Part 29

Idris burned.

It had been a glorious eastern city once, perched upon the edge of the desolate crags, secure within gleaming walls of granite. Its archers were renowned for their accuracy, making any approach to the fortress city suicidal at best. The infamous Eastern Fire also prevented siege engines from approaching. The substance clung like tar, burned brighter and hotter than oil-flame, and could eat through wood and men in seconds.

Eastern fire burned with a violet hue, and so did Idris.

I stood and watched the flames, a victorious smile on my face, my left hand adorned with a glorious ring of gold. It had been a mere month of marching to reach the first of our foes, but in that time it had been simple to construct a believable courtship. King Lommeron was a great ruler after all, and all knew Katherine of the Nine was an enchantingly charismatic prophet. Thirty days to break the restraints upon the minds of tens of thousands, so I spoke to them a thousand at a time.

They no longer followed the creed of the Amorok without question. Now they doubted, now their thoughts were free. Now, upon the eve of our first victory, they were ready for the truth.

Shiss’kill strode away from the burning walls, her pale flesh gleaming gloriously in the purple light. She towered over my husband and I, her powerful limbs clearly lethal, her inhuman grace that of a predator. Murmurs swept through our gathered host, the army arrayed behind us, below us. Lommeron and his new bride stood atop the last hill before the flats leading to the walls of Idris, all our soldiers and people gazing upon us.

And before us bowed a titan, a creature of unfathomable power, who still dwarfed us when down on one knee. And behind her danced the forms of hundreds of her kin. Lithe, graceful creatures of human appearance save the vicious claws that tipped their arms, and the reverse jointed legs ending in clawed feet. They sprang up the walls, tearing the soldiers apart upon the ramparts, shattering pots of Eastern Fire and cackling as it consumed them. Hundreds of demons tore the defenses apart, but they would not be enough. I’d made sure they would not be.

A mere two dozen enemies lay atop the hill in various states of dismemberment, all of them having breathed their last minutes before. Fifty of their kin stood among our ranks, freed by my words. They had been fortunate. The chosen sacrifices, those who had volunteered by refusing the Truth, their suffering had opened the way for the host of Shiss’kill. And that host, they had opened the way for me.

I turned toward the army, still coated in gore up to my elbows. I raised those bloody hands which had so cruelly been stained. The sacrifices had gone neither quickly nor quietly. It had been their cries that drew the demons in close, their deaths that pulled apart reality. Now, it was time for our people to see the true glory of that which they served.

“Behold, the great bastion of Idris has been shattered!” I cried, my voice carrying easily to every ear, a further sign of my favor. “Unbreakable walls shattered in minutes. A fortress to withstand a month of siege breached in a breath. The servants of our gods have answered our prayers! Chaos is with us my friends!” Cheers sounded from the gathered people of the plains, but not yet from the wary army of Paldoro. They’d not had enough time to truly absorb the Truth, even once I’d freed them from a lifetime of indoctrination. They needed to be convinced still.

“Behind me burns a symbol of the Amorok, of what you will come to know as the Imperial Creed. Created by a false god, a demagogue that has enslaved all of humanity who dwell among the stars! We here have escaped them so far. They have touched us just lightly enough to enforce their beliefs, their dogma. The lightest of touches of an empire we know nothing about, and yet it has stolen who we are!”

My arms lowered to my side, Shiss’kill rising imposingly behind me. She timed it well, gasps and stares following the movement. “Why do we give praise to this far off deity who cares nothing for us? He claimed us as a matter of pride, to ensure his reign over mankind is complete. Praise Chaos that his attention did not land more fully upon Latigia IV! Were we truly among his flock, among those he claims as his own, our lives would be wasted in an oppressive grind to feed the engine of his eternal war. At least here, far from his scrutiny, we have known peace.”

“But no longer!”

