's orbit. Meanwhile, 3 Talismans of Vaul took position above the dying star, before firing their infinity cannons at an equidistant point between them, creating a beam of energy that pumped immaterial energies into the star's core; reinvigorating it from red dwarf to yellow.
Prayer came from those aboard the ships, asking for guidance and reaffirmation of the effect the newly reinvigorated star would have upon the gravitational fields of nearby and distant systems.
Isha simulated the effect her children's actions had within the Sea of Souls, its timeless nature allowing her to predict several possibilities at the same time, and reaffirmed their calculations. Her answer to their prayers was the warm feeling of praise through the psychic net and she felt them rejoice and relax at the answer their goddess and mother gave them.
Millions of others asked her similar questions. What the correct orbit of a planet was, how much power to inject into a star, the number of asteroid impacts necessary to amplify the mass of a moon or planet so it could keep the necessary gasses around it to form an atmosphere that would support life.
The mathematical calculations necessary were already taught to them by Kurnous, but it was Isha they asked for confirmation, for her children's foresight could not predict the interconnected fates of entire astronomical starsystems; especially when the margin of error to allow life was so slim.
A desperate plea came from one of the far corners of the galaxy. A small patrol of her children had run into one of the sleeper cells of the Necron, and although their weapons held them at bay, they were far from any Webway gate and the tomb world's pylons disrupted their immaterial drives enough that they could not remove themselves from the system before scores of battleships and cruisers were unleashed from the surface.
Isha frowned. It was not her time to come in the Aeldari warsong, but their recent dependence on her had made her the first they cried out to. She cast a look in the direction of the other gods; Khaine and Asuryan especially.
Neither seemed to be paying much attention to the situation. Asuryan's role meant that he himself was more distant to the matters of mortals, however, he was not eyeing her with any suspicion; in effect giving tacit approval for Isha's planned disregard for the usual order of things.
Khaine had been quiet as of late. He had been particularly bored of this long period of peace and reconstruction. Calls for his Avatars or his spear had been few, and now it was mostly the Psychomatons that sang his song. He did not seem to be aware of the situation at all or was ignoring it on purpose; possibly spurning those who called for the Goddess of Life first rather than the God of War. He had been uncharacteristically broody recently.
Isha turned back to her domain and the cries of her children. The dead Necron tomb world satisfied the requirements necessary for her intervention, although other means were supposed to be attempted first before she was summoned in earnest.
'They deserve some respite.' Isha thought and sent a request to Cegorach to assist the patrol group.
The colossal maw of the cosmic serpent that was the Laughing God's steed and friend opened, and the black void of space split in two, revealing a swirling vortex of multicolored clouds. The vortex swelled, swallowing up all the ships of the Aeldari in a single gulp, taking them back to the deep blue of the Webway.
Now, with none of her mortal children present, Isha was allowed to dispense her miracle.
A crystalline tear formed above her hand, completely black instead of the usual deep burgundy drops she normally shed, for this time it was mostly made of the reserves of her power rather than with the cries of her children. Psychic energies and divine knowledge entered the psychoactive matrix, programming and powering it with all that was necessary to recreate her legend.
Isha raised her hand above her head, crystal floating above her palm, then cast it down; throwing the tear through the immaterium. A rift opened up in the veil between dreams and reality, and the black crystal flew like an obsidian comet before impacting the dead planet with meteoric force; penetrating the crust and reaching the mantle.
The Goddess of Life's miracle activated, and the dead world was reborn.
Isha turned away from the planet. It would not be ready for another decade or so, and there were other prayers and pleas that required more attention.
As Isha simultaneously answered the various questions and prayers of her children, an entire section of her domain went dark; removed from her influence.
'What happened?' Isha though, eyes wide. Multiple scenarios flitted through her mind as she began to prepare the necessary countermeasures and protocols as well as sending emergency requests for assistance to set the other gods to standby mode.
'A reawakening of one of the Star Gods? Some unforeseen accident? Some buried spore of Enslavers or other Warp Plague? An extragalactic invader?'
Red runes appeared before her as she accessed the last memories of her children before contact was lost, and her eyes widened with horror as the burning image of her father materialized on hundreds of the most populated worlds, opening his mouth to utter a deafening tone, overwhelming her children and their tools with bloodlust and rage.
"Father, what are you doing?!" Isha cried, attempting to contact the Avatars directly for the place her father's form occupied in the pantheon was empty; his entirety now in the materium and spreading hatred and anger throughout the psychic net of the Aeldari.
"I do my duty." The answer was simple, yet the tone was calm. Her father did this deliberately.
"The war is over, there is no conflict here!" Isha shouted. "You have not been called! Remove yourself from my children, immediately!" This action would have dire consequences for Khaine and her children. Even now, the perception of Khaine changed, and the changes would become permanent and self-sustaining the longer he was in contact in such an aberrant fashion with her children. "Father! Father?! Answer me!" Isha cried as she watched several of the Avatars raise their spears and swords above their heads. "Why do you do this?" She asked, voice trembling
"Ask your daughter."
The Avatar's pointed their weapons at the very planets they stood on and drove their blades and spear tips through the crust. Isha's throne shook as entire sections of her domain crumbled; centuries worth of work incinerated in an instant. A ragged gasp escaped her lips as she watched deserts, forests, oceans, and all other types of biomes possible burn and break; their immaterial forms associated to her domain turning to dust leaving gaping holes of nothing in their place.
Her psychic embrace reached out to the children on those worlds, trying to collect their souls. Instead of the pained spirits she expected to find, only the ashes of regret, fear, and confusion remained. Khaine had taken almost everything they were, are, and would be leaving behind only the pain, sorrow, and anything else that might stay his wrath.
Isha hurriedly collected the ashes, absorbing them into herself with her love before they could pollute the Sea of Souls. Although calm now, the Warp Plagues had been started by emotions such as these, and Khaine's wasteful consumption of her children threatened the new stability of the immaterium.
The situation in the materium was even more dire. Khaine's influence rallied the Aeldari for war, enraging and embittering them against any and all around them. This was not a threat to just the Aeldari, but to everything in the galaxy. Her children had a greater empathy for their kin, as they were all connected to some degree through the psychic net. Anything else was foreign to them, as they were not intrinsically linked to their psyche; unable to share emotions or thoughts freely in a way indescribable to any other species.
Thus, the first target of their rage would be everything that wasn't them. A mass genocide of every other race would begin before her children turned their weapons upon themselves. The thousands of warships, troop carriers, and Talismans of Vaul repurposed for reconstruction and spread throughout the galaxy would be returned to their original purpose, and fire upon every race old and new.
Isha turned her Warp Sight to the palace of Asuryan, for this act by Khaine surely overstepped his role. However, she only saw the ever-bored gaze of Asuryan looking back at her, with no intention to act. For some unfathomable reason, Asuryan saw no reason to stop Khaine.
She glared at him once, before returning her full attention to the crisis before her. Even now her throne shook as another part of her domain crumbled to dust.
Khaine's destruction of the Aeldari had become self-sustaining. He would destroy entire planets, claim the majority of their souls, and move on to the next to sow even more destruction; leaving Isha to collect the ashes to prevent the destabilization of the Sea of Souls.
This slaughter would endanger everything. Yet, Asuryan did not act, even as the burning image of her father grew more ferocious and daemonic, Aspect of the Reaper jutting out as a new title, 'the Lord of Murder', was given to him by her children.
Isha grit her teeth. She needed to buy time while she considered her options.
"Damn you father, for what you force me to do!" SIlver eyes sparking, Isha set her foresight upon every planet of the Aeldari, predicted which ones Khaine would alight upon, and watched the populace burn and die in an unavoidable future. Several hundred reddish black tears formed in her hand, and she threw them at the planets she knew would be doomed, concluding that there was no saving the children there. Thus, the loss of life would not stain her hand, for her miracle would free them from the painful anger and all-consuming bloodlust, saving their souls from Khaine's fire.
Tear after tear fell into the materium, falling into orbit above the doomed planets, programmed to fall once Khaine arrived, rebirthing each one before Khaine could conscript her children to continue his slaughter.
Khaine's Avatars disappeared with the planets they formed upon as Isha's miracle fell to the surface and activated, slowing the spread of destruction as he was denied his next harvest of souls, forcing him to reduce his forces as his reserves of energy were temporarily depleted.
In that brief moment where Khaine's influence ebbed, Isha reached for every Psychomaton she could, and gave them the order to sleep. They were born from her children, so although they resonated with Khaine, they could still obey her.
As the titanic War-walkers slowed, Isha opened her hand, cracking open the ground beneath them before closing her fist, swallowing millions of weapons of war on thousands of different planets into the ground; burying them in stone coffins that would deafen them to Khaine's psychic call.
