Chapter 338: The Punishment of Prophecy |
Despite her inner trepidation, Elina followed her instincts and turned to the latest revelation in the Book of Destiny:
"The news of four primarchs falling in battle has sparked riots within the Imperium of Man. As a result, four Space Marine legions may be purged by the Emperor.
"Of course, there is another possibility. The Emperor could reactivate the gene-labs that originally created the primarchs and forge a new batch to lead those four Space Marine legions.
"Regardless of what the Emperor ultimately decides, it cannot change the fact that the Imperium of Man has been severely crippled.
"Elina, two paths lie before you.
"The first path: Continue to borrow the power of the Palu Orks to inflict heavy damage on the Imperium of Man. This will force the God-Emperor's will to abandon the Imperium of the age of apostasy sub-universe, which in turn will allow you to use the Emperor's body to help the Dark King descend, bringing the plan to destroy the Dark King back on track.
"The second path: Hand over a portion of Webway technology in exchange for the Imperium of Man's trust, and unite with them once more to stop Li Nuo from becoming a True God.
"You may only choose one of these two paths.
"Elina, what choice will you make?"
The Eldar True Gods dreamed of eradicating the Chaos Gods, making the first path's priority significantly higher than the second's.
However, the Orks were full of uncertainties, and this otherworlder only amplified them.
No one could guarantee that Li Nuo wouldn't become another Chaos God and plague the Eldar.
"What a difficult choice..."
Elina murmured, though her thoughts drifted back to how the Book of Destiny had concealed part of the truth from her.
Why did the Eldar always tout themselves as the core force for eradicating chaos?
It was because their exceptional prophetic abilities allowed them to dictate how others should act.
Prophecy was supposed to be a tool, not a master looming over its user.
The Book of Destiny's trickery cast an unshakable shadow over Elina's heart.
So much so that, acting completely out of character, she shut the crystal tome and held off on making an immediate choice.
She moved to a nearby reading desk and sat down, resting her head on her hand as she tried to suppress her growing unease.
But as time passed, the gloom only deepened, leaving her increasingly frustrated.
"No, this isn't right. Like ordinary prophecies, the Book of Destiny should tell me everything I want to know, instead of selectively revealing only part of the truth."
Elina turned to stare at the crystal tome, her eyes flickering.
She thought back carefully, trying to remember the last time the Book of Destiny had hidden something from her.
Her memory told her this was the first time such a thing had happened.
It was highly abnormal, completely wrong.
Elina stood and picked up the crystal tome. She examined its casing and pages but found no signs of damage or traces of chaos corruption.
So why was this book acting so uncharacteristically and withholding the truth?
Elina placed the crystal tome back in its spot and sat at the table, lost in thought.
An indeterminate amount of time passed before she snapped out of her daze. A strange look swirled in her eyes; she seemed to have realized something.
She stood, opened a portal, and stepped into another section of the Black Library.
This was the training ground for the Harlequins.
New members were required to spend three full years here. Only after passing a series of trials could they receive the blessing of the Eldar gods, gain a Psionic Field capable of resisting chaos, and officially become Harlequins.
Elina's arrival caused the training Harlequins to pause their routines and bow respectfully to her in unison.
Her gaze swept over them before settling on one figure in particular.
"Isatrian, come with me."
"Yes, my lady."
Isatrian hailed from the Dark Eldar. When Commorragh was destroyed by the Palu Orks, she had been taken captive by an Ork boss.
Being a prisoner of the Orks had been better than expected.
The Ork calling himself "Space" hadn't tortured his black bean sprout captive. Instead, he assigned her a team of mekboyz and ordered her to manufacture equipment needed by the Palu Empire.
After building and upgrading several pieces of Eldar equipment for him, Isatrian had regained her freedom and joined the Harlequin Troupe.
Perhaps it was because she had once been captured by the greenskins, or maybe because she had sold out a portion of Eldar technology, but Isatrian faced no shortage of dirty looks after becoming a trainee Harlequin.
Many deliberately struck her too hard during sparring sessions. Others, claiming they had seen prophecies during their meditations, rebuked Isatrian for improper conduct in an attempt to force her to quit the troupe on her own.
Isatrian didn't understand. Wasn't it said that the Harlequin Troupe's duty was to eradicate chaos? Hadn't they claimed that anyone who shared their goals and met their criteria could become one of them?
