Watching Lion El'Jonson descend into a blind fury, Vulkan felt compelled to lend Jaghatai Khan a hand. Between the efforts of the two Primarch brothers, the Lion was barely coaxed back into a state of composure. However, his expression remained deeply conflicted.
Guilliman turned his head and gestured, signaling his Victrix Guard to withdraw for the time being. Vulkan hesitated for a moment before doing the same. The Keshig very proactively rounded up their cousins and pulled away the Lion's two sons, clearing the space for them. As for the two Inquisitors, they had requested to inspect the Grey Knights serving in the sector and subsequently departed under the guidance of the combat automatons that had arrived earlier to apprehend the Aeldari.
Axion was intrigued by these secret chronicles of the Imperium. Moreover, with both Guilliman and Vulkan pledging to cover the Aeldari's "ransom," there was no reason for him to rush.
The information shared by the two Primarchs was, to say the least, startling.
"That Aeldari known as Eldrad is quite unique," Guilliman began, casting a pall of silence over the room. "He once assisted Father with certain clandestine projects; he is not like a mere xenos. Even after my resurrection, he has continued to aid Father's Great Work."
Jaghatai was completely unaware of these matters. The Lion, however, seemed visibly stirred. He had been privy to most of the Emperor's secret projects, yet there were indeed certain strange endeavors that had been kept from him. Perhaps it was precisely because of the Lion's absolute distrust of all xenos that the Emperor had made such a decision. But whether these details were the absolute truth was now impossible to verify.
Vulkan, meanwhile, seemed to be waking from a long, hazy dream.
"Back when Horus ignited his rebellion, it must have been this Aeldari who guided me back to Terra," Vulkan murmured. "He disguised himself as a mysterious human psyker, using his powers to guide me all the way from Nocturne to Terra. To thank him, I gave him a tooth-shaped ornament embedded in my power armour as a token of my gratitude."
As he spoke, Vulkan lowered his head, looking at the sharp tooth in his palm, and carefully squeezed it. "I never imagined he was an Aeldari Farseer."
Yet, part of the truth had long been lost to history. At that time, Vulkan, having been subjected to the relentless torture and slaughter of his brother Curze, was barely conscious, his mind severely fractured. It was then that the Cabal, a secret society of xenos-worshipping occultists on Terra, dispatched the Perpetual John Grammaticus on a mission. John had been ordered to deliver a fulgurite stone, which contained the Emperor's psychic lightning, to "a Primarch capable of killing Vulkan," as the Cabal feared the Lord of the Drakes would turn the tide of the Siege of Terra.
However, Eldrad had secretly whispered to John that if he were to use the fulgurite to kill Vulkan himself, the death would act as a restorative, healing the Primarch's shattered psyche.
In the end, John succeeded in reaching Vulkan, who had been tortured by Curze until he was little more than a beast. Perhaps moved by some inner calling, he ultimately refused to hand the fulgurite to Curze, the most logical candidate for the task. Instead, he chose to trust Eldrad's words. He thrust the stone into Vulkan, who was already on the brink of death.
This resulted in Vulkan's true death, and John's final descent from a Perpetual into an ordinary man.
Later, the Ultramarines, believing Vulkan had truly fallen, relayed the grim news to the Salamanders who had gathered in grief. Just as the shattered Salamanders guarded their Primarch's remains, Eldrad had quietly stolen the body, scrutinized it, and returned it. He then conjured an image of the Emperor to deliver a cryptic prophecy to the Salamanders. Believing it to be a divine revelation, the Salamanders painstakingly protected their Primarch's corpse as they retreated to Nocturne.
It was First Captain Numeon who eventually deciphered the truth behind the prophecy, sacrificing himself to reawaken the Warp-born essence within Vulkan. When the Salamanders went to recover Numeon's remains, they found Vulkan lying on the ground in a trance, clutching two artifacts.
Vulkan dimly recalled seeing Eldrad right at the moment of his awakening. Eldrad, disguised as an eccentric psyker, had guided him to those artifacts, the hammer known as Urdrakule and the Talisman of Seven Hammers, items Vulkan had no memory of ever crafting. He had urged Vulkan to reach Terra to rescue the Emperor and revealed that the Aeldari Webway gate on Nocturne lay beneath the very volcano where he had been resurrected.
The rest of Vulkan's memories were clear. With the help of Eldrad and his three personal guard, he had finally reached the Golden Throne, where he personally installed the Talisman of Seven Hammers.
It was there, in the Imperial Palace, that the Emperor revealed Vulkan's true mission: if the forces of Chaos were on the verge of total victory, Vulkan was to act as the final fail-safe, using the Talisman to detonate the Golden Throne. This would destroy Terra, the Webway gate, and the traitors in one stroke, dealing the Ruinous Powers a devastating, irrevocable blow alongside the death of the Imperium.
And, in truth, this was exactly what Eldrad had hoped for. He knew well that the Aeldari's greatest enemy was not humanity, nor any other race, but the Chaos Gods within the Warp. So long as he could destroy those abominable dark gods, he cared not what he had to do, much as he had once stolen the crystal corpses of Seers from various Craftworlds in a desperate, sacrificial attempt to awaken the God of the Dead. Though he was permanently exiled by his own kin for these acts, Eldrad held no regrets.
Even after the Emperor was forced upon the Golden Throne, Eldrad continued his work. Since foreseeing the location of the final Crone Sword, his desperation to awaken the God of the Dead had cooled, shifting instead toward attempting to assist the Imperium. This included teleporting the Harlequin troupes he so loathed directly into the Imperial Palace to reveal the flaws in the Custodians' defenses. Though he eventually found it impossible to infiltrate the Imperial Palace again, it did not matter.
Following Guilliman's resurrection, Eldrad had carefully gauged the Primarch's temperament and his willingness to accept the Ynnari, appearing before him on several occasions. Having secured some measure of trust through their shared history of collaboration with the Emperor, Eldrad eventually submitted to Guilliman's command, assisting in the execution of several secret missions.
This was why both Vulkan and Guilliman had spoken up to pay the "ransom." Only the Lion remained entirely in the dark. In reality, the truth was far more outrageous than they could conceive: this old Aeldari Farseer had spent three thousand years laying the groundwork to sabotage an entire Craftworld just to eradicate a Tyranid Hive Fleet, and had, in a twisted turn of fate, facilitated the Second Armageddon War.
As for Jaghatai, he did not feel these events concerned him. The Imperium was vast; every second, countless things occurred. The Emperor's will was lofty and inscrutable, even to his sons. Since his two brothers had vouched for the uniqueness of this xenos, it was not entirely unacceptable.
Vulkan felt the rising unease in the Lion's demeanor. He looked at that grizzled, weary face, and an idea occurred to him. He reached into a side compartment of his power armour and produced a built-in syringe. The vial within glowed with a peculiar, radiant light.
"Lion, you must believe that Father has his own arrangements for everyone," Vulkan said gently. "This tonic may alleviate the anxiety brought on by your current transformation."
Jaghatai looked at the color of the liquid in the syringe with a hint of surprise. "Vulkan, I hadn't expected you to be carrying a Panacea on you?"
The Lord of the Drakes offered no explanation, merely a warm, reassuring smile.
——————
If you want to read ahead of everyone, go to my pat-reon: pat-re-on.c-om/magnor (remove the hyphen to access normally)