Prospero.
The golden Stormbird swept swiftly through the clouds.
Through the viewing port, Nareth looked down.
Below him stretched rolling mountains, lush forests, and ruined ancient cities rising among jagged towers.
Nareth knew that beneath this beauty lurked deadly danger, swarms of Psychneueins, hidden within.
The human civilization of Prospero had been wiped out thousands of years ago by these creatures.
Magnus believed that abnormal warp fluctuations had caused the latent psychic power of the Prosperans to flare, attracting the Psychneueins, predators that fed upon psykers, from the immaterium into this world.
The surviving humans fled to Tizca, clinging to life.
'After learning from the many schools of Tizca, Magnus once survived forty days alone in the wilderness overrun by Psychneueins, where he met his future aide, Amon.'
'But while he was away, the Psychneueins attacked Tizca. When Magnus returned, he awakened his genetic memory in fury and purged them.'
Even for an Astartes, Nareth knew, Psychneueins were perilous.
For psykers, they were worse; the act of unleashing psychic energy was like lighting a beacon for predators.
But beyonders, those who wielded powers beyond the warp, were different. When they used their abilities, they did not draw more Psychneueins to them.
As Nareth pondered, he caught sight of the sea below.
In a crescent bay, fishing boats set sail, returning with their holds full of seafood for the citizens of Tizca.
He knew that before mechano-psionic battleships became widely used to regulate weather and boost resources, seafood was still the main food source for Tizca's people.
The Psychneueins nested in ruined buildings, Tizca's survival along the coast was not merely luck.
The Stormbird continued south.
Nareth saw the city below, its center dominated by a vast square.
He recognized it: The Plaza of the Secret Eye.
At its heart stood a tall Doric-style column topped by a burning brazier.
He knew that before the Age of Strife, Prosperans had used underground bronze conduits to communicate with Terra.
That column was the last relic of that era, no one had ever been able to reactivate it.
Radiating from the plaza were eighty-one streets, and Prosperans were fervently rebuilding under Magnus's guidance.
Magnus's arrival had given them new hope.
They no longer merely survived; they began to thrive.
"Land on the flat ground beside the red giant," the Emperor ordered the pilot.
Nareth looked down and saw a towering red-skinned giant clad in white robes, gazing up at the descending craft.
Magnus had not yet lost his right eye; his twin pupils were a vivid emerald green, shimmering with ever-shifting prismatic light.
Standing slightly behind him was a man also in white robes, following Magnus's gaze upward.
Nareth recognized him as Amon, Magnus's future equerry and Captain of the Ninth Fellowship.
The Stormbird landed gently. Nareth descended the ramp alongside the Emperor.
"Father."
"My son."
Magnus smiled and strode forward. The two embraced warmly.
Unlike the meetings between the Emperor and Russ, Ferrus Manus, or Vulkan, there was no awkwardness here.
Magnus and the Emperor embraced as if they had known each other for years.
And indeed, Nareth knew, they had.
'For Magnus had never truly been separated from the Emperor.'
'Even while still in his gestation pod, his psychic power was already immense. He then went on to create Enumerations, a set of ten meditative mental states.'
'Through it, his soul wandered the aether and communed with the Emperor.'
Nareth thought of Hathor Maat.
'Only Magnus himself could access the tenth mind layer; Ahriman had reached the ninth.'
'Hathor Maat, as the future Magister Templi of the Pavoni Cult, had mastered the first eight.'
'He could at least bring me the knowledge of those eight layers and the arts of the Bright Feathers.'
After a few seconds, Magnus and the Emperor released each other.
"Father, welcome. I have awaited this day for so long."
"My son, I, too, have long awaited this moment. The time has come."
The Emperor turned slightly, gesturing toward Nareth.
"Besides me, here stands your brother, Nareth. He came with me to your world."
"He has been commanding your Legion until now."
"I believe you two will find much in common."
Magnus, fully aware of his own origin and memories, regarded Nareth with curiosity and respect.
He remembered that in the laboratory, only one other gestation pod had held an awakened consciousness, marked with the numeral XI.
"Nareth, welcome," Magnus said in his deep voice.
"Magnus," Nareth smiled, meeting his bright green gaze. "It's good to see you."
His eyes lingered briefly on a book at Magnus's waist, faintly glowing with psychic light, bound in the hide of a Psychneuein.
"Amon," Magnus said, introducing him, "my former mentor, one of Tizca's Nine Masters."
"Amon, this is my father, the Emperor of Mankind, whom I have spoken to you about. The Ultimate One, the being beyond all limits, existing perfectly between reality and the immaterial."
"And this is my brother, Nareth, the most perceptive and insightful of us all."
"Your Majesty, the Great Ultimate One," Amon said reverently, bowing.
"Lord Nareth, welcome. Our master often speaks of you both."
Magnus was now the leader of all the scholastic orders of Tizca; even Amon, once his mentor, addressed him as Master.
"Father, Nareth, come with me. I've prepared a celebration in your honor."
Magnus led the way eastward. The Emperor and Nareth followed, with Amon walking beside them, curiously observing the two visitors.
The sun was warm, the sea breeze gentle.
Wherever Magnus passed, the people of Tizca bowed respectfully to the red giant who had delivered them from ruin.
They came to a fortress at the foot of the eastern mountains, and Magnus spoke of his vision for Tizca's future.
"The port will be in the north, the old district, where most common folk once lived."
"Here, where we stand, is the spot where I first set foot upon Prospero."
"This mountain fortress once sheltered psykers fleeing from the Psychneueins."
Nareth noticed that when Magnus mentioned the creatures, a flicker of fear passed through Amon's eyes.
Magnus caught it too and smiled gently.
"I will bring rebirth to Tizca. The Psychneueins will trouble us no more."
Turning to the Emperor and Nareth, his eyes glowed gold.
"Upon the western plains, I shall raise a new city. At its center, the plaza where you landed."
"From there, I've planned eighty-one streets radiating outward. That will be the heart of Tizca's future."
Nareth knew that Magnus had achieved this dream.
The city he built, by any standard, outclassed even Terra's greatest hive cities, or the future worlds of Colchis and Macragge, in productivity and happiness.
Each Thousand Son was a scholar in their own right; their combined intellect shaped the perfect city, The City of Light.
But Prospero had only Tizca.
Colchis and Macragge had many cities.
And the City of Light… would one day become a ruin.
A shadow crossed Nareth's mind.
'The survivors of Tizca had learned to make use of every resource.'
'Yes, Hathor Maat and the agents of the Shadow of Order stationed here should study the Thousand Sons' secrets, their hybrid of science and sorcery, their sustainable energy arrays, their subterranean gardens…'
Magnus led them up a ridge toward the fortress.
Around it, runes shimmered faintly, carved into the stone.
Psykers with curved Prosperan blades and staves patrolled warily.
Nareth knew these would become the elite auxiliary troops of Prospero, the Spire Guard, who favored curved swords in close combat.
Entering the great hall, they were met by white-robed scholars staring in awe at the three towering figures.
Magnus stepped onto a circular dais, not a throne, but a lectern for a teacher.
As the master of all orders, he looked out over his followers.
"Magister Templi, and students touched by enlightenment, the Perfect Being who stands above us all, the Ultimate One, has come among us."
"Join me in offering your loyalty to the beloved Emperor!"
The red giant knelt on one knee. The white-robed figures followed, bowing low.
…...
The Emperor remained on Prospero for only two days.
He and Magnus often communed through the warp, so there was no need for a longer stay.
Nareth, however, remained in Tizca.
.....
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