Why was she being spat on just because she had provided the greenskins with some technical support while held captive?
If they had been captured by the greenskins, they might have behaved even more shamefully than she did.
After enduring all this, Isatrian had to admit she somewhat missed her time working for the greenskins. Of course, it would also be nice to return to a carefree life in Commorragh.
Unfortunately, there was no going back to how things used to be.
Isatrian kept her thoughts to herself as she followed Elina out of the training ground.
Normally, when a prophecy involving a specific Harlequin appeared in the Book of Destiny, Elina would personally come and escort them to consult the tome.
But this time was different. To Isatrian's surprise, Elina didn't lead her to the Obsidian Archive. Instead, in a deserted corner, Elina opened a portal to a dead, silent section of the Webway.
"My lady, where are we?" Isatrian scanned her surroundings, subconsciously assuming this was a testing ground for some sort of combat trial.
Elina turned to her and said, "I have a task for you."
"Command me, my lady."
"I need to pass a message to the Palu Orks. The details are written in this letter." Elina pulled out a scroll bearing a psionic energy seal. "Deliver this letter to the brain of the Palu Orks. If they are willing to take you in, you may stay there temporarily and act as our liaison."
Isatrian took the letter and tucked it into an inner pocket.
"My lady, what about my daily training and trials?"
"You don't need to worry about that. I will count this mission toward your trials and score it as field duty."
"Understood, my lady."
Seeing Isatrian agree, Elina waved a hand to open another portal and handed her a psionic energy item.
It was a small gadget capable of generating an emergency survival capsule in a void environment.
Elina instructed, "Once you go through, use this item and wait in the Webway for a while. The Palu Orks will naturally come to pick you up. Remember, this letter must be delivered directly into the hands of their leader."
"Yes, my lady." Isatrian took a small breath and stepped through the portal, immediately struck by the biting cold and suffocation unique to the void.
She activated the gadget in her hand, enveloping herself in a barrier of psionic energy.
After drifting in the void for only a short while, a familiar greenskin warship approached from the distance and pulled her into its bay with a tractor beam.
"I'z 'ere ta deliver a message!" Before they could restrain her, Isatrian shouted in Ork slang: "I knows Space! I'z got a letter fer 'is boss."
The surrounding Paru Boyz stared blankly, surprised that one of the pansies could speak Ork slang so fluently.
Isatrian pulled off her helmet, revealing her face, and held up the letter Elina had given her, acting entirely at home.
"'Urry up, stop muckin' about! Take me to Space! I wanna see 'is boss."
"Oi, you pansies think this is yer own turf or somethin'?"
"You think we'z gotta do whatever ya tell us?"
The Paru Boyz and the knife-ears had clashed before, and tensions were high between the two factions, a fact Isatrian had been completely unaware of during her training with the Harlequin Troupe.
She clearly felt the hostility the Paru Boyz harbored toward her, though she had no idea where it came from.
As the Paru Boyz closed in step by step, fear began to gnaw at Isatrian's heart.
Fortunately, the boss of this ship recognized Isatrian.
"Oho, if it ain't the purple bean sprout! Wot are ya doin' back 'ere? Oi, boyz, bring 'er to the bridge. We'z takin' 'er ta Boss Space."
The Paru Boyz surrounding Isatrian scratched their heads, lowered their weapons, and waved for her to follow.
The group rode the ship out of the Webway and into the realspace universe.
Looking out the viewport, Isatrian's eyes widened involuntarily.
She saw a massively scaled fleet and sensed an absolutely astonishing surge of psionic energy.
Even more shocking was the realization that a dark shadow had been cast over her connection to The Warp, as if something were actively blocking her from tapping into her psionic energy.
This shadow felt utterly dreadful. It gave Isatrian the sensation of having countless Ork boyz screaming WAAAGH! right next to her.
The closer they got to the fleet, the more intense the restlessness and unease within her soul became.
This phenomenon only lessened once she was brought into a cabin lined with lead plating. Isatrian finally found a chance to catch her breath, only to realize she was soaked in sweat.
"Give me the letter."
A familiar voice echoed in the room.
Isatrian wiped the sweat from her forehead and turned around, finding the Ork boss who had previously captured her—Space.
"This letter is for your boss, not for you."
