V3 Chapter 4: Do You Know What You Are Saying, Duvette?
After Duvette's words fell, the entire council chamber went silent.
The mortal lords and reconstruction officials stopped what they were doing. Several Chapter serfs raised their heads. The Honour Guard reacted faster than any of them: their hands had already moved toward their weapons, every eye fixed on Duvette.
Calgar's brow came down. He began reassessing the group in front of him.
Duvette stood where he was. Behind him were Cawl, Juno, Werner, the Salamanders representative, and a small escort. That composition had never made sense for a courtesy visit, and now Duvette had torn away the thin justification that had covered it.
A trace of surprise crossed Juno's face.
Then the corner of her mouth turned up. She did not speak or intervene; she simply watched the situation continue to develop with the particular expression that Duvette found deeply uncomfortable.
Calgar studied Duvette in silence for a moment.
"If anyone else were standing here."
His voice had dropped.
"The Honour Guard would already have them on the floor."
The tension in the chamber drew tighter.
Duvette offered no explanation.
He knew exactly what weight those words carried. To say "the true Lord of Ultramar" inside the Fortress of Hera, in front of the Ultramarines, was more than enough for many of them to conclude he had crossed a line that did not permit crossing.
Calgar continued. "Given who you are, you can be escorted into the sanctuary under our supervision to observe the gene-sire's stasis field at close range."
"But wishing to see him and what you actually intend to do are two entirely different questions."
Duvette did not answer immediately.
He glanced at the mortal lords, reconstruction officials, and Chapter serfs still occupying the chamber. Several of them already had confusion and wariness in their eyes.
Calgar understood without being told.
He turned toward the side of the hall.
"Everyone out."
The mortal lords and officials did not ask for a reason. They gathered their data-slates, rendered a brief bow to Calgar, and withdrew from both sides of the chamber.
The Chapter serfs followed.
When the heavy doors closed, the ambient sound of the fortress was cut off, and the council chamber became considerably larger in its emptiness.
What remained inside were Calgar, the Honour Guard, Duvette's group, and a small number of Ultramarines personnel responsible for records and security.
Calgar looked back at Duvette.
"Now. Tell me the real purpose."
Duvette gave a nod.
He did not circle around it, and he did not wait for Cawl to take the opening.
"We can save Guilliman."
The instant those words were out, Calgar's pupils contracted sharply.
The next moment, his voice filled the chamber.
"What did you say?"
The Honour Guard stepped forward by half a pace, in unison.
They did not draw their weapons. But every movement carried a warning. For the Ultramarines, what Duvette had just said had reached into the deepest forbidden ground.
Calgar stared at him.
"Duvette. Do you know what you are saying?" His voice had grown heavier. "If you are treating this as a jest, I will strip every honour associated with Ultramar from your name and have you tried for desecrating the memory of our gene-sire."
Duvette did not step back.
He stepped forward, reached down, and unclipped the power sword from his hip.
That blade had been placed in his hands by Calgar himself. It represented Macragge's acknowledgement of what Duvette had done, and it represented the fact that he had once fought alongside the Ultramarines on this ground.
Duvette took the scabbard in both hands and raised it level with his chest.
"Chapter Master Calgar."
His voice was steady.
"I swear this on the Emperor. I am not speaking without grounds."
Calgar looked at him in silence.
After a moment, the Chapter Master came down from the dais and walked to stand before Duvette.
His armoured frame stood far above any mortal's, and the shadow of it fell across Duvette. Duvette held the sword level and did not waver.
Calgar looked down at the blade, then at Duvette's face.
He knew this sword.
He remembered why he had given it to Duvette.
Macragge had been at war. At the time, Duvette had been nothing more than a Colonel-Commissar, and yet in the most dangerous places he had made choices that most mortals could not have made.
"I am willing to extend provisional trust to the oath of an Imperial warrior who once fought at my side."
A pause.
"Then tell me."
"How do you intend to save our gene-sire?"
Duvette finally allowed himself a slow breath.
The first step had held.
He took back the power sword and did not re-hang it at his hip, passing it instead to Evan for safekeeping. Then he turned to look at Cawl and gave the Archmagos a nod.
Calgar's gaze moved to Cawl as well.
Belisarius Cawl stepped forward.
The vast mechanical frame produced a low, resonant sound as it moved, and its sheer presence in the council chamber felt like a technological statement in its own right.
"Ten thousand years ago."
Cawl spoke.
