In the following days I had to wonder how I ever went without a servo skull. It was endlessly useful and in ways I hadn't expected. The mechandendrite I had attached to it, let it connect and manipulate most machines within the forge world.
That, combined with the anti-grav cradles, gave it a surprising stability, which allowed it to help with my crafting far more than I had been expecting. It quickly become second nature to use its auspex to augment my own, much like I did with Snuffles.
Only this was a constant.
I expected it to be distracting and it was at first. But I had learned not to notice it unless I needed it.
It also served its primary purpose of being an excellent test bed for all my modifications. I had to be careful of course. Any notable changes or going against the norm of the forge world would draw attention, the kind that might end me branded a heretik.
So they had all been internal, but that still gave me endless things to try. Not to mention the composite I made it from had been a startling success. When the polymer dried, it set tougher than plasteel, with a particularly good heat resistance and therefore las fire and was slightly resistant to scanners.
Not something I had been expecting.
I stepped off the high-speed transit rail that had taken me to the other side of forge city. It was one of the vital hubs that connected the city together, allowing for relatively quick movement across it. I say relatively, as my journey from the centre of the city to the outskirts, where I was now, still took many hours.
I followed the map, spiralling downwards until I reached the forge temple I was after. Stepping into the all too familiar noise and chaos, I spotted Tyr-089 hovering around his servitors and assembly line. Even from here I could see the tension in his shoulders.
Clearly things had not improved in the few days since our meeting.
Rather than joining him, I stayed back, watching.
I was glad I did.
Otherwise I might have missed the looks his overseer was giving him. Luckily it wasn't the Forge Master. If he had had it out for him, I would have walked away.
The Forge Master controlled the entire forge within the forge temple, every assembly line, servitor, menial and priest. Every cog in the forge was his to command. As you might expect, that was a lofty position and well-regarded, coming with a lot of political power and I had no interest in making an enemy like that.
Dos-807 was not that. She was a has-been. She had been in her role for centuries with no progress, and while her logs were good, they weren't outstanding. So had little hope of ever making the next step up the ladder. I would dive into the data in further detail later, but I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't the first adept to fail under her.
All so she could protect her position.
Not that I blamed her of course. I would do the same if I needed to.
Still, she wasn't a threat to me.
Turning my attention from her, I looked at the machine and servitors themselves. I was slightly surprised at the skin quality of the servitors. My method of cleaning them had clerly spread further than I anticipated.
The machines looked to be in good repair as well.
The manafactorum was producing turrets, so naturally it had different machines, with a different sound and feel to them. Instead of the constant deep heavy thuds and whine of a saw from my assumably line, here it was a quick constant clicking and screech, like nails on a chalkboard.
Seeing nothing else of note I moved on the factory floor, gliding confidently through the seething chaos, Snuffles padding out in front and my servo scull keeping it normal position, hovering a few feet above my left shoulder.
Tyr-089 didn't notice me at first, fussing as he was over a servitor that had snagged itself onto a machine.
I brushed my hand along the machine, linking to it, digging deep into its systems. Here, the servo skull once again proved its worth, allowing me to lean on it slightly to help me process and store the vast amount of data inside each machine. Like its error logs, change logs, coding, directives and more.
Good. Most of my updates would work for them. So I didn't have to start from scratch, which had been my main fear.
I was onto my third machine by the time Tyr-089 noticed me. That went to show quite how frazzled he was; his auspex should have noticed me far sooner.
Finishing the data dump, I disconnected from the metal press and moved towards the heated moulds.
With a nod, he moved off to manage his line, although I could feel his eyes on me for the next few hours as I looked at the hundreds of machines. With the last one collected, I sent a pulse of binary saying I had all I needed and headed for the door.
Not the one I came in through however, as that had Dos-807 waiting around the corner, several of her servitors standing near her. Armed servitors for that matter. I wasn't sure what she expected to be able to do with them, but better to avoid the problem entirely, and thanks to Snuffles keeping an eye on her, I could.