"Cegorach, buy me time." Isha contacted the Laughing God, whose aberrant nature would enjoy this disruption of normalcy.
A cackle came back, and Isha saw the great coils of the Cosmic Serpent Saim-Hann unwind from Gork and Mork, lifting the psychic blockade on the diminished Krork. Reunited with their gods, they began to launch a new great Waaagh with improvised ships and teleportation devices, spreading from their prison worlds and coming in contact with her enraged children. However, this would save the majority of the galaxy. Her children's bloodlust would redirect itself towards the violent green skins, providing an outlet for their anger. Their war would provide cover for the other less well defended races of the galaxy. The perfect bitter irony Cegorach so enjoyed; for the old race of violent maniacs would serve as the shield against her own children, insane with Khaine's rage, in a role reversal on galactic scale.
With Khaine slowed and her children occupied with slaughtering the green skins, Isha returned to solving the mystery of her father's actions.
'What does Lilieath have to do with this?' She thought to herself, and delved into the memories of all her children, searching through their dreams and visions for a clue as to what motivated Khaine to do all this.
Isha's blood froze in her veins when she found the answer in the visions of her most powerful children; Seers with the greatest potential for seeing the future.
It was a pink and purple poison that was seeping through the children most connected to the Sea of Souls, creating a thing that was not supposed to be present for tens of thousands of years.
Lilieath's vision was as much a self-fulfilling prophecy as it was a warning. Some took her daughter's message as it was, but the more powerful the Seer, the more clearly they saw what awaited them. These children lost all hope or inhibition; collapsing into depression or madness as the fear of eternal torture overwhelmed their mortal minds. Their terror infected all those around them through the psychic net, forcing them to try to shut out the sight of what was to come by overwhelming their other senses. The result of the temptress Goddess of Excess's call to them from the realm of probability and possibility through the window of dreams in an unconscious effort to speed Hir own birth.
However, it was that poison that allowed Khaine to act rationally. This slaughter seemed unjustified, but with Lilieath's message, it gave a reason for the culling; justified the murder of the Aeldari by the very god that had protected them for so long. Thus, Khaine would remain Khaine despite his actions, and Asuryan would never act; so long as Isha allowed it.
"Why? WHY?!" Isha gave a banshee shriek, rocking the very foundations of the pantheon.
Why was she not consulted? They could have found some way to delay or avoid this.
Why had they acted without her permission? Life and its definition was her domain, not theirs.
What purpose did all this slaughter and anguish have? Was there something else so horrible that they needed to do all this?
Isha pulled back from her children, inspecting the extent of the damage through the psychic net to reconfirm her options.
Khaine's influence boiled in the center, like an underwater volcano sending red orange froth outwards, agitating the minds and hearts of her children with rage and hate.
Lilieath's dreams fell inside and outside the parts disturbed by Khaine; multiple spots of pink and purple poison spreading deeper and further like drops of food coloring in water, sinking and expanding into the psyche of her children.
The skies of the pantheon darkened, as despair blackened Isha's heart. Prediction and simulation of the spread of her father and daughter's influence yielded only one conclusion. Neither her voice nor any of the other gods aside from the Phoenix King could stop the spread of hate and despair. There was only one way she could remove both of them safely from her children.
Asuryan's edict.
Khaine and Lilieath had overstepped their purview, encroaching on her Truth and definition.
It was her right to activate it.
But, once activated, none of the gods would be able to influence the mortal realm. That meant every prayer of her children would go unanswered, and the fate of the galaxy would be in their fallible hands and limited minds.
It was a dangerous gamble, especially with the reconstruction being incomplete, and so much damage done to the hearts and minds of her children. She could not make the decision lightly.
Isha rose from her throne. The time Cegorach and herself had bought was running out. She would need to see what her daughter saw before she made her final decision.
Isha ran to Lilieath's domain, forcing open the door only to find a single crystalline figurine of her daughter on the bedside table beside the hammock she used.
It was a vision meant for her, and one Lilieath had wanted her to see, for she had known that Isha would come here and left it in her place.
The crystal figurine was frozen in the kneeling posture of her daughter, as if begging forgiveness.
Isha's hand snatched the figurine up angrily. No explanation imaginable could justify what had been done behind her back. Even if it was justifiable, it did not change the fact that she had been betrayed, her children slaughtered, and the galaxy endangered. However, she was here to consult the Goddess of Dreams and Visions, and she would see what her daughter foresaw she would need to see.
The vision played out in Isha's mind, and the figurine slipped from her hand, shattering into a thousand diamond like shards on the floor.
This was why Lilieath doomed the Aeldari? For this, she spurred Khaine on forcing Isha's hand?
The logic was sound, and Isha understood the slippery slope she had always stood on. She was the balance and the definer of life. A cycle that turned eternally around an ever-shifting point of homeostasis that ebbed, flowed, and at times self-destructed. It was her role to redefine life every time it happened, so her miracle and legend could be recreated for the Aeldari as many times as necessary.
However, Khaine and Lilieath's actions could not be the answer. Leaving the galaxy to their conclusion would leave it dangerously depleted of life.
Although the culling of her children and all the other races would prevent the forming of She who Thirsts, and reduced the other gestating Ruinous Powers, it left everything vulnerable to a Necron resurgence. There would be no point saving the galaxy if it was all left for their ancient enemy to do as they pleased when they eventually returned.
There was no confirmation that all the Star Gods had been shattered either, and even then the fragments might rejoin and reform to restart the harvest of souls that was their only form of enjoyment.
Other horrors existed in the galaxy as well. Warp Plague remnants, divine deserters, abandoned species, and the Old One's failed methods to force all those who wouldn't to fight. The chances of her enraged children awakening one or more of these were unacceptably high. Although that occurrence would have no meaning to Khaine, for it would have the same effect as culling the Aeldari. For that reason alone, Isha could not allow it. What would replace her children would be far worse, and they would not allow new species to spawn; overwriting them before they even had the chance to breathe their first breath.
The existential threat of an extragalactic invader was also an ever-present distant threat. They were not the only ones in this universe, and any species that needed to travel between galaxies was either one that had a level of technology and culture unimaginable by even the gods, or had devoured everything in their old home, forcing them to find a new one to feed on.
Leaving this galaxy to one or more of those outcomes after everything she had done, everything she and her children sacrificed was unforgivable.
Worst of all, Khaine would only continue to act so long as Isha did not do her utmost to stop him. That meant, so long as Isha did not activate the edict, no matter how hard she pushed back or how many tears she spilled, the responsibility for all the deaths would lie upon her. To her children, whether she abandoned them to Khaine or acted against them herself, it was no different. They would die regardless, and only the phrasing of the legend that would come after would change, not its meaning.
If that happened, whether it was another 60 million or another 600 million years, Lilieath's vision would come eventually true.
'We still had time…' Isha thought to herself as the skies rumbled above her; thunder and lightning booming and flashing as her emotions became ever more violent.
But she knew why Lilieath forced her hand and made the decision of how life was to be lived by her children and all the other species in the galaxy for her.
As long as Isha followed her legend, the choice between bestowing her miracle was a binary one. A choice between 1 and 0.
As long as the choice was easy, she could make the hard decision with her tears.
When she became the decider of what fraction of life was allowable, what acts deserved her miracle and what didn't, she would eventually fall from her throne. After eons of predicting and preventing corruption from all sources, she would appear upon every planet and every star with black tears streaming down her face, only for them to fall upon every single stellar body as all life came to the conclusion of its cycle with her mournful cries.
That ending was something Lilieath could not allow, for the eternal rest was a dreamless one.
'We still had time…' Isha shook her head to herself.
She knew from the moment of her birth that she would suffer eternally to prevent the eventuality foreseen by Lilieath. Any weapon of war that enjoyed its function too much was as much a threat to its creators as it was to their enemies.
Her misery and sorrow, and the method by which her miracle was powered ensured she would forever weep to recreate it.
'We still had time…' Isha reflected upon her own actions, and gritted her teeth.
Lilieath's visions did not always come true, but to see them meant there was the chance they could happen. Isha had become more reckless and more unrestrained with the newfound freedom she and her children enjoyed. She ignored the original order of things, as all life does in its constant evolution to adapt to its surroundings.
Even then, the choice had always been between 1 and 0. There was no chance of Isha falling today or tomorrow or even a million years from now.
There had still been time, but not anymore.
Isha stormed out of the room, calling the winds to carry her to the abode of Morai Heg. If there was anyone who could avert fate, it would be the Crone. Lilieath would be there as well, and Isha needed to see if she truly understood what she had done.
As the winds howled around her, Isha stormed into the room where Morai Heg and Lilieath were waiting.
