990.M30.
Terra, Mobayi region, House Gaumon estate.
The mahogany doors, a wood long extinct on Terra, sealed the sound within the bedroom.
The bedposts were thick and exquisitely carved with vines and grapes, topped with heavy tapestries.
Upon the feather mattress lay embroidered satin sheets. On silk pillows, embroidered with the Gaumon crest, rested a beautiful, pale face.
"Lemuel," Marika murmured her husband's name.
"Give up," she said weakly, her gaze gentle and resigned.
"There is no way. You've tried everything."
"No!" Lemuel, clad in a light linen robe covered in interlocking, colorful embroidery, spirals, bulls, lightning, and many other indistinct patterns, said firmly.
The robe had been woven by a blind tailor from the Sanga region, following Lemuel's design. The patterns were taken from scrolls in the secret library of his mansion.
After exhausting all known therapies for his beloved Marika, Lemuel had turned to forbidden occultism, many of whose texts were explicitly banned by the Imperium.
He had secretly performed eleven dangerous rituals, five of which involved praying to the malevolent deities worshipped in Nordafrik Conclaves and elsewhere.
The Imperial Truth denounced such beliefs as false and erroneous. The Imperium strictly forbade them.
If the Adeptus Arbites learned of it, even a wealthy merchant like him could be executed.
Under his sleeves, his arms bore the marks of four blood-rituals.
He had performed rituals to summon a dark god.
But he was disappointed. No god answered, not even the one he had recklessly sought, Moloch, a deity worshipped in Nordafrik Conclaves long before the floating hives were built.
Lemuel held Marika's hand. The aura that had once shone so brightly around her was now dim.
He read despair.
Lemuel leaned by the window, half-closing his eyes.
He could still perceive the vibrant tapestry of colors: the cobalt calculations of his chief financial officer, mingled with deep brown doubt, his business, built over half a lifetime, was still generating profit, but the increasingly exorbitant, secret expenditures troubled him.
Marika's personal maid, wardrobe maid, jewelry maid, four general maids, and four scullery maids were wreathed in blue-black shadows and brown worry.
The twelve private nurses had even deeper brown; they knew they'd never find a more generous employer.
...
Lemuel snapped his eyes open, blocking out the world he had been able to perceive since childhood.
"The Sanga lord knows General Drake, and General Drake is close to Lord Nareth."
Though married to Marika, he was not considered family by the Sanga lord.
Especially since General Drake had taken an interest in the Sanga lord, his collateral line had even married into their family.
"Father has made requests to Lord Drake," Marika said with a bitter smile.
"Why would Lord Nareth and the Shadows of Order care about the life of a lord's daughter?"
"Lemuel, please." Marika's arm suddenly surged with strength, shaking her husband's.
"I have made peace with death. You must as well."
Lemuel's tall frame, that of a Nordafrik Conclavesman, trembled. His eyes, sunken in their sockets, were still fierce.
"You are my everything!"
"I will never give up!"
"There must be a way..."
Lemuel's mind raced, wild tales and legends flashing through his thoughts.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up. A glimmer of hope.
"The Himalayas!" he exclaimed.
"Legend says there are sages there, masters of the body and mind."
"They must have a way to save you!"
Four days later, on the villa's balcony, Marika watched Lemuel depart.
Her husband had swiftly liquidated his entire fortune, shouldered the burden, and set out with his retainers.
His figure vanished into the morning mist. Two tears rolled down Marika's cheeks.
She knew this was goodbye.
Her father had said that the builders of the Emperor's palace had long since driven out all the sages.
Perhaps her shrewd husband, who had never been deceived by anyone, knew this too. He just couldn't accept it.
Marika, supported by her only remaining servant, a private nurse, lay down upon the bed, upon the silk pillows, awaiting death. At the same moment, at the Drake family estate in the Himalayas.
This was the Drake estate closest to the heart of the Imperium, a straight-line distance of 2.5 kilometers from the Eternity Gate.
Over one hundred and fifty banners in the Eternity Gate had been raised by Barton Drake's regiments.
In General Barton's private reception room, he received two visitors.
One was Aevos Jovan, whom he had saved after he'd touched the forbidden, and who had become the First Medical Officer of the Solar Auxilia.
After Barton had recommended Aevos to Lord Nareth, he had quickly risen.
His medical center on the agri-world of Rynn was renowned across the Imperium, the preferred choice of countless nobles for surgery.
He was also responsible for the Shadows of Order's augmentations. In recent decades, he had created more Astartes than anyone else.
Barton had not expected Aevos to extricate himself from his many duties and come to Terra.
'Lord Nareth has entrusted him with an important task.'
Barton, sensing an opportunity to serve Lord Nareth, felt a surge of energy.