---
It took the rest of the day to finish the ritual, leaving me several days to spare.
It was a work of art if I did say so myself.
I had gone well above and beyond what I had first intended to make. Instead of creating a specific ritual for Tyr to use, I had created a modular design. So instead of needing to create a new one each time, I now had a framework that I could use.
On top of that, I added a whitelist function. So now I could add and remove users from the rite at will, instead of needing to change the entire code each time. This had the added benefit of making the ritual almost unusable without the whitelist section, so it couldn't just be cut out.
I was supposed to have another 'lesson' with Veil today. He called it a lesson when, in actuality, it was him checking up on me, seeing how far I had progressed. But it was cancelled as he was performing the rites for Magnovitrium Prime.
The power generator that fed much of the forge city its energy as well as several nearby forge cities.
It produced a truly biblical amount of energy, all without even needing an input. How it did this was a mystery; the only references I could find on it were plasma, dark matter, meons and antimatter.
How those combined to produce power? Your guess was as good as mine. But it was Golden Age Technology that had been kept going for thousands of years.
It was the fourth day of the multi-day ritual, and I'd gathered things weren't going well. A command reached me through the noosphere and after reading it carefully several times, I got up and prepped, slightly unsure of what to expect.
I had been summoned by Viel.
Unfortunately, I had to leave Snuffles behind but my servo skull, now called BH-001 (Bobbing Head 001), came with me. I threw on my best robes, more ceremonial than anything else. It was of a heavier material, that had filaments that shimmered in the light woven into it.
I had never used it, just sitting in the cupboard since I was given it. It was only for the most important rituals and machines.
I reached the Archmagi's sanctum, flanked by his two Praetorian Servitors guarding his door. Massive servitors that were more tanks than anything else. They were of a similar design, with two thick tank tracks supporting the main body, which was on a gimbal able to spin 360 degrees.
Both had two large arms ending in claws or pincers, and within their chest was a Las cannon. Not to mention the several smaller guns dotted over its body. All of which I was pretty sure had the new focusing crystal in them. Why he needed two guarding his door I didn't know, they hadn't been there last time I came.
Moving over to the servitor, I allowed it to scan my electoo and then pinged it my noosphere identification. The electoo was a crystal embedded into the skin that could store or use data. It could be a physical mark, like a tattoo or not noticeable.
Mine wasn't noticeable.
At their most basic, they were used as identification chips.
Everyone within the forge world had one, without fail. Being found to not have one was a quick way to get executed or given a new one as part of the servitor conversion.
When they both flashed green, the heavy doors hissed open.
Inside was a crowd of people, all of them important within Veils Collegex. A Collegex which was basically his house, functioning very similarly to a noble's House. Of the seventeen in the room, sixteen were ancient and respected Magos. I was the seventeenth…
As I stepped in, Xaldris Trontis appeared from my left.
Before I could get a word in edgeways, he spun and marched off. Without much choice, I followed him; he was Viel's most trusted subordinate, having been with him for centuries.
The air he led me to was thick with incense; it was so thick that it was actually hard to see through. When I did, I wished I hadn't, as Viel was meditating naked in a pool of holy oils.
Not a pretty sight.
He didn't turn as I entered or give an outward appearance that he even knew I was there, but I knew better, so I waited quietly.
One thing I had quickly learned was that the noosphere was so much more than just information; feeling could be sent over just as easily as thought. So I got the clear dismissal in his final statement and turned for the door. When I had left, I stood out of the way just watching it all unfold, waiting for Xaldris to call me.
It was the first time I had been a part of such a large-scale ritual. Unlike smaller ones or those for less crucial machines, this had many more steps. Like the preparation rituals that Viel was doing, to cleanse the soul in preparation for communing with the machine of such magnitude.
I was summoned to stand behind Xaldris, right at the back of the procession. Viel was at the front with two lines of priests walking behind him. All around us, dozens of servo skulls released clouds of incense around us as we walked, as well as chanting prayers.