"LILIEATH!" The ground shook as Isha called her daughter's name and reached for her daughter upon Morai Heg's shoulder. "What have you done!"
Just as Isha's hand was about to close around Lilieath's entire body, Morai Heg's remaining hand closed around her wrist.
"She did what she had to, daughter." Her mother spoke quietly, and thunder rumbled with Isha's rage at her mother's statement.
The Crone sided with the Goddess of Dreams and Visions, pronouncing her prophecy valid and the fate chosen to be immutable.
There was no turning back from this crossroad.
Dark green and blackish brown energies swirled in Isha's eyes as she glared into her mother's pupils.
"It was not her decision to make!" She cried. The Aeldari were doomed, as well as every god in their pantheon. Lilieath had sealed her own fate, and the Aeldari without a single word to her mother.
"They are my children! That is my duty, my burden to bear, my Truth! NOT HERS!" Lightning struck the ground, sending shards of Wraithbone flying, only to be seized by the winds and dragged up into the black sky. Isha saw with her own foresight the future of Lilieath and Morai Heg. If eternal torment was all that awaited them, why did she even bother holding back and simply end everything as it was ahead of schedule?
"Then you know what you have to do in order to go back to that path."
The Crone's gaze was unmoving, unflinching, and unafraid. The fate of the Aeldari was still in Isha's hands. Lilieath may have put them at the crossroad, but Morai Heg's pronouncement made it clear that the final decision was still Isha's to make.
Isha glared into the eyes of her mother and daughter and saw their resolve as the double vision of foresight overlaid with the present view; showing nothing but scattered ashes and the voiceless, faceless, limbless form Lilieath would eventually be reduced to. In their eyes, Isha's own fate was reflected for her to see; naked and caged in rusted metal, force fed endless plagues and poxes by the oldest of the new usurpers who were still unborn.
That was the future they had chosen, with full foreknowledge of what would happen at the end of both paths.
Isha turned away from them, yanking her wrist out of Morai Heg's hand.
There were no more words necessary, the choice was to either move forwards into pain or slide backwards into blackness.
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Isha reflected on her emotions of that time as she continued down the dark corridor. Part of Isha wished to do as Morai Heg had said; simply allow Khaine's slaughter to complete and bring oblivion to everything as Lilieath foresaw.
However, she could not do that.
To return to the analogy of the train, Lilieath had stood on the tracks and grabbed the lever that changed the direction of the train and pulled with all her might to send the locomotive screaming over her own body and the bodies of Isha's children, mangling them all, sending blood and limbs in every direction.
The timing was too early for Isha, for there were still several splits in the direction the tracks of fate could have gone, but Lilieath too was Isha's child, and if this was the future she preferred over the eventual oblivion her mother would bring, then Isha would grant her hateful wish.
'Then there was the talk with Asuryan.' Isha thought glumly to herself, returning to memory as she opened the door to another one of her mortal children in need of her mercy.
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Isha landed at the palace of Asuryan and stormed through the entrance way to the audience chamber where Asuryan sat on his throne.
"So, you have made your decision." Asuryan said, sitting bored on his throne as she marched before him.
"You knew everything." Isha spat at him, glaring at him with teeth bared.
"Of course I did." Asuryan shrugged. "I would make a poor god that gave the Aeldari all their powers if I was not elevated above the rest of you as much as you are elevated above them."
"Then why did you not say anything?" Isha growled.
Asuryan sighed, and lifted a hand, detaching the flow of time within the audience chamber from everything else around them, preventing any from outside the walls from ever listening to what was said inside.
"I know everything that has, is, and will happen. I already see the choice you've made, and what you plan to do to disobey me with your consort and another one of my brothers." He snorted and muttered 'if only you could keep your secrets better hidden' under his breath.
"However…" Asuryan resumed in his normal tone. "Just because I see everything does not mean I have to prattle about it like the three of you."
Isha opened her mouth, but Asuryan raised a finger to shush her. "Before you ask your next question, you already know why I do not do that. If I told you or any of the others what to do or when to stop, it would be no different from me commanding the Aeldari; just as much as leaving my brother makes you responsible for your children's deaths."
Isha bit back her harsh words, for what Asuryan said was true. If she was guilty by proxy for her inaction, any command or warning given to any god by Asuryan would eventually reach the mortal realm.
"If my voice ever reached the Aeldari, they would cease to be a species from that point forward, merely pawns dancing at my command. Without free-will, individual-thought, or doubt; they would become nothing, and even the Sea of Souls would become bleak and bland. All the clouds would turn silver, and my boredom would become the new reality; truly leaving nothing but a hell of my own making."
Asuryan straightened his back, placing his arms on the armrests of the throne, bringing himself to his full seated height.
"We live in the Sea of Souls. A place where tomorrow happens before yesterday. A choice once made echoes forwards and backwards." Asuryan's eyes fixed onto Isha's and the silver flames that burned within the eyes of an otherwise rather unremarkable Aeldari seemed to rage; like a prisoner gripping the bars while thrashing and screaming to be released. "To choose even once as a god means to have chosen until the very end. There is no avoiding or preventing that."
Isha glowered at the Phoenix King; the one from whom all Aeldari stemmed from, and the divine ruler of the Aeldari Pantheon. To speak with Asuryan was to be belittled and lectured. He appeared omniscient and was intended to be so by their creators, but in truth he was a silvery polished mirror or conjoined set of lenses that reflected everything and everyone who spoke to him.
Yet, in this Sea of Souls where time had no meaning, Asuryan perceived everything that had and had not happened to the beings that saw him. Therefore, he knew the beginning and ending of everything that caught sight of him and was eternally bound to inaction because of that fact. His role after giving life to the Aeldari was to maintain the law between the gods, judge any who could reach the foot of his throne, and ensure they remained true to their own self-described nature and function.
Thus, the only answers that he gave were those found within the asker themselves, and his miracle would only be granted in a way that the god or mortal wishing for it could understand.
Still, she could not stop herself from attempting to convince him of the impossible.
"Your death lies at the end of either road. Do you not think to prevent it?" Asuryan was the ruler of this Pantheon. She who Thirsts would come from the Aeldari gods, and Isha herself was ultimately subservient to him. He had the power to hold back both, if only he chose to do so.
"I know that..." Asuryan nodded, face impassive and unemotional. "And it makes no difference." The ghost of a smile seemed to cross his lips for an instance before disappearing. "Either way, I will finally be free."
Isha looked downwards as her fists balled. That was the same answer Asuryan always gave:
Even when the winds of battle during the War in Heaven blew against them.
Even when the Warp Plagues erupted, and the Old Ones were exterminated one by one.
Even now when certain doom loomed before them.
"But…" Asuryan continued. "That is not the true reason for your ire." The all-knowing self-satisfied smile Asuryan always wore during his lectures spread across his face. "Lilieath took away your choice, while leaving it in your hands. The fact that you stand before me means you have already made it exactly as she hoped and foresaw. That is the truth of the matter, and the instinctual anger you feel as a god."
He chuckled as her brow furrowed before continuing.
"There is a primitive saying that is yet to be said, 'The dye is darker than the plants it is made from.' Lilieath, your child, understands the importance of a choice made by a god far better than you. That is why she made her choice so you would never have the chance to make yours. The suffering of the Aeldari and our deaths are merely secondary. Afterall, you are created by death and sorrow, with only your love keeping the balance between what you were made to do and what you are made from."
"You think pride and possessiveness are all that drive me?" Isha's voice was quiet, but it was the quiet before the storm, the receding of the ocean before the tsunami struck.
Asuryan sighed and scratched his head. "Even now, you try your hardest not to understand. What did I expect? Nothing is as ugly to a hypocrite as their own reflection."
The cursed eyes of Asuryan turned back on Isha, reflecting her glare and bared teeth. "The pain of life is nothing to its goddess, for it is she who allows it to torture all that walk within the cycle."
Before Isha could retort, Asuryan raised his hand again, and the time within the audience chamber reconnected with time outside.
"Now, choose; Goddess of Life." Asuryan's voice was authoritative, commanding, but utterly devoid of emotion.
"Will you expand your definition to how life should be lived, cull all those left wanting, and eventually fall as the futility of it all finally breaks your heart?"
"Will you allow Khaine to claim the mantle of reaper in your stead, and watch as the galaxy grows dark before destroying everything that is left as your children redefine what you are and what you represent?"
"Or will you proceed unwillingly along the doomed path laid before us by your daughter, fighting to change fate for all for eternity?"
Three tracks were laid before Isha, which led to only two outcomes:
One of obliteration and another of oblivion; both ending in the same way.
One of pain where the suffering of every Aeldari and every god was waiting.
The choice was already made as Asuryan had said.
Isha knelt before the Phoenix King and uttered the words necessary to request the activation of the edict.
