"Ah..."
A short, sharp gasp, utterly unbecoming of a Primarch, escaped Lorgar's throat.
He watched the Pearl White figure walking straight toward him, arms spread wide and face beaming, and felt every hair on his body stand on end.
To Lorgar at that moment, the unclouded, pure joy and affection in Horus's eyes were more unnerving than facing an Ork army led by a Warboss.
"Horus! Stop! Don't come any closer!"
Lorgar's voice rose involuntarily, carrying a rare note of urgency.
He even instinctively took three abrupt steps backward. The heavy heels of his Power Armour struck the polished floor with three distinct thuds, echoing unusually loudly through the silent antechamber.
He raised one hand in an almost defensive gesture, warning Horus to stay back.
"I'm Lorgar! Lorgar Aurelian! Take a good look!"
He practically forced his full name through gritted teeth, trying to dispel the other man's suffocating misidentification through sheer emphasis.
His golden pupils contracted slightly as he watched every flicker of expression on Horus's face.
"Oh? Ohhh—"
Horus stopped dead in his advance, his arms suspended in midair.
The overly radiant smile on his face froze for an instant, then swiftly softened and subsided like melting snow.
He blinked, and the pure delight and bewilderment in those famously charismatic eyes quickly gave way to recognition and concentration.
"Lorgar... yes, Lorgar..."
He repeated the name quietly, studying Lorgar's face openly and carefully, like the most precise scanner.
Indeed, viewed closely, the differences were obvious.
Although his superhumanly perfect contours, bronze complexion, and certain profound qualities bore a vague resemblance, Lorgar's features were sterner, his gaze steeped in a different set of complex considerations. He lacked the Emperor's inhuman, absolute majesty, tempered by endless ages. In its place shone something more "human," a mixture of faith, political calculation, and