My robe was going to need to be fumigated by the end of this.
If we passed a tech priest on the long walk, they would bow low, muttering prayers before hurrying off.
It took us hours to reach the heavy blast doors to Magnovitrium Prime. It was located deep under the central spire at the very centre of the city. The doors were flanked by guards, more of the Praetorian Servitors in a similar configuration to Viels, but also a squad of skitarii, showing the importance of the location.
To be the one to commune and lead the prayers for the Magnovitrium Prime was seen as a great honour and privilege, not to mention responsibility. The weight resting on Veil must be extraordinary.
The chamber housing the Magnovitrium Prime was donut shapped, banks of machines, monitors and equipment filled the room and at the centre was a viewing platform that looked into the core of the generator. Even with the darkened glass, it was blinding to look into.
There were already dozens of others in the room, some in prayer, others standing back watching with interest. The Fabricator General and the other Locum were part of the ones watching on with interest.
Most of the procession hung back by the door, letting a select few walk with Viel to the viewing platform and the altar that had been built around it.
The light from the viewing window was flashing faster and faster. Each time followed by a slight rumble. I could see actual cracks in some of the shields, like the generator was tearing itself apart from the inside.
As soon as the doors opened and I could see a connection, I reached out and delicately linked directly to the machine. It was far too deep within the noosphere to travel to through that realm.
At least for now.
I ignored most of the readout and just pulled up the flashing warning.
++Containment Breach++
++Sheild Alignment Compromised++
++Maintenance Overdue 4,452,425 Days++
++Core Instability++
None of those sounded good. And that was a large number. Over 10000 years in fact.
It was mind-boggling that it was still running after all this time, as well as just a tincy bit concerning how long it had been.
That shaking was the shield straining under the unstable core. I half contemplated leaving, wanting to be nowhere near the thing if its containment did fail, but considering the readings I had, it was unlikely the planet would survive anyway.
Digging through them, I kept finding other issues and within moments, had dozens. Selecting the most important ones and the rituals that should help at least somewhat, I sent it to Viel. As the chanting reached a crescendo, the various priests in the room swaying in time to it, the vibrations were getting no better.
If anything, they were worse than they started with.
Even the Fabricator Lords had stopped looking on quite so casually.
A pulse of binary from Xaldris got us moving, entering the chamber.
It could have been my imagination, but as soon as I stepped into the room, the angry rumbling subsided slightly. Not fading completely, but noticeably less.
I ignored that for now and focused on my part. I moved to my designated workstation, just a thin high-tech monitor and that was it. I could see no way to interact with it, but then, if they had mind technology connectivity like us, why would they need it?
Falling into my meditations, letting it calm my racing heart, I knew the stakes of if I fucked up. Even if the reactor didn't erupt, I didn't like to think of what would happen to me if I fucked up a ritual. Nothing good that was for sure.
I chanted in time with the other priests; everyone, even the Fabricator Lords, had joined in by this point. The chanting finally came to an end; the first part of the ritual was complete. I could imagine if my vocal cords were still organic, they would have been raw by now, after hours of rapid loud chanting.
Not to mention some of the words could not be said with a natural voice box.
We then moved onto the second part, which focused on actually fixing the problems rather than trying to appease the machine spirit. I went through my list of rites, as well as I few I added. I knew they stood a chance of fixing some of the problems I'd found.
Viel I noted, included some of the rituals I had messaged him about which took me aback slightly, not having expected it.
After the first few I fell into the rhythm of it, and the hours blurred passed as ritual after ritual was completed.
My logical mind still told me that the rites and rituals we were doing shouldn't work. Some didn't even have a realistic components but were just fully about blessing components with oils. Why it was seen as a good idea to cake advanced electronics with oil, I didn't know.
And yet… inexplicably and against all of this logic, they worked.
Errors were fixed. Components were changed out and repaired. Problems were sorted.