"By my Truth and right as the Goddess of Life, I demand the activation of the edict for the usurpation of my duty and definition by the God of War and now Lord of Murder, Khaine. In accordance with our laws, the realm of mortals shall be shut off and protected from us until the invasion of my domain ends. I rob the Aeldari of their greatest strength and leave their questions unanswered with my divine mind. They shall be led by my champion and hero; Eldanesh, the first of the Aeldari. He acts in our stead as our hand and voice, and only he shall pass through the walls that hold us in."
"So be it." Asuryan said, and his voice echoed through the entire palace, reverberating and reflecting upon itself while growing higher and lower in pitch at the same time, until it was as if an entire chorus was made with just his voice.
Silver flames rose from his form as Asuryan's edict activated, rising in a silver pillar of flames that punched a hole through the black clouds of Isha, and entered the realm of mortals. The flames entered the mind of every Aeldari, wiping out every trace of Khaine and Lilieath's touch from the psychic net, reverting them and the Psychomatons taken by Khaine to their normal state.
The Avatars faded into nothing as Khaine was brought back in his own pillar of flames, and Wraithbone walls rose around the pantheon; barriers to keep the Aeldari gods in first and everything else out second.
Isha marched out of the audience chamber, no longer interested in talking to the Phoenix King.
He would never act, for to do so was to choose to influence the world with foreknowledge of every action and reaction. When that choice was made, every other choice would be made as well, for only the most optimal and least burdensome path would be chosen, and there would be nothing but the word of Asuryan left.
The Phoenix King valued self-determination above almost anything, for it was the one thing he did not have, for he was cursed with foresight so powerful no choice existed. Thus, he would never act, even if those he gave life to chose to destroy everything they had built.
As Isha stormed out of the palace and into the courtyard, she locked eyes with Khaine who had just returned from the mortal realm. Blood dripped from his sword, and she could see the ghostly outlines of the children he had forcibly conscripted to continue his slaughter in the mortal realm within his flames.
There was a banshee cry, and Isha did not know whether it was coming from her throat or her father's, but the two clashed as everything Isha had suffered broke out in a flood of violence.
The bout lasted only a few moments before Asuryan's chains separated them.
"The edict has been activated as decreed." The Phoenix King said, tone quiet and unemotional. "From this point forth, all contact with the materium has been forbidden."
Isha sank to her knees, chains clinking as the rain grew heavier, soaking through her clothing and sticking it to her skin.
Khaine remained standing, raindrops hissing as they hit his flaming form. His burning eyes glared at Isha's bowed head.
"Are they worth everything that can and will be lost, daughter?" Khaine finally said.
"They are my children." Isha whispered. "They are my duty, my responsibility."
She was the Goddess of Life and the mother of the Aeldari. However, she would never tell them how to live their lives or punish them for their sins. The only time she would take back what she gave was as an act of love and mercy, as it always had been. If she ever chose otherwise, she would betray Lilieath, and invalidate everything her daughter was prepared to sacrifice.
That was her choice, and how she would define life from then on, no matter how hard she tried to forget that fact.
The rest of Khaine and Asuryan's words dulled as Isha stared downwards through the immaterium, locking eyes with Eldanesh as he glared upwards into the Sea of Souls with all his followers, angry at what the gods had done to the mortal realm, unable to understand what had transpired but fully aware of who was responsible.
A hundred years had already passed since Khaine burned the first planet.
Her beloved hero and champion was weary from keeping the peace within the Aeldari as their anger grew, redirecting it to the Krork and their gods when Cegorach provided the scapegoat necessary to sate their bloodlust. Now, he had to deal with the green skins without the assistance of any of his gods, and lead without their divine knowledge; unsure of whether the path he proceeded down was correct. She watched him reach out to touch the edict only to stop himself before his fingers could pass through the Wraithbone walls that now surrounded the Aeldari Pantheon. He believed in the gods and trusted their decision. He would deal with the issues left in the mortal realm, as he was the first and chosen of his race and acted in the gods' stead as their voice and hand in the materium.
That was the definition of his duty and role.
Isha watched as Eldanesh returned to his council of surviving Seers, preparing to spread hastily made myths and legends; the propaganda necessary to keep the populace's belief in the gods stable. The edict may prevent the gods from reaching the mortal realm, but other creatures lurked in the immaterium; warp predators, parasites, and plagues from the War in Heaven that the gods would need the Aeldari's faith to fight.
Once that was done, he could finally put down the Krork remnants and their gods with psychic power and poisonous politics. When he was finished, they would be broken and divided, forever pulling their gods in different directions, eternally fighting themselves and everything else. Then, he would rebuild what was broken with mortal means. Only after everything was returned to where it was before this disaster would he storm the gates of the Aeldari Pantheon in his personal quest to demand answers for what had transpired.
—----------------------------------------
Isha closed the eyes of another one of her children, as she laid their body on the floor. This ship was now devoid of Aeldari life, and it was time to move on to the next ship.
As she accessed the former pleasure cruiser's controls, replicating the signal required to contact the Emperor, Isha reflected on all she had done.
After activating the edict, she had tried many times to avert fate.
She had gone with Kurnous to beg Asuryan to allow only their knowledge to reach their children, fully knowing it would be in vain.
She had asked Lilieath to re-send her prophecy. With the damage done, there was no point hiding what would happen to the Aeldari from their foresight, and dreams were the one way the gods were still connected to the mortal realm.
She had worked with Vaul and Kurnous to repurpose her tears to allow their teachings to find a way to the materium.
Time and time again, she had schemed and fought, pleaded and threatened to save the Aeldari.
Some may think her partially successful, as the tears modified by Vaul and imbued with Kurnous's teachings did reach the mortal realm and still remained buried on several of the Core Worlds. A few of her children had escaped the first assault of She who Thirsts, giving them the chance to take up the sword and spear to prepare to defend their soul.
However, the fate foreseen by Lilieath had not yet ended. Isha was not in a rusted cage at this moment, but whether that possibility had been averted or merely delayed was yet to be seen.
There was the chance that fate would come from the Emperor's hand, bartered to the Plague Lord for some secret or gift once she was no longer useful. She was merely a tool to the Master of Mankind, and only for so long as she was useful as the Emperor told her when they first met.
A portal opened before Isha, leading to another one of the former pleasure cruisers, and Isha stepped through it into another dark corridor while internally returning her thoughts from the past to the present.
This relationship between the Emperor and her needed to be reforged. They were alike in some ways. Her hate and self-loathing would not have resonated within the Emperor if they were not for she saw them fuel the fire within those brown eyes.
The Emperor's conclusion, although ignorant, was not entirely incorrect. She had thought of choosing the other path, only doing the opposite because of her mortal and divine children. In that sense, it was her love that made her choose the opposite of the Emperor. Therefore, the Emperor's accusation was not completely inaccurate, if only barely scraping the target out of blink luck than anything else.
What that meant was that there was the potential for empathy between them. Whether that could be nurtured through temporary obedience and subservience was yet to be seen, but at the very least, they were not entirely incapable of understanding each other.
She snorted to herself as another possibility entered her mind.
'Perhaps it is because we are both hypocrites in our own way that we can understand one another, and in turn cannot stand to look at each other.'
A hypocritical Goddess of Life who originally made life only to send it to die, and whose true miracle was only dispensed on those that could not be saved.
A hypocritical god that was not a god that wished to protect its people, while brutalizing and sacrificing them endlessly to pave only a single golden path forwards, robbing them of their personality and choice.
Isha looked down at the place her children's warships had crashed, the continuous line of valleys and gorges; as if some one had taken the crust of the planet in two hands and shoved it together.
The Psychomatons she had buried here to protect from Khaine's call remained, deafened in the same way to the psychic scream of She who Thirsts. They and many other groups of War-walkers still slumbered on a couple hundred planets, unrecovered by Eldanesh or the Aeldari that came after him during the reconstruction. All the others who were freed from Khaine when the edict activated or were dug up and reawakened by the Aeldari were gone, consumed entirely for they were far closer to the Goddess of Excess than any other.
Whether the Emperor accepted their service or not would determine how she would deal with Humanity's Protector.
-Ancient Aeldari legend on the genesis of their race
—----------------------------------------
Isha exited the portal, returning to the dark corridors of one of her children's ships. The conversation with the Emperor had dragged up deep memories back to the time after the War in Heaven, before the edict.
—----------------------------------------
Truly free and unopposed for the first time in eons, she and her children had set out to undo some of the damage that the War in Heaven had left. The galaxy was theirs, but horribly damaged. Entire sections were dark and lifeless; stars drained and planets killed, cores immobile and the atmosphere blown away by radioactive solarwinds. As the only major power left sane and standing, her children proclaimed it their duty to rebuild what they and others had destroyed.
