Part 24

It was overwhelming.

I’d felt the presence of the Warp many times before, the oily slick sensation accompanied by an electrical crackle that was not just across your skin, but through to the very core of your body and soul.

It was as if the ritual had torn a piece of that free and was shoving it into a body far too small to contain it.

To mortal eyes, Shiss’kill was engulfed in oil-colored fire that gave off no heat. To mortal senses, lightning shivered across the skin, and cries of ecstasy filled the ear.

To my witchsight, there was much, much more.

She was a star shining among clouds of fluorescent ink. It was not mere pleasurable moans that echoed through the Immaterium, it was a victorious cry of transcendence, a being of infinite potential finally taking the next step to realization. The very Warp shuddered with the power of her roar, the other beings that had swum around since my power developed dispersed with indecent haste.

Shiss had implied during our brief conversations as I slept that this body, this manifestation, was to keep me safe. I finally knew what she had meant, what she had been so careful not to say. This elevated her, and her shriek of rebirth had laid claim to me. There was nothing in the Warp that would dare try to claim my soul now. Not because of her power, for there were always bigger fish, but because of the signature her claim carried.

Not that of one Chaos God, as every other demon had, but of them all.

Just for me.

The brilliance of her aura finally faded, musky clouds of purple clearing in the breeze, and I got my first glimpse of Shiss’kill.

She stood nine feet tall now, her lithe body packed still with enough taught muscle to rip apart fully grown men with ease. Her upper arms remained clawed and vicious, but a smaller pair of lower limbs had now grown, human sized, and ending in delicate hands. Her vestigial horns had sprouted further into something closer to a crown, and she now sported a long, slender tail of pale flesh. As before, only a delicate sheet of silk flowed down between long, graceful, reverse jointed legs ending in dainty hooves. Dainty hooves compared to her size maybe, but they could still crush a skull. That and an elaborately decorated breast wrap were her only clothing.

It was just enough to offer coverage, to tantalize with suggestion instead of simply laying the mystery bare.

She took my breathe away. If I’d thought she was the most lovely, the most impossibly attractive thing I’d ever seen before, this set a whole new standard.

“Milady Katherine.” Shiss’kill greeted with a lovely, full lipped smile that managed to be coy on a towering creature of inhuman power. She stepped over, clearing the pyre in a single step, and knelt before me with supernatural grace. “Thank you for this vessel. My life is yours, the Nine are yours, and soon enough the world shall be. You need merely send us forth.”

“Send you forth?” I asked incredulously, marveling still in her power and beauty, but coherent enough to realize we were not enough. Not by far. “It will take an army...armies to take Latigia IV.”

“We have one already.” Kaeliss breathed, stepping forward with eager reverence. I thought at first it was only for Shiss’kill, but awe remained in her eyes when they met my own. “In my lands I am a princess. The armies of my father will march at my command once I have the throne.”

“And have it she will.” Laena promised, joining her fellow before me. The changeling shifted her skin to match that of Kaeliss, of her people, and turned swiftly into a startling beauty of only slightly advancing years. The kind of gorgeous woman a middle aged king would be quite taken by. “He will be swayed to her point of view, or his new mistress will vanish and he will abruptly be far more agreeable.”

Murder and impersonation? They weren’t methods I was comfortable with, and my hesitation must have showed. Shiss’kill stood and stepped forward, each movement flowing into the next as smooth as water. One of her new hands rested gently on my cheek, a claw caressing my arm comfortingly. “Katherine, the Amorok are strong. We will give her father an opportunity to hear the truth, to embrace it, but you know the harsh judgement that must fall on those who would impede us.”

“Yes." I whispered. "Yes.” I stated firmly, eyes sparking with delight. “Give him the chance though. I will not abide needless bloodshed, not when there are surely enough stubborn fools on this world to stain it red regardless. Everyone will be given the chance to see the truth, or to step aside. Only those who refuse both, who remain to oppose us, need die.” My eyes hardened as I looked over them all. “If one innocent falls without getting that choice, the one who spilled their blood goes with them, understand?”

The Nine nodded.

My eyes turned to Veros and Jakera. “You two, return to your homelands. You know the underworlds there. Gather those you can, the ones who need a new start, who have been crushed beneath this false faith that has been preached for so long. Gather them underground and prepare them. I want the cities of the east to crumble from within when the western armies march upon them.” They nodded.

“Boestro, Pael, the islands.” I commanded, turning to them. “The isolated nations of the oceans, promise them prosperity and power that has only belonged to the great nations until now. Demand of them unity. Not fealty yet, that can come later. They must only serve their own ends until they see our goal themselves. Once the truth is shown to them, they will embrace it. I know they will.” They nodded as well, just as silent as the others, but also clearly awestruck.

It was not every day one witnessed a ritual where demons of every god participated.

“Mordred, gather the barbarians of the north.” I ordered, staring down the massive wildman. He was still bristling with indignation and postured with every breath, but there was fear in those eyes now. He knew where he stood, and he’d just taken a long step down the foodchain. Shiss’kill eyed him, two long, forked tongues licking her lips. She knew it too.

At last, Mordred turned away with a grunt and a nod, striding north. Shiss’kill, Naryssa and I remained alone in the square, the dumbfounded villagers standing all around.

“I’d be more upset at being excluded if I didn’t know what you have in mind for me, sister.” Naryssa teased with a smile, that same gleam of delight and affection in her eye, unchanged by my display. Her devotion had been the one I never questioned from the very beginning.

“You, sister, are staying with me. I could use more than one set of eyes watching my back.” Shiss’kill grinned at the nod to her, standing with hip thrust out, one hand resting upon it.

“And another weapon at your side. Here.” She tossed one of the bundles of leather and bronze at her waist to me. I caught it, unraveling it with curiosity that quickly turned to amusement. “You are Kat o’ the Nine after all, have some tails to go with it.”

I laughed as I unrolled the nine tailed whip, a barb tipping each coil. It was a cruel weapon to use, one designed for torture. However, I could well imagine tangling the weapons of foes in those coils, and using my obsidian blade to cut them down. I hadn’t experienced bloodshed so personal before, but my mind was somehow at ease with the sentiment.

Wrath saw to that.

I grinned. I’d certainly picked the right woman to keep at my side.