The Wayward Son

All four of the raiders and all of the Hellion skyboards pelted Faelan and Renfaeda's location with a ridiculous barrage of firepower. The Aeshul twins and the klaivexes managed to dodge it for a moment until Nelfaera threw something directly at Renfaeda's chest. It was orb shaped and it clamped onto her breast armour. She was unable to pull it off in time while dodging fire and could only watch with horror as Nelfaera pressed a button on a trigger she was carrying. Mairan and Tullarias noticed it too late and could do nothing to stop it as the apparent bomb exploded in a violent eruption. Faelan and Renfaeda were both caught in the explosion. For some reason it turned both of their bodies into glass. The glass then shattered into millions of pieces shortly afterward and was seared with more firepower before Nelfaera's forces finally ceased shooting.

The syren stylishly flexed as a proud grin crossed her face, "Hahahaha!"

"What just happened!?" Ashera demanded.

"Honestly, I can't believe it worked that easily. I really am a genius sometimes. And I got Faelan in the explosion too! Double kill for me! Thanks for giving me the opening everyone. I never expected it to go this perfectly," Nelfaera laughed happily at her handiwork. Many of her forces began to cheer in excited bloodthirsty chants at the successful kill.

Mairan and Tullarias had been lucky enough to not get caught in it, but seemed shocked by the events that just transpired.

"What manner of bomb was that?! I've never seen anything like it!" Ashera demanded an answer.

Nelfaera shook her head, "No I imagine you wouldn't have. It was a Glass Plague Darklight bomb. They're super expensive and hard to make. You wouldn't believe the favors I had to pull to get one of those. I guess it's a good thing I didn't miss huh?"

"You have no honour…wych," Mairan hissed venomously at Nelfaera as she and Tullarias recovered and slowly stood back up.

She crossed her arms victoriously, "I don't know...would you say I honoured our agreement Seiras? You're all free to go now that I got what I want."

"I suppose you did..." he responded as he himself was still coming to terms with what just happened.

"Hear that? I guess I am honourable. I suggest you two stand down unless you'd like to join my cousins in death? I don't really have any reason to kill unemployed incubi...in fact I believe my aunt could use two klaivexes in her Kabal. What do you say? I'm sure she'll pay you well." Nelfaera announced with intoxicating smugness.

"You make me sick...everything about you is a disgrace to warriors everywhere!" Mairan spat at her.

Nelfaera haughtily started laughing now, "Oh calm down there Bride of Khaine. Let's not get too dramatic here. You hated Renfaeda just as much as I did. Plus, Faelan had it coming. You both did your best, and I admire your loyalty…but this is over. I won!"

"It would seem you have," Tullarias acknowledged bitterly.

"Last chance...want to join us?" Nelfaera asked.

"I will not speak for you Tullarias, but I refuse to follow anyone associated with her!" Mairan spoke to her fellow Klaivex.

"We share the same feelings, Mairan. I refuse as well," Tullarias stated coldly as he kept his klaive readied in case he had to fight to the death.

"Suit yourselves then. I'm not going to kill you. I got what I wanted. Karyphea and I need to go regroup with the others. Good luck in your escape Seiras. I hope we meet again one day," Nelfaera chuckled as she walked away. By then one of the raiders landed for her to jump aboard.

"Wait, Nelfaera!" Seiras called out after her.

She stopped briefly and smirked at him, "It's okay, Seiras…I love you too. We'll meet again one day."

"Vect is coming here…in case you didn't know," he replied without acknowledging her strange remark. He couldn't tell if it was a joke or not, but that was the least of his concerns right now.

She shrugged, "Yes, some of those Cult of Strife girls told me about it. Fortunately, Lady Malys has her Talisman of Vaul back in working order. Vect is waiting for her to reappear and is too paranoid to show up first. I'd get out while you can. Oh and in case you're wondering I'm going to go recruit my father. I found out he lives on some Exodite world called Syph. Hopefully, I can introduce you one day."

Seiras could barely believe her upbeat and nonchalant attitude as she cheerily departed with Karyphea and her forces shortly afterwards.

'Just when I think I'm starting to understand these xenos...they get even stranger,' the librarian thought to himself as Nelfaera's forces flew away into the horizon.

"Come on, we need to move…we've already kept the others waiting too long!" Seiras quickly snapped out of his confused daze.

"Oh no…these two fiends aren't leaving here alive! Khaine demands their blood!" Sorellia interjected.

"What are you waiting for then, little whore? Come finish us off if you can," Mairan taunted Sorellia.

Before the banshee could do something stupid, Seiras blocked her advance with his halberd, "No…we're getting out of here, NOW! Faelan is dead…you have your revenge. Let it go! They can't stop us anymore."

"Seiras, we have them beat! You won't deny me this! They don't get to walk away after what they did to us!" Sorellia protested.

"Every second we waste here, more of your aspect warriors and our other forces are dying to hold the armoury. We need to get out of here before Vect shows up!" Seiras dissuaded her.

"Yes…run away, fake 'Warriors of Khaine.'" Tullarias taunted.

Sorellia seemed to be fighting against every killer instinct in her body to charge after them. Ashera while equally dissatisfied about the idea of fleeing seemed more in control.

Neither one took the bait fortunately enough as they seemed to calm down. The two exarchs decided to take the high road as they ran for one of the remaining raiders on the landing pad. Meela immediately followed behind them. Seiras lingered back and kept watching the two klaivexes to make sure they wouldn't pursue, and it was good that he did. Both moved with blinding speed as they tried to juke past him and pursue the exarchs. With Meela now out of his range, Seiras could use his psychic powers and he froze them both in place. He wasted no time psychically yanking them away despite their best efforts to break free.

"I gave you a chance..." was all Seiras said as he telekinetically lifted both klaivexes off the ground.

Seiras did the most appropriate thing he could think of to end things quickly and simply just tossed them both off the edge of the spire. By then, Ashera had the raider in the air and halfway towards him. He swiftly leapt onto the raider with the others, and it took off in the skies back towards the armoury.

Once they were clear of the scene, Seiras let out a sigh of relief, 'I can't believe they're finally dead…it didn't go nearly how I expected it might, but I guess Nelfaera came through to help me after all. Plus it's fortunate news that Lady Malys is slowing Vect down. That's a better distraction than I could have hoped for. I still don't understand how that bomb turned them into glass. It's a shame I can't ask Melisara...'

