"Look! It's Thirstwater, we're saved."
"Just a single drop can destroy the shelter, and we will be reborn!"
"Good girl… let the god see your resolve."
Beneath the blanket, the girl's body trembled faintly, as if she were locked in a fierce struggle with some invisible force.
This was wrong.
She shouldn't do this, yet the voice kept telling her she was doing something righteous.
"Only this way can you regain the god's favor."
"Only this way will you not be abandoned."
"And even if it's wrong, so what?"
"Those innocent people are pitiable, yes, but you are even more pitiable. They would only lose their lives, but you would lose the god's love."
"You aren't acting for selfish reasons. You're doing it for the god."
"How could mortal lives ever be compared to a god?"
Even if it wasn't justice, the voice said it was, therefore it became justice.
Because the voice held the right to speak.
And whoever holds the right to speak holds the right to define.
'But… why was there only one voice?'
Somewhere deep within, Karin realized there should have been another.
Two voices should be pulling against each other. So why was only one left now? Why was there no one to help her?
Karin bit her lower lip hard until she tasted the rusty flavor of blood, only then realizing she had bitten her lip until it bled.
She couldn't do this.
The god wouldn't like it. She was the god's priestess, she couldn't ruin the god's great work for selfish desire.
A god should save everyone, not only her.
"This is a necessary sacrifice."
"You serve the god, you should help."
"This isn't harm; it frees them from the shackles of mortality."
"If the god loses divinity, how can he still be called a god?"
"If he does not return soon, he may lose his divinity forever. Many beings covet his throne."
"Help him, good girl. Only you can help."
"You just accidentally broke it. He will forgive you, you are his priestess."
"No…"
Her voice was barely audible, yet trembled with resolve. No. She couldn't.
If the god had not asked this of her, then doing it would be betrayal.
"It isn't betrayal. He will thank you, he will grant you supreme glory!"
"You will gain eternal life, immense power. Your soul will gain immortal authority. You will stand above all existence!"
"The mortal world will kneel beneath your feet!"
"No…"
She didn't need it. Eternal life, dominion, this was never what she wanted.
She was the god's priestess. He had acknowledged her, and only her.
She was the god's sole priestess.
Her every word and action represented the god's dignity. If she failed, it was the god who would be shamed.
She was a priestess. She shouldn't bring shame upon him.
"This will not disgrace him. His body is merely a prison trapping him; you are helping him regain his true self!"
"The others are all deceiving Him, trying to usurp his authority. Only we are sincerely helping Him."
"Help him, good girl. Look how painfully he smiles."
"We are one. We are the priestess of the god."
"The god has only one chance to rise again. If you cannot seize it, then I will."
Her consciousness struggled like a drowning person in a black ocean, helplessly watching another presence slowly erode her body.
"No…"
Her fingers clawed spasmodically at the bedsheets.
Her soul screamed in resistance, but could only futilely watch as her body was taken over inch by inch by another consciousness.
'Move… move damnit MOVE!'
She screamed desperately in the depths of her consciousness, but her body was like a butterfly specimen sealed in transparent amber. Another consciousness was gradually reviving as the amber thawed.
She could no longer control her body. Even the flutter of an eyelash became a luxury. Only her tear ducts still produced salty liquid.
She became a prisoner inside her own body, watching despairingly through the gradually fogging glass window as "she" slowly raised her arm.
"She" was adapting to the body.
"…Don't…" Broken, breathy sounds squeezed from her throat, like being strangled.
She had no strength. She could not even command her own body.
She could do nothing.
If she had power, she would not be trapped here.
And "she" was altering it, or removing a disguise, restoring its true form.
The radiance of psychic power flowed at "her" slender white fingertips. That was "her" innate talent.
"She" elegantly stretched her fingers. The azure and deep violet psychic halos wound around like living things, tracing mysterious sigils in the void.
This light was neither the pallor of artificial lamps nor the intensity of scorching radiance of stars. It was brilliance born from the soul's essence, as if compressing the mysteries of the entire starry sky into a single point.
This was no metaphor.
It was a miracle.
"I am the God's priestess." "She" parted her rosy lips slightly, her voice as crisp and pleasing as a spring striking stones.
Meanwhile, Karin remained imprisoned in the depths of consciousness.
Her field of vision gradually became blurry. She was about to disappear.
Like an accessory, used and discarded.
And "she"?
"She" was the God's priestess. Which god? Whose god? Was it her god?