It was a political as well as a humanitarian effort, for the Aeldari could predict their own population growth without enemies to thin their ranks. Expansion was the only method they could realistically come up with in order to ensure a common goal unified their ever growing populace; so the same internal strife that destroyed the Necrontyr did not consume them as well.
Thus, they set forth on their warships, troop carriers, and Talismans of Vaul in order to restore and rebuild with the weapons of war that they had used to destroy.
Isha watched them with pride from atop her arboreal throne as another world's biosphere joined her domain as the gravity tethers from her children's ships pulled another planet away from a red dwarf's orbit. Meanwhile, 3 Talismans of Vaul took position above the dying star, before firing their infinity cannons at an equidistant point between them, creating a beam of energy that pumped immaterial energies into the star's core; reinvigorating it from red dwarf to yellow.
Prayer came from those aboard the ships, asking for guidance and reaffirmation of the effect the newly reinvigorated star would have upon the gravitational fields of nearby and distant systems.
Isha simulated the effect her children's actions had within the Sea of Souls, its timeless nature allowing her to predict several possibilities at the same time, and reaffirmed their calculations. Her answer to their prayers was the warm feeling of praise through the psychic net and she felt them rejoice and relax at the answer their goddess and mother gave them.
Millions of others asked her similar questions. What the correct orbit of a planet was, how much power to inject into a star, the number of asteroid impacts necessary to amplify the mass of a moon or planet so it could keep the necessary gasses around it to form an atmosphere that would support life.
The mathematical calculations necessary were already taught to them by Kurnous, but it was Isha they asked for confirmation, for her children's foresight could not predict the interconnected fates of entire astronomical starsystems; especially when the margin of error to allow life was so slim.
A desperate plea came from one of the far corners of the galaxy. A small patrol of her children had run into one of the sleeper cells of the Necron, and although their weapons held them at bay, they were far from any Webway gate and the tomb world's pylons disrupted their immaterial drives enough that they could not remove themselves from the system before scores of battleships and cruisers were unleashed from the surface.
Isha frowned. It was not her time to come in the Aeldari warsong, but their recent dependence on her had made her the first they cried out to. She cast a look in the direction of the other gods; Khaine and Asuryan especially.
Neither seemed to be paying much attention to the situation. Asuryan's role meant that he himself was more distant to the matters of mortals, however, he was not eyeing her with any suspicion; in effect giving tacit approval for Isha's planned disregard for the usual order of things.
Khaine had been quiet as of late. He had been particularly bored of this long period of peace and reconstruction. Calls for his Avatars or his spear had been few, and now it was mostly the Psychomatons that sang his song. He did not seem to be aware of the situation at all or was ignoring it on purpose; possibly spurning those who called for the Goddess of Life first rather than the God of War. He had been uncharacteristically broody recently.
Isha turned back to her domain and the cries of her children. The dead Necron tomb world satisfied the requirements necessary for her intervention, although other means were supposed to be attempted first before she was summoned in earnest.
'They deserve some respite.' Isha thought and sent a request to Cegorach to assist the patrol group.
The colossal maw of the cosmic serpent that was the Laughing God's steed and friend opened, and the black void of space split in two, revealing a swirling vortex of multicolored clouds. The vortex swelled, swallowing up all the ships of the Aeldari in a single gulp, taking them back to the deep blue of the Webway.
Now, with none of her mortal children present, Isha was allowed to dispense her miracle.
A crystalline tear formed above her hand, completely black instead of the usual deep burgundy drops she normally shed, for this time it was mostly made of the reserves of her power rather than with the cries of her children. Psychic energies and divine knowledge entered the psychoactive matrix, programming and powering it with all that was necessary to recreate her legend.
Isha raised her hand above her head, crystal floating above her palm, then cast it down; throwing the tear through the immaterium. A rift opened up in the veil between dreams and reality, and the black crystal flew like an obsidian comet before impacting the dead planet with meteoric force; penetrating the crust and reaching the mantle.
The Goddess of Life's miracle activated, and the dead world was reborn.
Isha turned away from the planet. It would not be ready for another decade or so, and there were other prayers and pleas that required more attention.
As Isha simultaneously answered the various questions and prayers of her children, an entire section of her domain went dark; removed from her influence.
'What happened?' Isha though, eyes wide. Multiple scenarios flitted through her mind as she began to prepare the necessary countermeasures and protocols as well as sending emergency requests for assistance to set the other gods to standby mode.
'A reawakening of one of the Star Gods? Some unforeseen accident? Some buried spore of Enslavers or other Warp Plague? An extragalactic invader?'
Red runes appeared before her as she accessed the last memories of her children before contact was lost, and her eyes widened with horror as the burning image of her father materialized on hundreds of the most populated worlds, opening his mouth to utter a deafening tone, overwhelming her children and their tools with bloodlust and rage.
"Father, what are you doing?!" Isha cried, attempting to contact the Avatars directly for the place her father's form occupied in the pantheon was empty; his entirety now in the materium and spreading hatred and anger throughout the psychic net of the Aeldari.
"I do my duty." The answer was simple, yet the tone was calm. Her father did this deliberately.
"The war is over, there is no conflict here!" Isha shouted. "You have not been called! Remove yourself from my children, immediately!" This action would have dire consequences for Khaine and her children. Even now, the perception of Khaine changed, and the changes would become permanent and self-sustaining the longer he was in contact in such an aberrant fashion with her children. "Father! Father?! Answer me!" Isha cried as she watched several of the Avatars raise their spears and swords above their heads. "Why do you do this?" She asked, voice trembling
"Ask your daughter."
The Avatar's pointed their weapons at the very planets they stood on and drove their blades and spear tips through the crust. Isha's throne shook as entire sections of her domain crumbled; centuries worth of work incinerated in an instant. A ragged gasp escaped her lips as she watched deserts, forests, oceans, and all other types of biomes possible burn and break; their immaterial forms associated to her domain turning to dust leaving gaping holes of nothing in their place.
Her psychic embrace reached out to the children on those worlds, trying to collect their souls. Instead of the pained spirits she expected to find, only the ashes of regret, fear, and confusion remained. Khaine had taken almost everything they were, are, and would be leaving behind only the pain, sorrow, and anything else that might stay his wrath.
Isha hurriedly collected the ashes, absorbing them into herself with her love before they could pollute the Sea of Souls. Although calm now, the Warp Plagues had been started by emotions such as these, and Khaine's wasteful consumption of her children threatened the new stability of the immaterium.
The situation in the materium was even more dire. Khaine's influence rallied the Aeldari for war, enraging and embittering them against any and all around them. This was not a threat to just the Aeldari, but to everything in the galaxy. Her children had a greater empathy for their kin, as they were all connected to some degree through the psychic net. Anything else was foreign to them, as they were not intrinsically linked to their psyche; unable to share emotions or thoughts freely in a way indescribable to any other species.
Thus, the first target of their rage would be everything that wasn't them. A mass genocide of every other race would begin before her children turned their weapons upon themselves. The thousands of warships, troop carriers, and Talismans of Vaul repurposed for reconstruction and spread throughout the galaxy would be returned to their original purpose, and fire upon every race old and new.
Isha turned her Warp Sight to the palace of Asuryan, for this act by Khaine surely overstepped his role. However, she only saw the ever-bored gaze of Asuryan looking back at her, with no intention to act. For some unfathomable reason, Asuryan saw no reason to stop Khaine.
She glared at him once, before returning her full attention to the crisis before her. Even now her throne shook as another part of her domain crumbled to dust.
Khaine's destruction of the Aeldari had become self-sustaining. He would destroy entire planets, claim the majority of their souls, and move on to the next to sow even more destruction; leaving Isha to collect the ashes to prevent the destabilization of the Sea of Souls.
This slaughter would endanger everything. Yet, Asuryan did not act, even as the burning image of her father grew more ferocious and daemonic, Aspect of the Reaper jutting out as a new title, 'the Lord of Murder', was given to him by her children.
Isha grit her teeth. She needed to buy time while she considered her options.
"Damn you father, for what you force me to do!" SIlver eyes sparking, Isha set her foresight upon every planet of the Aeldari, predicted which ones Khaine would alight upon, and watched the populace burn and die in an unavoidable future. Several hundred reddish black tears formed in her hand, and she threw them at the planets she knew would be doomed, concluding that there was no saving the children there. Thus, the loss of life would not stain her hand, for her miracle would free them from the painful anger and all-consuming bloodlust, saving their souls from Khaine's fire.
Tear after tear fell into the materium, falling into orbit above the doomed planets, programmed to fall once Khaine arrived, rebirthing each one before Khaine could conscript her children to continue his slaughter.
