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“I thought I’d find you here,”Lion El’Jonson said.
Guilliman turned his head.His brother stood in the doorway,the lumen light beneath the dome casting a cold glow that stretched Lion’s shadow all the way to Guilliman’s feet.
The room might once have been a garden pavilion.Now it lay buried beneath the Imperial Palace’s shelters.The flowerbeds that once encircled its marble columns had long since withered,their remains draped across the floor like black gauze.Perhaps that was why the primarchs had chosen this place.
The death of Sanguinius could not yet be revealed to the public.Mortals were already too fragile,and so were Sanguinius’sons.They did not need to be reminded of loss once more,nor stripped of hope again.
But the brothers needed to mourn.
Someone,Guilliman did not know who,had placed a portrait of Sanguinius in a wall niche here.It had become a temporary,secret memorial.There were no flowers,no candles.The Great Angel deserved more than this.He should have been mourned with splendor and ceremony.Then again,he did not deserve to die at all.And yet he had.
Guilliman raised his head.He heard no breathing besides Lion’s,nothing but the soft hiss of ash drifting down.
Elsewhere on Terra,people believed the ashes had finally settled.To a primarch’s senses,this was untrue.The rain of ash was still falling now,unceasing.It would continue to fall for years,for decades,perhaps for a century,perhaps until they themselves drew their final breath.
“Is there something that could not be conveyed through our attendants,brother?”Guilliman asked calmly.
Lion did not answer at once.
“I came alone,”he said.“May I come in,Roboute?I only wish to speak with you.”
He appeared restrained,flawlessly noble.It was difficult to imagine that not long ago this same man had been roaring through the Palace in search of something like death to vent his fury upon.Yet the courtesy itself was a form of distance.It was inevitable.Since arriving on Terra,they had maintained that distance,as though pretending that Macragge and everything that had happened amid the Ruinstorm had never occurred.
“What do you wish to speak of,brother?”Guilliman said.“An alliance?”
Lion stepped inside.The silver lumen light rimmed his figure like the lingering ghost of a moon that had grown corrupt.
“There are only the two of us here,”he said.“Surely,beyond politics and alliances,we still have other subjects.”
“Any subject can be discussed in council,”Guilliman replied.“Given the circumstances,exchanging votes seems the more sincere method.”
Lion studied him carefully.
“You are remarkably composed,Roboute,”he said.
Guilliman glanced at him.
“Should I take that as praise,”he asked,“or as criticism?”
“Corswain tells me you have been this composed ever since you arrived on Terra.Many hold it against you.You came late.You should be condemned,yet you appear untouched by it.”
“That goes beyond‘many,’”Guilliman said.“But it is hardly the worst judgment passed on me.”He truly did look indifferent.
“Some say,”Lion continued,fixing his gaze on Guilliman’s face,“that your calm is not born of reason,but of indifference to everything except control.”
Guilliman did not react.
“I imagine they mean that if I were more emotional,I might claw back a measure of trust and atone for arriving too late,”he said.“By roaring and brawling with one of my brothers,perhaps running him through the heart,or letting him do the same to me.”
The Lion’s brows rose.For the first time,irritation flickered across his face,though he did not erupt.
“I accept your sarcasm,Roboute,because I was wrong,”he said.“But I did not come here to be judged by you.”
“Self-restraint is considered a virtue on Macragge,”Guilliman replied coolly.“I regret that others fail to recognize it.”
“Is it?”Lion said.“You were not so restrained on Macragge.”
Guilliman lifted his head to meet his brother’s gaze.
“What did you say?”
“Do not pretend you do not know what I mean.I have seen you rage.I have seen you falter.We stood together before Vulkan’s bier and Ferrus’monument.I have seen your stone table.By the Throne,when we quarreled,you could scarcely restrain yourself from gloating to my face.And now you would have me believe you arrived on Terra a different man?”
“I was immature then,”Guilliman snapped.He steadied himself at once,because Sanguinius in the niche watched them silently from the shadows.“And here,at this moment,to be ruled by emotion is a shameful crime.”
“Had I not worked beside you in Ultramar for so long,I might believe you.”
Lion spoke calmly.When he used that softer tone,the world itself seemed to bend beneath his authority.
Silence stretched between them.
“You think I am deceiving you,”Guilliman said coldly.
