Secret War: Warhammer 40,000, Ben Agar [list of ebook readers .txt] 📗

down at Adelana again. "I can see that others can see that too," she said as she glanced at me pointedly. "Please see that, and please believe that even at the very, very worst of times, there can still be the best of times later."

"I don't care!" Adelana suddenly screamed, making me flinch. "I don't care about your potential crap! My mother! My father! Everyone I know and love are going to die! Why should I care? Why?"

"That is the truth in life," said Enandra. "It is such a truth that it is now, as an ancient Terran dialect would call it, cliche. All of us will face death, everyone, everything. Whether it is sentient or not. You must care, Adelana, because if you don't, you will end your life, which won't make anything better. It will just completely and utterly eliminate any potential of it ever getting better. Do you think your mother and father would want that? For you to snuff out the life, your life which is a life of such boundless potential that they had the honour and luck to bring into this galaxy, just because they have died? Just because they were claimed by the one absolute that will claim us all."

She shook her head. "No, I don't believe they would."

"You can't...You can't," Adelana whispered weakly.

"I can't know that?" said Enandra with a shrug. "Is that what you mean? No, maybe I cannot, but I am an Inquisitor of the Ordo Hereticus. I am a product of decades of experience and learning. And if I may sound extraordinarily arrogant, I can read people frigging well. From what I can read of you, I can see you are an intelligent, well adjusted and good person. Most of the time, but there are always exceptions. Usually, that means their parents loved them dearly, treated them well, but not too well. I'm sure they made mistakes; no one is perfect, but..."

Enandra trailed off. "I am meandering, my apologies. But, Adelana, just think on that, please," she sighed.

Then much to my shock, Adelana made a slight nod. I'd never been held in such awe ever before; this woman, this Inquisitor, was genuinely great. She was worthy of her position and more, on the same level as Brutis Bones, perhaps even more so. I could tell Enandra's words were also aimed at me. Even if I knew it'd all be for nought, I wouldn't have done it after Estella's earlier words.

With this thought, I glanced over my shoulder to Karmen. I caught her looking at us, and she suddenly flinched her attention toward the floor.

"Thank you," said Enandra, and she walked by us, then stopped to stand and watch the pict feed with us.

Still holding Adelana close, I watched Enandra, my brow furrowed, my expression grim. My earlier suspicion rekindled. She was good, just too good to be true.

I pushed away such thoughts, clenching my teeth and inhaling sharply.

"Please," said Adelana, "please let me go; I need to see."

Even though it stung me to do so, I instantly did as told.

She smiled at me sadly. "Thank you," she said, although I wasn't sure why exactly she was thanking me.

Then Adelana walked past, and we watched the pict feed.

We watched Omnartus burn.

Then die.

 

 

It happened only over about an hour; it was hard to believe such an act could be possible. Billions of lives snuffed out, just like that, an hour seemed like a bit of time in a human's lifetime, but in this galaxy, it wasn't even an eye blink. It almost made me laugh out loud as I thought that metaphor was indeed the understatement of the galaxy, perhaps the universe. For the first time in what must've been thousands of years, the black-brown pollution clouds dispersed by the falling bombs fell to such an extent and number the blue skies of Omnartus would've been seen clearly by those living on the upper hive.

The view would've only lasted a few minutes before being engulfed in fire. Each explosion was massive, in quick succession followed by another, then another until it seemed to conjoin into one tremendously huge dome of flame, and even that just seemed to grow and grow and grow.

I couldn't look away as tears flowed down my face freely and my body seemed locked in place. I couldn't even glance to check on Adelana, who stood right beside me.

Verenth got up and left about halfway through, storming out, snarling, cursing and crying almost insanely.

The poor bastard, I hoped he'd be okay.

Once it finally finished, we were silent for a long time. I stood still, struggling to breathe; the agony in me felt like a freezing, constant jolt of raging thunder that tore my insides asunder, hollowing me out.

I was brought out of my stupor by Adelana's weeping, and I looked to her, though I had no idea what I could say. She turned and stormed off, her hands covering her face. I raised my hand, but I didn't know why, as she disappeared from the Sensorium.

I stood there gaping stupidly, hand still held out.

"What are you doing?" said Karmen, and my attention snapped to her, anger raging through me suddenly.

"What?" I growled.

Karmen stopped as she approached me, tears shining in her eyes, the bandages that covered her scared features crinkling with her grimacing, "go to her, you idiot," she squeaked. "She's only here because of you. Help her."

"How?" I gasped out.

"Tell her why, Attelus," she said. "Tell her the truth. Like you'd promised."

"But she'll hate me!" I cried.

Then she slapped me in the face, striking me; it stung horribly and sent me to my knees. I heard a crunch! Indicating she'd broken her hand, but she didn't let out a cry of pain or anything.

"It doesn't matter if she hates you!" Karmen roared down at me. "That's your damn fault! Don't be so frigging selfish! I can't believe you can be so selfish! Now get up and tell her everything! And deal with whatever consequence it brings because it is your own!"

