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Tanya Russ
I dodged another swing from a crystal sword as I cursed that dammed eldar, paring the creatures pincers as I did so with my own rapier like blade before lashing out with my chain short-sword and separated one of my opponent's two sword wielding limbs from it's body. What nearly caught me off-guard was it's reaction however, the thing moaned in ecstasy as it's arm went flying. I pressed my newfound advantage regardless, it's overwhelming pleasure blinding it to my next move just as overwhelming pain would have.
I struck first against the other weapon bearing arm, thrusting my sword into it's shoulder and channelled a freezing spell through the weapon. This attack provoked the pain filled cry I had expected from such an injury, leading to my opponent lashing out with it's claw. The attack was sloppy and clearly the result of an instinctual reaction to it's pain, it was blindingly fast however and forced me to doge backwards. I didn't intend to give it any reprieve however and attacked again as soon as the pincer passed me by, shortening the arm with a downward slash and struck with the pommel of my chain-blade at it's face, stunning the thing as the weapon's hilt connected with it's jaw.
Next I struck at it's legs, toppling it and then planting my armoured boot on it's chest.
For a single moment I contemplated if I should interrogate the creature. It was clearly some kind of warp-predator and thus extremely unlikely to tell me anything approaching the truth, but even knowing what lies it would try to convince me of might tell me something about where I was or why that Farseer suddenly opened a warp rift in the middle of an otherwise pleasant business dinner. Then it managed to piss me off.
“Tanya, why are you doing this? It's me, don't you recognise me!?” an all too familiar voice asked me. Between blinks, the ghastly visage of the warp-predator vanished and the face of my closest friend appeared.
I sheathed my swords in reaction to this, the eyes of my prey briefly flashing with triumph before they were filled with despair as I summed my spear with my now empty hands. The flash of light, in which weapon appeared, tearing it's illusion to shreds. “She is lost to me and I accept that.” I said, before ramming the spear into her chest.
As soon as the weapon pierced it's chest, golden cracks spread from the entry wound, the creature started convulsing as it's essence was torn apart. Yet I sensed that this wouldn't be it's final death, the thing drank in warp energy as it tried to stabilize itself and succeed partially, saving itself from true death if I didn't do something about it, so do something about it I did. I channelled my own psychic strength through the weapon, which resulted in the fragment of my fathers soul within burning even brighter than it had before and insuring the creature's final death. It just managed to expel one last ear piercing death-scream before golden flames consumed it, erasing the stain of it's existence from the warp past, present and future.
“Well, that was that I suppose.” I said to no one in particular and took a good look at my surroundings now that I wasn't at immediate risk of being cut up. Looking at the sky, my guess that I was in the warp were confirmed, the firmament shining in impossible colour combination that formed and dissolved insanity inducing symbols. I quickly averted my eyes from the display, instead focusing on the comparatively mundane dessert dunes in front of me. I said comparatively because they too were a nausea inducing maelstrom of ill fitting colour combinations. “Freezing storms, where am I?” I asked, not expecting an answer.
“The Desert of Falls Hopes.” replied a male voice to my question, the voice coming from only a few meters behind me.
Startled, I whirled around in a flash and brandished my spear, it's golden light flaring once more as I prepared for another confrontation.
The person I came face to face with, appeared to be another primarch of all things and one that looked like he had gone through hell. His hair was grey and unkept, it's uneven cut suggesting that he had been trimming it by himself. Their armour was in an abhorrent state of disrepair, most of it dented, cracked and burned, the only exemptions to this were the left gauntlet, vambrace and pauldron who were outright missing, his burn scar covered left arm hinting at what happened to them. His weapon wasn't much better either, he just held a chain sword that was much too short for him, the weapon being likely intended for two handed use by a space marine. The most striking thing about him was his face however, he looked old and weathered like an old men, time clearly having taken it's toll on him.
“Would you stop gawking like that, I don't look that bad, now do I?” asked the... primarch? Warp-predator? illusion?
“Who are you and why shouldn't I just skewer you right now?” I demanded to know, prompting him to chuckle.
“You ask the right questions girl, normally I would be asking the same but that spear you are holding makes it clear that you are who I suspect you to be.” he answered cryptically, his eyes resting on the pauldron with my legion's heraldry a moment before returning to my face.
“That wasn't an answer.” I warned him, my finger tightening on the trigger of the spear's inbuilt bolter.