"And so they died anyways…what was the point of holding me back, Seiras?! I deserved to cut those two down for what they did!" Sorellia complained.

"Isn't knowing they're dead good enough for you? I didn't expect we'd get this lucky to kill them all, but it worked out didn't it?" Seiras tried to calm her down.

She sighed heavily, "Yes…I suppose you're right. I'm glad you were there with us. None of that played out how I imagined. We didn't even encounter one harlequin."

"Indeed…that's strange. Somehow I get the feeling this is far from over. At least we don't have to worry about Faelan and his inner circle anymore. Nelfaera even kept her word and let us go. Of all the things that have happened today, I find that to be the most surprising," Seiras said almost disbelievingly.

"So this entire time you've known what everyone was saying in our language?" Ashera asked. She almost sounded embarrassed asking this question. It seemed strange that she would considering the obvious answer.

"Yes…you have my apologies for not telling you, but I couldn't risk revealing that secret under any circumstance. Even after I began to trust you exarchs, I didn't want to risk someone finding out. Considering how the situation with Sylea went, it's probably good that I didn't," he explained.

Ashera nodded her head, "Your logic makes sense. Plus, you had no idea if we were actually going to betray you later on. I don't blame you for keeping it a secret. Though I will admit I'm disturbed that you were actually working with Melisara the Immortal Revenant this entire time. She is pure evil…I can't even fathom what you had to give her in exchange for helping you."

"Not much, believe it or not…Melisara wanted Ferrus returned to the Imperium. She had a clone of Ferrus Manus in her lab. Apparently she got it from a chaos marine named Fabius Bile who was the Chief Apothecary of the Emperor's Children legion. Melisara wanted me to bind the primarch's soul to this clone body…we went through Khaine's Gate after I slipped away during the Kabal battle and into the warp. There I managed to bring him back to life…with a lot of help from the Emperor of course," Seiras told them the truth.

Ashera tilted her head at him, "You…physically went through Khaine's Gate?! Into the warp itself? I…find that hard to believe. No offense…"

"If you care to know the details, I'll tell you the whole story when we're on a ship out of Commorragh. I can barely believe it myself and I was there," Seiras shrugged.

"That would explain why the primarch was so willing to follow your plan. You've been plotting this with him ever since you got back. He also likely trusts you if you went into the warp to recover his soul. But…I'm still curious as to why Melisara of all beings would want this primarch returned to the Imperium. It doesn't make any sense to me…" Ashera remarked skeptically.

"Melisara is fanatically obsessed with the Emperor of Mankind's genetic work. From what I could tell she had surprisingly complex motives. Melisara said something about how empowering the Imperium would help stem the tide of Chaos and Necrons. She also told me a story about how she helped fix the Golden Throne a long time ago. I get the impression she actually cares about the preservation of the galaxy…even if it means helping humans. Melisara had a great admiration for science and progress. Beyond her perverted and sick mind, I got the impression she wanted to do something impactful for the galaxy. She may be evil for all I know, but I couldn't have brought Ferrus back without her," the librarian noted.

"They mentioned she enhanced you…is that true?" Sorellia asked, "I mean you seem a lot faster than I remember."

"She did enhance me…she also warned me about Faelan and Vect before teleporting away and destroying her lab. Melisara didn't want anyone knowing that she was the mastermind behind this whole thing. Though it seems Vect figured her out and she was forced to expedite my escape. That's what happened before I freed you all from the slave chamber. I didn't tell you because she didn't want anyone to know. I think that was mostly due to the harlequin presence observing me. That and she didn't entirely trust craftworlders from what I gathered," he elaborated further.

"Well…the farseer will certainly find this incredibly strange, but at least Melisara won't be an obstacle in our escape now. Who would have guessed Vect's favorite haemonculus would betray Commorragh to help the Imperium? Even with your confirmation I can scarcely believe it's true. Are you certain this isn't some long-term plan of hers? She could be working with Vect to lure us back into a trap," Sorellia assumed the worst.

Seiras shrugged, "Well if that's true, then there's nothing we can do about it now. Our path is fixed. We must follow through with the plan."

"So…I have to ask. How did you learn our language, Seiras? I have come to realize that you're not stupid, but it takes genuine instruction over years for even Aeldari to master it. You speak with a fluent Asuryani accent, and your grammar is pretty decent. Even if you were somehow smarter than an Eldar, it would be impossible to gain this level of proficiency without a teacher or practice with an eldar," Sorellia wondered.

"You mentioned an autarch in a spirit stone taught you a lot about Eldar, correct? What was his name again? Kalyra from Aldmorian? Did he teach you our language as well?" Ashera followed.

Seiras nodded, "Yes…Kalyra taught me. I had his spirit stone for a long time before your craftworld rescued me from Chaos marines. He's in a wraithlord now. He didn't give up all of this information by choice, but I did promise to reunite him with his own kind one day. That in addition to threats of me breaking his spirit stone convinced him to do so. I'm certain he's seen more of the Imperium than he probably ever cared to."

"Well, I assume there's no more secrets between us then? Is there anything else we should know about, Seiras? I think we've proven our loyalty to this alliance by now…" Ashera pressed him for more information.

The librarian thought for a moment, "Well…there is one more thing. It was something I didn't want to mention to any of your people. Iruna said something about how I was a danger to others since I have psychic glamour. I believe there's some veiled prophecy involving me since Sylandri Veilwalker is also after me. Even a few decades ago Saim-Hann sent a number of assassins after me for some reason. That's all I honestly know about the situation…but Iruna did say that we would meet again when I last saw her. I'm just hoping she doesn't plan on trying to kill me once you're all delivered safely back to Iybraesil. She also made sure I had this before sending me off…it's a webway generator remote. The same one they recovered from Fulgrim's flagship."

"Oooh…that's one of the harlequin ones! You had something like that this entire time?! We can easily shake off even Vect's fleet if we have one of these to open all the secret back tunnels in the webway!" Sorellia exclaimed with approval.

"Iruna's really outdone herself with this…I have to say. I can't believe you have one of those," Ashera said approvingly.

