"Life's treating you pretty well, huh."
Hades smiled without warmth, his dark eyes fixed on Neos, who was spinning in his chair within the glittering golden office.
"Can't complain," the Emperor said calmly, casually picking up the Horus Lupercal HH miniature from his desk and twirling it between his fingers.
"Want a game?" Neos asked tentatively.
Then he watched Hades's face turn from white to red, then from red to green.
"I'll play your damn dam! Get back to work!"
Hades strode over and slammed a hand onto the desk. The hundreds of carefully arranged Custodian Guard miniatures on Neos's desk all took flight at once.
"I have been working," the Emperor said calmly.
"The first batch of Space Marine modifications has been completed. I'm reviewing the Gene-seed of the second batch of Space Marines—or perhaps Malcador was right. Sanguinius's genetic sequence has too many flaws, and I have no choice but to redesign it."
"And now,"
Neos set down the Horus miniature in his hand and casually picked up Guilliman's blue one. These Primarchs, Malcador, and Hades were the only colors different from the rest upon this golden table.
"Now is rest time."
"You're certainly free."
Hades sighed and naturally pulled over a chair to sit down. He had come to discuss government affairs with Neos, yet his hand unconsciously reached for the miniatures on the Emperor's desk.
"I heard Lorgar is coming back?"
Hades asked tentatively. He did not suffer from some golden-fetish obsession, so he had picked Mortarion's miniature instead. Around the waist of the miniature, smaller than a finger joint, medicine bottles gleamed with liquid light.
"She's still reflecting," Neos replied casually. He put Guilliman back, then picked up Sanguinius's miniature to play with.
As though remembering something, Neos smiled.
"I do not favor my seventeenth