“You are right.” he admitted before sheathed his sword and then held up his empty hands. “May I touch your spear as proof that I mean no harm?” he requested.
I considered for a few moments, this might be a trick to get closer to me, but the stranger could have come quite a bit closer if he hadn't revealed himself. I reluctantly nodded, resolving to give him a chance to prove himself but be on my guard for any sudden aggression.
It took the man three steps before he was close enough to touch my spear with his left armourless hand. He grabbed the blade without fear and dragged his hand along it's shining edge, cutting himself as he did so. His body stiffened and his eyes shone with a golden light as the spear worked it's magic, but he wasn't torn apart, unlike the warp-predator, quite the opposite actually. The lines on his face looked softer and the burn scars on his arm faded quite a bit while he experienced his vision. Then he let go, almost reluctantly, and took a step back. “Will this satisfy your caution? I'm afraid it's all I can do to show that I'm no threat to you.”
Again I considered, before withdrawing my spear and held it in a more relaxed manner. “I will grant you that you are no warp apparition and that you aren't allied with them either.” I allowed, before I introduced myself. “I'm Tanya Russ, primarch of the Wolfs of Fenris and first found daughter of the Emperor.”
The man nodded. “Yes, I thought as much. I'm Leman Russ, also primarch of the Wolfs of Fenris and second found son of the Emperor.” he replied, giving a rather surprising answer.
I raised a single eyebrow. “So you claim that you are what, an alternate version of myself?” I asked him. I suppose it would be possible, I had come from an alternative universe after all and this man might just be the primarch of the sixth legion in that universe for all I know.
“Yes, that or one of us is an echo of a timeline that could have been.” he agreed with me, talking as if he had already experienced something like that.
“Well, ruminations on our place in the cosmos aside,” I choose to change topics, “would you know how to get back to real space?” the question stealing a bit of live from my doppelgänger, his posture slumping.
“I wish I did, but it was a hell of a lot easier to get into this thrice cursed place than it is to leave. I have been trapped here for what feels like an eternity and I fear that I won't be leaving any time soon either, my sons convinced themselves that I will only return once the end time are upon the Imperium and humanity at large.” he explained, painting a rather grim picture of his situation. I could only hope that my own legionnaires hadn't come up with some equally stupid believe while I was gone. Granted, it had only been a couple of minutes from my perspective, but this was the warp and time might be moving at a glaziers pace for all I know.
“So there is nothing I can do, aside from hoping that my soldiers, father or one of my brothers finds a way to bring me back.” I asked, frustration evident in my voice.
“Yup, that is about right. The only thing I can recommend is walking with a clear destination in mind, that sometimes magically brings you were you want to go.” he suggested.
Well hoping for the best and walking as if you know where you are going was a rather stupid idea, but I was desperate and the basic concept made sense in a way. The warp was a thought based dimension first and foremost, so just the intend to go somewhere might be enough to get there. “Might as well try my luck then.” I said and turned left, gesturing for Leman to follow.
He did, walking along side me as I began my journey back to Fenris. At first I dedicated my every thought to my destination but that got boring fast, so I chose to restart the conversation I had with Leman. “So, I was talking with an eldar farseer who suddenly went silent mid-conversation and then opened a warp rift that sucked me in before I could react. How did you end up here?”
He raised one of his bushy brows at me. “You talked to an eldar and didn't expect them to double cross you like this, well we must be more different than I suspected. Well as to how I came to be here...” he said before aborting his sentence, pausing while considering something. “Tell me, when were you ripped from real-space?”
I considered how to answer that for a moment, the simplest solution would be to give him a date but then I decided against it and instead considered which big events might be a better marker, our universes might not shared the same year zero after all. “I would say in the late first or early second quarter of the great crusade, depending on what models we are talking about and how much resistance we will continue to encounter. I and nine of my brothers and sisters just came back from a big strategy meeting for the third war against the Rangdan.” I answered him.
At the mention of the Rangdan, his expression darkened considerably. “The Rangdan war, that was a shit show from start to finish.” he said darkly and then made eye contact with me. “Head my warning, if you get back then be on your guard and brace yourself for the worst.” he warned me, a haunted but determined look in his eyes.
“I plan to, they have already shown how dangerous they can be and I'm willing to bet that they are ten times worse.” I replied seriously, trying not to flinch away from the piercing look he gave me as I answered him.
