He was an unyielding stone.
He had warmth.
Once Chaos's temptations faded, Rogal Dorn gave the matter serious thought.
The whispers of Chaos were not entirely false. Truth mixed with lies-or even fragments of truth strung together-made for masterful deception.
Pressed close against the blackstone sarcophagus, the Primarch was certain that Chaos could no longer interfere with him.
The method of gaining power it had described was unquestionably wrong. Dorn did not even need to think about that. But...
Warp essence...
Dorn did not deny that part. He simply had no idea what his own essence was, or how to awaken it. That puzzled him.
Guilliman had once told him that he loathed the Warp, even when he was within it.
That meeting early in the Great Crusade had given Dorn no reason to ponder the matter. The Imperial Fists had occupied a powerful enemy's capital system, and Guilliman's fleet had just emerged from the Warp. Dorn had assumed that some undercurrent had affected Guilliman during his passage.
Thinking back now, it seemed to have hinted at something.
Among the reports on the Imperium that the Tech-Priest had just brought, one piece of classified intelligence had caught his attention: the Lord Regent had once met the Raven Lord.
That brother whom they had once believed had deserted into the Warp.
He had appeared during a war, striking at tremendous speed while completely invisible, before suddenly emerging from the shadows behind "Guilliman." Their meeting had been brief, and then he had entered the Warp.
According to "Guilliman," he had turned into countless ravens after entering the Warp and pursued the Daemon Primarch Lorgar.
Dorn found it strange. It seemed that many of his brothers had realized this. The Khan had said that he had felt a mysterious power during his battle