Khaine's Avatars disappeared with the planets they formed upon as Isha's miracle fell to the surface and activated, slowing the spread of destruction as he was denied his next harvest of souls, forcing him to reduce his forces as his reserves of energy were temporarily depleted.
In that brief moment where Khaine's influence ebbed, Isha reached for every Psychomaton she could, and gave them the order to sleep. They were born from her children, so although they resonated with Khaine, they could still obey her.
As the titanic War-walkers slowed, Isha opened her hand, cracking open the ground beneath them before closing her fist, swallowing millions of weapons of war on thousands of different planets into the ground; burying them in stone coffins that would deafen them to Khaine's psychic call.
"Cegorach, buy me time." Isha contacted the Laughing God, whose aberrant nature would enjoy this disruption of normalcy.
A cackle came back, and Isha saw the great coils of the Cosmic Serpent Saim-Hann unwind from Gork and Mork, lifting the psychic blockade on the diminished Krork. Reunited with their gods, they began to launch a new great Waaagh with improvised ships and teleportation devices, spreading from their prison worlds and coming in contact with her enraged children. However, this would save the majority of the galaxy. Her children's bloodlust would redirect itself towards the violent green skins, providing an outlet for their anger. Their war would provide cover for the other less well defended races of the galaxy. The perfect bitter irony Cegorach so enjoyed; for the old race of violent maniacs would serve as the shield against her own children, insane with Khaine's rage, in a role reversal on galactic scale.
With Khaine slowed and her children occupied with slaughtering the green skins, Isha returned to solving the mystery of her father's actions.
'What does Lilieath have to do with this?' She thought to herself, and delved into the memories of all her children, searching through their dreams and visions for a clue as to what motivated Khaine to do all this.
Isha's blood froze in her veins when she found the answer in the visions of her most powerful children; Seers with the greatest potential for seeing the future.
It was a pink and purple poison that was seeping through the children most connected to the Sea of Souls, creating a thing that was not supposed to be present for tens of thousands of years.
Lilieath's vision was as much a self-fulfilling prophecy as it was a warning. Some took her daughter's message as it was, but the more powerful the Seer, the more clearly they saw what awaited them. These children lost all hope or inhibition; collapsing into depression or madness as the fear of eternal torture overwhelmed their mortal minds. Their terror infected all those around them through the psychic net, forcing them to try to shut out the sight of what was to come by overwhelming their other senses. The result of the temptress Goddess of Excess's call to them from the realm of probability and possibility through the window of dreams in an unconscious effort to speed Hir own birth.
However, it was that poison that allowed Khaine to act rationally. This slaughter seemed unjustified, but with Lilieath's message, it gave a reason for the culling; justified the murder of the Aeldari by the very god that had protected them for so long. Thus, Khaine would remain Khaine despite his actions, and Asuryan would never act; so long as Isha allowed it.
"Why? WHY?!" Isha gave a banshee shriek, rocking the very foundations of the pantheon.
Why was she not consulted? They could have found some way to delay or avoid this.
Why had they acted without her permission? Life and its definition was her domain, not theirs.
What purpose did all this slaughter and anguish have? Was there something else so horrible that they needed to do all this?
Isha pulled back from her children, inspecting the extent of the damage through the psychic net to reconfirm her options.
Khaine's influence boiled in the center, like an underwater volcano sending red orange froth outwards, agitating the minds and hearts of her children with rage and hate.
Lilieath's dreams fell inside and outside the parts disturbed by Khaine; multiple spots of pink and purple poison spreading deeper and further like drops of food coloring in water, sinking and expanding into the psyche of her children.
The skies of the pantheon darkened, as despair blackened Isha's heart. Prediction and simulation of the spread of her father and daughter's influence yielded only one conclusion. Neither her voice nor any of the other gods aside from the Phoenix King could stop the spread of hate and despair. There was only one way she could remove both of them safely from her children.
Asuryan's edict.
Khaine and Lilieath had overstepped their purview, encroaching on her Truth and definition.
It was her right to activate it.
But, once activated, none of the gods would be able to influence the mortal realm. That meant every prayer of her children would go unanswered, and the fate of the galaxy would be in their fallible hands and limited minds.
It was a dangerous gamble, especially with the reconstruction being incomplete, and so much damage done to the hearts and minds of her children. She could not make the decision lightly.
Isha rose from her throne. The time Cegorach and herself had bought was running out. She would need to see what her daughter saw before she made her final decision.
Isha ran to Lilieath's domain, forcing open the door only to find a single crystalline figurine of her daughter on the bedside table beside the hammock she used.
It was a vision meant for her, and one Lilieath had wanted her to see, for she had known that Isha would come here and left it in her place.
The crystal figurine was frozen in the kneeling posture of her daughter, as if begging forgiveness.
Isha's hand snatched the figurine up angrily. No explanation imaginable could justify what had been done behind her back. Even if it was justifiable, it did not change the fact that she had been betrayed, her children slaughtered, and the galaxy endangered. However, she was here to consult the Goddess of Dreams and Visions, and she would see what her daughter foresaw she would need to see.
The vision played out in Isha's mind, and the figurine slipped from her hand, shattering into a thousand diamond like shards on the floor.
This was why Lilieath doomed the Aeldari? For this, she spurred Khaine on forcing Isha's hand?
The logic was sound, and Isha understood the slippery slope she had always stood on. She was the balance and the definer of life. A cycle that turned eternally around an ever-shifting point of homeostasis that ebbed, flowed, and at times self-destructed. It was her role to redefine life every time it happened, so her miracle and legend could be recreated for the Aeldari as many times as necessary.
However, Khaine and Lilieath's actions could not be the answer. Leaving the galaxy to their conclusion would leave it dangerously depleted of life.
Although the culling of her children and all the other races would prevent the forming of She who Thirsts, and reduced the other gestating Ruinous Powers, it left everything vulnerable to a Necron resurgence. There would be no point saving the galaxy if it was all left for their ancient enemy to do as they pleased when they eventually returned.
There was no confirmation that all the Star Gods had been shattered either, and even then the fragments might rejoin and reform to restart the harvest of souls that was their only form of enjoyment.
Other horrors existed in the galaxy as well. Warp Plague remnants, divine deserters, abandoned species, and the Old One's failed methods to force all those who wouldn't to fight. The chances of her enraged children awakening one or more of these were unacceptably high. Although that occurrence would have no meaning to Khaine, for it would have the same effect as culling the Aeldari. For that reason alone, Isha could not allow it. What would replace her children would be far worse, and they would not allow new species to spawn; overwriting them before they even had the chance to breathe their first breath.
The existential threat of an extragalactic invader was also an ever-present distant threat. They were not the only ones in this universe, and any species that needed to travel between galaxies was either one that had a level of technology and culture unimaginable by even the gods, or had devoured everything in their old home, forcing them to find a new one to feed on.
Leaving this galaxy to one or more of those outcomes after everything she had done, everything she and her children sacrificed was unforgivable.
Worst of all, Khaine would only continue to act so long as Isha did not do her utmost to stop him. That meant, so long as Isha did not activate the edict, no matter how hard she pushed back or how many tears she spilled, the responsibility for all the deaths would lie upon her. To her children, whether she abandoned them to Khaine or acted against them herself, it was no different. They would die regardless, and only the phrasing of the legend that would come after would change, not its meaning.
If that happened, whether it was another 60 million or another 600 million years, Lilieath's vision would come eventually true.
'We still had time…' Isha thought to herself as the skies rumbled above her; thunder and lightning booming and flashing as her emotions became ever more violent.
But she knew why Lilieath forced her hand and made the decision of how life was to be lived by her children and all the other species in the galaxy for her.
As long as Isha followed her legend, the choice between bestowing her miracle was a binary one. A choice between 1 and 0.
As long as the choice was easy, she could make the hard decision with her tears.
When she became the decider of what fraction of life was allowable, what acts deserved her miracle and what didn't, she would eventually fall from her throne. After eons of predicting and preventing corruption from all sources, she would appear upon every planet and every star with black tears streaming down her face, only for them to fall upon every single stellar body as all life came to the conclusion of its cycle with her mournful cries.
That ending was something Lilieath could not allow, for the eternal rest was a dreamless one.
'We still had time…' Isha shook her head to herself.
She knew from the moment of her birth that she would suffer eternally to prevent the eventuality foreseen by Lilieath. Any weapon of war that enjoyed its function too much was as much a threat to its creators as it was to their enemies.
Her misery and sorrow, and the method by which her miracle was powered ensured she would forever weep to recreate it.
'We still had time…' Isha reflected upon her own actions, and gritted her teeth.
Lilieath's visions did not always come true, but to see them meant there was the chance they could happen. Isha had become more reckless and more unrestrained with the newfound freedom she and her children enjoyed. She ignored the original order of things, as all life does in its constant evolution to adapt to its surroundings.
