V3 Chapter 15: Perhaps I Can Help You Persuade Calgar
Once Shalaxi Helbane's projection had been driven back, the only threat on the Tarentus battlefield capable of deciding the outcome was gone.
The fighting that followed no longer determined victory or defeat for Duvette. The remaining daemonettes and residual daemons were still dangerous, but under the combined advance of his forces, the Ultramarines, and the Salamanders, they could only be expelled back into the Warp one by one.
When the last desecrated tower burned to rubble under the concentrated fire of the armoured elements, the immense psychic vortex in the sky finally began to contract. The purple-red light dimmed gradually, and in the end only a cloying sweetness lingered in the air, nauseous and difficult to place.
The Tarentus capital no longer resembled an Imperial city.
Whole districts had been levelled. The streets bore the marks of burning throughout.
Duvette understood that this planet would spend decades, perhaps longer, in purification. The Ultramarines would oversee the reconstruction. The Inquisition would leave observers. The Ecclesiarchy would preach the glory of the Emperor again and again until everyone was certain the nightmare was finished.
In the secure camp outside the capital, the medicae tents carried the smell of antiseptic and blood.
Duvette sat at the edge of a temporary cot and let old Doctor Wayne work on his wounds, too tired to assist the process. The regimental physician had followed him for over a decade. Since Farrak IV, he had seen Duvette injured, seen Duvette close to death, and seen Duvette stand back up in conditions no ordinary person could have survived.
So Doctor Wayne did not ask why the wounds had not continued to worsen, or whether some other form of treatment was needed. He had followed Duvette long enough to understand that some things were not his to ask about.
When the last bandage was secured, Doctor Wayne dropped the bloodied instruments into the black disposal bucket beside him.
"I haven't seen you hurt this badly in a long time," the doctor said quietly.
Duvette picked up the black inner garment from beside him, pulled it on slowly, and draped the commissar's greatcoat, torn and bloodstained, back across his shoulders.
"Getting back alive is already a good result," he said.
Doctor Wayne looked at him, as though he had something more to say, but in the end only exhaled and left it there.
Duvette looked at the line in his field of vision.
[You have repelled Shalaxi Helbane, the mightiest Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, the Monarch of the Hunt, and resolved the daemon incursion on Tarentus. Emperor's Wrath +4,000]
Even with an Emperor's Wrath reward on a scale he had never seen before, what surfaced in his mind was the fight with Shalaxi.
If Yvraine and the Yncarne had not been there to hold the Greater Daemon's attention. If Markus and the Black Shield Squad had not bought him time. He would very likely have become a corpse in the first exchange.
His skills were still formidable. The Soul of the Legion still changed the shape of battles again and again.
But he himself was starting to fall behind the wars that were coming.
He could command a legion, read a battlefield, and use his skills to push his soldiers to extraordinary levels. But when a real monster arrived in front of him personally, he still needed others to buy him time. Relying entirely on skills to survive would eventually produce a catastrophic failure.
"The sword still needs the hand that wields it to be strong," Duvette said quietly.
Doctor Wayne heard the words, looked up at him briefly, saw he had gone into his own thinking, and left without interrupting. He packed up the medical case and stepped out of the tent.
Duvette sat at the edge of the cot for a long time and thought about it.
He might need to find someone to learn from. Individual combat skills. Proper ones.
Markus was an obvious candidate. That veteran from the Great Crusade era had experienced actual Legion-scale warfare.
Yvraine was another option. She had walked very far along the warrior's path and her swordsmanship was arguably stronger than that of most veteran Astartes.
He had just stood up when heavy footsteps sounded outside the tent.
Duvette lifted the tent flap and stepped out. An Ultramarine was standing at the entrance, the blue power armour still carrying the scratches from the fighting.
"Commissar Duvette." The Ultramarine looked down at him. "Chief Librarian Tigurius and Captain Ideaus wish to see you."
Duvette gave a nod. "I'll be right there."
The Ultramarines' camp was not far from the medicae area, but the security level was considerably higher than before. Duvette understood the reason quickly.
Outside the temporary command post, he saw Cawl. He also saw Yvraine and Sylandri.
Yvraine stood where she was, expressionless, watching the blue-armoured giants surrounding her. Sylandri still wore that faint smile, as though she had not noticed the tension in the Ultramarines around her.
Duvette walked to Cawl's side, gave both Aeldari a nod, then looked at the vast mechanical Archmagos.
"Fortunate that you don't particularly care for following rules," Duvette said. "Otherwise I would not have had the opportunity to stand here."
Cawl's mechaoptic lenses rotated.
