"Valtheria."

Lady Ymira looked up at the Space Marine from where she stood.

"What?"

"The Castle," Kael said, nodding forwards, his head encased in the black of his helm. "It is called Valtheria."

The inquisitor said nothing in response, but began walking forwards. Her hands were still placed behind her back, and her daemonhammer had yet to be drawn. Kael looked back up to the Thunderhawk as it loomed over them before he left the landing pad. He could not see either of the pilots through the tint of the cockpit, yet he heard the pilot's voice come through in his helmet.

"We will await your return, Marshal." The pilot said, his words deep with respect.

"Take off if we are not to return," Kael said flatly. "Tell the fleet to let Requiem burn."

"Aye. As you will it."

Kael blink clicked the vox link closed and turned from the aircraft.

"Does the name have an origin?" Tarac asked as he fell in alongside Kael, speaking externally rather than in a private link.

"Yes," Kael said after several moments. "It is the name of a hero that fought with our forefathers. According to the archives kept here, he brought the Knights Eternal to fruition, even though he always knew that they would die out."

"They let you access to their archives? You must have known the Chapter Master well."

"He was a good man," Kael said sternly. "A good warrior. But all warriors fall."

"War, brother. It is a cruel mistress." Tarac replied.

"Aye." Kael sighed. "That she is." 

As they spoke, they moved through an incline surrounded on either side by high reaching rocks, bleached grey white by the storms that weathered the planet. Kael could see the tops of stone towers above, not far away. They were shrouded in the mists of Requiem, however, and were nearly invisible. Kael would not have been able to see them if he didn't know where and what he was looking for.

They had landed on the same pad he'd used last he had visited here, and they had not been fired at for doing so. Kael didn't know what to expect.

"Why?" Asked Lady Ymira from in front of him. The Initiates had crowded behind Tarac as they'd begun to move through the rocks. Their weapons were lowered, but they remained on high alert, scanning the tops of the natural stone around them. "Why create a Chapter that would surely end?"

"Because their doctrine is to never yield. When they die, their gene-seed dies with them. Baliik always knew that they would fade into nothing before long, but he didn't care. None of them did."

Kael paused from speaking to grin underneath his helm.

"They just kept fighting."

No one said anything more. In but a few more moments, they were standing on the outskirts of the Castle, looking up at the high reaching walls.

It was not a Gothic design as most things of the Imperium were. None of it was decorative at all. Every stone that had been placed down here, every mortal that had died building this place up, had been spent for a reason. Tapestries hung from the walls, showing the proud colors of the Chapter. Dark purple outlined with black. Their oaths lined the cloth, written in Low Gothic.

"All stories end..." Tarac said as he looked at the Castle, reading to himself one of the various oaths.

Before them was an outer hall, one open to the environments with pillars of marble holding up the granite above.

"It is this way," Kael said, leading the inquisitor. He remembered when he had last entered this place. He called up memories of when he had been led through the halls of stone, lit by nothing more than torchlight, and into the keep. There, a seat built up in the likeness of the Golden Throne of Terra sat, and that was where Baliik spent most of his hours. Sitting, watching, and thinking. What it was the Chapter Master often thought of, Kael had no idea, but did not question it.

They walked the corridor in silence. Kael took notes of craters in the walls around him, and the rubble that decorated the floor. Shell casings littered the ground, crunching under the ceramite of the Astartes' boots. He saw discarded weaponry, bolters spent dry and power weapons cracked upon ruination.

The mist and fog was heavy even here, and Kael could not see more than several feet in front of himself. He saw the inquisitor reach one of her hands up before her, and the mist wrapped around her fingers like smoke.

Suddenly, Kael stopped moving. His free hand shot down to his bolter, unlocking it, and he brought it up in one hand, holding it steady. The others around him stopped, taking aim and making ready in likeness. The inquisitor simply stood, hands still behind her back, but her human and false eyes were focused forwards, searching for whatever it was that the Space Marine had seen.

"What is it?" Kael heard Tarac say over the vox. "What do you see?" Under his concern, Kael heard his brother revving his chainsword, teeth churning the mist.

Kael opened his mouth, but no words came out. He couldn't bring himself to speak, didn't want to. He didn't know if he should.

"Marshal," Tarac said, "Kael. What is wrong?"

"Can you not feel it?" He asked finally, inclining his head forwards.

Tarac looked to where was directed, shaking his head. "No," he said silently. "There is nothing but mist here." 

But Tarac was wrong.

"Move with caution." Kael said. "Move with His grace."

The Initiates spread out as Kael lowered his bolter and scanned the area around them.

He turned to find that Ymira was looking forwards, focusing on something that was out of sight.

"An apparition of Chaos is among us," Lady Ymira said as she started inching slowly forwards.

As Kael looked for the enemy that stalked them, his eyes caught the glint of armor from behind the mist. He walked to it, and worked his hand before him, trying to push the fog out of his way. As it parted before him, what had been concealed away was revealed.

It was an Astarte.