Seiras shook his head, "Just so you know, Melisara took this from Aelendriel after I got captured. She also made sure to give this back to me after taking off my collar. That either means she's waiting in ambush along the way or she genuinely wanted to help us escape."

"That's good to know. Well I'm glad we've cleared everything up. Ashera, how far until we reach the armoury?" Sorellia asked. The banshee was vigilantly observing the battlefield in between their conversation.

"Not long now assuming we don't get any pursuers. The Kabal is in serious disarray at the moment. Look at all that havoc down there," Ashera pointed down below.

The streets were overrun with desperate slaves making a run for it, kabalites battling each other, and much more. Just the sheer volume of freed slaves and the Dreaded Nightmare Kabalites attacking the Twlight Shadow and Black Heart ones was pure mayhem. Countless ships were shooting each other overhead in the skies as fighters, bombers, and all manner of other flying contraptions exploded over the horizon. They couldn't have asked for a better distraction than this. For a moment Seiras was actually starting to believe that good fortune was on his side.

A painful headache and a sense of discomfort quickly flared up and drew Seiras from his thoughts. It was then Seiras actually remembered that Meela was with them. It seemed strange how everyone almost seemed to forget that she was there.

With his collar gone, Seiras felt great discomfort and superficial pain from her proximity as Meela got closer towards him. She silently gestured towards him in her hand signs, (What do you plan to do with me, space marine? None of you have said a word to me yet and I don't understand their language…I don't know what to expect.)

Ashera and Sorellia seemed to immediately remember that Meela was there as well and watched the interaction disapprovingly.

"I forgot she was here…what are we going to do about her, Seiras?" Ashera asked.

"I say we throw this soulless abomination overboard," Sorellia remarked hostilely.

Seiras shook his head, "No…she helped us, remember? Meela is a Sister of Silence. I think it's pretty clear where her loyalty lies after stabbing Faelan in the back."

"What's to stop her from doing the same to us? That thing makes me sick…are you seriously suggesting we bring her along? You have no idea how wicked she is." Sorellia protested.

"I can't think of a better deterrent against harlequin illusions than having a pariah with us. Just endure it…she's useful until we escape if nothing else," Seiras dissuaded.

The exarchs both disapproved, but they made no further fuss about it as they went quiet again.

"We're going to bring you along for now Meela…I can't say what your fate will be when we get out of here, but that's not up to me," the librarian told her.

Meela gestured at Seiras again, (Thank you for trusting me then…I'm sorry I didn't help you out earlier, but I'm glad I could stop my master when it counted. That device he was going to use would have done serious damage to you as a psyker.)

(I went back and forth wondering whether or not you could be trusted. I figured out your hidden messages, but you never really gave me any indication that you were plotting against Faelan.) he gestured back.

(Centuries of earning his trust…enduring all of this. I knew I would only have one chance to both prove my loyalty to you and to get free from here once and for all. I'm grateful that you gave me that chance. If I'm being honest though, I probably wouldn't have acted had you not been winning. It shames me to admit that, but you deserve the truth. I wouldn't have wasted all these years of earning their trust had I not been certain of your victory. I apologize for that, but I hope you accept my actions as penance at the very least.) she motioned back.

"I don't blame you for that. Nevertheless, Ferrus Manus is aware of your situation, Meela…don't be surprised if he doesn't trust you right away. I'd say your fate is up to him or your Sisterhood if we manage to get you back to them," Seiras spoke aloud.

She nodded her head at him, (If he deems my heresy punishable by death then I will gladly die in peace with a clear conscience. I know you must think poorly of me for serving for so long here, but they wouldn't let me die. Eventually, I lost hope and stopped trying to resist. It wasn't until after they brought you back to life that I even dared to humor such delusions again.)

(I probably would have suffered your same fate had I been here half as long as you were. I'm the last person who will judge you for doing what you had to do in this evil place.) Seiras gestured back.

(Strange for one of your kind to be so understanding. Space Marines tend to see everything in black and white. I appreciate your empathy. At least we did the right thing in the end. Rest assured that I will not speak of your secrets to anyone once we're free.) she sent back.

"Fair enough…" the librarian nodded before looking away.

Seiras took this moment to scan for any sign of the other Astartes and to his disappointment there was none. He spoke into his open vox channel privately hoping that perhaps he could get a hold of them, "This is Epistolary Seiras of the Deathwatch. Does anyone copy?"

He was met with no response. The librarian felt a bit saddened that they didn't show up. He couldn't blame them of course since it could have easily been a trap, but hopefully he wouldn't need their help to see his mission completed.

Deciding to call Ferrus instead, the librarian hailed his vox, "Lord Ferrus…we're on our way back. Did the aspect warriors get there yet?"

Ferrus responded immediately, "Yes…most of them made it and are gearing up now. Countless other slaves have been pouring in to reinforce us at the armoury as well. Most of them are useless cannon fodder and are getting gunned down, but the human and Tau soldiers are at least useful. Did you run into any complications at that spire? The eldar slaves that just arrived here said you were holding off the archon."

"We took him out and we're on our way back. Believe it or not that Sister of Silence helped us kill him. I leave her fate up to you my lord, but we're flying back now. ETA five minutes," the librarian summarized.

"Good…any news about that Vect showing up yet?" Ferrus asked.

A second later someone interrupted their vox call, "This is Asdrubael Vect, and you two must be the primarch and the space marine slave?"

'Oh no!' Seiras thought completely spooked by the unexpected interruption in their vox call.

"How are you on a vox frequency?! Only Astartes should be able to get this one through their helmets!" Seiras demanded.

"Your god-prince will make a fine addition to my collection of rare and exotic monkeigh slaves. I understand Melisara helped you orchestrate all of this…quite a shame. I always did like her. This little charade has gone on long enough I'd say," Vect boasted without answering his question.

"You will not stop us, alien…I will make sure of that!" Ferrus shouted into the vox.

Vect chuckled, "Yes, I remember a Jaghatai Khan saying something quite similar…before I captured him. I wonder, primarch…are you willing to run away knowing he's in my Ziggarat frozen in stasis?"

'What?! Vect has the Khan in his Ziggarat?!' Seiras thought shocked by the news.

"You have Jaghatai?!" Ferrus seemed enraged by this news.

