Pride of the Emperor, Venice Theater.
The auditorium had been painted in a dazzling array of bright colors, every line inlaid with gold.
Six marble columns supported the hall, while the fronts of the balconies were decorated with exquisite plaster reliefs.
The parquet floor spread out from before the stage in broad concentric arcs. In the semicircular niches along one side stood extravagant statues by renowned Terran artists, along with others of an exotic and decadent style.
Mixed among the statues were several difficult-to-identify works, their hermaphroditic bodies sporting jeweled horns.
Brightly colored copper cages hung beneath the stage, sweet fragrances drifting from within.
Dozens of instruments made from pipes, bellows, and generators were connected to towering amplifiers, recreating the wondrous tones of the Laer Temple.
Colored lights and perfectly arranged prisms cast blinding rainbows across the theater, illuminating the embroidery on the red velvet:
Glorious battles, decadent legends, naked revelry----
Upon the theater's vaulted ceiling, in a work by the painter Serena, serpents and beasts from ancient legends moved alongside naked humans.
More than ten thousand people packed the seats and private boxes. Three thousand Emperor's Children had shed their robes and wore ornate training uniforms.
They had just returned from constructing defensive fortifications on the surface of Isstvan V.
The company captains sat in boxes on either side of the stage.
The Phoenician's Nest possessed the finest view, its interior painted with golden murals.
The six hundred candles of the great chandelier shone upon Fulgrim within the Phoenician's Nest.
Wearing purple robes, he waved to the crowd.
The thunderous applause went on and on, making the smile on his face even more radiant.
The defection of nearly twenty-five thousand had cost him face before the Warmaster.
When the Warmaster had proposed that he construct perfect fortifications on Isstvan