No.
It wasn't.
"…Psychic power…" she murmured unconsciously.
That was "her" innate talent, but it was also hers.
She couldn't control her body. "She" was now the body's master. But psychic power didn't come from the gift of flesh and blood.
It was the manifestation of the soul's essence, the power they borrowed.
Since "she" could use it, why couldn't she?
The moment she realized this, the psychic light calmly winding around "her" fingers suddenly flared violently.
Blue energy strands writhed like eels fighting over food, tearing through empty space.
This was her innate talent. Even though her control over psychic power was far inferior to "hers," unable to perform delicate manipulation.
But she didn't need control. She just needed to destroy it.
Like throwing a pebble into a still lake, even the smallest ripple could cause immense damage.
Bang!
The psychic power erupted out of control. A torrent of blue energy tore the hospital bed into fragments.
Yet amid the wreckage, while debris scattered everywhere, "she" floated unharmed.
The violent energy curved away from the edge of "her" clothing, as if blocked by an invisible barrier.
When Caelan returned to the medical room, this was all he saw.
The little angel's purple eyes showed confusion.
"Psychic backlash?"
Sanguinius said, "But psychic power doesn't lose control without reason."
Because of its link to the Warp, psykers were easily tempted or corrupted by Warp entities, and unstable minds carried a high risk of psychic catastrophe.
The reverse is also true: those who lost control usually already had mental instability.
But Karin had always been gentle, showing no abnormal signs.
Caelan and Sanguinius had examined her thoroughly. All indicators were normal.
Which made this incident extremely suspicious, almost certainly outside interference.
But the medical room had been sealed the entire time, completely isolated from the outside world. So where did the external interference come from?
Even more suspicious was the timing:
Right after discovering Karin's genetic similarity to Eve, and during the brief moment they left, she suddenly lost control.
It was hard not to suspect that Karin's outburst was a deliberate plan.
Fulgrim said, "Then the question is, what does the mastermind want to achieve through this incident?"
'The mastermind was obvious. Who else but Tzeentch, the god of schemes, lover of layered conspiracies?'
'But what is the objective? Why cause psychic loss of control? What here was worth targeting? Just a hospital bed?'
Sanguinius's gaze slowly swept the room, finally stopping on a container of liquid, perhaps the only thing of value in the medical room.
Who brought it?
He had.
He wanted to analyze thirstwater using the laboratory equipment.
Perhaps that too was part of the plan.
Caelan walked toward the girl wrapped in psychic light and gently held her.
"Perhaps the psychic loss of control wasn't part of the plan," he said softly. "Perhaps it was proof she was resisting with all her strength."
Caelan believed in human nature. He also believed that the joy in Karin's eyes when she learned she could stay was real.
But she was indeed part of the plan, perhaps even the most critical part.
Although he couldn't understand what had happened to her, Caelan believed she was protecting him in some way he hadn't yet understood.
Fulgrim looked up. "Dad, why do you think so?"
"Intuition."
Intuition could not serve as evidence, but Caelan's instincts were rarely wrong.
.....
'Who am I? Where am I?'
She drifted through nothingness, like falling into a lightless deep sea. The surrounding darkness devoured all perception, leaving only piercing loneliness and cold flooding her heart like tides.
'Could this be death?'
'So I'm dead?'
'But how did I die?'
Fragments of memory flashed and vanished, never forming a whole.
She grasped at them, touching only emptiness.
"Can you hear me?"
A distant, familiar voice pierced the darkness and pulled her consciousness back into her body.
"Dr… Iven…" she murmured unconsciously.
"Are you awake?"
"W-who am I?" A hoarse tremor squeezed from her dry throat. "I can't remember anything. Why am I here?"
"Don't worry, blurred memory is normal." The woman's gentle voice carried a hint of concern. "The reconstruction of the neural system needs an adaptation period. Those scattered memory fragments will slowly restore completeness like a jigsaw puzzle."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Dr. Iven, you can also call me Eva. My illiterate father accidentally messed up when registering my name."
"Why can't I see anything?"
The girl's voice carried bewilderment. Her fingertips unconsciously touched her surroundings, as if confirming the existence of this strange world.
But everything around was some kind of smooth barrier, seemingly confining her in a narrow box.
"This is also normal. Optic nerve reconstruction also takes time. The anesthesia dosage wasn't wrong, but perhaps because your genes are special, anyway, you woke up too early. What can you think of now?"
