Gaia ignored the dazzling gallery and walked straight toward the pile of low-value items with complete determination.
Mitchell looked at her in surprise, a strange gleam flashing through his eyes. One brow arched as he spoke in a sarcastic tone:
"...Did all the nutrients meant to feed your brain end up in your muscles instead?"
"Even an Ogryn could tell that the things in front are obviously more valuable."
Gaia ignored his mockery. She stubbornly crouched beside the heap of miscellaneous objects and began rummaging through it by instinct.
Solomon, who had been carefully examining a set of dining utensils from the vessel of a Rogue Trader dating back to the 31st millennium, was drawn over by the noise and turned in confusion.
The moment he realized what Gaia was trying to do, his heart ached.
Getting into a great house's vault even once was rare enough. Getting to loot it with a cap on what you could take made it even more precious. In that kind of situation, obviously you were supposed to grab the expensive things.
Still, Gaia had done at least sixty percent of the work in this rescue operation. If she wanted to take something for herself, Solomon had no real objection. He only offered a well-meaning reminder:
"Uh, generally speaking, vaults like this don't do the whole thing where the truly valuable treasure is hidden among the junk... so I'd suggest looking through the display pieces instead..."
Gaia did not answer him, because at that moment, a strange object among the junk revealed one corner of itself.
It was a pitch-black tip, faintly reflecting a dark green sheen.
She bent toward it and began clearing away the objects piled on top of it with both hands.
Soon, its full shape appeared before her.
It was a black rectangular slab about two meters long and roughly twenty centimeters wide and thick.
Though it looked like stone, it felt cold like metal to the touch, and judging by the weight, its density seemed comparable to gold or other heavy metals.
Curious, Gaia lifted it and examined it closely.
"That thing... was taken by one of our family's former Scions while accompanying Astartes warriors on a campaign through the Ultramar Sector."
"To thank that great Scion for their guidance, the Astartes gifted our family many rare objects, including this black one."
"We studied it many times afterward, but never discovered what it was for."
"In a way, your eye is quite unique, because that is probably the most useless item in the entire pile."
"Choose something else. If you don't have the ability to judge value, I can simply tell you which items to take."
Mitchell's voice held a trace of helplessness beneath the sarcasm. He clearly had no desire for his family to gain a reputation for being too stingy to properly reward those who had rescued them.
Gaia's sharp gaze swept across the surface of the object like a scanner.
Under her careful inspection, she discovered a line of tiny carved markings hidden among the black stone-like patterns.
It seemed to be some kind of symbol-based language of visible complexity, the sort where even a long sentence had hardly any repeated characters.
But this was where Gaia's Universal Communication talent came into play.
The instant she understood the language, something that shook her to the soul struck her heart.
Because it was Aeldari.
Looking at those words, full of tone and feeling, she unconsciously read them aloud:
"A divine weapon forged on the eve before destruction shall, at the destined hour, be wielded by the rightful one and open a new dawn for our kind."
Ordinarily, a human could not pronounce the Aeldari tongue, because the physiology of the two species was entirely different.
But as Gaia spoke, a strange resonance trembled through her soul, and under the sympathetic vibration of the psychic power around her body, she actually succeeded in voicing the graceful, mysterious language.
She was startled by that, but quickly understood why it had happened.
Language was the vibration of the soul.
Understanding was resonance between souls.
Once she understood the language, even if her physical structure could not reproduce the sounds perfectly, her soul could still produce the correct pattern.
As that resonance filled with hidden power spread out from Gaia's soul, the black slab in her hands underwent a dramatic transformation.
Dark green patterns surged across its surface like arcs of lightning, and then, as they pulsed like living things, a terrifying invisible force erupted from the black slab.
That force acted directly on her soul, frantically tearing at the psychic energy overflowing within Gaia's body.
Almost instantly, a crushing weakness swept through her mind. Nearly ninety percent of her psychic power was drained away in a single moment.
In that instant, she understood what the black material really was.
Blackstone.
The substance created in the ancient War in Heaven specifically to counter the Warp.
Sensing that terrifying presence, Mitchell's face changed in shock. Just as he was about to use his Warp-eye to see what was happening, he was blasted backward as if struck by a hammer and collapsed to the floor, blood pouring from all seven orifices.
Clutching his forehead in agony, he spat out a rapid stream of High Gothic curses:
"Aminos..."
Just as Gaia began to wonder whether she was about to be drained dry, the violent pull gradually became gentler.
The psychic energy that had been drawn out of her gathered over the black slab's surface and began to shine with an intense green light.
That blinding radiance carried with it waves from the Sea of Souls and exploded through the vault. Under the vast sympathetic shock, many of the precious artifacts in the chamber were damaged to varying degrees.
In the distance, Solomon stared in horror as the treasures he had already picked out began developing fatal cracks, and more than a few shattered right in his hands.
With a thud, he dropped to his knees and wailed toward the ceiling:
"No! Just kill me instead!"
Not far away, the machine spirit of an ancient laspistol let out a mournful cry, and then the ancient relic cracked apart in Lena's hands with a shriek of breaking material.
The red glow in the priest's augmetic eye flashed madly, and elegant binary profanity burst from her mouth.
And the object responsible for all that destruction at last slowly shed the light surrounding it.
Gaia opened her eyes. The flash had been bright enough to blind an ordinary person for a while, but her superhuman sight had not been affected in the slightest.
To her surprise, the original black slab had become broken fragments scattered on the floor.
What remained in her hand was only a single-edged sword with elegant lines and a strange, distinctive form.
It emitted a peculiar vibration that made Gaia grip the hilt tighter and tighter, without the slightest desire to ever let go.
...
In the endless void, in a desolate region of space far from the light of any star and far from the company of any planet, a magnificent world-ship drifted alone.
Soft blue light glowed endlessly beneath its translucent shell, while the radiance from countless domes pierced the layers of darkness spread across deep space.
It was the greatest wonder in the star-sea.
It was the most graceful world in the universe.
Its name was Ulthwe, one of the Aeldari craftworlds.
At the heart of that colossal craftworld, a brilliant corridor built of wraithbone shone with a light both cold and gentle.
Suddenly, a strange wave erupted from deep within that corridor, where countless star-like lights flickered, echoing urgently as if trying to speak.
At the far end of the vast hall stood a humanoid figure clad in black rune-armor and wearing a bizarre mask.
He raised a hand and felt the ripples echoing from the depths of the corridor until they slowly faded.
Only after a long while did his ancient, withered voice finally sound:
"I felt the movement of the threads of fate. The future of our people is being disturbed. An error seems to have appeared..."
"I will undertake a divination to confirm the path of that error."
"As for removing it, I will leave that work to your Striking Scorpions..."
(End of Chapter)
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