The Dangers of Psychic Powers

The corpse still lay by the door.

Not every Gladiator cared whether Caesar lived or died, but his sudden death still cast a shadow over everyone's hearts. Each of them felt at least a little saddened.

After all, in this hellish place, a living person could die in the Arena, beneath someone else's axe, or at the hands of some other damned thing.

But having one's head explode in the middle of a conversation was such a novel way to die that it struck everyone hard.

"Just now, Maggot Eye seemed to say... say that Caesar was the only wizard here."

"Angron, did I hear that wrong, or...?"

Oeno stood beside the corpse, speaking with Angron.

Angron kept his eyes on Qin Xa, who was huddled in a corner with a vacant stare. "I'm certain Maggot Eye said exactly that."

"Fine." Oeno nodded. "While we can't rule out that they're playing tricks, perhaps the people outside really don't know Qin Xa is a wizard too. I can't figure out how that could be possible."

Angron did not answer. He watched Qin Xa and sensed his emotions.

After having more non-combat interactions with others, Angron had become certain that the complex, contradictory emotions he sensed came from other people, not himself.

And from Qin Xa, Angron sensed confusion, worry, and terror.

These emotions did not come directly from the primarch's gift. They were simply too obvious, as though written across Qin Xa's face. Angron could see them plainly.

That was indeed how Qin Xa felt.

After Caesar's death, Qin Xa sat in the corner thinking not about Caesar's death itself, but its cause—psychic power.

"Some people suffer uncontrollable incidents after stepping onto the Path to the Heavens, including but not limited to suddenly exploding, releasing their abilities wildly, or opening a passage and summoning filthy, blasphemous things."

Qin Xa recalled what the chapter master had told him when he was with the White Scars Chapter.

"The Path to the Heavens is what the Chapter calls the Immaterium," the Librarian had explained beside them.

"I know," Qin Xa remembered replying to the chapter master.

As a transmigrator, Qin Xa understood the dangers of psychic powers and the Immaterium better than anyone in this universe.

A full ten thousand years. Ten millennia.

From 30k to 40k, everything in the Imperium of Man had changed. The one thing that had not changed was its vigilance toward Psykers.

Because Psykers truly had a high chance of losing control, and losing control could lead to psychic disasters.

Blowing up one's own head was the most insignificant kind of disaster. The only trouble it caused others was wiping away the blood.

Truly horrifying psychic disasters could summon warp storms that disrupted interstellar travel, or turn someone into a fleshy gate, opening a passage through The Veil that separated reality from the Immaterium and allowing daemons from the Immaterium to descend upon reality.

"Use psychic powers carefully. And don't use them aboard my warship." The chapter master had warned him. "To put it somewhat improperly, using psychic powers is like gambling. You gamble that you won't cause a psychic disaster. If you win, fine. If you lose, then you... Heh. Ask the Chief Librarian about that."

Just as the chapter master's warning had indicated, using psychic powers was dangerous even for a Psyker.

But knowing something was one thing; truly feeling its weight was another.

Because every Psyker Qin Xa had met since arriving in this universe, including himself, had seemed quite reliable. They all used psychic powers, yet none of them had caused any trouble.

It made sense. The Psykers he had encountered were either Astartes Librarians from a chapter or Grey Knights. If they could casually blow up their heads or open fleshy gates whenever they used psychic powers, then even stable Psykers would have no fate but execution.

Was Caesar not an unstable Psyker?

Today's living example had heightened Qin Xa's vigilance toward psychic powers, which had gradually begun to relax.

Qin Xa began to doubt and fear his psychic gift. There was only one way to dispel that doubt and fear: deepen his understanding of his own psychic gift.

He needed to know whether his psychic gift was stable enough for him to trust it completely.

But unfortunately, Qin Xa did not know whether he could truly put his mind at ease. He only felt that the stability of his psychic gift meant... while others had a ninety percent chance of blowing up their heads, he had a ten percent chance.

At its root, Qin Xa had never received systematic training in psychic powers during these past dozen or so years.

He knew that the Grey Knight instructors had prepared a sixty-year education for him, but there were age requirements for receiving the augmentation surgery. It was impossible to wait until after completing his education before undergoing the modifications.

Thus, Qin Xa himself did not know much about his own psychic gift. He had merely undergone some tests he did not understand, passed them, and then received the augmentation.

As for deeper examination and study, the Grey Knights had prepared that as well.

Qin Xa would have received his education. He would have been studied item by item by Grey Knight instructors and elders, gaining a clearer understanding of his abilities—if the ship he had been on had not been swallowed by the Immaterium.

"Earlier, you comforted me. Now it's my turn to comfort you." Angron walked over, interrupting the storm of thoughts beneath Qin Xa's calm exterior.

"Walking over and saying, 'I'm here to comfort you,' doesn't actually comfort me." Qin Xa looked at Angron. "Besides, you don't even know what my problem is. If it isn't resolved, I can't be comforted."

"Caesar's death was random and sudden, but it has already happened," Angron said.

Qin Xa glanced once more at Caesar's corpse and shook his head. "I'm not so fragile that seeing death would leave me depressed."

"This man had just wanted to help us gather information, and then his head exploded."

"I might end up like him too. It's only a matter of probability."

Angron fell silent as he listened to Qin Xa. He did not know what he could say to ease the mood, because he could sense Qin Xa's emotions growing heavier through this meaningless, unconstructive conversation.

At that moment, Oeno walked over. "Can your wizard talents be trained and examined? I once had a wizard friend, and I faced a similar situation. Another wizard's head exploded, and my friend became frightened and despondent because he thought his own head might explode too."

"Is there some way to examine you?" Oeno looked at him with deep concern. "If the results show that you might end up like Caesar, then you really shouldn't use witchcraft again."

"An examination? There is a way." Qin Xa answered. "But it isn't something that can be done just by having someone sit cross-legged somewhere, nor is it something an experienced elder could settle if one happened to be here. It requires a ritual, a great many ritual items, and the presence of experienced, powerful Psykers."

"The examination itself is not difficult. What is difficult is examining someone safely."

"Someone has to make sure they can protect me if something notices me. Someone has to ensure I can regain my senses if I lose control."

"When I was young, my teacher could have done that, but he did not. He believed I should wait until my mind matured. Then I was taken away by someone else, and after that, before anyone could thoroughly explore my abilities, I ended up in this damned place."

Oeno did not understand any of what Qin Xa had said.

But Oeno was well traveled and knowledgeable. After pondering it for a long while, he distilled Qin Xa's general meaning.

Even examining one's ability to use "witchcraft" was dangerous and required extensive preparation.

But clearly, the Arena did not have the conditions for that.