Even then, the choice had always been between 1 and 0. There was no chance of Isha falling today or tomorrow or even a million years from now.
There had still been time, but not anymore.
Isha stormed out of the room, calling the winds to carry her to the abode of Morai Heg. If there was anyone who could avert fate, it would be the Crone. Lilieath would be there as well, and Isha needed to see if she truly understood what she had done.
As the winds howled around her, Isha stormed into the room where Morai Heg and Lilieath were waiting.
"LILIEATH!" The ground shook as Isha called her daughter's name and reached for her daughter upon Morai Heg's shoulder. "What have you done!"
Just as Isha's hand was about to close around Lilieath's entire body, Morai Heg's remaining hand closed around her wrist.
"She did what she had to, daughter." Her mother spoke quietly, and thunder rumbled with Isha's rage at her mother's statement.
The Crone sided with the Goddess of Dreams and Visions, pronouncing her prophecy valid and the fate chosen to be immutable.
There was no turning back from this crossroad.
Dark green and blackish brown energies swirled in Isha's eyes as she glared into her mother's pupils.
"It was not her decision to make!" She cried. The Aeldari were doomed, as well as every god in their pantheon. Lilieath had sealed her own fate, and the Aeldari without a single word to her mother.
"They are my children! That is my duty, my burden to bear, my Truth! NOT HERS!" Lightning struck the ground, sending shards of Wraithbone flying, only to be seized by the winds and dragged up into the black sky. Isha saw with her own foresight the future of Lilieath and Morai Heg. If eternal torment was all that awaited them, why did she even bother holding back and simply end everything as it was ahead of schedule?
"Then you know what you have to do in order to go back to that path."
The Crone's gaze was unmoving, unflinching, and unafraid. The fate of the Aeldari was still in Isha's hands. Lilieath may have put them at the crossroad, but Morai Heg's pronouncement made it clear that the final decision was still Isha's to make.
Isha glared into the eyes of her mother and daughter and saw their resolve as the double vision of foresight overlaid with the present view; showing nothing but scattered ashes and the voiceless, faceless, limbless form Lilieath would eventually be reduced to. In their eyes, Isha's own fate was reflected for her to see; naked and caged in rusted metal, force fed endless plagues and poxes by the oldest of the new usurpers who were still unborn.
That was the future they had chosen, with full foreknowledge of what would happen at the end of both paths.
Isha turned away from them, yanking her wrist out of Morai Heg's hand.
There were no more words necessary, the choice was to either move forwards into pain or slide backwards into blackness.
—----------------------------------------
Isha reflected on her emotions of that time as she continued down the dark corridor. Part of Isha wished to do as Morai Heg had said; simply allow Khaine's slaughter to complete and bring oblivion to everything as Lilieath foresaw.
However, she could not do that.
To return to the analogy of the train, Lilieath had stood on the tracks and grabbed the lever that changed the direction of the train and pulled with all her might to send the locomotive screaming over her own body and the bodies of Isha's children, mangling them all, sending blood and limbs in every direction.
The timing was too early for Isha, for there were still several splits in the direction the tracks of fate could have gone, but Lilieath too was Isha's child, and if this was the future she preferred over the eventual oblivion her mother would bring, then Isha would grant her hateful wish.
'Then there was the talk with Asuryan.' Isha thought glumly to herself, returning to memory as she opened the door to another one of her mortal children in need of her mercy.
—----------------------------------------
Isha landed at the palace of Asuryan and stormed through the entrance way to the audience chamber where Asuryan sat on his throne.
"So, you have made your decision." Asuryan said, sitting bored on his throne as she marched before him.
"You knew everything." Isha spat at him, glaring at him with teeth bared.
"Of course I did." Asuryan shrugged. "I would make a poor god that gave the Aeldari all their powers if I was not elevated above the rest of you as much as you are elevated above them."
"Then why did you not say anything?" Isha growled.
Asuryan sighed, and lifted a hand, detaching the flow of time within the audience chamber from everything else around them, preventing any from outside the walls from ever listening to what was said inside.
"I know everything that has, is, and will happen. I already see the choice you've made, and what you plan to do to disobey me with your consort and another one of my brothers." He snorted and muttered 'if only you could keep your secrets better hidden' under his breath.
"However…" Asuryan resumed in his normal tone. "Just because I see everything does not mean I have to prattle about it like the three of you."
Isha opened her mouth, but Asuryan raised a finger to shush her. "Before you ask your next question, you already know why I do not do that. If I told you or any of the others what to do or when to stop, it would be no different from me commanding the Aeldari; just as much as leaving my brother makes you responsible for your children's deaths."
Isha bit back her harsh words, for what Asuryan said was true. If she was guilty by proxy for her inaction, any command or warning given to any god by Asuryan would eventually reach the mortal realm.
"If my voice ever reached the Aeldari, they would cease to be a species from that point forward, merely pawns dancing at my command. Without free-will, individual-thought, or doubt; they would become nothing, and even the Sea of Souls would become bleak and bland. All the clouds would turn silver, and my boredom would become the new reality; truly leaving nothing but a hell of my own making."
Asuryan straightened his back, placing his arms on the armrests of the throne, bringing himself to his full seated height.
"We live in the Sea of Souls. A place where tomorrow happens before yesterday. A choice once made echoes forwards and backwards." Asuryan's eyes fixed onto Isha's and the silver flames that burned within the eyes of an otherwise rather unremarkable Aeldari seemed to rage; like a prisoner gripping the bars while thrashing and screaming to be released. "To choose even once as a god means to have chosen until the very end. There is no avoiding or preventing that."
Isha glowered at the Phoenix King; the one from whom all Aeldari stemmed from, and the divine ruler of the Aeldari Pantheon. To speak with Asuryan was to be belittled and lectured. He appeared omniscient and was intended to be so by their creators, but in truth he was a silvery polished mirror or conjoined set of lenses that reflected everything and everyone who spoke to him.
Yet, in this Sea of Souls where time had no meaning, Asuryan perceived everything that had and had not happened to the beings that saw him. Therefore, he knew the beginning and ending of everything that caught sight of him and was eternally bound to inaction because of that fact. His role after giving life to the Aeldari was to maintain the law between the gods, judge any who could reach the foot of his throne, and ensure they remained true to their own self-described nature and function.
Thus, the only answers that he gave were those found within the asker themselves, and his miracle would only be granted in a way that the god or mortal wishing for it could understand.
Still, she could not stop herself from attempting to convince him of the impossible.
"Your death lies at the end of either road. Do you not think to prevent it?" Asuryan was the ruler of this Pantheon. She who Thirsts would come from the Aeldari gods, and Isha herself was ultimately subservient to him. He had the power to hold back both, if only he chose to do so.
"I know that..." Asuryan nodded, face impassive and unemotional. "And it makes no difference." The ghost of a smile seemed to cross his lips for an instance before disappearing. "Either way, I will finally be free."
Isha looked downwards as her fists balled. That was the same answer Asuryan always gave:
Even when the winds of battle during the War in Heaven blew against them.
Even when the Warp Plagues erupted, and the Old Ones were exterminated one by one.
Even now when certain doom loomed before them.
"But…" Asuryan continued. "That is not the true reason for your ire." The all-knowing self-satisfied smile Asuryan always wore during his lectures spread across his face. "Lilieath took away your choice, while leaving it in your hands. The fact that you stand before me means you have already made it exactly as she hoped and foresaw. That is the truth of the matter, and the instinctual anger you feel as a god."
He chuckled as her brow furrowed before continuing.
"There is a primitive saying that is yet to be said, 'The dye is darker than the plants it is made from.' Lilieath, your child, understands the importance of a choice made by a god far better than you. That is why she made her choice so you would never have the chance to make yours. The suffering of the Aeldari and our deaths are merely secondary. Afterall, you are created by death and sorrow, with only your love keeping the balance between what you were made to do and what you are made from."
"You think pride and possessiveness are all that drive me?" Isha's voice was quiet, but it was the quiet before the storm, the receding of the ocean before the tsunami struck.
Asuryan sighed and scratched his head. "Even now, you try your hardest not to understand. What did I expect? Nothing is as ugly to a hypocrite as their own reflection."
The cursed eyes of Asuryan turned back on Isha, reflecting her glare and bared teeth. "The pain of life is nothing to its goddess, for it is she who allows it to torture all that walk within the cycle."
Before Isha could retort, Asuryan raised his hand again, and the time within the audience chamber reconnected with time outside.
"Now, choose; Goddess of Life." Asuryan's voice was authoritative, commanding, but utterly devoid of emotion.
"Will you expand your definition to how life should be lived, cull all those left wanting, and eventually fall as the futility of it all finally breaks your heart?"