And quite frankly, I had no idea how.
But seeing was believing, and I could see the effects with my own eyes. Well, through the noosphere, but same difference. The flashing warnings were dealt with one by one. In some cases, the tech priests fixed it, but in others, it was like the machine fixed itself.
I heard no binary commanding the machine to reinforce the shielding around the reactor and change the settings, bringing it back under control and yet I watched as it did just that. I could see the same thing happen with my own rites.
Things that in no way should have worked did, and others that I knew would work, worked far more effectively than I could have dreamed, like the machine wanted to be fixed and was helping me along.
Regardless of what my knowledge told me, machine spirits seemed real enough in places. Either way, I wanted to learn more about them so my spare spark would be going into it later.
However, if I was going to be working with them more, I couldn't have the machine reacting unpredictably, so I was seriously tempted to delay the Biology this year and add more to it. I would need to see what I got from it.
I also had another idea I had been turning over in my mind.
Clearly, even with large-scale automation, I would personally still be making custom items, even if it was just for myself and close allies. Armour, servitors, weapons and even bionics. Not to mention the hundreds of other things that I could imagine.
So I wanted a spark to help with that. I didn't know what form it would take, but I was thinking of something close to crafter. Its entire purpose to help me craft masterwork or artisan pieces, as they were known in the forge. They were a step up from anything that could be made by the fabricators.
Perfectly made, suiting the person down to the bones. Proper masterworks.
That was what I was aiming for, but it went further than that. As with the machine spirits, magic was real. Yes, it was called something different, but it was still space magic.
Now, I didn't want to touch most of it; I had seen the horrifying effects and yet there were other forms. I had even seen it personally. As well as in records and recordings in the nobles' databases back on Noxium. Where ordinary people or priests used their faith in the Emperor to do extraordinary things.
Their belief making it happen. Now I had no faith in him; he could be a God or a man stuck on the chair, but I did have complete faith in myself, thanks to my spark. I had been able to throw off Immaterium that affected me when others couldn't. Not to mention that death ray I was hit with. I was 100% convinced that I would have died without my Self fragment. I had also been able to affect others with that power.
Even if it was only slightly.
I wanted to see if there was a way to tap into that. I didn't want flashy powers, so no throwing lightning from my hands, although saying that, Electoos were a thing, able to throw lightning from their hands Palpatine style, and you could bet your arse I wanted to learn how it was done. Regardless, I didn't want overt powers or anything like that. I wanted it to be able to enhance my crafting, able to take my masterworks to the next level.
Or that was the hope anyway. Time would tell.
---
Archmagos Telok's Sanctum was only a few levels below Viels, who was near the peak of the forge city which showing his high status within the world. To be honest, I was surprised it wasn't higher. With his Archmagos status and centuries of service. While it was on a similar level, it was about as far as one could get from the central spire, situated near the hydroponics farms that grew some of the specialised plants and algae needed in some of the processes.
Snuffles walked beside me and my now constant servo skull hovered overhead. Reaching the sanctum, I released a burst of static, my identification code buried within. The door gently hummed and then opened into a circular room.
The walls had odd striations on them, like teeth of a cog. There were half a dozen doors leading out of the room.
In the centre stood Tyr-089. Moving over to him, we exchanged the customary binary greetings, but before I could move on to the rite I'd created, one of the many doors whirred open. In stepped a tall man, clad in red leathery robes.
He was barely recognisably human. If he had been seen on a hive, he would have been instantly executed as a mutant. What flesh I could see was covered in a thick fur. His limb proportions were all off, with one arm almost scraping the floor, but both ended in sharp claws, and his one organic eye was slitted like a lizard.
For all his mismatchedness, he moved with an odd fluidity and grace. I could clearly see the power in his body.
He appeared deep in thought, seemingly not noticing us as he marched to another door. As he passed us we bowed our heads slightly. "Honoured Archmagos."