"I don't remember."
"It's okay, take it slow. Let's start with arithmetic, shall we? What's three times three?"
"Nine."
"Three times nine?"
"Twenty-seven."
"One thousand minus seven?"
"Nine hundred ninety-three… I think I can see now."
Her eyelashes fluttered as cold white lab light slowly entered her vision, forming the image of a woman in a lab coat.
The woman leaned closer, eyes shining with scientific excitement.
"Your optic nerve reconstruction is 129% faster than expected. Your gene sequence is remarkable!"
"Dr... Iven?" Her voice was as thin as a silk thread, still carrying the trance of just waking.
"It's me. Do you remember your name?"
"I don't remember." The girl's slender fingertips unconsciously touched her right shoulder.
"My head..."
"Your secondary brain has atrophied. This is just phantom limb sensation."
"Phantom limb?" The term was unfamiliar to her.
"Although it has atrophied, I successfully integrated its neural units into your main cerebral cortex. Your synaptic transmission speed has now reached 219% of the baseline value."
The girl felt confusion. 'What was Dr. Iven talking about? My head was still there!'
"Don't mind her. She's crazy." A voice echoed in her mind.
"This might cause you some special perceptions. For example, you might occasionally feel like two modes of thinking coexist simultaneously, since you once had two independently operating brains. Have you felt anything similar? Like, another voice occasionally ringing in your mind?"
"Don't tell her. She'll harm us." The voice warned her in her mind.
"No." The girl murmured. She believed her because "she" was her.
"If any abnormal reactions occur, please inform me immediately."
"Your form is truly unique. Your mutation, a twin-head symbiosis, is unprecedented."
"During the third stage of treatment, your vital signs fell outside the safety threshold nine times. Every time I was about to give up, you miraculously came back to life. It's incredible."
"So, do you remember your name?"
"Is that important?"
"You can consider this a test."
"5973."
"That's a number, not a name."
She frowned slightly, searching her memory, "Karin? Is that my name?"
"Yes. But I want to give you a new one."
"What name?"
"Eve."
"What does it mean?"
"In the most widespread belief system among the faiths of ancient Terra, Adam and Eve are considered the progenitors of humanity. Adam was the first living person created by God from dust in His own image. Eve was created from one of Adam's ribs."
"I am humanity's progenitor?"
"No. But if my experiment succeeds through you, you might become the progenitor of a new humanity."
"Then why not call me Adam?"
"Because Adam is a male name! I don't want to make the same mistake as my father!"
A playful voice suddenly sounded in Karin's mind: "You already have a name. Give 'Eve' to me, okay?"
Karin was slightly startled, then gently responded within: 'Okay, this name is for you.'
"Eve, your neural activity just spiked," the doctor said. "Anything wrong?"
Just as Karin was about to respond, a voice carrying excitement sounded: "She's calling me. Let me out quickly to answer her."
This voice carried undisguised anticipation, like a butterfly impatient to break free from its cocoon.
Karin could clearly feel the emotion and willfulness when the other said this, like a younger sister asking her elder sister for a beloved toy.
'Okay, you answer then.'
Eve blinked lightly, "Nothing. I was just thinking."
…
"What are you staring at?" Dr. Iven asked later.
"I… I think I saw someone."
"Someone?"
"In my vision, a man, and a silver-haired, purple-eyed little angel with white wings."
"It couldn't be God coming to guide you to heaven, could it? What did the man look like?" the doctor joked.
"You're awake?" the distant man's voice echoed.
"My lord… I… I was wrong…" she whispered.
The doctor frowned. "Eve, what are you saying?"
"She's calling me," Eve said. "I'll explain."
Karin lowered her head. Eve raised her chin proudly.
"I saw the future."
"You mean prophecy? Psykers theoretically can foresee the future, though rarely."
"No. It's certain."
"How far ahead?"
"Four thousand nine hundred years."
"And what did you see? Did my experiment succeed?"
Eve answered, "No. You failed."
This was what the god told her.
…...
"Karin, you still can't hear it?" Eve's voice carried a condescending pity.
"I'm sorry… I'm trying…" Karin whispered.
"Why don't you understand?" Eve snapped coldly.
"The god's voice is so clear, yet you're deaf! I understand now. The god chose me, not you. This is the reason!"
"But we are one," Karin said softly. "We're sisters."
"Shut up! The god chose me, only me! Karin, you are obstructing the sacred mission!"