No sooner had the words left her mouth than her body stiffened. By the time she recovered, the scroll was already in his hands.
It was that damned, bizarre ability of his that made people zone out.
Isatrian cursed inwardly but didn't dare try to snatch the scroll back. She could only watch as he read its contents.
Space's expression showed neither joy nor anger. After finishing the letter, he dropped a single sentence and left:
"Stay here. Don't go runnin' around."
A short while later, Space arrived at the ritual circle and handed the letter to the weirdboy.
At that same moment, Li Nuo shifted his consciousness from Space to the weirdboy, reading over Elina's secret letter once more.
This time, Li Nuo didn't bother masking his expression, revealing a look of profound solemnity.
The contents of the letter could be summarized in one sentence: the Book of Destiny had hidden the occurrence of a supernova from Elina.
The implications of this were extremely severe.
To put it in perspective: if Li Nuo asked Palcador for strategic advice, and Palcador deliberately withheld a portion of the truth, exploiting Li Nuo's ignorance to achieve his own goals, that would be a sign of Palcador going "out of control."
It would mean he had developed his own ulterior motives and was no longer reliable, thus needing to be tossed back into the forge and remade.
By the same logic, as a prophetic artifact, the Book of Destiny failing to fully display its prophecies could also be considered "out of control."
Elina suspected that, following Tzeentch's previous tampering with the Farseer's prophecy, the Book of Destiny had also been subjected to interference from a Chaos God, leading to these signs of instability.
At the end of the letter, Elina expressed her true intentions:
She wanted to ask Li Nuo to pause his ascension into a True God. She requested that he first cooperate with the Black Library to root out the chaos corruption, after which they could discuss whether or not he should continue his ascension.
"..." Li Nuo put the letter down, his grave expression shifting to one of sheer speechlessness.
The Book of Destiny showing signs of instability definitely warranted attention, but telling him to stop his ascension to a True God? That was completely delusional.
His horde of greenskins didn't rely on prophecies to survive. What did the Book of Destiny losing control have to do with the Palu Empire? If any trouble came of it, the knife-ears would be the first to suffer anyway.
Li Nuo thought it over before handing the scroll to Palcador, asking for his advice.
Palcador read the letter carefully a few times before offering his analysis:
"Boss, I suggest we carry on with the ritual and not let the knife-ears influence us. If the Book of Destiny is truly corrupted by chaos, then we can use this chance to completely cut off any possibility of the Shrimp Empire and the knife-ears working together again. Plus, we'll get to see how the knife-ears' gods deal with chaos corruption, which will help us prep for attacking their craftworlds down the line."
Li Nuo nodded.
"That's what I was thinkin' too. Lock that purple bean sprout in a cell far away from here. Don't let her go back. I want to see how Elina reacts when we don't give them a reply, and what kind of revelation the Book of Destiny spits out next."
"Right away, Boss."
...
...
Black Library, Obsidian Archive.
Elina hadn't received any news from Isatrian.
After waiting for a long time, her patience finally wore thin. She opened the crystal tome, ready to respond to the two paths the book had offered.
To her horror, she realized that the prophecy concerning her had changed.
"Elina, she who is disloyal to the prophecy shall be punished by the prophecy.
"You should have placed unwavering faith in the prophecies you saw, rather than secretly contacting specific individuals in a vain attempt to escape the prophecy's guidance.
"Did you know? If you had not secretly contacted Li Nuo, destiny would have guided you to use the fact that 'you didn't know about the supernova, but the Book of Destiny predicted it' to convince Li Nuo that the Book of Destiny is omniscient. This would have caused Li Nuo to abandon his ascension of his own accord.
"Now, because of your overstepping, the path to stopping Li Nuo from becoming a True God has been severed.
"Only one path remains before you, and that is to restart the plan to destroy the Dark King.
"In light of your betrayal of destiny and your disloyalty to the prophecy, you must execute the following command unconditionally. Otherwise, you shall be erased by your true self.
"Deliver a tampered set of Webway technology blueprints to the Imperium of Man under the guise of a trade.
"When the Imperium of Man tests these blueprints, they will accidentally open an unsealable tear to The Warp in Calasta. Countless demons will assault the Imperial Palace, forcing the Emperor to remain forever trapped upon the Golden Throne..."
Staring at the prophecy's contents, Elina's face turned ashen.