Barely acknowledging us he carried striding from the room. He glanced back and paused before blinking rapidly, like he was waking from a dream. His eyes sharpened on my servitor still floating over my shoulder with a gentle hum. His bionic eye zoomed in with the same motion as a microscope.
"What compound is used in the skull? And where was it found?" Archmagos Telok said, his voice surprisingly high-pitched for such a large man.
"It is from my hive. It was used in fixing bones, and I thought I saw another purpose for it, so I tested it."
"Remarkable." He said, moving closer. Until he noticed Snuffles, and the servitor was forgotten. "By the holy cogs. A divine beast. You are its carer, yes? No longer, I will give it a holy purpose in my experiments. I need to see how such flesh and blood were combined and how such an old beast has developed."
I instantly felt my adrenaline spike. He would not be having him. Moving in front of Snuffles, all the while preparing for a fight. I would kill the Magos if I had to, although I didn't fancy my chances.
"I cannot. The blessed creature has been allowed to stay in my service, and I cannot disrespect the Machine God in such a way. Did you want a sample of the compound in the servo skull?" I asked desperately, hoping to turn the conversation in another direction.
He blinked and then refocused back on BH-001, which had swooped down to hover in front of me. It was like he had fully forgotten everything else once more. Snatching out, his hand moving far faster than I could see, he held the skull in one hand.
His huge hands made the skull look tiny. Running a finger down its side, he used a nail to scratch at the side of the skull that was as strong as plasteel. A screeching sound filled the room as his nail managed to scratch a line of material off it. With his sample in hand, he marched to another door, hunched over the sample, all else forgotten.
When the door shut behind him, I could feel some of the tension leave me, but my heart was still hammering. I would be keeping Snuffles far away from him in the future.
"Archmagos Telok can be focused." Tyr said. Looking slightly apologetic. "I was expecting him to be in his lab all day on an experiment. My mentor I wanted you to meet should be here shortly."
"What's the experiment?"
Tyr's face lit up with enthusiasm. "It's to see the other uses for-"
"What have I told you about talking to strangers about our research?" A voice said from the now open doorway, leading out of the sanctum behind me.
Spinning, I looked at the door. As the priest entered their robes swishing around them, they released a pulse with their identification within. Keeping half an eye on them and the other, I used to read through her credentials.
They were impressive.
Over a century of service, with a glowing record of success after success. She was clearly martial, a Dominus in training, and judging by them she was on the very cusp of becoming a Magos Dominus. The woman, and she was a woman, was equally as impressive as her records, and even more eye-catching.
Clad in a blood red robe which revealed far more flesh and curves than I would expect to see for such a senior tech priest. In fact, she was the most human-looking tech priest I had seen so far, but I had no doubt she was lethal however.
Some of her skin was shinier than it should be, revealing it as synth skin and once I knew what to look out for, I was pretty sure all her limbs were all bionic. They were just far more finely crafted and made to look like human limbs.
As she walked towards us, her robe slipped slightly, revealing heavy armour underneath it.
She also moved with the coiled grace of a predator. Honestly, she reminded me of Snuffles when he stalked prey. It sent my hind brain into fight or flight mode, and I could feel myself automatically falling into a slight crouch, onto the balls of my feet. She must have seen it as she cocked her head at me with interest. Her hood was up, so the light cast shadows across her face, enhancing her sharp, angular face, like a bird of prey.
Her green bionic eyes studying me as I studied her.
"Sorry Solvexa." Tyr said, looking slightly contrite.
She nodded at him slightly, but was still focusing on me. "You have the Rite that will help Tyr?"
"Here." I said, sending both a copy of the ritual I had created.
The room fell into silence as they both looked it through.
"It is restricted." Solvexa said, after only a moment of study.
"Huh?" Tyr said, glancing up, surprised. Clearly, he had not picked up on it as Solvexa had.
"Yes, it will only work with Tyr-089s identification."
"Hmm, and the ritual does what?" Solvexa said, moving to sit in one of the metal chairs.
