Auric Gods

Chapter Seven City of Vorganthian, Kobor, within Terra’s light

Gedd started at the sudden voice in her head, turning around, half-blinded by the oil lamps hovering in their stations. She had her gun out again, the instinct to draw it natural and defensive.

+No need for that.+

Gedd lowered then holstered her weapon. She raised a hand to ward her eyes. Breathing hard, she felt like puking but kept it down.

‘It’s rather bloody bright,’ she complained at length.

The Avenue of Light was just that, a part of Elserow that consisted of a long paved street illuminated by a hundred oil-fuelled globes, each one held aloft by an anti-gravitic plate. It was a metaphor for the Imperium’s adherence to archaism and the stagnation of technological endeavour, though few appreciated the contradiction.

Few ever ventured here too. No one in Vorganthian really wanted to see themselves in the light. The blood, the grime, the misery, it all seemed starker in the pitiless luminescence of those globes.

Gedd saw the lamplighter. A short, unassuming man in a brown leather storm coat and a wide-brimmed fedora, he stood at the end of the Avenue of Light. He had a walking stick in his right hand, the tech in the haft visible even from distance. Armour beneath the coat bulked him out a little. Gedd reckoned he was at least a hundred feet away, which either meant he had abilities or she did.

The lamps in Gedd’s sector dimmed as the man approached.

+Is that better?+

She lowered her hand. ‘Better, but if you try to speak into my mind again I am going to have to shoot you. I haven’t decided where yet either.’

The lamplighter held up his hand by way of apology.

‘Old habits,’ he said, when Gedd was close enough to hear him normally. ‘I don’t see many of his agents around these parts. Haven’t seen a peacekeeper in some time.’ He nodded. ‘My name is Xeus, but I am generally known as the Lamplighter.’

Gedd frowned. ‘By whom? I thought you said you hardly saw anyone down here.’

‘By those to whom I am known,’ answered Xeus with no suggestion of offering any further explanation.

‘You’re a wyrd, aren’t you?’

‘A psyker, yes. I am a theta-level telepath, though I also possess some minor kinetic abilities.’ He gestured to one of the globes, which intensified and dimmed again to illustrate the point.

Gedd sniffed her amusement. ‘Clever trick. Didn’t know he was using wyrds.’

‘Our employer uses every tool at his disposal, though I would ask you to refrain from using that term.’

‘Wyrd?’

‘If you wouldn’t mind.’

‘Sorry, I meant no offence.’

‘None taken,’ Xeus said. ‘You wish to see him.’ It wasn’t phrased as a question.

‘I was told he wished to see me,’ Gedd replied, stupidly feeling she needed to justify her presence.

‘He does,’ said Xeus, and Gedd thought perhaps he had taken offence after all. ‘Stand under the eighth globe along on the left if you wouldn’t mind.’

‘What?’ asked Gedd, but Xeus merely stepped out of her path and indicated the appropriate globe.

Gedd did as asked, standing under the eighth globe on the left side of the street. She frowned, the hint of irritation in her voice. ‘I’m here. What now?’

‘Well…’ said Xeus, turning away as one by one the globes were extinguished, leaving only the eighth still lit, +I would shut your eyes.+

The eighth globe burned into brilliance, as bright as magnesium, and Gedd clamped her eyes shut before it blinded her.

‘Son of a bi–’

Darkness fell a moment later, the background roar of the overtaxed light globe fading as she tried to open her eyes again. A harsh after-flare muddied her vision but when she was at last able to see, Gedd was standing at the bottom of a narrow stone stairway with a barred iron gate in front of her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the stairway went up into darkness. Then a vision slit in the gate quickly slid aside, revealing a pair of augmetic eyes, flashing red in the shadows.

‘Ursula Gedd?’ an automated voice asked.

‘Who else would it be?’

‘Utterance,’ the voice replied. The augmetics blinked once, calibrating targeting arrays. Only then did Gedd notice the weapon slits in the walls. She heard the chug-clank of heavy cannons cycling to readiness.

‘Throne ascendant,’ she said quickly, taking care to keep her hands well away from her sidearm.

After a few seconds the augmetics blinked again and the vision slit slid shut. A heavy boom sounded from the other side of the door, then came the metallic scrape of several bolts disengaging automatically. At last the gate ground open on automated hinges.

Gedd didn’t linger. She had only just got inside when the gate slammed shut behind her. There was no sign of the servitor on the other side of the door. A thin metal track ran underfoot. She felt it against her boot. It still retained a faint charge and led into the wall.

Fifty feet ahead, a vague glow beckoned.

Despite her earlier desire to appear unthreatening, Gedd kept her hand on the grip of the Verifier as she made for the opening.

As she reached the glow, the corridor opened out into a much larger chamber, though it was hard to tell exactly how large on account of the sheer amount of surveillance engines in situ.

Banks of cogitators spewing reams of hard data-screed stood alongside innumerable pict-feeds, each displaying a subtly different view of the city. It was like staring into the many-faceted compound eyes of a fly. Vox- and data-gathering engines kept up a steady hubbub that instantly irritated with their half-heard susurrations. Physical maps, architectural sketches, schematics and diagrammatic calculations papered every available surface. Some appeared to be highly technical, others arcane. Gedd found them all unfathomable.

And at the heart of this machine, this web of information hoarding, sat its spider. Huge and many-limbed, its form swathed in darkness, it looked up as Gedd entered.

‘You’re late,’ growled Meroved.