"Lord Roboute Guilliman entrusted me with a task."
His voice came through the vocaliser with a faint mechanical quality.
"That task has continued for a very long time. It encompasses many dimensions, and involves a number of details that those present will not find welcome."
Someone in the Honour Guard turned their head fractionally.
Calgar did not interrupt.
Cawl continued. "Now, part of that work is ready to be realised."
"The apparatus capable of stabilising the gene-sire's vital state after revival—I have built it."
Calgar's brow came together.
He looked at this Archmagos whose name was famous across the Imperium and surrounded by equal parts renown and controversy.
"You are saying our gene-sire made an arrangement with you ten thousand years ago?"
Cawl's optical lenses rotated slightly.
"In simplified terms, yes."
Calgar's gaze moved immediately back to Duvette.
Duvette knew what he was about to ask.
"It is true."
Calgar held his gaze.
"How do you know what happened ten thousand years ago is true?"
Duvette did not answer.
He could not tell Calgar that he knew what was coming. He could not lay all of it here. He could only stand where he was and hold the Chapter Master's scrutiny.
Calgar looked at him for a long moment and in the end did not press the question further.
He looked back at Cawl.
"Beyond the apparatus—what other elements are required?"
Duvette's eyes sharpened.
Here it was. The part that mattered most.
He stepped forward again and drew a slow breath.
"Chapter Master Calgar."
"I need you to hear everything I am about to say."
Calgar looked into his eyes.
He seemed to already understand that what came next would be harder to accept than anything Cawl had described.
"Speak."
Duvette began.
"Reviving Guilliman requires one additional source of power."
The air in the chamber grew heavier.
"That source does not belong to the Imperium..."
"Does not belong to the Imperium?"
Calgar cut him off directly.
His voice had dropped lower than before, but it made every Ultramarine in the room go rigid.
Duvette met his gaze and gave a single nod.
"But I stake my life that it will not go wrong."
That assurance did nothing to ease the atmosphere.
Calgar's anger was fully ignited; he was simply not yet letting it break free of his control.
The Ultramarines in the chamber had already worked out what "a source of power that does not belong to the Imperium" likely meant.
Eldar.
The word was not spoken aloud. But it was standing in the middle of the room with everyone else.
Calgar stared at Duvette.
"If the person standing here were not you."
He said it again, each word deliberate.
"I would have already issued orders to arrest and execute them on the spot."
Duvette did not argue.
He understood that Calgar was still holding himself back because of the trust and the honours between them, and because Augustus was quietly doing its work.
Calgar turned away and pressed down the anger that had been close to breaking free.
"This meeting is over."
The order was clear to everyone in the room.
"Until I permit it, none of you are to approach the sanctuary."
"Until you are prepared to leave, your fleet remains in the designated anchorage and accepts Macragge orbital control."
Calgar paused.
His gaze moved from Duvette to Cawl, then across Juno and Werner.
When he spoke again, his voice was colder.
"If any Eldar enter the perimeter of the Fortress of Hera without my authorisation."
"I will deal with them personally."
Juno's face still held the expression of someone watching events unfold to their satisfaction, though she was genuinely curious now about what connection the two Aeldari had to the source of power Duvette had described.
Werner remained silent. His gaze moved from Calgar to Duvette. He said nothing, but Duvette understood that the Lord Inquisitor had already begun preparing for whatever came next.
The Salamanders representative said nothing either, standing where they were in absolute neutrality.
Cawl did not protest.
The vast Archmagos looked as though he had anticipated this reaction entirely. He simply drew his mechadendrites back and then turned his optical sensors toward Duvette.
His expression was unreadable, but Duvette had the distinct impression that every lens was conveying a single message: get on with it, then—wasn't this supposed to be your area of expertise?
Duvette's eye twitched slightly. He exhaled quietly.
Still not enough, then.
Though at least Calgar had not expelled them outright or issued orders to detain the fleet. The situation had not collapsed; it had simply been forcibly halted.
He rendered a bow to Calgar.
"I will request another audience with you, Chapter Master Calgar."
Calgar did not respond.
Duvette had just turned to leave when the side door of the council chamber opened.
An Ultramarines officer strode in at pace.
The Honour Guard looked toward him immediately.
The officer did not stop. He came directly to Calgar, rendered a salute, and raised a sealed data-slate.
"My lord."
His voice carried suppressed urgency.
"Highest-priority emergency report."
"Regarding Tarentus."
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