False Gods

Well what have you written that's so bloody great? Can't say I remember reading anything you've written,’

'Ha! You'll remember what I'm going to write, I'll tell you that for nothing!'

'Really?' quipped Karkasy, gesturing at the empty bottles on the table. 'And what might that be? Memoirs of an Ine­briated Socialite? Vengeful Spirits of the Vengeful Spirit?'

You think you're so clever, don't you?'

'I have my moments,’ said Karkasy, knowing that there wasn't much challenge in scoring points over a drunken woman, but enjoying it nonetheless. Anyway, it would be pleasant to take this spoiled rich girl – who was com­plaining about the biggest break of her life – down a peg or two.

You don't know anything,' she snapped.

'Don't I?' he asked. 'Why don't you illuminate me then?'

'Fine! I will,’

And she told Ignace Karkasy the most incredible tale he'd ever heard in his life.

'Why did you bring me here?' asked Horus, backing away from the silver tank. The eyes on the other side of the glass watched him curiously, clearly aware of him in a way that everyone else they had encountered on this strange odyssey was not. Though he knew with utter certainty who those eyes belonged to, he couldn't accept that this sterile chamber far beneath the earth was where the glory of his life had begun.

Raised on Cthonia under the black smog of the smelter­ies – that had been his home, his earliest memories a blur of confusing images and feelings. Nothing in his memory recalled this place or the awareness that must have grown within…

You have seen the ultimate goal of the Emperor, my friend,’ said Sejanus. 'Now it is time for you see how he began his quest for godhood,’

'With the primarchs?' said Horus. 'That makes no sense,’

It makes perfect sense. You were to be his generals. Like unto gods, you would bestride planets and claim back the galaxy for him. You were a weapon, Horus, a weapon to be cast aside once blunted and past all use­fulness.'

Horus turned from Sejanus and marched along the walkway, stopping periodically to peer through the glass of the tanks. He saw something different in each one, light and form indistinguishable, organisms like architec­ture, eyes and wheels turning in circles of fire. Power like nothing he had known was at work, and he could feel die potent energies surrounding and protecting the tanks, rip­pling across his skin like waves in the air.

He stopped by the tank with XI stencilled upon it and placed his hand against the smooth steel, feeling the untapped glories diat might have lain ahead for what grew widiin, but knowing that they would never come to pass. He leaned forward to look within.

You know what happens here, Horus,' said Sejanus. You are not long for this place.'

Yes,' said Horus. There was an accident. We were lost, scattered across the stars until the Emperor discovered us.' 'No,' said Sejanus. There was no accident.' Horus turned from the glass, confused. 'What are you talking about? Of course there was. We were hurled from Terra like leaves in a storm. I came to Cthonia, Russ to Fenris, Sanguineus to Baal and the odiers to die worlds they were raised on.'

'No, you misunderstand me. I meant that it wasn't an accident,’ said Sejanus. 'Look around you. You know how far beneath the earth we are and you saw the pro­tective wards carved on the doors diat led here. What manner of accident do you think could reach into this facility and scatter you so far across the galaxy? And what were the chances of you all coming to rest on ancient homeworlds of humanity?'

Horus had no answer for him and leaned on the walk­way's railing taking deep breaths as Sejanus approached him. What are you suggesting?'

'I am suggesting nothing. I am telling you what hap­pened.'

You are telling me nothing!' roared Horus. You fill my head with speculation and conjecture, but you tell me nothing concrete. Maybe I'm being stupid, I don't know, so explain what you mean in plain words,’

Very well,’ nodded Sejanus. 'I will tell you of your cre­ation,’

Thunderheads rumbled over the summit of the Delphos, and Euphrati Keeler snapped off a couple of quick picts of the structure's immensity, silhouetted against sheets of purple lighting. She knew die picts were nothing special, the composition banal and pedestrian, but she took them anyway knowing that every moment of this historic time had to be recorded for future gener­ations.

'Are you done?' asked Titus Cassar, who stood a little way behind her. The prayer meeting's in a few moments and you don't want to be late,’

'I know, Titus, stop fussing,’

She had met Titus Cassar the day after she had arrived in the valley of the Delphos, following the secret Lectitio Divinitatus symbols to a clandestine prayer meeting he had organised in the shadow of the mighty building. She had been surprised by how many people were part of his congregation, nearly sixty souls, all with their heads bowed and reciting prayers to the Divine Emperor of Mankind.

Cassar had welcomed her into his flock, but people had quickly gravitated to her daily prayers and sermons, preferring diem to his. For all his faith, Cassar was no orator and his awkward, spiky delivery left a lot to be

desired. He had faith, but he was no iterator, that was for sure. She had worried that he might resent her usurping his group, but he had welcomed it, knowing that he was a follower, not a leader.

In truth, she was no leader either. Like Cassar, she had faith, but felt uncomfortable standing in front of large groups of people. The crowds of the faithful didn't seem to notice, staring at her in rapturous adoration as she delivered the word of the Emperor.

'I'm not fussing, Euphrati.'

'Yes you are.'

'Well, maybe I am, but I have to get back to the Dies Irae before I'm missed. Princeps Tumet will have my hide if he finds out what I've been doing here.'

The mighty war engines of the Legio Mortis stood sen­tinel over the Warmaster at the mouth of the valley, their bulk too enormous to allow them to enter. The crater looked more like the site of a military muster than a gath­ering of pilgrims and supplicants: tanks, trucks, flatbeds and mobile command vehicles having carried tens of thousands of people to this place over the past seven days.

Together with the bizarre-looking locals, a huge portion of the Expeditionary fleet filled the crater with makeshift camps all around the Delphos. People had, in a won­drous outpouring of spontaneous feeling, made their way to where the Warmaster lay, and the scale of it still had the power to take Euphrati's breath away. The steps of the temple were thick with offerings to the Warmaster, and she knew that many of the people here had given all they had in the hope that it might speed his recovery in some way.

Keeler had a new passion in her life, but she was still an imagist at heart, and some of the picts she had taken here were amongst her finest work.

'Yes, you're right, we should go,' she said, folding up her picter and hanging it around her neck. She ran her

hand through her hair, still not used to how short it was now, but liking how it made her feel.

'Have you thought about what you're going to say tonight?' asked Cassar as they made their way through the thronged site to the prayer meeting.

'No, not really,’ she answered. 'I never plan that far ahead. I just let the Emperor's light fill me and then I speak from the heart.'

Cassar nodded, hanging on her every word. She smiled.

'You know, six months ago, I'd have laughed if any­one had said things like that