"It is a self-contained ritual. So start it at the beginning of your shift and then complete it at the end."
"And how does this help?"
She didn't say or even hint at anything, but I could almost see her suspicion.
"Machine Spirits love me." I said, simply shrugging my shoulders lightly. "I have yet to meet a machine spirit that, when given enough time, does not come to like me. I am just passing a little bit of that along to Tyr."
"How do we know it isn't sabotage?"
"Frankly, nothing. But you came to me, and it has my identification on it. So it would fall onto me."
She made a clicking sound in her throat, staring at me thoughtfully. "Tyr?"
"I still want it."
"Very well. Here is a list of bionics I can get you. You may pick a few smaller ones, or one or two of the larger ones. I will provide them to you after we have seen the ritual works as detailed." She said, pinging across a rather extensive list of bionics.
I didn't have time to look at it now, but would when I got home. I would mostly be looking for upgrades to the bionics I already had. I wanted the clunky shit gone, and until I could make some myself, this was the best option.
"Good enough for me."
"Can you show me through it to make sure I do it correctly?" Tyr asked.
"Definitely." I said, already planning to suggest that. Pulling up the rites, I started to coach him through them. They weren't especially hard and shouldn't have a major problem if done wrong, they just wouldn't work. Which wasn't always the case.
Some rites reset software, and unless you finished the rite correctly could well brick the machine forevermore.
This was most apparent with the more advanced technology, like the generator. Fuck that up and it could blow.
I was just sitting back watching him run through the ritual for the final time, we had been at it for hours, thankfully Archmagos Telok had not come back. When Solvexa suddenly asked. "Can we spar?"
"What?" That came out of nowhere.
"I would like to have a spar."
Frowning at her, still not sure what brought it on. "What did you have in mind and why?"
"A melee fight against me and then some shooting. We have a testing range here. Combat tells a lot about an individual." Obviously seeing my hesitation, she carried on. "I will limit myself."
That wasn't really my worry. I had no doubt a tech priest with decades, if not centuries, of experience in fighting would make short work of me.
Not really seeing any downside or any way out of it, I agreed and followed her to a training room. Still hexagonal, but with a large open space in the centre of it.
"What weapon preference do you have?" Solvexa asked, waving her hand at several melee weapons.
"Sword."
Nodding, she waved for me to go find one.
Running my hand along them, I tested a few that looked like they would fit me as I went. They had seen significant use; all of them had chips and divots in them. Finally finding one that had the weight and length that felt comfortable, I made my way to the training floor.
It was just us in the room, her opposite me and Tyr sitting in the corner, but I could feel my heart rate start to spike.
"We will start slow. I will match your speed."
Nodding, I dropped into my stance. I always enjoyed slow sparing. It was far more about control and skill than brute power. It allowed you time to think and plan moves that would be impossible in most other situations.
I stepped forward, two hands clasped to the long sword and stabbed it forward, testing her.
Rather than blocking, she twisted her body just enough to dodge my blade. I tried to take advantage of that, putting her off balance, but it became obvious very quickly how laughably outmatched I was. But still the spare continued. Sometimes she attacked, testing my defences, and others she was content to let me attack.
In any case, I came no closer to hitting her; to add insult to injury, she was moving noticeably slower than I was.
Almost ten minutes later, I had to stop, my breath coming out in deep gasps. She looked unaffected; she might well have just come back from an evening stroll. Not a hair was out of place.
"Good." She said, nodding. Her face was still carefully blank. I had seen more expressions from a brick wall. It was actually part of what made sparing so hard. She had no tells. Or at least not ones I could see. "Here aim at the targets, they appear in the noosphere. They will get progressively harder." She handed me a small laspistol.
Along the far edge of the room was a heavily damaged wall. It was still solid, but it was covered in burns, dents and other damage.
Dipping into the noosphere, the digital sea of data opening up around me. Reams and reams of information flowing into and all around us, as well as all the systems and machines having their stats hovering around them, even my fellow tech priests' information blossomed around them.