“I think you are hiding something.I think your composure is a tool meant to conceal it.”
The silver light from the dome washed over them both,leaving them pale.
“Do not deny it,”Lion said.“I know what a man looks like when he hides a secret.You are keeping something from all of us.You may fool the others,but you and I have tested one another for a long time.That time was not wasted.”
Guilliman stood utterly still,like a statue carved into the structure itself.
“Why,Roboute?”Lion asked quietly.“You hold something so momentous that you will not share it.Perhaps you believe only you can grasp the whole.But is that fair to Dorn?Is it fair to the rest of us?”
His gaze seemed almost tangible.Creatures would quail beneath it.A statue would not.
“So you suspect me of plotting some secret scheme to divide the Imperium,or of trying to make myself its new ruler,”Guilliman said at last.His tone remained flat.
“You know that is exactly what Dorn believes,”Lion replied.“In time he will attempt to make the rest of us believe it as well.”
At the sound of Dorn’s name,pain finally tore across Guilliman’s face.
“Then perhaps you should believe him,”he said wearily.
Lion gave a soft huff.
“I am not a fool,Roboute.You would never do that.”
He sighed heavily.
“I never thought I would say this.But here on Terra,among all our brothers,perhaps I alone still trust you in this regard.I alone know you would never seek to rule the Imperium yourself.You know why.”
Guilliman knew very well.He could hear his own breath moving through the memorial like wind.
“Then for such candor,for such trust,”he said,“what payment do you ask of me,brother?”
A wild glint flashed through Lion’s eyes.For a heartbeat,the fury he had long restrained threatened to break free.He mastered it.
“Tell me what you are hiding,”he said heavily.“You once accused me of acting alone and driving us into conflict,and you were right.But you cannot praise honesty as a virtue only when it serves you.Secrets are a poisonous asset.They are useful,and they wound.I believe there is nothing so heavy or so blood-soaked that it cannot be spoken here.”
Lion lifted his head and looked at Sanguinius’portrait for the first time.
“Not even in front of him?”he asked quietly.
The painting was achingly lifelike,the work of some brother whose love suffused it.The Great Angel’s smile,turned toward the world beyond the canvas,brimmed with endless sorrow.
For a long time,Guilliman said nothing.
“But why should I?”he asked softly at last.“You still oppose me.You favor Dorn’s plan because you wish to return to Caliban as soon as possible.We have never been more wary of one another than we are now,and you have always made full use of everything you are given.Why should I place my secrets in your hands,if I have any at all?”
“Because we were once conspirators!”Lion said.“Because we were once accomplices.”
His voice lost its steadiness.
The word carried unbearable weight.They both bore it.Lion could not confess its source to his sons,nor to Russ.Yet he was here now,opening his heart to Guilliman once more.For him,this was concession.It was a plea.
Because Lion was afraid.
The realization struck Guilliman with disbelief.Lion El’Jonson feared whatever Guilliman concealed.He feared it enough to seek compromise,though he did not recognize it himself.Fear was alien to the Lion.
That fear was more disarming than any violent outburst.It compelled submission.It demanded confession.
Guilliman drew a breath.
“Lion,I—”
He stopped.He heard the uncertainty in his own voice and realized he no longer fully trusted himself.
He listened.
The ash of the Imperium still whispered down.It was falling now,endlessly.It would continue to fall for years,for decades,perhaps for a century,perhaps until they themselves died.
Without knowing why,Guilliman thought of a night one hundred and seventy years earlier,when as a youth he had kept vigil alone for Konor.To others,the former consul lay in state,dignified even in death.Guilliman was denied that illusion.His heightened senses forced him to perceive every change overtaking the body that had once been his father.Enzymes dissolved cell walls.Bacteria feasted.Tissue broke down.Muscles wasted.Features collapsed.The most important thing in his world was slowly and irreversibly becoming unrecognizable,and he was powerless to stop it.He could tell no one of this horror,not even Euten.It made him want to scream.He did not.
Lion was still watching him,still waiting.
Those green eyes were as deep as ever,but lines had appeared around them.He was exhausted and burdened,like all the others.
“I can give you a promise,”Guilliman said at last.
Slowly,cold disappointment surfaced in those eyes.It had always been there.Lion simply no longer hid it.