'Oh no…this is not good. This is just the kind of complication I was worried about. I can't risk Lord Ferrus getting strung up by this Supreme Archon's schemes. We have to get out of here while we can!' Seiras thought concerned.

"He's lying, Lord Ferrus…he just wants to lure us in. We can't confirm that! Even if it's true, we're not equipped to deal with his Ziggurat." Seiras tried to convince Ferrus not to buy it.

Vect chuckled, "That's who that little space marine fleet was in here looking for. Let's just say your space marine friends won't be showing up to help you today. I sealed them in a tight little corner of the webway. They're stuck there until their Ynnari friends decide to free them…if they do haha! I just thought you two might want to know that."

"I'm surprised you haven't shown up here yet. Why is that?" Seiras asked calmly. He already knew the answer, but he hoped to gain some additional information.

"Why would I come to you when I already know where you're at and where you're going? Plus, I know Malys is just waiting for me to show up and rescue Faelan's Kabal so she can try and ambush me. Her little Ynnari fleet attacking Faelan's Kabal has to be most obvious trap I've ever seen. I sent him in as bait…even he expected me to show up by now. Judging by your optimism I assume he's already dead. Oh well...I suppose Tahril might still catch you before I do." Vect said nonchalantly.

'How stupid can I be, he's tracking us through this vox! Damn it!' Seiras immediately realized that Vect was keeping them on call to trace their location.

"Lord Ferrus, he's tracing us! Turn off your vox!" Seiras announced before shutting his off in his helmet.

'I can't believe we let him keep us on that call for that long. I don't know how good tracking technology is for dark eldar, but that was probably more than enough time to get a general idea of where we are. From what it sounds like he and Malys are both staying back waiting for the other to show up here first. Thank the Emperor we have this webway remote. Dodging both of those fleets will prove problematic. Hopefully, we can find an alternate route to bypass his fleet if he doesn't show up here first. I just hope Lord Ferrus doesn't do anything reckless like try to attack his ziggurat head on,' Seiras reviewed the situation with urgency.

He decided not to mention the Vect call to either of the exarchs. From what he could tell they seemed stressed enough as it was. He would just have to hope that neither Vect nor Malys arrived before they were on a ship and burning sky.

"It looks like a large amount of our warriors reached the armoury…look at all that shuriken fire down there," Sorellia pointed out with a sigh of relief.

Glancing down at the armoury below, Seiras saw many armed and armoured aspect warriors now advancing out of the armoury and making a serious push against the surrounding enemies. Over half of the warriors there were simply guardians, but even they proved to be far superior to anyone else guarding the armoury.

"Taking us in now, Seiras…psychic ward please," Ashera looked at him.

"I don't think I can with Meela right here…" Seiras said slowly.

"Urghhh, this null woman is starting to become way more trouble than she's worth!" Sorellia groaned.

Ashera stayed professionally calm as she responded, "It looks like the others are covering our descent anyways. So it doesn't matter."

Despite their allies covering their descent and suppressing enemy AA weapons, the raider was still unfortunately shot out of the sky by heavy weapons' fire. Fortunately, they were close enough to the ground to safely leap off before it crashed onto the battlefield. A death volley from all the armed slaves did wonders to kill whoever made the shot.

The two exarchs landed gracefully on the ground after leaping from the ravager while Seiras and Meela landed with aggressive, heavy thuds due to their power armour. It didn't take long for the other exarchs to reach them.

"About time you got back…I started to fear the worst," Tallath said with relief when to Sorellia and Ashera.

"Yes, it was…complicated but Faelan and Renfaeda are both dead. Seiras also has a harlequin webway generator remote. We can take a backdoor tunnel out of here and avoid pursuers," Ashera noted.

"About what happened…some of the warriors said he was lying to us? I want details." Tallath said almost hostilely towards Seiras.

"Drop it Tallath…now! We'll discuss this later. Seiras told us everything on the flight back. I trust him. Now let's get out of here and head for the foundry!" Ashera immediately shut down Tallath's accusatory doubt.

The Striking Scorpion seemed a bit surprised by her statement, but nodded. He then turned towards Seiras, "It's good that everything went well up there. We can discuss details later."

"So it looks like you got all the slave chambers open too. Were there any other relevant updates while we were gone?" Seiras asked.

Atharen soon joined their conversation as he walked over, "I opened up all the slave chambers. Everyone worth bringing made it here or they died along the way. The rest are wreaking havor across the entire spire. There was one interesting development however. I was surprised to find that half of the defenses here were already sabotaged before I opened the chambers. Our warriors said it was someone related to the archon's family and that Hellions were involved."

"Yes, Nelfaera sabotaged the whole spire with her Hellion friends. She actually killed Faelan and Renfaeda with a surprise bomb. Apparently, she's with the Ynnari now," Ashera scoffed at the idea.

"If you're all done standing around talking, then let's get to a ship!" Ferrus interrupted them.

"Are there any left at the foundry hanger?" Seiras asked expecting the worst possible news.

Atharen nodded, "Yes…a frigate. It's docked under the main bay shields, but I made sure to lock down its clamps at the control center. It's probably got the full crew inside, but they can't take off unless I enter the override code on the bridge."

'I'm glad he considered that detail because I overlooked it,' Seiras thought relieved.

"Good work Atharen. I half expected all the ships would be destroyed or in the air after all this time," Sorellia exclaimed with relief.

"Soldiers, form up! We're moving!" Ferrus commanded as he immediately took point and started his way towards the foundry hanger. Everyone was quick to follow behind him. Most of the aspect warriors didn't seem all too thrilled about working with others, but they followed, nonetheless.

What really surprised Seiras though was the sheer number of people that found out about this main escape party. News had apparently traveled fast because there was A LOT more people than he expected here. Easily thousands by his estimates. While a normal person would see this as a good thing, Seiras already knew that it was going to slow them down. Worst of all, a lot of them were non-combatants and civilians. It made sense in a sad way…they had nowhere else to go and probably hoped following a mob of soldiers would keep them safe.

'I'll bet Ferrus is just seething about this…we'll be a giant slow target if we have to protect all these people,' Seiras thought disapprovingly.

Then again, there must have been hundreds of armed humans now who were wielding anything they could from lasrifles, xenos weapons, pistols, to even shivs and poles. It was doubtful even half would be able to survive and slip in with the main escape party, but perhaps some would get lucky.