"I am categorising that as gratitude," Cawl said, "despite its extremely low expressive efficiency."
Duvette did not argue the point. "Those iron—those constructs. What happens to them?"
"Recalled and resealed," Cawl replied. "This engagement generated a substantial volume of data. That data is significant for STC analysis, revision of safety protocols, command isolation modelling, and subsequent research."
Duvette looked at him. "Carefully worded."
"Because there are a considerable number of listeners present," Cawl said, without changing his tone.
Before Duvette could say anything further, an Ultramarine approached.
"The Chief Librarian is waiting. Please follow me."
Duvette asked nothing more and walked with Cawl toward the command post. Yvraine and Sylandri followed at the rear. The Ultramarines around them quietly stepped aside, but the vigilance never left their expressions.
Inside the temporary command post, Tigurius and Ideaus had been waiting.
The Chief Librarian stood beside the tactical table. Ideaus stood at the other side. The Fourth Company captain's gaze moved across Duvette, then settled on Yvraine.
Tigurius did not begin with pleasantries.
"Tarentus has sustained severe damage," he said. "Warp daemons have left scars in the veil of reality here. The purification of this world will not be completed in any short span of time. For a century, Tarentus will struggle to fully escape the consequences of this catastrophe."
His gaze moved across Duvette, Cawl, and both Aeldari in sequence.
"But whatever else is true, you made meaningful contributions in the final stage. The Ultramarines will remember that."
Duvette said nothing.
Tigurius shifted direction.
"Before that Greater Daemon entered the veil of reality, it named you." The Chief Librarian looked at Duvette and Yvraine. "In the fighting that followed, it came for you two and nothing else."
Ideaus's voice came next. "We need to know whether everything that happened on Tarentus is connected to your arrival here."
Tigurius continued. "And we need to know what power she used at the end."
The atmosphere inside the command post became considerably heavier.
Duvette glanced at Yvraine, then at Sylandri. Neither of them spoke.
He stepped forward.
"I will explain my part first," Duvette said. "During the Sabbat Crusade, I once pulled a Warmaster back from the whispers of the Prince of Pleasure."
Ideaus's expression shifted slightly.
Duvette did not conceal it. He gave a brief account: Slaydo's corruption, how the crusade's senior command structure had nearly collapsed, how he had entered the Warmaster's command complex and brought him back to clarity. He kept the details sparse but did not omit the shape of it.
"In that sense, I have genuinely offended the Prince of Pleasure," Duvette said.
Tigurius listened without visible reaction.
"That accounts for part of it," he said. "But not all of it."
Sylandri finally spoke.
"The other part concerns her." She looked at Yvraine. "You call us the Aeldari. You also call us xenos. But you do not understand the fate we are facing."
Ideaus said coldly: "We have no interest in xenos mythology."
"But you need to understand where her power comes from." Sylandri did not react to the hostility. "She is the Emissary of Death, the Emissary of Ynnead. The blade in her hand is one of the Crone Swords. It can touch death, and it can influence the souls bound to death."
Yvraine said nothing throughout. She simply tightened her grip slightly on the hilt.
Duvette picked up the thread. "Which is also why the revival of your gene-sire, the great Guilliman, requires her power."
The instant those words landed, several Ultramarines in the command post moved their hands toward their weapons.
Ideaus took one step forward, his voice pressed low. "You would do well to be certain you understand what you are saying, Commissar."
"I understand it clearly," Duvette said. "If Cawl's apparatus alone were sufficient, they would not be standing here."
Cawl offered no objection. He produced a low mechanical sound from somewhere in his frame.
Tigurius raised a hand and stopped the Ultramarines around him from moving further.
His gaze settled on Duvette, as though he was assessing him through means beyond ordinary sight. After a moment, the Chief Librarian spoke.
"I detect no deception in what you have said."
Then he looked at Yvraine and Sylandri.
"As for them—I will not claim the Aeldari carry no danger. They always do. But in what I have seen of what is coming, they do play a critical role."
Tigurius's broad armoured frame straightened slowly.
"In recognition of what you contributed on Tarentus, I will explain to Lord Calgar everything I have witnessed." He paused. "I can work to secure you one more opportunity to speak."
Duvette looked at him. "Only one opportunity?"
"That is already considerable," Tigurius said. "The final decision remains with Lord Calgar. If you want to approach our gene-sire, you must first convince the Lord of Ultramar."
Duvette was quiet for a moment, then gave a nod.
"Thank you for your support."
It was not much.
But at last, the door that had been sealed completely shut in front of them had been forced open by a crack.