Sure enough, after sifting through that cloud of data, in the far corner were some very simple targets.
Settling back into a comfortable shooting stance, I started.
As promised, it got harder, much harder. At first it was easy. Like hard to actually miss the targets, easy. But it didn't stay that way for long. First slowly moving and then picking up speed. Then they started to blink in and out, making me shoot with only seconds to process them. That time slowly dropped until they were appearing and disappearing too fast for me to even register.
"Good. You are more proficient with a firearm. Are you better with other guns?"
I passed the pistol back to her, nodding as I did. I thought about lying, but I didn't see how it would help me. If I ever needed to use a gun, it would be obvious. "I am better with a rifle; the longer the range, the better."
"Interesting."
When she just stood there staring off in thought, I shrugged and turned to Tyr. But before I could say anything, she asked. "I would like you join my expedition?
"Why?" I asked. Suddenly concerned. Did she know about my past? No, impossible, it was too well crafted for her to see through it when others hadn't.
Before I could spiral, she replied. "We are going deep down and many of the machine spirits are uneasy; your presence might help with that. Assuming the ritual does as advertised."
"It will." I said automatically.
I didn't answer right away. Did I want to put my life at risk, as I had little doubt that the expedition would be dangerous? Nothing in the 40k was safe after all. But we were on a forge world, so it had to be safe enough. So that just left whether the pros outweighed the cons. "What would I get?"
"Credits for any discoveries and several more bionics."
It wasn't much. Did I really want to? But she would be a very good contact, and it would get me another good mark on my name, which would allow me further independence.
It might not be worth it.
"When?"
"Soon." Solvexa said. "I have asked for the permits and they have been approved; they just need to be signed. So several years."
I blinked stupidly at her. She obviously had a different definition of soon than me. But several years. That was more tenable as I would have had time to build up and prepare, as well as get more information.
"I will tentatively agree."
"Good. I will log you and provide the information closer to the time."
With nothing left to say she walked away entering another wing of the sanctum.
We stood in silence for a second before I checked if there was anything else he needed and promised we would stay in contact. Then headed for home, running through the meeting back through my head. Overall, I wasn't unhappy with how it went.
I did learn I would not be taking Snuffles back with me. If I ever went back. I couldn't see a reason I would ever enter, nor be allowed entry, into the archmagi's sanctum again.
I was halfway home when I received two notifications through the noosphere.
One was from the Forge Master for the assembly line I worked on. I was getting a promotion up a level. After a moment of celebration, I shrugged at it. While it was nice, nothing much would actually change; it was the second message that grabbed my attention. It caused me to turn around and hurry for one of the many spaceports in the forge city.
This one was unique in that it only accepted courier spacecraft, so was much smaller than many of the others. It was no less busy for it.
I found the letter stacked away and headed home, eager to read it. This would be the second message I got from Zardelle in the 8 months she had left with the Inquisitor. Communication was an odd thing and something high on my list to invest in. If I could find an easy way for communication across long distances… I am not sure what would change, but it could only help.
It would allow me to keep in contact with my allies if nothing else.
There were only two real ways to communicate across the galaxy. The first was through an astropathic choir, which was hit or miss at best. I had seen some of the messages coming through them. Garbled was an understatement; if you had a competent choir and a gentle warp, the messages could be pretty clear. But if it was unstable, good luck.
The other was by letter.
It still boggled the mind that a letter was a legitimate way of sending a message in such an advanced society. Well, parts of it were anyway, no matter how backwards the other half was.
I was in regular contact with the gang back home, mostly between Peggi, Lanto, Skyla, Gwen and Katra. They were fluff as we couldn't put anything important on them for obvious reasons, but it was nice to hear from them nonetheless.
These came in with the normal delivery. A fast ship, either one with a navigator or one just performing short jumps, would move back and forth between the different planets delivering mail, data and reports. This was how the various low-level reports, like census data, made it back to Terra.