Seiras decided to move up closer to the front and quickly caught up to Ferrus, "My lord…why are all these civilians here?"

Ferrus had his helmet on still, but Seiras knew he was scowling as hard as humanly possible. The primarch was obliterating everything in front of the mob and his body language alone was unusually violent and aggressive.

"I guess someone spread the word that we were breaking out and that a primarch was here. I watched thousands of slaves get gunned down trying to get to us. Some of the others have expressed sympathy, but I don't approve of having this giant conglomeration of civilians tagging along. This isn't a rescue operation. They're going to compromise our position," Ferrus groaned.

"I guess if they make it, they deserve to come…those who fall behind will just have to be left behind," Seiras stated coldly.

"True enough…I already told them not to step up if they couldn't keep up. I suppose they're hoping they get lucky. We'll see how many actually make it once we make our run through the foundry. I'll do what I can to save the soldiers, but I'm not stopping for any of these civilians. Just so we're clear," the primarch said heartlessly.

Running as fast as she could, the Cadian Major Medina soon got to the front of the group, "My lords…do you want us covering the rear or should we watch the flanks?"

"Cover the flanks with your soldiers and those Tau…Seiras cover the rear. I'll remain at the vanguard," Ferrus commanded.

The librarian obeyed the order without question as he moved to the back of the fast moving mob.

Tallath was quick to intercept the librarian and questioned him, "Where are you going?"

"Lord Ferrus wants me to watch the rear. He's taking point and the guardsman are watching the flanks. I imagine your craftworlders are probably taking point as well," Seiras explained.

The striking scorpion nodded, "Most of us yes. The guardians, Warp Spiders, Dire Avengers, my Striking Scorpions, and the Howling Banshees are all taking point. Ashera and her fire dragons are covering the rear. We have a dozen or so Dark Reapers to help them as well. I'm sure they'll welcome your aid back there."

"One can only hope…" he replied.

Tallath shook his head, "Despite your…deceptions, I feel it imperative to tell you that I appreciate you honouring your word to free our warriors. The fact that Ashera would speak in your defense is proof enough that you probably had your reasons. I hope to talk with you further about it later. For now, do what you can to keep them safe…and I will do what I can to save as many of your fellow monkeigh as I can. I owe you that much at least."

"Thank you, Tallath," Seiras nodded.

"It would seem Iruna was right to save you after all…I look forward to seeing her again," Tallath stated before making his way to the front.

Seiras continued onward back to the rear of the escaping mob. Along the way he saw many humans and aliens who looked completely full of hope that their horrible existence in this realm was coming to an end soon. Ironically enough it would for all of them whether that involved death or a lucky escape.

"Bless you great angel…bless you!" some random and dirty old woman bowed her head passing him.

"Thank you angel!" another person exclaimed.

Countless comments like this came his way as he passed through the mob to the back. In a way it made him feel guilty and uncomfortable. These people would not be nearly as gracious if they knew all of the horrible and cruel things it took for him to orchestrate this breakout…or his willingness to leave them all behind due to their lack of strategic value.

Upon finally reaching the back of the mob, he spotted Ashera and her fire dragons as well as the dozen dark reapers.

They were speed walking and were already passing up lagging humans that were actually running. Seiras tried not to look at the sickly people who couldn't keep up and did his best to tune out cries for help as their relatives or friends stayed back to assist them.

Ashera glanced at him as he kept pace with her, "I'm glad you're back here with us…once we pass into the foundry, the rear is going to be a huge weak spot. I'm expecting what's left of their raiders and ravagers to hit us from behind once we get there. That's why we're covering the rear."

"What if they hit the front?" Seiras wondered.

"I'm certain your primarch can handle that. I watched him grab a raider out of the air and throw it at a squad of Commorites before you arrived," one of the other fire dragons stated.

Seiras found it strange that this random aspect warrior would actually speak to him in Aeldari. Part of him wondered if they were actually grateful, but that seemed a bit far-fetched even in spite of everything he did for them.

"Good to know…how many of your people made it?" Seiras asked the nameless fire dragon.

He sighed in disapproval, "We lost three raiders on our way here. Each one had a twelve or so warriors on it. Another one got shot down when we reached the armoury and they all died as well. Still, the rest of us managed to get here with only a few casualties. It's unfortunate, but there's nothing we can do for them. At least the ones that died near the armoury probably went into empty spirit stones inside. We made sure to take all of the stones as well. They're valuable to us."

One of the dark reapers soon joined their conversation, "How did you learn our language?"

"An autarch taught me," Seiras answered.

"It is fortunate the farseer saved you then. If we both survive this, I would be interested in speaking to you further on the matter," the dark reaper stated.

"An Eldar that willingly wants to talk to me…I guess there's a first for everything," Seiras couldn't help but comment.

"A monkeigh space marine with intellectual capacity who is willing to assist Aeldari…I guess there's a first for that as well," the reaper shot back.

Seiras was genuinely surprised by the interaction. He knew enough about dark reapers to know that they were not friendly even to other eldar. It would be interesting to see how this would ultimately affect relations with Iybraesil…more specifically his relations with them. What he knew for certain now though was that he was going to update information on them in the Watch Station database.

'Iybraesil…honest, cooperative, and mostly non-hostile to humans. Well, let's just hope I get to put that down. This isn't over yet,' Seiras thought to himself.

"Hey, we got wounded back here, can any of you help?!" Some random man called out to Seiras in particular.

The librarian glanced back at the lagging people, "If you can't carry them, then leave them. We can't save everyone."

"We can't just leave them behind though!" the man pleaded.

Seiras chose to ignore the man and the pathetic cries for help as the group continued onwards.

"Can you help me find my mom? I got separated from her, and I don't know where she is! She's got red hair and she's wearing a green shirt. I can't find her!" some sad pre-pubescent boy called out as he ran to the back of the mob towards Seiras.

"I saw a woman like that on my way back here. She's up ahead. Stay with the group child," Seiras lied to him.

The clueless child believed him as he turned around and bolted back into the main mob.

Ashera seemed to know that Seiras lied and shook her head, "I didn't expect you to have sympathy for them…"

"I guess I have a weakness for helping children," he shrugged.

"So, after you killed Maeralya…what ever became of all her living dolls? Sorellia asked me about it before she went to the front." Ashera asked.