Its power armor was cracked and destroyed, but there was no blood. As Kael looked, he couldn't make out flesh inside of the armor. He walked closer and knelt down. He reached and picked up the helmet, it coming away as though it was never attached to anything. Dust and ash fell from it in a heavy wave. The armor was in color of the Chapter that he was presumably here to destroy.

"What did this?" Tarac asked, but Kael had no answer for him.

Looking at the helmet in his hands, the mist around them suddenly exploded outwards, creating a clearing. The others all tensed, and as Kael looked up, he saw more dead Knights Eternal. All of their armour was cracked, shards of ceramite lying about them, and none looked to contain flesh.

He heard something that sounded like a garbled mesh of static. As he looked up and saw Ymira approaching, he recognised the sound as laughter. She had one hand on the handle of her daemonhammer, the other calmly placed at her side.

Then, in front of him, a figure emerged from the edge of the mist. As it came, Kael moved to his feet.

"All is dust," it muttered in a low tone.

It had been a Space Marine once, Kael observed grimly, though it didn't look it. In a lost past it had served the Great Father, but now it had cast away the origins of its creation, and looked to the shadows for salvation. What it didn't know and would learn soon, is that it had made a mistake.

A hood was pulled tight across its features, and its face was nothing more than shadow. It wore no cloak; however, the rest of its body was revealed. Its muscles and limbs were stark white, and were void of excess flesh. Symbols had been burned into its skin, and were a deep black. Kael recognised several of them as the eight pointed star of Chaos. A heavy chain ran from its neck, connected to a tomb which the sorcerer held in one hand. A skirt of ripped fabric hid away its legs, light blue rimming it.

As Kael took a step forwards, readying himself to fell this fiend, Ymira moved in front of him.

"Come, sorcerer, it is time to meet your end."

"And all shall return to dust."

Two arcs of warp lightning worked their ways through empty air towards the inquisitor, and as they did, she flung her weapon from her back to hold in both her hands in a shout of hydraulics. As she moved, the head of the warhammer met with the lightning. The arcs sizzled out of existence, cracking like the explosion of a mortar round. She surged forwards through the sparks of the failed attack, bringing the weapon to bare, and swung down. Kael thumbed the activation rune of his power sword. The energetic field buzzed with energy, and he strode forwards, bolter raised.

The inquisitor's hammer ate into the stone of the floor, and shrapnel flew in all directions. She brought the weapon back up, and raised her hand, bowing her head slightly. Lightning flashed from her own finger tips and tore through the air above her. Looking up, Kael saw that the sorcerer of Chaos had lept into the air.

Hunched over even while up above, it raised its other hand in response to Lady Ymira's attack. Black pylons were growing from its flesh, each pointed at the top. As the lightning met with its hand, it disappeared, seemingly absorbed and Kael saw energy run through the pylons.

"Heh," Ymira muttered as she jumped into the air to swing again, only to find that the sorcerer was once again gone.

"For the Emperor!" Beorr screamed. Kael turned to see that the magician of Chaos had appeared among the ranks of his own.

Beorr charged the tainted Space Marine, firing his bolter as he moved. Each round that missed ate pathways through the fog surrounding them, and impacted against the stone walls around the sorcerer, exploding outwards. Shells rained against the ground, and Beorr started reaching down for the gladius at his waist as the gap between he and the archenemy closed.

Ymira sprinted to where the sorcerer had appeared and swung her daemonhammer once more, stabilizers in the weapon whining with her actions, but the servant of the Ruinous Powers seemed to faze out of existence, reappearing behind Beorr. He unsheathed his gladius and lashed out with it as he did, bringing his bolter around to line up a shot. Where his blade went, only empty air stood before him.

As Beorr worked, bringing his side arm back to stab at his foe again, Corus moved into position, swinging a chainsword through the air. The machine screamed as the teeth came up empty of flesh, and Corus spat a curse. The Initiate's foe flashed through the air in front of him.

"By the Throne, stand your ground!"

The sorcerer glided through the air, and as it did it opened the tomb in its hands. Dozens of ancient and dirtied pages fell from its bindings, scattering across the ground, the words written in a language that Kael nor the others tried to comprehend. It looked down at the book of madness, and when it looked back up, it reached out its hand to rest upon Beorr's helmet.

"We are made of the Dust." The sorcerer intoned.

Beorr screamed in defiance, and flashed with blue light. His weapons fell from his grip as he brought both hands to his head, trying to remove the grip of the sorcerer. As he tried, Corus swung down with his blade, but before it could cut through the sorcerer's hand, it had moved away once again. Corus cried out in hatred as he spun, assuming that it had moved behind him, and as he did Beorr wavered, falling to his knees and slamming onto the ground.

Before Corus had the chance to strike, the tome the sorcerer had been holding was hovering before its chest, and it had both hands above Corus, fingers extended. Long, black fingernails as sharp as knives had grown in an instant, and lightning flickered between them.

"Undone by the Dust."

As it spoke, lightning arced down into Corus's figure. He dropped his weapon, his limbs spasming beyond his own control. Smoke rose from the Black Templar, and he fell too, the stone underneath him cracking.

Kael lunged forwards.