The mail from Zardelle was a bit harder to organise. It turns out Inquisitor Brigitta rarely stayed still. She was already off on another lead for other heretics, not to mention any of the numerous cultists she crushed on any given month.
She had moved on when another of her agents had arrived to take over from her. That was a few months ago.
With her constantly on the move, she was rarely in the same place long enough for mail to get to her. Anything important obviously went through the astropath choir, but anything else was sent to a collection point that she had set up. From there, it would be forwarded to locations in her travel plans so they could be collected.
Hence, the slow exchange of letters.
It wasn't that bad; we couldn't put much information in them, so it was mostly just checking in. But again, it was nice to hear from her.
I typed a response on a typewriter-like thing and then sent it off.
---
Solvexa Ferridane knelt back in her private workshop within Archmagos Telok's sanctum and watched through the auspex as the adept left.
She once again pulled the information tied to his identification marker, now surer than ever it was fabricated. She couldn't tell exactly what it was; it had been woven far too well, but she knew without a doubt that some of it had been.
Nowhere on the records explained his combat proficiency. All tech priest that lived long enough were dangerous, no doubt, but that was thanks to their bionics and upgrades. Unlike the significant training that the adept had received.
The only conclusion she could come to, even if it didn't make much sense, was: he was someone's hidden agent, likely Archmagos Veil, their new Locum. She remembered when he was forced out. It very nearly came to all-out war, with the supporters of both candidates fighting to keep the horse they backed into power.
She had noticed his training as soon as she entered the room, when he spun towards her, reflexively stepping into a combat stance. His mastiff moved perfectly to flank, even his servo skull did the same, floating off far to the right. It was one of the reasons she gave him her identification.
Firstly, to stop any chance of a fight, even if she would win. But secondly, there was clearly more than met the eye going on. So she trusted her instincts and offered to spar, to test his mettle. And then again, trusting her gut to invite him on her next expedition.
It would be an important one for her. As it would hopefully complete her portfolio, allowing her to put forward her case before the Ferracuria and argue to be raised to a Magos. If the expedition went anything less than perfect, she would have to delay her Oratio.
Better get it right the first time; there were only so many chances to partition the Ordinex Elevatum to advance a rank. Fail them, and you were stuck, or had to move forge world, which came with a whole host of other problems.
She could just imagine her contemporaries' response if they heard she had used her gut to make a decision. Unlike many of them, she trusted her instincts. This did appear to a lesser extent with the combat adepts on all levels.
But she had taken it a step further than most.
She hadn't in the past, but she had seen too many instances of combatants making snap decisions that proved correct in hindsight. And when asked could provide no logical reason for their decisions. But when she did enough digging, she could find a logical reason for the decision, but only with the benefit of hindsight.
Her logical approach would have had her choose a different path, which in many cases led to a worse outcome when she put it through her simulations.
It happening far too many times to just discount, so she decided to test it. She was but a newly raised tech priest at the time; little did she know that it would be a large contributing factor to her success, centuries later. Not all her hunches paid off, but enough of them did, to convince her to listen to them.
It was for the same reason she wasn't nearly so dismissive of emotions. It had helped people react faster than they had a right to, fight on far longer than their biological bodies should have been capable of or inspire actions that would result in the followers' guaranteed deaths. And yet they cheered for them.
Of course, she wasn't governed by her emotions, no, she followed the Sacred Catechism of the Omnissiah logic and reason. She had the emotive vault installed, as any good adept should, allowing her to control her emotions, or at least tone them down. It was very similar to the the Rite of Pure Mind, just far less extreme.
It was also far more accessible. The rite was only allowed for those rising up into the rank of Magos.
In the past, if she had been asked, she would have gone ahead with it then, and there, now she knew it to be a mistake. At least for her anyway.
She slotted the new adept onto her partition request.
She could always take him off if he didn't live up to her expectations.