Human beings are creatures with subjective initiative.
So Hades chose to spend the voyage to Nikaea aboard the World Eaters' Conqueror rather than the Order of Silence's Kokutus, as he said he was allergic to that style of decoration.
To further his subjective initiative, Hades brought the Macragge blanket from his bedroom on the Korkutus to his lounge on the Conqueror.
Angron once asked Hades what it was, and Hades very honestly told the Lord of Red Sands that it was the home planet of his brother, Roboute Guilliman. Angron expressed sincere confusion at this behavior.
[Brother, you are not... you are not from the Order of Silence? ]
Hades blinked. Why did he feel that the edge of the carpet was pilling? He didn't remember messing with the carpet.
"The Order of Silence is not a complete legion, Angron. Uh... To be honest, I am from the 14th Legion of Death Guard."
Angron suddenly realized.
[Ah, you are the Primarch of the Death Guard? ]
Hades coughed violently.
"No! No! I mean I am the Commander of the Death Guard - and by blood..."
Hades paused, as if thinking about something complicated, some confusing generational theory that even Om Messiah couldn't figure out.
"Well... Anyway, you and I can't be considered brothers. I mean in the blood relationship."
Angron first laughed and patted Hades, telling him that friendships built on the battlefield are far more reliable than blood ties. Then Angron paused and asked cautiously,
[Brother, let me ask you, so the 14th Legion, the Death Guard has another Primarch? ]
Hades nodded wildly.
"Death Lord Mortarion, when we get to Nikaea, I think you will meet him. He is very knowledgeable about alchemy and anti-psychic energy..."
“And numerology.”
Hades paused, then he said thoughtfully,
"Although I see Mortarion either preparing poison or on his way to prepare poison every day, he should also have some research on healing and rehabilitation. Let's see if he can help you when the time comes."
Hades glanced at Angron's nails, which had turned into decorative dreadlocks, with layers of blood and dirt accumulated at the bottom. Those were the traces of the Primarch's brain growing and trying to squeeze out the nails.
Angron rarely spoke immediately, and Hades, before he realized that Angron was confused by him, quickly continued to speak out his idea.
"I will introduce you to Mortarion. He is a nice guy, but not very good at socializing. But you can rest assured that he will not poison you."
Just maybe draw some blood from you, Hades muttered to himself.
[Wait a minute, bro, so...]
Angron said hesitantly,
[You are the commander of the Fourteenth Legion, you are also the leader of the Order of Silence - but you hang a Thirteenth Legion rug in your lounge?!]
Hades blinked innocently.
"Yes, what's wrong?"
Angron thought a lot at that moment, and finally the Primarch decided to attribute his inability to figure this out to the fact that he had been away from the center of the Empire for too long. This might be some common phenomenon, but he just didn't know it.
Angron grinned.
[Then I will give you some goodies from the World Eaters. Whatever you want, Hades, you can take it.]
Hades pondered, he couldn't just hang two axes on the wall of the lounge, although this seemed possible.
He waved his hand.
"Thanks, Angron. I'll just take two axes from your arsenal."
A week later, Hades received a Colosseum blanket that was slightly larger and heavier than the Macragge blanket, and had coarser stitching.
Comes with two axes.
Hades lifted the blanket, staring speechlessly at the wild blood-spattered arena on it, which looked like it had been sewn together temporarily.
I just don't know who is so unlucky to be called by the Lord of Red Sand to do such a thing.
————
[Enough! Enough, enough! You've said it many times.]
Angron patted Hades's shoulder armor carelessly with one hand and scratched his ear impatiently with the other.
[Compared to the interpersonal relationships of my brothers, you might as well learn a few axe moves from Kahn. ]
Hades yelled.
"Listen, Angron! You are going to attend the Council of Nikea!"
Angron frowned.
[This is just a meeting, not a battle, why do you take it so seriously? ]
Hades winked.
"Sometimes, a single sentence at a meeting of upper-level decision-makers can set off countless wars. Angron, you must be a qualified decision-maker, not just a general."
Angron shrugged indifferently.
[I can’t fight a war. I can’t even be called a general now.]
Hades laughed, and began to swing his axe in front of Angron in mockery.
"You haven't fought for a long time. Your hands are itching, right, right?"
The millisecond before Angron bared his teeth and his emotions began to turn into anger, Hades decisively threw away his battle axe in a gesture of surrender and began to talk quickly.
"Okay, Angron, you still have to listen. Listen carefully. The Nikea Conference is a multi-person Primarch meeting initiated by the Emperor. You will serve as the Primarch of the World Eaters in the meeting and express your own unique views on whether to support the dissolution of the Think Tank. At the same time, you will gradually explore the chaotic interpersonal relationships among many Primarchs."
[Where did you learn so many strange sentence structures? ]
Angron shouted, picking up an axe and throwing it to Hades, signaling him to shut up.
[Didn't you say that Mortarion and the Death Guard are not good at speaking? Why do you talk so much? ]
Hades took a deep breath.