Then he looked away and shook his head. “I hope you are right.” he said more to himself then me. A few moments of silence followed until he broke them, returning to my question. “I ended up her a few centuries after the Rangdan war ended.” he began, briefly hesitating before he continued. “I intentionally entered the warp after I heard rumours about a tree that bears fruits which can heal any illness or wound. As for why...” he trailed of, again considering what to say before he heavily sighed and then continued. “I don't think I should tell you more, you see I have seen the fates of many seers that have acted on glimpses of possible futures and doomed themselves. I want to warn you about what has happened to me, but I also fear that my warning might become the catalyst for a calamity in your universe instead.”
“A reasonable fear.” I agreed with him, it was quite possible that any warning he gave me might, at best, turn out to be completely useless because of a differences in our universes or, at worst, become a self fulfilling prophecy. “Do you have any advice how to avoid that doom then? Something general, like a live lesson you learned from tragedy?” I asked him.
That question drew out a bout of bitter, pain-filled laugher from him, the horrible noise reminding me of a great many comrades who's mind broke during the war. Eventually his laugher sized and he answered me, his voice strained and filled with self loathing. “What I regret most is that I didn't listen to my gut. You see, I was ordered by father to gather my sons and arrest someone, but once I was on my way, I received a message from... from someone that I trusted that father had changed his mind. I was sceptical of this and resolved to at least try to arrest that person and bring them back to Terra, if it was true then they could still be executed. But then we reached the system they ruled and things became weird, the ships garrisoning the world were gone and no one reacted to our communication attempts. All this felt incredible wrong and yet I ignored my intuition telling me to investigate further and attacked the planet instead.” he told me.
His story suggesting a rather grim picture, namely that father had ordered the arrest of one of us, who else would be dangerous enough that a primarch and their legion would be needed to take them in. It also suggested that another primarch conspired to turn the arrest into an execution, who else would be trusted enough by Leman to even consider that they spoke the truth about such a matter? All of that suggested a civil war, or at the least a conspiracy to kill and implicate whoever was to be arrested and Leman himself.
I shook my head, trying to dislodge these dark thoughts before they had a chance to fester and searched for a new topic, hopefully one more light hearted. “How about we change topic, let's talk about our upbringing on Fenris! I'm willing to wager that we did quite a few things differently.” I suggested.
Leman perked up at that, evidently as eager to leave these dark topics behind as I was. “A grand idea, I haven't had a chance to talk about home with a fellow Fenrisian for an eternity.” he agreed easily.
“Well okay then, I might as well start.” I began, I considering how to begin for a short moment. “Okay, I crash landed in the Fenrisian mountains, same as you I imagine, and woke up with no idea what was going on and where I was. First things first, I build a fire and made an axe from the wreckage of the chastation capsule I awoke in.”
Leman nodded his head as I spoke. “Aye, that was about my first experience too. Did you go looking for shelter after?” he asked me as I paused.
I too, nodded my head. “Yes, I found a empty cave pretty quickly. After that I went elk hunting, I did that by setting up a trap with a tree I primed to fall on top of my passing prey and then finished it of with my spear.” I told him.
Leman looked impressed by that. “I must say, you were far more cunning than I was at the time. I just hid on a high branch and jumped at my prey's back when it passed below me, nearly got thrown of half a dozen times before I managed to slit it's throat.” the man reminisced.
I chuckled as his observation and then jokingly I said, “Sounds like I'm the Cunning to your Fierce.”
Leman's head snapped to the side, a bright grin coming to his face as he did so. “So you meet Wolf Mother and her pubs too?” he asked, sounding delighted that we ended up with the same found family.
“Well sounds like it, but enough about me, why don't you tell me how you meet them and I tell you if it was the same for me?” I requested, curious if our experiences be similar or if he got adopted in another way.
“Well, fair enough I suppose.” he agreed. “I was ambushed by a snow Lynx one day, while carrying my latest kill back to my layer, and just managed to fend it of after it took a good bite out of my shoulder. I patched myself up and then headed back to what I thought was my cave. However, I had lost a fair bit of blood and I think that I hit my head too, while I was wrestling with that Lynx, so I didn't notice that I entered a different cave. Luckily for me, Mother Wolf wasn't home and her pups were more interested in cuddles then food at the moment. As I said, my mind was very fogy at the time and these wolfs were the first things that offered me companionship, so I played with them and then we all fell asleep tougher in a pile. Next time I awoke, Mother Wolf had returned and was rather confused why she had three pups now instead of two, but she eventually just shrugged her shoulders and added me to her pack.” he recounted.
