"Where are we going?" Erebus asked.
"I don't know," said Caelan. "This caravan has always followed the routes laid out by Kor Phaeron, searching for the camps of the Forsaken along the way. I'm not the one deciding which path you should take; that choice belongs to Lorgar."
He was a teacher. His duty was to teach and guide, not to plan the lives of others.
Caelan had never planned Curze's life, and he wasn't about to plan Lorgar's either.
Whether Lorgar chose to continue deeper into the desert or to turn the caravan around and strike at the Covenant's stronghold, Caelan would support him completely.
"We go deeper," Lorgar said. "Facing them head-on now would be to our disadvantage. We must wait for the right moment, and unite all those who oppose the Covenant."
From the accounts of Akshida and Nairo, Lorgar had come to realize the staggering difference in power between them and the Covenant. The Covenant controlled all coastal regions of this planet, commanding nearly its entire population, a vast, unimaginable force.
Lorgar could not destroy such a power alone. He needed to unite all those abandoned by the Covenant, the Forsaken, and quietly build strength in the shadows.
"Can you really persuade them?" Erebus asked.
"I've been studying Colchis' ancient history lately," Lorgar said, his voice echoing like wind through a deep valley as his fingers brushed faded words on a page. "The oldest traces go back ten thousand years. The ancient ancestors came here aboard starships the size of worlds, descending from beyond the galaxy onto this barren land."
Though Kor Phaeron was dead, his legacy remained.
This land-ship and its caravan were all that Kor Phaeron left behind. But the most precious of them was the great library built into the ship itself.
Within it were countless tomes and relics from the distant past, ancient devices that none alive could fully understand.
Kor Phaeron could not read the old languages, nor could he use the ancient machines. The library had been little more than a hoard of curiosities to him.
Lorgar was different. He was born knowing.
Even when he didn't recognize a word, he could, through study, master it in mere days. To him, the library was a treasure vault.
Erebus frowned. "Lorgar, I know humanity came from Terra. But how does that help us now?"
"Because truth lies in history," Lorgar replied. "Ten thousand years ago was the Age of the M20, the Golden Age of Humanity. Our species spanned the galaxy, spreading knowledge and light among the stars. Human civilization then shone brighter than the suns themselves."
Erebus instinctively glanced at Caelan. Though most saw Lorgar as the prophet, he felt Caelan surely knew more.
Coincidentally, Lorgar thought the same and turned his gaze toward Caelan.
Caelan sighed. "I don't actually know that much. Humanity's Golden Age lasted roughly from M15 to M25, a span of ten thousand years. In the first three millennia, humanity used sublight engines to colonize nearby systems.
"These colonies were scattered far apart. Interstellar journeys could take centuries, so there was no unified human government back then.
"In M18, humans invented the first warp drives, capable of short jumps through the Immaterium."
"In M22, the Navigator gene was developed, allowing humans to make long-range warp voyages.
"During this time, the first unified human interstellar government was born."
"Perhaps intoxicated by genetic success, that government began modifying the human genome, boldly splicing alien DNA into mankind. That's why mutant variants became so common among lost human worlds."
"In the late M23, the Men of Iron rebellion broke out. The exact date is uncertain, but the galaxy-wide war destroyed countless worlds, ending humanity's brief Golden Age."
"Afterward, humanity tried to rebuild its shattered civilization, but in M25 a massive warp storm swept across the galaxy, cutting off the colonies from one another and erasing humanity's interstellar unity. Much of the technology from the Golden Age was lost."
Caelan paused before adding quietly, "Your father's Great Crusade was meant to reunite those broken fragments of mankind."
Caelan hadn't lived through those times; everything he knew came from fragments of knowledge, and even the Emperor himself had known little of the details.
The Emperor has been humanity's strongest psyker. Long ago, he foresaw the downfall of human civilization, and so, as the Golden Age dawned in M15, he gathered a band of perpetual companions and set course for Molech using sublight drives.
It was a journey only perpetuals could endure, a voyage across centuries.
That journey gave the Emperor access to the essence of the Primarchs' warp-born nature, but it cost him dearly.
Almost all his perpetual companions abandoned him, terrified by what he had done. Only Erda remained for a time.
Malcador joined him much later, born in M24, a youth compared to the Emperor's ancient peers.
To gain the warp essence of the Primarchs, the Emperor had sacrificed much. His voyage to Molech and back to Terra took ages; he may have seen the events of the Golden Age in visions, but he could not have lived through them all.
And the warp essence he gained was never meant merely to create twenty legions of Astartes.
Across the galaxy, many human civilizations, like the Leagues of Votann, the Interex, and the Federation of Kings, had proven capable of creating superhuman warriors without Primarchs or warp essence.
Clearly, the Emperor expected far more from his Primarchs. In his design, they were not just warriors; they were the hope of humanity's rebirth.
The fact that he spent millennia seeking the warp essence of the Primarchs shows that this pursuit outweighed even the recovery of all lost Golden Age technology. Yet, paradoxically, the Emperor's attitude toward his sons remained profoundly ambiguous.
To understand the Emperor's grand design, one must first understand the nature of the Primarchs' warp essence.
Were the essences of the twenty Primarchs separate individuals, or had they once been one?
And what did that essence truly mean for the destiny and resurrection of humankind?
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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