"I freed them and told them to hide near the foundry. If they're still alive then I guess they can come along. If not, then it's not really our problem," he responded dryly.

"Judging by the state of this spire, I highly doubt they got anywhere close. It would seem your little Sororita friend won't be making it," Ashera stated almost carelessly.

Seiras shrugged, "I guess we'll see."

"It's strange Vect still hasn't shown up yet…I expected him to be here by now," Ashera said concerned.

"I think he's holding back his main force to intercept us. He actually patched through a vox call between Lord Ferrus and I right before we got back to the armoury. He tried to taunt Ferrus into attacking his Ziggarat," Seiras revealed the news.

Ashera likely rolled her eyes beneath her helmet as she scoffed, "I hope he wasn't foolish enough to fall for it."

"No, but Vect did say he had another primarch in stasis on his Ziggarat. Jaghatai Khan supposedly. I tried to convince Lord Ferrus that it was a lie. Even if it is true, we can't jeopardize our escape for it. I've seen firsthand what that ziggurat can do…we're in trouble if we get anywhere near that thing," Seiras remarked.

"I hope he listens to you then…or this could all fall apart very quickly. I'll make sure to tell Atharen to not give the primarch any say in navigation," she said distantly.

'I should see if those women are still alive with Tira now that I think about it,' Seiras thought as the group picked up pace.

Quite a few of the sickly and injured were starting to fall behind now, but he stoically paid them no mind as he advanced onward. He knew that Ferrus was right…these people were already slowing them down. Nevertheless, the addition of the craftworlders had proven to be the biggest aid he could hope for short of Astartes. The aspect warriors were especially fast and deadly against the dark eldar and it was clear all of them were pissed as he watched a few the Dark Reapers get a bit too overzealous about shooting Kabalites that were already dead.

Focusing his psychic abilities, he tried to contact Tira again, "Assassin, are you there?"

"I hear you Seiras…what's going on right now? Are you on your way here?" Tira asked calmly.

"We're getting closer to the foundry. It's taking a bit longer than I anticipated since a giant mob of slaves tried to join up with our escape force. Most are just civilians, and a lot are starting to lose pace. Where are you all at right now?" he followed up.

Tira sighed, "Well…that shaft over the foundry we were at recently collapsed. We're hiding in a refueling station at the far end of the foundry. There's a couple of downed Raiders obscuring us. They make for good cover, but it'll be difficult for some of these worthless damsels to climb over. I'm looking out now and I see a small escort ship docked near us. It hasn't taken off for some reason. I figured that was probably the ship you were planning on taking out of here, so I had us bunker down and wait here."

"Okay, I'll make my way to you once we get closer. Don't leave that location for any reason until I arrive. A lot of these civilians are getting gunned down in our group. I'll prioritize your extraction once we start boarding," he explained.

"I'm relieved to hear that you consider our rescue worth your time. I was honestly just about to ditch these pompous whores and try to find the armoury. You should know that the women aren't really listening to me. Sylea is the only reason they're even still following me. One of them tried to run and I almost killed her. I figured you probably want them dead if we can't extract them yes?" she responded.

"Yes, good work. Make sure you kill them if they try to run. We'll be there in a few minutes hopefully. Be sure to stay in cover. Before I end this psychic link, is there any other relevant information I should know?" the librarian questioned her.

"It looks like they just found out about your escape party…I see a lot of them coming off the ramp of the ship. It'll probably be fortified by the time you get here," she stated.

"I'm certain Lord Ferrus will handle that…just stay quiet and hidden. See you soon," Seiras ended the psychic link.

Several minutes passed as the escape mob fought their way to the foundry hanger. They had lost over half their civilians by this point. Only about a quarter of them had been to actual injuries and kills, but a lot of the escapees foolishly tried to stay back and help their comrades.

In just a few short minutes, Seiras saw quite a few emotional farewells between various slaves as they reluctantly abandoned those that couldn't keep moving. He felt pity for the ones that were doomed to die in this horrible place knowing that their friends or loved ones were escaping. Nevertheless, a few inspirational sights did surprise him.

He saw people of all walks of life trying their best to help each other. One example that stuck out the most was the sight of three hive gangers working together to carry a wounded old man with them. It almost seemed astounding that the scum of humanity were endangering themselves to help an elderly person. In the brief moments between combat it gave him a deeper insight into what the human spirit truly meant…unity.

As for the aliens, very few of them received the same kind of help human slaves did. This was especially true for the aliens that Seiras did not recognize as a major species. Part of him wondered what would become of these creatures when they escaped as he knew the Imperium would not care to take them home…and it seemed quite unlikely the Eldar would either. It seemed likely that they would probably just get dumped off on some planet with the Tau.

Seiras shook his thoughts away as the group finally reached the Foundry Hanger. He knew its layout quite well and he knew it was going to be a massive firefight to get inside the ship from there.

As the mob flooded into the hanger, the sounds of gunfire and screams deafened all other noises. True to Ashera's claim, a party of raiders and ravagers tried to ambush the group from the rear. The Fire dragons made quick work of the heavy weapon platforms while the Dark Reapers gunned down the ambushing Kabalites and Mandrakes. It actually impressed Seiras to see how effective they were at negating this rear attack as not one of the craftworlders took a casualty in this back group.

Seiras had no idea what was going on at the front, but he figured it was going well enough since the group continued to advance without losing pace. He scanned the hanger for the location of the three raiders clumped near a refueling station and after a minute of fighting, he finally found it.

"I'll be right back…Maeralya's slaves are over there." Seiras told Ashera as he broke off from the formation to pursue it.

"I'll back you up…that's a lot of open space," Ashera replied as she broke formation and followed him.

Seiras was genuinely surprised that she would do this to help him, but didn't have time to ponder it as the duo broke away from the mob and made a swift charge towards the three raiders. As expected, huge volleys of splinter and shredder fire pelted their location, but Seiras focused a psychic ward to stop the attacks as he kept moving forward.

As they got nearer, he spotted Mandrakes in the dozens swarming towards him. Some were even near the Raiders and were clearly after the slaves hiding there. Charging his Force Sword, Seiras ignited the first wave of mandrakes away with a lightning arc. The second wave was cleaved in half by the Nemesis Halberd as he continuously did this to clear the way.

