Magnus returned to Prospero.
As his flagship passed through Prospero's Atmosphere, where pink and azure intertwined, he stood before the bridge's viewing window and watched the city below, built of crystal and magic, shimmer with dreamlike radiance in the sunlight.
Those soaring spires, those platforms floating in the air, those streams of psychic energy flowing between the streets.
Everything was so familiar, so beautiful, so reassuring.
Yet now, he felt none of the usual peace and joy of coming home. There was only urgency and anxiety, searing him like Inferno.
He strode off the bridge, past the Thousand Sons warriors saluting him, through corridors adorned with ancient-style reliefs and halls filled with incense and psychic energy, until at last he returned to his study.
It was an enormous circular room that occupied the entire top floor of the tower.
Its walls were built of translucent blue crystal, gleaming with a dreamlike luster beneath the light spilling from the dome.
Thousands of scrolls and books filled the room. Some were piled on shelves, others scattered across the floor, and still others lay open on tables, almost turning the entire room into a Labyrinth of knowledge and paper.
In the center of the room, an enormous blue crystal orb hovered in midair, slowly rotating in the dim light and giving off a gentle glow.
Magnus entered the study and closed the heavy Metal Door behind him.
Standing in the center of the room, he took a deep breath, then sat cross-legged. The floating blue crystal orb slowly descended until it rested at his eye level.
He gazed at the blue crystal orb before him, his enormous lone eye gleaming gold in the dim light, and felt the familiar psychic radiance flowing, swirling, and pulsing within the orb like the beat of a