Murmurs of consternation swept them, for it was I who had called them to war in the first place. I grinned widely, eyes alight with the fervor I knew they’d all soon feel. “My friends, we have rested here in comfort, but also in ignorance. We did not know how the galaxy suffered, how the False Emperor enslaved our kin! But I learned, and now you have been told, as the tribes were told before you. I have seen the Truth, been guided to it by the truly divine! Their servants stand behind me, stand before you, doing Their work. But they will not stand alone.”

“We are not Latigians. We are not a part of this vast Imperium of loathing, oppression, hatred, and war! We have forgotten the name this world once went by, for it was brutalized from our minds by an offworld invasion. But I remember it. It has been whispered in my dreams, an aspect of the Truth, a piece of who we once were and who we will be again.”

“We are Lachrysian, whatever they have changed us into. Our world is Lachrys, however they would try to categorize it. This is our world, and we shall take it back, as we take back our faith! These are the faces of our gods!” I gestured to the daemonettes still hacking their way through the defences, though their numbers swiftly dwindled. I could not allow this victory to be won without mortal assistance, lest my followers expect the gods to do everything for them. “This is what it looks like to have prayers answered! No esoteric hope that things will be better. No circumstantial reply that could be mere coincidence.”

“The Gods of Chaos hear us, and they answer those who are faithful to them!”

Cheers rang out once more, spreading from the plainsmen to the armies of the west. Not all were swayed, but they would be soon. My eyes narrowed even as I smiled. Perhaps those who resisted would find themselves among the first to charge the next fortification, it would make things so much neater.

“Their servants are here to show us their favor, to declare that we are wanted. This miracle, the destruction of the indestructible fortress, it is the Chaos Gods making their claim upon us! All will know the power that marches at our backs now, and they will tremble at our approach. But not yet. First, my brothers and sisters, first we must claim Them too.”

I raised my hand, palm facing the army, and withdrew a slender dagger from my belt. It was a sliver of my sword. A tiny fragment that had shattered off, the perfect size and shape for a knife, and the moment I picked it up I knew what I must do. The razor sharp edge was raised, and I sliced my palm to the bone. Only that onyx from the Basilica Exsolutus could cut my skin now. Three more cuts I made, crossing perfectly in the middle, until I had the eight points of the Chaos Star scarred into my flesh. Then I carved a circle around, connecting them all, spokes in a wheel, and held up the completed sigil.

A roar of exultation washed over me as thirty thousand others copied the motion, mirrored my devotion.

Not a one abstained.

I laughed, voice thick and high with elation. The delicate chuckle of Shiss’kill sounded from behind me, and I turned to face her. “Kindred! Idris stands upon the brink, ready to fall. Go! Show the gods what devotion you shall give in return for their favor! Praise them for their faithfulness! Thank them for the blessings we have witnessed today! Slay those who oppose Their Truth, and welcome those who embrace it!”

It was like the roar of the ocean, the eruption of a volcano. The earth trembled as the army charged, and I have to admit, so did I. My people, all of them mine now, they swept across the flats and into the gates, through the walls where Eastern Fire had caused them to crumble. Side by side with the remaining daemonettes, they fought, and they died. Not many of them, for our foe was in full route by that point, but enough. There was no victory without bloodshed, without loss. Our payment would be light this day, but enough for the gravity of our cause to be demonstrated. Next time the sacrifice would be larger, as we’d have plenty of the unworthy harvested from this city. Those who would keep the Word from spreading, they were filth. If a soul wished to damn itself by blocking out the truth, that was their choice. But to deny salvation to another? I would damn those souls willingly, and gladly.

King Lommeron stood beside me, Shiss’kill moving behind us once more, as we watched the first of many cities fall to the might of Chaos. “Come my husband, my beloved,” the two bowing their heads in acknowledgement in turn. “It is time to look upon our newest companions. Then we shall turn our eyes south, to the rest of these fortress cities and their misguided sheep.”

The Amorok had made sheep of our people, made Latigians of our Lachrysians. Chaos had no use for sheep, no need for the willfully blind, for the meek.

My gods wanted lions, wanted blades, and war was the perfect place to forge them.