It didn't take long for more raiders and ravagers to fly into the hanger and they focused all of their dark lance shots at him now. This forced the librarian to halt his advance as he refocused all of his psychic power into shielding the massive barrage of weapons' fire coming his way.

He was quite fortunate that Ashera was there as the Fire Dragon unleashed her firepike into the nearest ravager. Not even moments later, all of the other fire dragons and the dozen dark reapers with them moved in to back them up as they blasted all the vehicles out of the air and put suppressing fire over the charging Mandrakes.

'They're backing us up?' Seiras thought bewildered.

The loud sound of women screaming immediately drew him from his confusion as he saw several Mandrakes attempting to drag Maeralya's slaves away.

With no regard for his own safety, Seiras charged as fast as he could through what was left of the attacking enemies and reached the ravagers. With his enhances reflexes, he skillfully swung both weapons around in deadly arcs as he diced up the Mandrakes and avoided hitting the women.

He saw one woman attempting to run away to the group, but swiftly ran towards her and shielded the woman from a barrage of splinter fire. She screamed in terror and didn't even seem to realize what had just happened until moments later when Seiras had his sword sheathed and she was being carried by her waist like a child.

"Come on!" Seiras shouted when he saw the other women peek out of their hiding area terrified. Most of them were covered in Mandrake blood and looked to be a state of shock. Some were crying and a few looked too scared to even move.

"Lord Seiras!? Thank the Emperor you made it! C'mon girls, Seiras is here! Let's go!" Sylea's voice sounded. The Sororita looked heavily bruised as if she had been severely beaten. It seemed quite apparent that Maeralya had tortured her prior to her death.

"We came all the way out here to rescue some monkeigh civilians?!" one of the dark reapers questioned Seiras disbelievingly as he kept up suppressing fire.

"I didn't ask you to help me," Seiras responded as he focused on maintaining his psychic ward to shield the group from the barrages of arms fire.

"Maesin get the hell up! We need to move!" Tira shouted at one of the women who fearfully held on to her cover and looked completely out of her mind.

Seiras took this time to notice that the woman in his left hand was actually the idol from Kyoma. He remembered her name was Ayana. She was practically shell-shocked as she laid limp in his arm.

'Why am I bothering to save them? Ughh…I'm getting too sentimental,' Seiras realized how stupid this entire situation was at that very moment. He could only imagine what Ferrus would say about it.

"If you want to live, get up and move! Otherwise I have to kill you!" Seiras bellowed to the women who were unwilling to leave their hiding spots.

Maesin seemed to snap out of her fear when she saw Seiras shielding them all from gunfire. She blinked several times in disbelief, "You're going to save us, Lord Seiras?"

"You have three seconds to move before I abandon you here! MOVE!" he shouted once again.

This time all of the women seemed to get the idea as they ran into the protective cover of his psychic ward. Several of the craftworlders took a few injuries during this time, but they fought on unfazed.

Seiras was extremely grateful that they were present as they managed to clear the way back for the group as he kept all of his energy on shielding everyone. It was fortunate that none of them died as they returned to the group. The last thing he needed was to be blamed for getting aspect warriors killed.

By this time, they saw a large portion of the ramp had been overrun, and Seiras could scarcely make out the sight of Ferrus bulldozing his way through what was left of its fortifications.

The escaping slaves that had been lucky enough to live this long were practically home free as they poured up the ramp and onto the ship behind the vanguard. Quite a few of the craftworlders and guardsmen stayed back to secure the ramp as they watched the escaping people practically almost trample over one another to get inside. He and his group were once again at the very rear of the mob. Seiras himself was literally the last person to reach the ramp as he shielded them during the loading process.

As he walked backwards on the ramp he saw an army of reinforcements making their way into the foundry now. His psychic ward could not hold back that much firepower as he was forced to drop it and dodge what he could on his way up and into the ship. Whoever was left watching the rear with him gave the librarian cover fire, but he still took quite a few direct hits before finally getting inside. He let out a sigh of relief upon getting inside as several craftworlders immediately closed the door behind him.

He slowly stood up now and looked around uncertainly. He didn't know the layout of the ship at all, and wondered where to go.

Thankfully, Ashera was still there and she spoke up, "It looks like the bulk of people are clustering up to the command deck at the bridge. Our guardians are staying with the main group, but the more experienced aspect warriors are clearing the ship. We need to make sure all the Commorites on this ship are dead so they can't sabotage it. Tallath just contacted me and said his Striking Scorpions are sweeping through the engine rooms. Sorellia's group is clearing the crew quarters, and your primarch and Atharen should be closing in on the bridge. The Warp Spiders managed to knock out communications last I heard, so we should be fine so long as we kill the rest of the crew. I suggest you take that webway generator remote to the bridge."

"I can do that, Ashera. See you shortly," he nodded at the exarch before she departed w her party of craftworlders to clear out the lower decks.

"I'm counting on you to keep watch for harlequins as well. You're our only psyker. I've already instructed all the aspect warriors to kill any harlequin on sight. Be safe...we'll see you at the bridge." Ashera stated before departing with her aspect warriors.

This now left Seiras alone with the women he had just rescued. Tira shook her head and sighed, "Quite a sight to see…a space marine talking to Eldar in their own language. That one seemed to like you from what I could tell."

"They might just be grateful since I helped them free all of their aspect warriors," Seiras shrugged.

Just then they felt the ship rock hard to the Port side. It was clear that it was now flying fast on whatever escape trajectory the Craftworlders had planned.

'I'm guessing Atharen is flying the ship. I should get to the bridge immediately and get this webway remote to him,' Seiras thought as he start walking towards what he assumed was the bridge's location.

It would have been quite easy to get lost, but he was fortunately able to read the signs and markers on the ship. Plus he could detect a massive gathering of lifeforms not too far away from their location which was a good sign that they were going the right way.

"Where are we going, Lord Seiras?" one of the women asked him inquisitively. He realized it was the hive gang leader Valeria who was from Corun.

Most of the women still looked to be in shock, but Valeria seemed mostly fine. Other than her, only Sylea and Tira seemed to be somewhat relaxed now. Given the fact that all three had previous combat experience, it didn't take a genius to figure out that they were mentally tougher than the others.

