Master and Guard

In the end, Mekari regained a shred of consciousness. By then, Khayon had already been knocked to the ground by Horus's clone, and Gyre, the spectral wolf, had died at Horus's hands. Her head had been smashed apart and then hurled to the ground like a slab of dead meat before a butcher.

The cloned Horus had already killed far too many, and Khayon was next. At that critical moment, Mekari slammed into Horus's side. The bolt round fired at point-blank range made Horus stagger several steps aside, and the blade meant to take Khayon's life veered away by a fraction.

Farewell, my brother.

Even after so long, Khayon still found it difficult to conceal his grief whenever he recalled that scene. Before his tears could flow, they were swept away by the turbulence of the Warp, leaving Izara with only a few disturbances on her instruments.

++It seems they died too.++

"No," Khayon corrected his sister. "They were freed."

++Then let me guess. Nefertari died too?++

Khayon said nothing, but that was enough.

Izara remarked on how things had changed in her cold synthesized voice. She was very curious about Nefertari's fate. After all, she was a Drukhari—a Drukhari who had survived at an Astartes's side.

++Did she die with Mekari and the others? Like a warrior?++

Sometimes, even a companion—or a brother—could court death by saying one word too many, like chattering endlessly before a World Eater and provoking his Butcher's Nails. Any reason would be burned away by the rage stirred by those words.

The last person to say that Nefertari was dead in front of Khayon had been Abaddon. At the time, Khayon had wanted only to place his fingers around Abaddon's throat and coldly watch the light of life fade from his eyes.

Khayon had