“Interesting” I began, “so you haven't meet her until after you stumbled upon Fierce and Cunning. I actually meet her way earlier, right after my first hunt in fact. I was just cutting up the elk when she found me and we had a bit of a stand off for a few moments. I eventually tossed her a prime cut as tribute and then she left, letting me take what I could carry before coming back and taking the rest of the carcase. We ended up meeting like this for a few weeks, her showing up whenever I killed something and demanding her tribute for hunting in her territory.”
Leman had a thoughtful look on his face as I finished, like he was considering something. “You know, something similar might have happened to me. My kills got stolen too after I left them alone and I always found wolf tracks around the missing carcases. I hadn't thought about it at the time, but I think mother wolf used me to hunt for her too, she just didn't show herself to me.” he theorised.
I nodded my head, “That sounds plausible, you were hunting in her territory after all and I doubt she wouldn't have noticed.” I agreed. “Well I got adopted too after a while, after I got injured helping her fend of some snow fiends that had found her cave.”
Now it was Leman's turn to chuckle. “Would you look at that, different ways and yet we ended up in the same situation. I have a feeling this is going to be a running theme of your discussion.” he surmised. “Did you get the full wolf pup treatment too? You know, hunting, grooming and then joining the tribe as one of their own? I must confess, I was a whole lot more wolf than man after that.” he asked me, implying that his first meeting with the Alpha had gone far better then my own.
“I wouldn't say that I joined as one of their own. The Alpha didn't like me for some reason, probably because I was more man than beast, and attacked me. Well, I managed to strangle him and the tribe splintered as a result, about half of them accepted me as their new leader and the rest split again and founded two new packs.” I told him, watching his reaction in case he took offence to me killing the Alpha.
Luckily, this didn't appear to happen. He actually looked rather amused by that turn of events. “You did? That's rather impressive, I wasn't a leader until after I inherited kingship from my adoptive father.” he complimented me. “So, did you do anything interesting until winter got worse and the tribes migrate into the low lands, or was it just business as usual?”
“That depends on what you consider business as usual. If uniting the local wolf population, killing every snow fiend in our territory and slaying old Black Mane here,” I gestured to my wolf pelt cape, “then yes, just business as usual.” I replied to his question, earning a shocked look from the man.
“By mother fenris,” he exclaimed, sounding mightily surprised. “you managed to slay Black Mane during your first year!? I confronted him a whole two years later and nearly got killed regardless.”
“Well...” I rubbed the back of my head, feeling rather bad that I was showing him up so much, trying to decided if I should tell him the truth about my past lives experiences or come up with a lie. “Well I think that isn't entirely fair comparison, because while it sounds like you started from scratch, I still remember bits and pieces from my last live.” I settled on the truth, I had the feeling he would be able to catch me in a lie otherwise and think it an insult.
“You remembered a past live, I was unaware that such a thing was even possible.” he said, scepticism thick in his voice.
“Yes, I was a soldier in an ancient human war and my strong sense of self allowed me hold on to a few memories and my core personalty, but that is just a theory. Truth be told, even father was surprised by how that happened and most certainly didn't plan it. ” I told him, choosing not to share my experience with the demon bird or Being X and instead told a plausible lie.
Leman was silent for a few minutes after that, presumably considering what my admission meant before he spoke again. “We are definitely from different universes or timelines were the Emperor chose different souls for our bodies.” he concluded, startling me as he broke the silence.
“Yes most likely.” I agreed and then tried to return the conversation to it's original topic “So what did things go for, after the pack descended into the low lands I mean?”
“We went south and began to raid Russ land as the pack always had, but this time we ran into a trap. Most of the tribe died but they let me live because they recognised me as human, Fierce and Dunning too since I wouldn't let us get separated. After that I spent a few years at King Russ's court, first getting thought how to be human and then how to be a warrior. I made a name for myself as a monster slayer and then as a great leader during my fist season of fire when the sea people attacked, King Russ adopted me after I won my first war against them. Eventually King Russ died and I took over, subjugating half the continent trough conquest until father showed up.” he recounted rather hastily, his mood far darker than it had been before.
