Shut Up, Slaaneshi Warrior

"I'm not lonely," Khayon said, making the mutants working nearby tremble in fear. To them, this was proof that a Space Marine was conversing with a daemon.

They quickly retreated, huddling in the shadows with their hands over their ears and their eyes shut, praying that neither Khayon nor some unknown presence would tear them to pieces.

"Oh, you're not lonely." Nefertari pursed her lips, making her look rather cute, though the way she toyed with her crystal claw ruined that impression.

She scraped at Khayon's armor and continued, "Your former mentor, Asaka, the albino with something wrong in his head, is dead; the daemon wearing a beast's hide has vanished too; only Telemachon Lyr is still alive, but he's a damned Emperor's Child, a mad Fallen with something wrong in his head as well."

Khayon angrily and impatiently tried to interrupt Nefertari's teasing, but she merely leapt onto his shoulder and continued.

"Now you're even leaving your sister behind. What do you have left?"

"I have you," Khayon blurted out.

Nefertari froze for a long while. Her expression changed countless times in an instant—smiling, sorrowful, helpless, calm—before her lips finally parted again.

"That's right. You still have me." Nefertari slowly stroked Khayon's face. Then several hooks caught her body and dragged her away as she rasped out a scream, "But you lost me."

Panic drove Khayon to abandon a scholar's composure. Gripping his axe, he broke into a run, the chains used to hang books jingling loudly. The daemons sealed inside the cards roared in displeasure at the impacts, but Khayon could not spare them a thought. He only wanted to catch Nefertari.

The busy servitors ignored Khayon. The Adeptus Mechanicus overseers recognized his armor and bowed to him, or simply made gestures of respect and submission.

Though meaningless,