Those Who Toy with Time Will Be Toyed with by Time; While You Preen in Pride, You Know Not That You Are Already Caught in the Web.

Those who toyed with time would be toyed with by time. While you basked in pride, you knew not that you were already caught in the web.

Inside the shuttle, everyone was sprawled around after a hearty meal, pretending to be dead. Perhaps Emilia's threats had worked, because Hogg had ended up washing the pots and pans. As a result, they had been living on dry rations for the past two days.

"Why is it taking so long? It was so fast when we came here."

Hogg was complaining. He had no idea why things had changed. In theory, the return trip should take as long as the outward journey, so the travel time should be the same. But for some reason, their flight was delayed.

As a null-psyker Ogryn, Hogg knew nothing about psychic powers. The others, however, knew their stuff—especially since this little shuttle also carried such powerful Imperial psykers as Old Man Yellow and Malcador.

This wasn't the first time Hogg had complained. To make the annoying buzzing stop, the Emperor spoke up:

"What are you whining about? Now that I'm away from those bloodsuckers, my power is returning. I figure I'll be fully recovered in half a day. You should be thinking about how you're going to face Roland."

"What does Second Brother have to do with this? Don't slander me."

It was true that his own negligence had caused problems with Sera's transformation plan, but the outcome had been good. Hogg didn't think anything would go wrong. Besides, what did that have to do with Roland?

The Emperor fell silent. He had suddenly realized that Hogg and Lorgar, those two wayward sons, had returned too late to witness the rebellion. By the time he found Hogg, Roland had already committed suicide and everything had been