Her practicing came to the attention of Lovora, and she was taken to one side and offered a position in a new group that was being made. Called the Angelus Squads, these troopers were clad in a light suit of armour and given new jetpacks that would allow them to properly fly rather than just simply jump like the Seraphim. The wings would give off light and there would be a laud hailer built in to sing the praises of the Emperor and inspire those who fought for him. The tradeoff was the lighter armour reduced their ability to soak incoming fire, and them being in the air made them greater targets. Additionally, shooting from the air was different from the ground, so they would need new tactics to ensure this group survived long enough to make a difference.

Emia accepted this new role, and the next few days were filled with the new training she needed. So engrossing was it that she missed the day and woke up in a hot sweat. A deep, burning need crawling about her body. She took a deep breath and clenched her fists together, so hard the nails split the skin. Which was a terrible thing because that felt really good. Debauchery climbing into her body and taking root. With the extra corruption from the loss of the collar, it had gotten so bad her Faith was taking it as a threat enough to slowly burn down. But, that simply stopped her from losing her mind, and she still had to deal with a body on fire, every step and ever caress lighting her up.

With great force of will she managed to get herself a solo patrol out of the base. Skittering away from the place into a forest enough so that she’d not be found easily, she leaned against a tree and began to sooth the pressure building up inside her. Biting down on her robes to muffle the noise, she melted at her own touch, and writhed in a despairing desire until finally, there was a moment of clarity. It was dark clarity though, one that made her think she was best off in the Repentia. Just, give her life to The Emperor and be done with this whole thing. And as the burning need returned, the idea of dying for Him was one that was growing in popularity within her mind.

“So you do this often, then?” a voice rang out. Emia’s heart stopped for a moment at the idea of being found out, but the idea of someone watching her was arousing at the same time. Then the woman stepped out into view, and it was the achingly beautiful xenos woman, with an auspex-like device in her hand.

“What….?” Emia asked, her voice cracked and unable to really speak.

“Egwene’s got some science project going on here. Geowhatchamacallits about this place are something or other. Tech Priests are confusing when getting coffee, so actual science is way beyond me” Filnon spoke. Her voice was soothing, in a way that Emia’s own fingers were, if she had fingers made of silk and the skill of aeons. “Also, interesting note. Atharti still exists here. She’s called a Dark Muse now rather than a true-born Goddess, but exists enough that I can regain my blessing from last time. Which I really liked, the whole twitching girl under you when you stroke a finger down her spine, how can I not?” Filnon continued, looking down at Emia for a moment before taking a seat.

“But, you are already like that without magic, huh?” Filnon asked, smiling gently to Emia.

“I...there’s..It’s..and…” Emia’s cracked voice was not at all helping her get the point across, and she couldn’t think of the words anyway.

“Yea. So, gonna teach you something” Filnon told her, opening the status screen and flicking about with it. From there, Emia got a pop-up that asked if she wanted to learn “Drukari Stasis”. It seemed really cool, so she pressed yes, and it took a lot of experience to give her the understanding of the concept.

Apparently, the Eldar could work biological miracles with their meditation, and while Humans were not able to copy it perfectly, they were still capable of learning some things. This, it seemed, was a meditative state that turned the body’s functions down to a singular percentage, used to pass long stretches of time without incident, or survive a harrowing wound until they got medical care. She had a strange awareness of her surroundings but that was it, there was no feeling of her body, no feeling of time passing nor of her biological needs. Dam thing worked really well, because next thing she knew it was morning and her comms device had a new message. She needed to explain what was going on to Lovora but there was no rush and she was able to come when she wanted, Egwene had sorted things on that front.

“That woman has a lot of power...it’s kind of scary to be honest” Emia muttered, standing and stretching. She was going to need some new clothes after this but that was fine. However, an excuse...an excuse...she thought of an interesting one, and hoped it would work as she lurched back to camp. Though the day was over, she still had terrible memories of the day before. And also nice ones, as she thought about Filnon. She could see why people would fall for that woman, magic powers or no.