“Well, my first meeting with King Russ went better.” I began, wincing as I realised how insensitive that sounded, but continued regardless. “He essentially hired me as a monster hunter, then he send me across the mountains to kill the King of the other side of the continent. Once I came back from that, I was adopted and made his heir. I also fought against the sea people, but I didn't just drive them off, I incorporated them into the Kingdom. I offered them to found a town on Russ land, a seasonal settlement were they could live during the season of fire and trade with us. King Russ died a few years later and I succeeded him too, continuing my police of exterminating monsters and expanding trade. I conquered half the continent that way too, just through trader and diplomacy rather then outright conquest in most cases.” I finished, choosing not to mention that the other half of the continent was already on it's way to be assimilated into my kingdom once father came, or that I advanced Fenris's technology rating from early medieval to early industrial.”
Once more, silence settled between us as Leman chose to stay silent. It was becoming rather uncomfortable until he suddenly decided to speak, coming to a sudden halt and fixing me with an intense stare as he made eye contact with me. “You are a better version of me.” he told me, conviction heavy in his voice.
I opened my moth to deny him. “Again, it is not fair to compare...” I tried to say, but he cut me off.
“No, listen to me and stay silent!” he commanded, the tone of his voice shutting me up, shocking me with his sudden intensity. “My younger self was a hotheaded, unimaginative and self righteous idiot.” he hissed, the anger in his voice clearly aimed at himself. “He tried to solve all his problems the same way, by punching them. Not once did he stop and think, can this be solved in a better way? Instead of thinking outside of the box he just brute forced every issue and the legacy of that are two brothers lost at my hands, a dying Imperium and a home world as deeply stepped in bloodshed as it has always been.” he ranted at me, his eyes glazing over and I had to wonder if he even remembered where he was going with this.
Then I processed what I had just heard, two brothers lost and a dying Imperium. These words pretty much confirmed that some kind of civil war or uprising had occurred in his universe and the same might still happen in mine.
Then Leman's gaze snapped back to me, his eyes meeting mine with a frightening intensity. “Promise me that you will do better, that you won't fail as I have!” he demanded, desperation entering his voice as he screamed at me.
Something truly rare happened as I was faced with the rage of a primarch, for the first time in decades I felt genuine fear, and so I answered him without thinking. “I promise.” As soon as the words leave my lips, I felt faint and the world around me darkened.
My last memory before I lose conscious were of Leman, his face and voice calmer now that he had my word. “Seams like this is farewell Tanya Russ, the best of luck then and remember your promise, don't end up like me.”
The next thing I experience was crashing into the stone floor of the building in which I had meet with the eldar farseer, the one that had started this whole mess.
“My primarch, are you injured, do require medical aid?” asked a frantic voice from beside me. Looking up, I recognised the face of one of my rune priests.
I shook my head, standing up to prove that I was alright. “Report, what has happened after that eldar opened the warp rift?”
He immediately snapped to attention and answered, like a good soldier. “Ma'am, immediately after your disappearance, your Wolf Guard attacked the Farseer with the intend of killing him. However, his own guards acted faster and managed to buy him enough time to flee the building and run into the desert beyond. Your guard then voxed the fleet and requested our immediate assistance in retrieving you while they pursued the dishonourable cur. Once here, I and the rest of the Rune Circle found faint traces of your psychic aura and devised a summoning spell by reversing a teleportation ritual.”
“Good work soldier, that couldn't have been easy.” I complimented him and then looked at the hole in the wall where the Farseer had sat. “I take it the eldar made his own exit?” I gestured to the destroyed wall.
“Yes my King, he exited the room that way and then escaped on a Jetbike.” the marine pauses, clearly steeling himself before delivering bad news. “Vox chatter indicates that our hunting parties have lost his scent.”
I had to suppressed the urge to groan, of course the coward escaped. “Well then have our hunters called back and order a shuttle to pick us up while your at it. If they lost his scent then the it's likely that he is no longer on this planet.”
With these orders I returned to my ship, contemplating my experience in the warp and that I should probably take countermeasures against being thrown into warp rifts. Still, for as dangerous as it han been, that conversation with Leman Russ might very well save me one day. That or it might make me paranoid and lead to my doom. I groaned, why couldn't these ever be easy? “Curse you Eldrad Ulthran, I will give you a taste of your own medicine and throw you into a warp rift next time we meet. Let us see how you like it!” I vowed to myself.