The other visitor was a towering giant, his form hidden beneath a hood.
He was a Shadows of Order.
Keon, similarly cloaked in black, stared at the newcomer. 'It's Chief Apothecary Mikael.'
'Is Lemuel Gaumon truly so important? He is just a merchant. Why does my Lord place such value on him?'
Barton looked at the hooded figure, praising him.
"The Shadows of Order's actions have been swift and effective. The Bone Drinkers, which the Space Wolves and Night Lords couldn't handle, have been completely eradicated in three standard months."
"All praise to my Lord." Mikael's voice drifted from beneath his hood. He recalled the Black Emperor's divine command and asked, "What is Lemuel Gaumon doing?"
Barton was taken aback. He thought for a few seconds before recalling that the groom at the wedding his great-grandson had attended was named Gaumon.
He was just a merchant from the Mobayi Region.
Barton was about to order intelligence on Gaumon to be gathered when Keon spoke.
"He has liquidated his assets and is heading to the Himalayas. He hopes to find a way to cure Marika from the fabled hidden sages."
Ever since realizing that the Black Emperor's interest was in Lemuel Gaumon, Keon had kept watch over him.
The Shadow Guards of Terra, under his command, were focused on Gaumon.
"Then, let us depart," Mikael said. The Black Emperor's divine will was that, once Gaumon had set out for the Himalayas, his wife Marika be cured.
Barton quickly grasped the plan. "Gaumon's home?"
"Indeed. Aevos and I are here to treat his wife."
'Lemuel Gaumon...' Barton turned the name over in his mind, unable to discern what was so special about him that Lord Nareth would take such an interest.
.....
The Sanga lord hurried to Mobayi, to the Gaumon estate.
Two hours earlier, he had received word that Lord Barton had answered his, barely hoped-for, request.
Marika could be saved.
The Sanga lord stood at the landing pad, respectfully. Hearing a sound, he saw an elegant black Aquila Lander descending.
He stepped forward. He saw the Drake noble, who had held his head high at his daughter's wedding, leading the way respectfully, followed by a sturdy man.
General Barton was not wearing his uniform, heavy with medals, but he was still tall and imposing. His black tunic and matching cape suited him.
'Hmm?' The Sanga lord paused.
Behind General Barton were three more figures in black robes, two of them giants, far larger than normal men. One was as tall as an Astartes in power armor.
'Could they be Astartes? Could General Barton have called upon the Shadows of Order for me...' The Sanga lord could hardly believe it.
He strode to meet them. "Lord Barton!"
He bowed, then asked respectfully, "And these lords?"
"We are here to cure Marika," Mikael said.
He did not elaborate. Had it not been the Black Emperor's command to keep a low profile, he would have simply shrouded the Gaumon estate in moonlight, without involving Barton.
"I understand," the Sanga lord said.
"My lords, I have prepared..."
"No preparations are needed. Just take us to her sickroom," Aevos said.
The Sanga lord then noticed the shorter of the two robed figures. A surgical table followed at his side.
Its mechanical legs creaked as it moved.
The surgical instruments on it, scalpels, forceps, swayed in the wind.
The Sanga lord had never seen anything so unnerving. He shivered, and quickly turned to lead the way.
"Very well. Follow me."
....
"Rest easy. You will feel better after a good sleep," Mikael told Marika, who lay on the surgical table.
The "Scarlet Scholar" produced a vial of red liquid from beneath his robe.
Before he had even opened it, Aevos, newly elevated to "Biologist" by Nareth, sniffed the air.
"Your medicine is dense with vitality. It's worth more than a hive dome."
A look of surprise flashed across Marika's face. As the daughter of a Sanga lord, she knew the value of a hive dome.
Lemuel's entire fortune was probably worth about that much.
"My lord, this is too precious. I can never repay..."
Mikael said softly, "Do not worry. All you need to do is rest."
As he spoke, he gently inserted a syringe, containing a mixture diluted ten thousand times, Primarch Omegon's blood, Nucerian anesthetic, and dozens of other agents, into Marika's scalp.
"You will feel no pain. When you wake, the cancer in your brain will be completely gone."
"The astrocytoma will be gone."
"I thank you, my lord." Tears of hope and life welled in Marika's eyes.
'Lemuel will be overjoyed when he sees me.' Her thoughts grew hazy as the anesthetic took effect.
"Aevos, it's your turn now," Mikael said.
"We cannot fail my Lord."
"Rest assured, I will not betray Lord Nareth's trust."
The full-fledged "Doctor," who had been sought after by countless nobles for his surgical skills, and had saved countless lives among the Solar Auxilia on the battlefield, picked up the phase-scalpel.
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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