I wiped the blood from my split lip with a forearm, fighting back more tears and climbed to my feet with shaking limbs.

"What about Verenth?" I said. "Surely he deserves to know too."

"I'll take care of him," said Karmen. "Don't you worry. Now go frig you!"

I nodded and turned, then left.

 

 

The two Stormtroopers led me to Adelana's quarters. They understood my haste, so it only took us a few minutes to find it.

I said my thanks to them and pressed the door alarm, then waited.

I waited for a good half a minute, trying to keep calm, tapping the tip of my shoe on the floor while smoking another Lho.

After that time, I hesitantly called again, thinking the worst, but this time, the door almost immediately slid open. I found myself almost face to face with the old woman.

"What do you want?" she said, looking at me darkly.

"I'm glad you're here," I said. "I'm here to fulfil my promise to Adelana; I believe you too deserve to know the truth."

"Of course I bloody do," she stated. "Omnartus may not have been my native world, but I have lived there for the past six years."

I nodded. "May I come in?"

The woman's eyes narrowed, glancing me up and down, before eventually nodding and stepping aside to allow me in.

"Thank you," I said and slipped inside.

The quarters was identical to mine, but the illumination globes were off, endowing the place in darkness. The light from the corridor outside allowed me to see Adelana, who was curled up in a foetal ball on the bed.

The quarters was in almost complete darkness as the door slid shut, and the woman walked past me, sitting on the bed next to Adelana.

My eyes quickly adjusted, and in gaping silence, I slowly approached, unsure how to begin or even where.

"It's alright," said the old woman, and I could see she was smiling at me. "Take your time."

I sighed and nodded, and I could hear poor Adelana crying softly into her hands.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry," I said. "I didn't mean...I didn't mean for this to happen. Please don't hate me, please."

"I'm sure you didn't," said the old woman. "How could you? But it seems like you think you are somewhat responsible for this travesty."

I shrugged, unable to say anything more; my courage was fast failing me.

"I've made...I've made mistakes, stupid, stupid mistakes."

"And who hasn't?" said the old woman. "Look what you did to Vex?"

I flinched at the mention of that. "I shouldn't have done that, but I've done worse...I don't know where to start."

The woman shook her head as she stroked Adelana's hair. "Where else can you start? But at the beginning?"

I sighed, her words reminded me of Garrakson, and then I knew exactly where to start.

"I was born in a country called Velrosia, in its capital, Varander on the agri world of Elbyra..."

I told them almost everything, leaving out most of my very rocky relationship with my mother, especially what she'd done to me when I was really young. Then I spoke of my father's teachings and who and what he was. Next, I told of the invasion of Elbrya, how I'd survived in the ruins of Varander but left out my desperate cannibalism. Then my subsequent meeting with Estella Erith and our battles and subsequent escape south.

It didn't take long for Adelana to sit up and watched at me with a wide, watery-eyed, almost awed gaze.

I told of how Estella had attempted to change my memories. I spoke of my decision to become an assassin and my escape from Elbyra on a refugee ship. My first paid killing and of how Glaitis saved me from execution then took me under her wing.

For most of my six-year employment under Glaitis, I skipped. That time wasn't important to the overall story. It felt like years wasted; I was mostly a low-level enforcer, almost all of what I'd learned during that time was from Glaitis telling me rather than showing.

I told of my arrival on Omnartus, of Karmen placing the mind lock on my mind. I summarised the six months, fighting the local Hammers with Garrakson, Torris and Elandria and the search for Brutis Bones.

Then the Twilight bar incident, I left out how utterly injured I was by the Arco Flagellant and Faleaseen fixing and enhancing me just that I was in a coma for a month.

All of it, pretty much all of it, from my fight with Elandria, all the way to just before we met them at Vex's office. Never once did they interrupt me; I just sat utterly taken in with every one of my words.

Once I'd finally finished, the old woman and Adelana sat in stunned silence for a good ten minutes.

"I...I," squeaked Adelana, breaking the silence.

My attention snapped to her, my breath baited, hoping to all hell she'd believed me that she wouldn't hate me.

"You've led one interesting life, Attelus," said the old woman. "I don't know what to say."

"You believe me?" I said.

"I do," she answered. "It's a lot to digest, but I believe you."

I nodded, finding I liked this woman; I just wished I could remember her damn name.

"So," said Adelana. "The whole reason you were born was so you could take that pict, so this...Etuarq can use it to destroy Omnartus?"

"Yeah," I said. "I told you it's complicated."

"That's horrible," she said. "I don't understand..."

She wandered off in her sentence, and her attention fell to the floor.

"Don't understand what, honey?" asked the old woman.

"How, how can you be okay after learning that?" she said. "After everything you have been through, how can you be so..."

She grimaced and sighed, looking like she was struggling to find the right word.

"So sane," she said before I could make a suggestion.

I sniggered slightly and shook my head. "I am far from sane, Adelana."

She opened her mouth and inhaled, looking like she would say something but seemed unable to.

"I'm sorry, but I have to say, Omnartus died because of a pict? A single pict?"