Dathanassiel

You woke up feeling weak all over and with an aura of headache, but... alive and even generally healthy. At first glance, there was no one in the room except you. Life experience and now extremely heightened senses screamed: «Danger!», - urging you to jump up, find a weapon, armor and gather information about your location, but your body had other plans. Any sudden movement caused a burning pain in all major joints, as if spheres of molten metal were forming in them, spreading searing anguish from the center along the bones throughout the body. Your eyes remained your best assistant. You were lying on a flat horizontal elevation, as remotely as possible resembling an operating table, surrounded by dull green plants you had never seen before and rhythmically shimmering transparent crystals, which were the only source of light. The air around you was very humid and salty, the smell of rotten fruit hit your nostrils, deafening silence all around, as if you were cut off from the real world. The room you found yourself in could best be described as a grotto: the ceiling, walls and floor were created - naturally or artificially - from rock, and the only exit was a wide uneven hole, closed with a psychoforce barrier. As soon as your gaze fell on the exit, its surface became rippled, as if it were waiting for your attention, and through it passed a xenos, of race which you had never met before. They were of average height, compared to a human, upright, had blue skin with yellow chaotically located stripes, on their head instead of hair dark ribbons fell from the center of the crown, similar in structure to wide algae. Having thrown an appraising glance at you with unusually large, unblinking yellow eyes, occupying half of the skull, the creature spoke, unexpectedly, in a language familiar to you.

• You are awake? Good, the Council will be pleased, Akhari will be pleased! Do not try to get up or resort to violence - there is a special toxin in your veins that will kill you before you could, in theory, make an antidote. And if you do try, we have other ways to make you obedient. We do not want to harm you... - the creature stretched its flat lips into a semblance of a smile, - yet. Until the Council decides your fate. Now, you must come with us. Now. The xenos made a sweeping gesture with their hand, which, apparently, was supposed to mean an order to follow them. Although their voice sounded like a creaking croak, you were able to understand it - and that is all what mattered. You had no choice: you physically sensed that they were telling the truth about the toxin, you had no weapon, just as the xenos had none (at least not visible) that you could take from them, and you didn't know where you were, where your companions were, or how many xenos were around you. And something told you that even leaving the place where you had woken up wouldn't be as easy as your escort had entered. For now, you decided to do they asked and make plans on the fly.

When you stood up and felt sufficient support in your feet, the creature made a brief gesture in front of the psychoforce barrier, and it dissolved. The world of your senses was immediately filled with new sounds - splashing water -, smells - swamp mud, spicy herbs and late evening, before your eyes appeared a golden crystalline dome instead of a sky and a lake with no visible bottom, over which hung bridges: one wide and long, to which led other, smaller ones, connecting it with many other grottoes, similar to the one where you woke up, of various shapes, not allowing you to understand whether they were natural formations. In the surface of the water you were able to see yourself and assess the presence of surface damage dealt to your body, and more than once it seemed to you that large shadows were slipping past in the water below you. As you walked, the rocky hills gave way to unsightly buildings, and you began to encounter more and more creatures of the same race as your guide. None of them tried to talk to you, but they were paying attention, pointing, waving, making strange gestures and obviously discussing you with each other, even though you couldn't understand their language. None of them came closer, and you could see in their eyes a cautious curiosity, as if they were looking at an exotic predatory animal on display in a cage. The area around was surrounded by hills covered with soft, tall grass, xenos dwellings, giant plants and mushrooms, and water of varying depths, the sharp changes in level of which you appreciated more than once, having stepped off an invisible path, where the water reached no lower than your ankles. In the distance, you saw a brightly shining spire, standing out even from such a distance against the rest of the landscape like a single burning candle in a pile of decomposing humus, and you realised that this was your destination. Every now and then (once every half terran hour, as you could guess), when moving your legs became an almost impossible task and you began to skip every second breath, with regularity and precision your guide and escort took a black ball from the chest pocket of their tunic and demanded that you swallow it, which caused the pain to recede to the level of «tolerable». Five balls later, you approached the base of the spire, whose architecture clearly reminded you of Aeldari or Drukhari one, but at the same time slightly different, as if a part of the craftworld had once broken off and fallen like a star onto this forgotten world, miraculously intact. You saw only one entrance, but you had no doubt that it was the only entrance that you were allowed to see. The closer you got to the triangular gates, covered with intricate engravings, the stronger the low-frequency hum emanating from it became, causing only new discomfort.

• From here on, you go alone. Only when the gates closed behind you, the hum stopped, and you again found yourself in an oppressive silence, like the one in the grotto - neither your steps nor your breathing were heard. You were left alone in a round, austere, bright, huge chamber with a smooth floor and walls and a very high ceiling. At first glance, there was no doors, windows or panels of any kind to open an invisible passage, and you, left without the sounds and smells of this world, to which you had already managed to get used to a little, involuntarily focused your sensations inward and realized that... you were not in pain. The toxin that had been flowing through your veins and tormenting you all the way was no longer working. In fact, you felt good. Very good. You felt like this only in rare moments of peace, when your enemies were dead, your tasks were completed and you could allow yourself to relax a little, to weaken your defenses, to not think about anything. On the edge of perception, the first sound appeared - a barely audible whisper in a familiar and at the same time unfamiliar dialect, simultaneously pleasantly caressing the ear, like the sound of the surf, and irritating, as if rats were scratching at the corners of your brain. But you felt so good. The phantasmagoric pictures appearing here and there on the walls, painted with colors so strangely reminiscent of blood, did not bother you at all, as did the fact that the air itself around you rippled and acquired colors, a riot of colors, changing and flowing from one shade to another. A thought arose in your head, as if it did not belong to you, one word – the warp. And this did not matter either. It was better for you to lie down - the floor is so soft - and imagine the best day of your life. Close your eyes. And never open them again.

---

You opened your eyes. Slowly, as your senses were returning to you, you saw before you the same high, bright ceiling. The smell of burnt human flesh hit your nose, and you realized that you were lying on a cold, hard floor. With a turn of your head a body appeared before your sight, undoubtedly human, almost completely burned, but from the remaining shreds of clothing that only he could afford and the relatively intact profile, you recognized him. Beside you lay the body of Lord Captain Darius von Valancius. Whatever feelings you experienced from what you saw, it was not the only new detail, and the feeling of being closely watched made you look up from the corpse and see before you a huge lectern, behind which were five Aeldari, who you did not recognize. To your right, at the far end, sat a woman with a mane of curly, luxurious dark hair, wearing only delicate reptilian-shaped jewelry that barely covered her full breasts. Second from the right was an Aeldari in extravagant clothing, with bright makeup, purple hair gathered in a high, complex hairstyle with golden accessories, fanning out the lower half of his face. When you met the woman's eyes, she winked at you. To the left of the empty center seat was an Aeldari dressed in white robes, with long white hair combed back, sitting with one pair of hands folded on the lectern in front of him, and the other clasped together and resting his chin. The one on the far left was dressed most simply of the four, in a practical black jumpsuit that fit tightly to the body, clearly intended for combat training, wore no makeup and gathered his black hair into the usual Aeldari high ponytail. He pointedly ignored your presence with a bored expression on his face. By the time you had looked at everyone, the sound of doors opening behind the lectern was heard, and Dathanassiel emerged from beyond your line of sight, taking the last place in the center of the lectern. Dressed in black and gold attire, covered by a long white robe, he looked more majestic than anyone else in the room, his unreadable gaze fixed on you. You realized that all Aeldari present had the same face, like if they were twins. Dathanassiel was first to break this dismal silence.

• So, you have awakened and come here to our Council. I suspect you have so many questions.

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