The sorcerer's head shot up as Mara moved through its back, the tip emerging from its chest and energy field crackling with joy as it found its mark. The sorcerer wavered where it stood, and the book fell from where it had been hovering, chain fading from reality. Kael ripped his blade back, black blood trailing it, but as he did the sorcerer surged forwards towards the inquisitor.

It was an action taken in desperation, and it had been a mistake.

"Yes, come to me," Ymira spoke, cheerfully. "Meet your end."

She brought the daemonhammer up and down with impossible speed, and the weapon ate through the sorcerer's head. As it fell, Ymira hefted her weapon to rest against her shoulder, enemy lain, broken and defeated.

The creature struggled where it lay as it died. It moved as though it were looking for the strength with which to fight, but it was mangled beyond hope of salvation. Eventually, it stopped and silently looked upon those gathered around it.

"And we all shall return to the Dust."

Then, in a flash of blue fire, the corpse was gone.

Kael watched the sorcerer die, hate and contempt on the surface of his thoughts. These were those who looked to False Gods for answers, for redemption, but all they found was damnation. They, like all psykers, opened themselves to the warp. This was the only outcome for such a choice.

"Is that really what you think?" Ymira asked. Kael realized that she was looking up at him, amusement in her eye, and then felt the press of her intrusion. In a flush of anger and annoyance, he separated her from his mind, and closed it off. As he did, the inquisitor chuckled.

He had wandered away into thought for the briefest of moments, and this was the result.

"You find me attractive, do you?" Ymira asked under her chuckle, revealing what she had dug up from the iron density of his mind. "Well, that's very flattering."

She looked away from him to the dead Initiates, red hair following her movements. Smoke rose from both of their corpses, and Kael could smell burnt flesh. Aviro and Haval were checking the surrounding area, even though nothing could be seen due to the thickness of the fog around them. Kael approached Ymira as she examined the dead. She reached down, and started to remove Beorr's helmet.

"Don't-..." Kael had been making to stop her from disrespecting the fallen, but she ignored him and removed it. As she did, dust fell from ceramite, just as it had from the corpse that they had found before.

"Return to dust..." Ymira muttered to herself. She had said it quietly, and had perhaps not meant to say it at all, but Kael heard her regardless.

"Do you know what sorcery this is?" Kael asked. Disgust crept into his voice at the taste of the word. The inquisitor didn't seem to notice. 

"I have the inkling of an idea, but it is not something that should be spoken of in a place such as this. Come, that was a mere sorcerer, and not a very strong one. We must proceed, and find Baliik."

"Tch," Trovien spat, and both Ymira and Kael turned to look at him. Tarac stood behind the Marshal, observing what was about to occur.

"Is there a problem, Initiate?" Kael asked, the words spoken as a warning not to speak instead of an invitation. Trovien shook his head, looking down to the dead.

"One that you seem to refuse to acknowledge, Marshal."

Kael raised Mara in a flash, the energy field crackling close to Trovien's head. He looked back up, as though in shock.

"Would you care to illustrate your thoughts?"

"He is angry," Ymira said. "With me."

Kael noticed with a grin that she had moved one of her hands to the handle of her daemonhammer. Trovien's bolter had been lowered, but only partially. Kael knew the Initiate, and thus knew that it would be up again faster than the inquisitor could be on him. Kael wasn't about to let one of his own men kill a member of the sacred Ordo Malleus, however. He would kill him first, if it came down to it.

"She is correct." Trovien said.

Kael nodded, and blink clicked a private vox link between himself and the Initiate.

"I understand the source of your hatred, but you need to put that aside. Beorr and Corus died doing what they were created for, as we all will. Lady Ymira had nothing to do with the outcome. She fought alongside them, no less. She honored them."

"Why do you speak so highly of her?" Trovien asked, clearly enraged. "Why are you defending her? You know how the Inquisition views us. You know what they would do given half the chance. So why?"

"Because no matter our differences, we still fight for the same Father above, and you are not to stray away from that. I am aware of her use of the warp, and the corruption that such a thing may lead to, but she seems ready to fight alongside us, even though we go against the Codex. I am accepting of that, as you should be. Do you understand?"

Kael moved his blade the fraction of an inch closer to Trovien's head, just enough to be noticed.

Trovien lowered and mag locked his bolter to his thigh, and snapped his heels together, forming the aquila over his chest.

"As you will it," he said, using the external speakers of his helmet as he closed off the vox link. Kael heard Tarac sigh to himself, and lowered Mara, deactivating the sword's power field. He turned from Trovien and started walking forwards again, leading the way.

"Alright, come then brothers. We have Daemons to hunt."

"Aye Marshal," Tarac said, falling in alongside his commander. The other Initiates followed as well. Trovien had his eyes focused upon Ymira, though Kael didn't think that he would try to do anything in way of betrayal. At least, he hoped that was true.

As they moved, the fog around them started to fill the clearing that had been formed, hiding away the bodies of the fallen Templars. They went from the outer hall and into the doorway that led deeper into Valtheria. It would lead them into the keep, far below the crust of Requiem.

The only sound that was left was the hum of armor, the drum of ceramite against stone, and Kael's thoughts, hammering against his skull.