Chapter Text
“We’ll go hunting soon, Sayaad.”
Overlooking a desert oasis stood tall a simple yet elegant manor. The stone work was recent, each massive brick handcrafted to the smallest detail. Vines of blossoming flowers and fruit crisscrossed the walls like paint strokes on a canvas. Each of the many open air rooms carried at least one hunting trophy. One held the massive maw of a tyranid hive lord. Another, aeldari soul stones hang from the ceiling in a makeshift chandelier. A third, wall after wall of trophy wracks bearing every weapon the manor’s lord has ever gotten her claws on, from ork dakkas to space marine bolters to tau rail rifles to incubi klaives.
In one of the many open spaces, the head of the manor stood atop a small platform. She was tall by human standards, garbed in a green dress, the light, almost see-through fabric solely serving the role of keeping her cool in the desert heat and nothing else. Her skin was a deep tan, while her hair a deep black with light blue highlights that hung over her shoulders in a messy mane around her curved horns. Her one eye glowed a deep purple, the other locked shut due to an injury.
Those who serve her give her the title of al Almyra. Those who fought with her called her von Edmund. Those she called her superiors refer to her as Blaiddyd. To her, she was just Khalida.
Khalida pressed a clawed hand on the snout of the metallic mount she stood by, the platform putting her eye-to-eye with the beast. The ebony, hound-like skull that was warm to the touch bore the same eye injury she had. Unlike herself, she had chosen to cover this injury with metal “eye-patch.” Her tail began to sway under her green robe as her hand pressed between the mount’s horns, a trick of her eye almost convincing her that it’s own barbed tail was also wagging.
“Lady Khalida.” A soft voice spoke quietly behind her.
“Ah, Mari.” Khalida smiled, keeping her attention on her huntsman. “What does my lost little ancestor need?”
“The trade lane with the Iconoclast House Ylisse trade port of New Leicester has been fully established.” Marianne nodded. “Though not without controversy.”
“Working with a Chaos Knight house is going to ruffle some fur.” Khalida sighed, absentmindedly running a claw through her blue arm fur.
“That’s not just that.” Marianne stepped forward, pressing her claw on Sayaad’s metal snout.
Khalida glanced at her ancestor. The two were almost identical in appearance. They both wore light, green dresses, traditional Almyran wear. Both had mutated digitigrade legs coated in light blue fur, and arms coated in the same fur ending in sharp claws. Both had shaved torsos, their spines and the back of their skulls supporting the neural imports to pilot their respective knight chassis. They both bared messy long manes of blue hair, with a pair of horns sprouting through hair like flowers out of dirt. The main differences were that Marianne’s hairless torso and face was paler than Khalida’s, though her time in the Almyran sun has caused her to develop a bit of a tan, and that one’s inputs were designed for an armiger’s helm mechanicum while the other bare the imports needed for a throne mechanicum. As well, Marianne still had both of her eyes, light blue in color, and bearing a different Crest than her descendant.
One was a Blaiddyd, the other was a Beast. But what was really the difference between the two?
As she petted the metal mount, Marianne continued to speak. “Admiral Hilda and Knight Khalid have yet to be found by the greater House Adrestia, but the existence of the Ashen Wolves under your command hasn’t gone unnoticed. Thankfully, they’ve been careful to not have their true identities revealed, but the question of where you got more armigers is spreading.”
“I have the resources to make more mounts.” Khalida answered. “House Almyra, while a vassal state, is still a nation in its own right. What I do with my resources is not of Leo’s concern.”
“Yes, Leo…” Marianne sighed.
“What’s wrong?”
“King Leo is a Blaiddyd, but unlike you, he isn’t my descendant.”
“Yeah.”
“Who is his ancestor?”
Khalida opened her mouth to speak, but didn’t say anything.
“Ah…” Marianne sighed again.
“Dimitri didn’t tell me…”
“Did you ask?”
Again, she didn’t answer.
Marianne giggled to herself. “Regardless, I still need to tell you something about our lineage.”
Khalida fell back onto a nearby chair. “Go ahead.” She said, her ears dramatically perking as a way to show her attention.
“Thank you.” She giggled again.
Marianne took a deep breath. “Our appearance,” she gestured to herself,” wasn’t caused by Warp exposure. I mean… My time lost in the Warp probably made this worse, but the horns and claws were before my exile in time. And this is because of my blood, our blood.”
“I heard stories about the Crest of Beasts.” Khalida said. “But I don’t have it, and none of my parents or grandparents had it. I just think we’re just mutants.”
“All Crest bearers are mutants.”
“I mean more than normal.”
“That’s because of Maurice.”
“Who’s that?”
“He was the first with the Crest of the Beast.” Marianne explained. “He was a brave and powerful warrior, but his lust for battle eventually overwhelmed him, and turned into the beast that named the Crest.”
Marianne reached for the curved sword holstered on her hip. Khalida felt the mutative aura radiating off of it. She felt stronger in its presence, yet at the back of her mind, an almost feral rage fought for control.
“I killed him over ten millennia ago.” Marianne continued. “Yet through me and you, his blood continues to flow. I used to think of it as a curse, but now…”
She thrusted her hands out towards Khalida, offering the blade to her. “I want you to have his relic, Blutgang.”
Khalida, not sure what to say, silently and gently took the cursed sword from her ancestor’s hands.
“I know without my Crest, you can’t use it to it’s full power, but-“
Marianne was cut off by a sudden burst of energy swirling around the two of them.
As soon as the energy dissipated, Khalida’s dead eye suddenly shot open.
“Khalida!” Marianne gasped. “You’re eye!”
She waved her claw over her face. “I still can’t see out of it,” she said, “but I guess the eyelid works now?”
Marianne leaned in, staring straight into Khalida’s eye. The color was faded, and a faint scar could be seen around the folds of her eyelid, but the thing that shocked her the most was Crest carved into the pupil.
It wasn’t the same Crest as the one in her other eye.
“K-Khalida?” Marianne stuttered, memories flooding back. She knows what happens to someone with two Crest, and she remembered the ceremony Khalida had a day ago.
“What did the Daemon do to you?”