"It's because I said it all that they don't have to say anything! I'm just a pathetic messenger!"
Hades suddenly stopped and looked at Angron with a serious face. Angron looked at him in surprise.
[What's wrong, brother?]
"Actually,"
Hades said sincerely,
"I don't know what I'm going to do in Nikaea. I can at least deduce that the Legion went to Nikaea to express their opinions and vote. I really don't know what I'm going to do."
[Emperor... Didn't my father tell you what you were going to do? ]
Angron paused.
[Hades, aren't you the leader of the Order of Silence? Since we are discussing psychic issues, there must be a place for you.]
"I... I'm not sure if the Emperor needs me to appear?"
Hades touched his nose guiltily.
"Brother, I don't think everyone accepts my existence as well as you do."
Angron was puzzled again.
————
Vorx stood beside his Primarch with a serious face. Behind Mortarion, the Lord of Death was busying himself at his potion table. The pungent stench wafted into Vorx's nostrils.
[My captain, you will go and meet the wild wolves.]
Mortarion spoke hoarsely,
[The wolves are all violent savages. I don't expect you to get along well with them.]
Mortarion watched the liquid drip slowly into the distilling flask.
[But they have evidence that can kill Magnus, Vox, we need the death penalty, words can't kill, we must get evidence.]
Vox paused for a moment, then he asked cautiously,
[My Lord, what did the Wolves find? It is enough to sentence the Thousand Sons to death.]
Mortarion put down the test tube he was shaking in his hand and turned to look at Vox.
[one person.]
"one person?"
Vorx was stunned for a moment. He narrowed his eyes in dissatisfaction at Mortarion and turned back.
[The Wolf King claimed that he had discovered that the Thousand Sons were playing with the fate of others in order to spy on the secrets of other legions.]
[but,]
Mortarion paused.
[Regrettably, although I hope that Magnus can be buried in a swamp pool with his Thousand Sons, I think the Wolf King's evidence will not allow the liar to die directly - perhaps we should try life imprisonment.]
Vox thought, he did not attend the banquet of the Lord of Death and the Scarlet King, but the fact that Garo went with them and came back with a bad look on his face obviously explained a lot of problems.
Mortarion was against Magnus, that was clear and obvious, and Vorcus knew that.
Can-
"Father, what do you think of the think tank?"
Vorkes asked cautiously. The main topic of the Nikaea Conference was still the think tank issue, but it seemed that Mortarion was unwilling to abolish the undertakers in the Death Guard, which seemed to be a deviation from the opposition to Magnus.
Mortarion's calm voice sounded,
[The Legion can have a small number of think tanks, and they will be the best to alert the warp in advance, but my brother Magnus has obviously gone too far, and he needs to be punished. ]
Vuxten paused.
"And what will you say at the meeting, my Lord?"
[Abolish think tanks.]
Mortarion said calmly,
[Vorx, there is no think tank in the Death Guard. If anyone asks you about this, you can say that the Death Guard cancelled all think tanks after a Death Guard think tank lost control of its psychic power.]
Vorx was silent, and the Lord of Death mercifully explained to his dutiful Captain,
[Vorx, there are no Librarians in the Space Wolves either.]
[But I think, when you go to connect with them, you will find a kind of wild wolf called Rune Warlock, and there may be a lot of them. ]
Mortarion bottled the potion and looked at the liquid in the vial with satisfaction. Then he turned around, squatted down and put the vial on Vox's waist.
[Here you go.]
Mortarion said,
[This is a potion I made from the guardsmen beside Hades, and a potion for the Sisters of Silence. Nikaea is the Emperor's territory, and you will encounter many guardsmen.]
Then Mortarion looked up, and beneath his hood he gazed at Vorcus.
[Listen carefully, Vorcus, you will be the witness of the Thousand Sons' guilt as a member of the Death Guard, appearing behind the scenes where no one can reach. If the Wolf King produces evidence, let him show it to his heart's content - but I don't believe Magnus will remain indifferent. ]
[If Magnus takes action, remember, Vox, your goal is not to stop Magnus, your goal is to make this matter bigger, to make it public, to let everyone see that the wizard is trying to cover up his crime, to make everything chaotic, and then we will have solid evidence to declare him guilty.]
Mortarion spoke in a low voice. He patted Vorcus on the shoulder and sighed.
[Go ahead and don't worry about the wild wolves. Short-term cooperation does not mean we are their true allies. ]
Mortarion stood up and turned back to tidy up the apothecary table.
[Vox, remember to go to the armory and get some more white and black bullets.]
The Lord of Death listened to the sound of Vox bowing and leaving. It had been seventeen years. He wondered, would he see the Lord of the Order of Silence at this Nikea Conference on psychic issues
But no matter what, he would face Magnus seriously and let this ugly wizard tear off his mask. This was his most sincere curse on psychics.
3.3k, yay!
(End of this chapter)