“I promise that everything I do is for the survival of the Imperium,”Guilliman said,deliberately ignoring that disappointment.“For humanity.I will not seek personal gain or steal the throne.I will not use it against any brother.I will not use it to claim anything for myself.”
“Roboute,”Lion said,“that is exactly what you said when you persuaded me to join your Imperium Secundus.”
Guilliman stared at him.
“I should never have done that,”he said.
“And who decides whether you should or should not?”Lion asked.“You now hold something none of us possess.You stand higher than the rest of us because of it.Who in this world can still judge you?”
He stepped closer.At this distance,for a primarch,both embrace and murder were effortless.
“We once made a pact,”Lion said.“You said it yourself.We must be honest with one another.There should be no more secrets between us.”
“I have no secrets,”Guilliman said.“No concealment.”
“You have none?”Lion demanded,raising his voice.His roar echoed through the small shrine.
Guilliman only looked at him.He did not turn away.
“No,”he said.
The disappointment in Lion’s eyes deepened.
It did not swell into something unbearable.It did not reach to the point of heartbreak.Perhaps,given the bond and history between them,this was the limit of disappointment Guilliman could inflict upon him.
“Very well,”Lion said after a moment.He had calmed again.“If you will say nothing,then I must consider our pact of openness void.”
Guilliman’s heart sank.No,he thought.That pact had scarcely taken shape.It had barely become an oath at all,because—
Lion closed the distance between them.
It happened as suddenly as the embrace he had once given Guilliman on Macragge.
Guilliman was driven back against a pavilion column.Marble ground against his spine.A kiss pressed briefly against his lips.
He froze.Not because of the kiss itself.It was light,barely more than a touch.It did not change the warmth between them.He did not even have time to register its taste.
It ended almost as soon as it began.
Lion stepped back.
“I will not immediately side with Dorn,”he said quietly.“I will see for myself.I will think.I will decide.But remember this.What you might have told me,I intended to place above all else.”
He released Guilliman’s shoulders,turned,and strode toward the door.
As always,he abandoned things without hesitation.
False moonlight spilled in.
Guilliman raised a hand to his lips.Nothing remained there.
Or rather,he knew something had been taken.
On Caliban,a pact could begin with a kiss.
It could also end with one.
Lion had once told him that,his expression grave.Guilliman had decided not to investigate the claim too closely.
At the time,Lion had just returned from the void.He had knelt before Guilliman and Sanguinius,confessed Curze’s prophecy and Terra’s survival,and admitted his error.Later,he sought Guilliman out in private and promised that from then on there would be openness between brothers.No more concealment.
The apology had been awkward.Lion was poor at mending bonds,and Guilliman’s own skill was little better.
To break the tension,Guilliman had asked how they might swear such candor,what could bear witness to it,since the Lion Sword was broken.
It had been a poor joke.He had regretted it immediately.
Lion had considered,then drawn him close and kissed him carefully.
“On Caliban,a pact may also begin with a kiss,”he had said solemnly.“It is an ancient tradition.”
Perhaps Lion had merely wished to make the promise more private,and therefore more believable.Guilliman had chosen to trust him.The moment had been heavy,but they believed hope still remained.They hurried to prepare for the Ruinstorm,believing something might yet be saved.They even allowed themselves to imagine that Sanguinius’fate could be changed.They tried,clumsily,to rebuild trust.Any method seemed acceptable,even one improvised on the spot.
Now Guilliman knew Lion had been serious.
On Caliban,a pact truly could begin with a kiss.
And it could just as truly end with one.
That kiss had taken the promise from between them.It was so light.Perhaps the promise itself had already dwindled to that weight.
Guilliman looked to Sanguinius’portrait.The Great Angel still smiled sadly and gently,with that peculiar cruelty the dead reserve for the living.
There had already been too many broken promises and unfulfilled compacts,many of them his own.He had lost much.His father.His sovereign.His sons.His brothers.His enemies.His friends.Yet compared with other survivors,with those who had fought on Terra,with the dead,he had lost far too little.
So he should lose more.If not as punishment,then as recompense.
Lion’s footsteps had faded entirely.Only the whisper of falling ash remained.
Guilliman straightened.
After losing his father,his sovereign,his sons,his brothers,his enemies,and his friends,finally,he had lost his accomplice as well.