"We're going to the bridge. I have something they need to open a webway gate out of this blighted realm," he answered.

"You Astartes sure are fucking badass…I mean you killed like twenty of those shadow freaks in two seconds flat! Plus that psychic shield you did was amazing! I don't care what the inquisition says, Psykers are sick…and space marine psykers are like ultra sick!" Valeria exclaimed almost excitedly as she practically fangirled over Seiras' rescue of them.

"I don't know many of those low gothic slang terms you're using…" Seiras noted as he walked with a fast pace, but not too fast so they could keep up.

"Dude…I'm building a damn statue of you in the Underhive whenever I get back to Corun! I thought that shit I saw in the arena was awesome, but you're like unstoppable in your armour and with that psychic power! Fuck I can't believe we're finally getting out of this shithole! I might actually start going to church now after seeing that. You're officially my master now…for real, my lord…like I'll gladly be your servant or whatever once we get out of here! I ain't into all that sappy hero shit, but you seriously are my damn hero!" Valeria kept gushing with approval.

"Will you shut up already, Valeria?! Clearly you're annoying him with your tasteless low gothic. I think he gets the point…you're grateful. Now calm down and act rational! We're not out of this mess yet," Tira interrupted her with clear disapproval.

"Look, bitch…I agreed to listen to you only because you said he was rescuing us. You ain't the boss of me, do how's about you chill the fuck out, okay?!" Valeria shot back.

Tira didn't respond, but Seiras could tell she was completely over dealing with these other women. He took this time to glance at Sylea who walked a bit faster to match his stride, "Hello my Lord…so you managed to free the primarch right?"

"Yes…Lord Ferrus should be on the bridge," he nodded.

Sylea looked away for a moment, "That's a relief. I wonder how he's reacting to everything. All these aliens…how did you even convince him to go along with your plan? I didn't expect things to go this well."

"It's a long story…some of which I don't even want to tell you. What's important is he is with us, and he agreed to my plan. I would strongly advise you watch how you speak to him if at all…Lord Ferrus does not have much patience for nonsense, and he is not happy about all of the civilians that tagged along with the escape group. I guess a lot of them paid for it with their lives, but just avoid speaking to him and keep a low profile," Seiras told her.

"Of course, Lord Seiras…anyways, I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Sylea followed up shamefully.

All of the other women seemed to be focusing on their conversation now.

"Sorry for what?" he tilted his head down at her.

"For exposing your plan to Maeralya…I had no idea she put those recording bugs in me to eavesdrop on you. I almost cost us the entire plan. When she was…when she was torturing me I truly thought it was over. It wasn't until Tira and the others broke me out that I learned you killed Maeralya. Thank you so much…for everything. I'm not worthy to be here, but I will gladly do whatever I can to pay my penance and earn your trust again," Sylea expressed remorsefully.

Seiras sighed, "I would appreciate it if you kept what happened to yourself...all of you. The last thing I need is the Inquisition to have another reason to detain me. I was already under suspicion for heretical behavior before I came here."

"Certainly my lord...it would be nice if we could all just put this nightmare behind us," Sylea nodded in agreement.

"So…I have a question Lord Seiras," Corlina the Planetary administrator finally spoke up for the first time, "Since we're all pregnant now…presumably…what is to become of us?" she asked.

Seiras stopped in his tracks and looked over all of the women. They could not see his face due to the helmet, but they could likely feel his intensity as he spoke up slowly, "DO NOT tell anyone about it. For my sake and for your own. If anyone finds out I sired children with you, I'll be apprehended by the inquisition and most likely removed from my duties. I imagine they would experiment on me or want to execute me for heresy. As for you…I expect your fates would be equally as unfortunate."

"So…you're telling us to lie about it then?" Corlina seemed surprised by his command.

"Unless you want to be a human experiment, then yes. I have no idea what my offspring with you would be like, but I imagine they'll probably all be girls. It's for the best if nobody finds out that I was the father. I'm already going to be in enough trouble for what transpired during my captivity here. If any of you ever hope to live normal lives again, you would be wise to keep this secret to yourselves," Seiras elaborated further.

Corlina cocked her head, "So…you do expect we will live normal lives again? I will happily honour your wishes my lord, but how do we explain being pregnant? Some of us are very high-status in the Imperium."

"You were slave girls…I doubt anyone will think that deeply on the topic. Not too mention, human gestation averages nine months, so it will likely not be an issue until long after you've returned to Imperial civilization. I expect there will probably be a screening and reintegration process before you're released back. It all just depends on whether Lord Ferrus can get the inquisition to back down. I'll do what I can to get your release expedited," Seiras shrugged.

"So…would it be possible to stay with you though?" Valeria wondered.

"I don't know…that's not for me to decide. I work for the Inquisition, so it probably not be in your best interest to be near me. It just depends on how this all plays out," Seiras noted.

"So, you were captured at Corun, right? Are we going back there?" Valeria asked.

Seiras nodded, "Most likely it will be our first stop. I doubt these craftworlders want to haul around all these humans for too long. They surely wouldn't want to show us where their craftworld is either."

"No fucking way…I'm going home! Aww yeah!" Valeria cheered happily.

"Good for you…" Maesin said sadly as she looked down with depression.

"So did any of you get a good look at "Guardsman Kelly" cowering pathetically even after Seiras showed up?" Valeria insulted the other woman.

To everyone's surprise, Maesin just started crying as she held her head down and avoided eye contact with anyone. Nobody said a word following the statement, but a few of the women sent Valeria nasty glares.

Seiras typically wouldn't care to involve himself in this type of conversation, but did this time, "Is that really necessary?"

"I…I'm sorry," Valeria immediately changed tunes.

"Listen…whenever we get to the bridge, I won't be there to permanently protect you. Be wary of everyone in there…I'm sure quite a few of those men would gladly try to take advantage of one of you so stay together and try to get along. Sylea, make sure the Cadians guard them if you would," Seiras announced.

"As you command my lord," she nodded subserviently.

The women looked a bit more worried now after hearing the bad news. Seiras shook his head as he drew closer to the bridge, 'Somehow I get the feeling we still have a long way to go. There's no way those harlequins just gave up on abducting me. Plus, I wouldn't put it past Vect to have some crazy plan to trap us. He's not just going to let a primarch leave Commorragh. We need to stay alert.'