"Will you allow Khaine to claim the mantle of reaper in your stead, and watch as the galaxy grows dark before destroying everything that is left as your children redefine what you are and what you represent?"
"Or will you proceed unwillingly along the doomed path laid before us by your daughter, fighting to change fate for all for eternity?"
Three tracks were laid before Isha, which led to only two outcomes:
One of obliteration and another of oblivion; both ending in the same way.
One of pain where the suffering of every Aeldari and every god was waiting.
The choice was already made as Asuryan had said.
Isha knelt before the Phoenix King and uttered the words necessary to request the activation of the edict.
"By my Truth and right as the Goddess of Life, I demand the activation of the edict for the usurpation of my duty and definition by the God of War and now Lord of Murder, Khaine. In accordance with our laws, the realm of mortals shall be shut off and protected from us until the invasion of my domain ends. I rob the Aeldari of their greatest strength and leave their questions unanswered with my divine mind. They shall be led by my champion and hero; Eldanesh, the first of the Aeldari. He acts in our stead as our hand and voice, and only he shall pass through the walls that hold us in."
"So be it." Asuryan said, and his voice echoed through the entire palace, reverberating and reflecting upon itself while growing higher and lower in pitch at the same time, until it was as if an entire chorus was made with just his voice.
Silver flames rose from his form as Asuryan's edict activated, rising in a silver pillar of flames that punched a hole through the black clouds of Isha, and entered the realm of mortals. The flames entered the mind of every Aeldari, wiping out every trace of Khaine and Lilieath's touch from the psychic net, reverting them and the Psychomatons taken by Khaine to their normal state.
The Avatars faded into nothing as Khaine was brought back in his own pillar of flames, and Wraithbone walls rose around the pantheon; barriers to keep the Aeldari gods in first and everything else out second.
Isha marched out of the audience chamber, no longer interested in talking to the Phoenix King.
He would never act, for to do so was to choose to influence the world with foreknowledge of every action and reaction. When that choice was made, every other choice would be made as well, for only the most optimal and least burdensome path would be chosen, and there would be nothing but the word of Asuryan left.
The Phoenix King valued self-determination above almost anything, for it was the one thing he did not have, for he was cursed with foresight so powerful no choice existed. Thus, he would never act, even if those he gave life to chose to destroy everything they had built.
As Isha stormed out of the palace and into the courtyard, she locked eyes with Khaine who had just returned from the mortal realm. Blood dripped from his sword, and she could see the ghostly outlines of the children he had forcibly conscripted to continue his slaughter in the mortal realm within his flames.
There was a banshee cry, and Isha did not know whether it was coming from her throat or her father's, but the two clashed as everything Isha had suffered broke out in a flood of violence.
The bout lasted only a few moments before Asuryan's chains separated them.
"The edict has been activated as decreed." The Phoenix King said, tone quiet and unemotional. "From this point forth, all contact with the materium has been forbidden."
Isha sank to her knees, chains clinking as the rain grew heavier, soaking through her clothing and sticking it to her skin.
Khaine remained standing, raindrops hissing as they hit his flaming form. His burning eyes glared at Isha's bowed head.
"Are they worth everything that can and will be lost, daughter?" Khaine finally said.
"They are my children." Isha whispered. "They are my duty, my responsibility."
She was the Goddess of Life and the mother of the Aeldari. However, she would never tell them how to live their lives or punish them for their sins. The only time she would take back what she gave was as an act of love and mercy, as it always had been. If she ever chose otherwise, she would betray Lilieath, and invalidate everything her daughter was prepared to sacrifice.
That was her choice, and how she would define life from then on, no matter how hard she tried to forget that fact.
The rest of Khaine and Asuryan's words dulled as Isha stared downwards through the immaterium, locking eyes with Eldanesh as he glared upwards into the Sea of Souls with all his followers, angry at what the gods had done to the mortal realm, unable to understand what had transpired but fully aware of who was responsible.
A hundred years had already passed since Khaine burned the first planet.
Her beloved hero and champion was weary from keeping the peace within the Aeldari as their anger grew, redirecting it to the Krork and their gods when Cegorach provided the scapegoat necessary to sate their bloodlust. Now, he had to deal with the green skins without the assistance of any of his gods, and lead without their divine knowledge; unsure of whether the path he proceeded down was correct. She watched him reach out to touch the edict only to stop himself before his fingers could pass through the Wraithbone walls that now surrounded the Aeldari Pantheon. He believed in the gods and trusted their decision. He would deal with the issues left in the mortal realm, as he was the first and chosen of his race and acted in the gods' stead as their voice and hand in the materium.
That was the definition of his duty and role.
Isha watched as Eldanesh returned to his council of surviving Seers, preparing to spread hastily made myths and legends; the propaganda necessary to keep the populace's belief in the gods stable. The edict may prevent the gods from reaching the mortal realm, but other creatures lurked in the immaterium; warp predators, parasites, and plagues from the War in Heaven that the gods would need the Aeldari's faith to fight.
Once that was done, he could finally put down the Krork remnants and their gods with psychic power and poisonous politics. When he was finished, they would be broken and divided, forever pulling their gods in different directions, eternally fighting themselves and everything else. Then, he would rebuild what was broken with mortal means. Only after everything was returned to where it was before this disaster would he storm the gates of the Aeldari Pantheon in his personal quest to demand answers for what had transpired.
—----------------------------------------
Isha closed the eyes of another one of her children, as she laid their body on the floor. This ship was now devoid of Aeldari life, and it was time to move on to the next ship.
As she accessed the former pleasure cruiser's controls, replicating the signal required to contact the Emperor, Isha reflected on all she had done.
After activating the edict, she had tried many times to avert fate.
She had gone with Kurnous to beg Asuryan to allow only their knowledge to reach their children, fully knowing it would be in vain.
She had asked Lilieath to re-send her prophecy. With the damage done, there was no point hiding what would happen to the Aeldari from their foresight, and dreams were the one way the gods were still connected to the mortal realm.
She had worked with Vaul and Kurnous to repurpose her tears to allow their teachings to find a way to the materium.
Time and time again, she had schemed and fought, pleaded and threatened to save the Aeldari.
Some may think her partially successful, as the tears modified by Vaul and imbued with Kurnous's teachings did reach the mortal realm and still remained buried on several of the Core Worlds. A few of her children had escaped the first assault of She who Thirsts, giving them the chance to take up the sword and spear to prepare to defend their soul.
However, the fate foreseen by Lilieath had not yet ended. Isha was not in a rusted cage at this moment, but whether that possibility had been averted or merely delayed was yet to be seen.
There was the chance that fate would come from the Emperor's hand, bartered to the Plague Lord for some secret or gift once she was no longer useful. She was merely a tool to the Master of Mankind, and only for so long as she was useful as the Emperor told her when they first met.
A portal opened before Isha, leading to another one of the former pleasure cruisers, and Isha stepped through it into another dark corridor while internally returning her thoughts from the past to the present.
This relationship between the Emperor and her needed to be reforged. They were alike in some ways. Her hate and self-loathing would not have resonated within the Emperor if they were not for she saw them fuel the fire within those brown eyes.
The Emperor's conclusion, although ignorant, was not entirely incorrect. She had thought of choosing the other path, only doing the opposite because of her mortal and divine children. In that sense, it was her love that made her choose the opposite of the Emperor. Therefore, the Emperor's accusation was not completely inaccurate, if only barely scraping the target out of blink luck than anything else.
What that meant was that there was the potential for empathy between them. Whether that could be nurtured through temporary obedience and subservience was yet to be seen, but at the very least, they were not entirely incapable of understanding each other.
She snorted to herself as another possibility entered her mind.
'Perhaps it is because we are both hypocrites in our own way that we can understand one another, and in turn cannot stand to look at each other.'
A hypocritical Goddess of Life who originally made life only to send it to die, and whose true miracle was only dispensed on those that could not be saved.
A hypocritical god that was not a god that wished to protect its people, while brutalizing and sacrificing them endlessly to pave only a single golden path forwards, robbing them of their personality and choice.
Isha looked down at the place her children's warships had crashed, the continuous line of valleys and gorges; as if some one had taken the crust of the planet in two hands and shoved it together.
The Psychomatons she had buried here to protect from Khaine's call remained, deafened in the same way to the psychic scream of She who Thirsts. They and many other groups of War-walkers still slumbered on a couple hundred planets, unrecovered by Eldanesh or the Aeldari that came after him during the reconstruction. All the others who were freed from Khaine when the edict activated or were dug up and reawakened by the Aeldari were gone, consumed entirely for they were far closer to the Goddess of Excess than any other.
Whether the Emperor accepted their service or not would determine how she would deal with Humanity's Protector.