Psyker's Three Basic Tricks

"From now on, I'll teach you how to master your own gift."

Qin Xa found himself drifting back to his childhood.

In the hall of the White Scars Chapter, Qin Xa sat cross-legged.

The kind and gentle Librarian sat cross-legged opposite him.

"I heard that other people's psychic gifts manifest passively when they're emotionally agitated." Qin Xa looked at his palm. "Mine isn't like that. My psychic gift is very stable, but the drawback is that I can't, like others, know exactly what I'm good at the first time I manifest and use psychic power."

The Librarian closed his eyes, sensing something, and said softly, "Indeed. I'm gifted in Prophecy. When I was young, I often dreamed of the future. Back then, I was a shell-loading slave on the gun deck of a strike cruiser, and my master discovered my gift."

"Then you're especially good at Prophecy." Qin Xa lowered his hand and looked at the Librarian. "I'm not. I don't know what I'm good at."

The Librarian took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Then he opened his eyes.

His ethereal voice echoed beside Qin Xa's ear.

"What do you want to be good at? Do you want to be skilled in biomantic abilities, so that in an extreme emotional state, you lose control and instantly resurrect every dead person on a planet?"

"Or do you want to excel at offensive abilities, so that when you lose control, a bolt of blue lightning wipes out hundreds of thousands?"

"Is that good? No, it isn't."

The Librarian closed his eyes again, but continued lecturing.

"Stability itself is a gift, a tremendous gift. Even if all you can learn after training is how to cripple one person with lightning, you'll still be stronger than a Psyker capable of instantly annihilating an entire legion, because you are stable."

"You needn't worry about power either. I'll teach you."

Hearing that the Librarian would teach him, Qin Xa nodded. He wanted to ask what the other man would teach him.

But the Librarian seemed to have foreseen the question. "I'll teach you the three abilities I'm best at. I call them the Psyker's three basic tricks."

"The Psyker's three basic tricks?" Qin Xa asked curiously.

"Prophecy, attack, and healing. The most basic kinds." The Librarian opened his eyes again. "If you're clever enough, you'll learn the first one after undergoing the augmentation surgery to become a White Scars Astartes. For example, crushing someone else's head."

Qin Xa smiled at that. "Maybe I'll learn faster. I've always had a suspicion that what my psychic gift makes me good at is learning, just like I... used to be."

"What could a little brat like you possibly have in the past? By the time you can slaughter enemies alongside your battle-brothers, you'll probably still be under eighteen." The Librarian rolled his eyes at Qin Xa and resumed meditating.

Qin Xa pressed his lips together in a bitter smile.

The two fell silent for a while.

Qin Xa suddenly asked, "Why do you meditate? Is it a form of training that strengthens mental power? For instance, making psychic power increasingly stronger through this method?"

"No, it's merely a habit." The Librarian shook his head. "The strength of the psychic gift you're born with is fixed. Psychic power doesn't even come from you; it comes from the Immaterium. What use is training?"

"Then if a Psyker isn't very gifted, is that it? Is there really no solution at all?" Qin Xa asked again.

"Yes, there really is no solution." The Librarian replied, "But... everything concerning the Immaterium is unstable and uncertain, existing in a superposition of possibility and impossibility. Everyone has their own Destiny. How high you can rise is intimately tied to your Destiny."

Qin Xa nodded thoughtfully. "Everything is fated; nothing is up to man?"

"Everything is fated; nothing is up to man."

The Librarian spoke in a deep voice.

"Just like the name you inherited, Qin Xa—the Kheshig warrior from ten thousand years ago, when the Chapter was still a legion. Even after someone saved him, he still died. That was Destiny."

Qin Xa opened his eyes.

Realizing that he had once again slipped into his memories without meaning to, Qin Xa rubbed his face to wake himself up.

He looked around.

Angron had already curled up against the wall and fallen asleep.

Oeno was crouching beneath the iron-barred window, looking at the pendant around his neck.

The other Gladiators were resting as well.

But as soon as Qin Xa opened his eyes, Caesar, who had been lying on the ground resting, suddenly opened his own eyes, as though he sensed that Qin Xa could now be disturbed.

"You're awake?" Caesar rose and walked over, meeting the gaze of the cross-legged Qin Xa. "How strong are your physical abilities? What kind of sorcery can you use?"

"Why are you asking?" Qin Xa countered.

"You want to run, don't you?" Caesar sat down and looked up at Qin Xa's face. "I feel like your physical abilities must be very strong. Every time, I run out of the cell, stroll outside, and then get caught. If it were you, you might be able to move quickly and figure out what security measures this damned place has."

When Caesar made the suggestion, Oeno raised his head. "You want a hulking man nearly three meters tall to scout? Have you gone mad again?"

"No! No!" Caesar shook his head vigorously, staring at Qin Xa with crazed eyes. "My father said you could do it. He said you could, so you definitely can!"

Hearing Caesar mention "father," Oeno was already accustomed to it.

This was not the first time Caesar had gone mad.

But Qin Xa understood Caesar's condition better.

It was the reaction of someone who had heard some kind of voice. Some Psykers were like that, able to hear what others could not and see what could not be seen.

Some Psykers even treated The Emperor as an imaginary figure, believing that The Emperor protected them at all times and spoke with them.

Whatever the cause of Caesar's "illness" was, there was one thing he had not been wrong about.

Qin Xa really could do it.

"I can do it. I can move extremely fast without making a sound," Qin Xa said.

Caesar was delighted. "You really can! Wonderful, wonderful! Father was right."

"Then it may be worth trying." Oeno rose and walked before Qin Xa, speaking seriously. "Caesar truly can get you out of this cave. If you fail, you'll be caught and brought back like him, because the escape and capture themselves are a game. Sometimes, they even deliberately let us out and allow us to run."

"That's right, that's right!" Caesar nodded repeatedly. "Though you most likely won't get away, we can at least gather information and accumulate experience. Those damned slavers will pay for their arrogance!"

After thinking for a moment, Qin Xa looked at Caesar. "You come with me. If you can bring more people, we'll pick the fastest among us and go out together. That way, we can gather information much more efficiently."

"Count me in!" Oeno raised his hand.

"Count me in too." A blonde female Gladiator sleeping nearby opened her eyes and raised her hand.

Caesar held up three fingers. "Excluding me, I can bring at most four people."

There was one spot left.

Qin Xa looked toward Angron.

Angron was already awake. He nodded firmly.