When the revelry ended, the Chaos Lord summoned Andrallo to his chambers for a private talk.
After making sure Maen and Charlotte were safe, Andrallo went straight to the Chaos Lord without delay.
The moment he stepped through the door, he found more of the same: the same riot of colorful treasures, the same sickly-sweet incense hanging in the air.
Besides the Lord himself, several other Chaos Space Marines sat in the room, each with at least one daemon companion at their side.
This was clearly a meeting of the inner circle.
“My lord, you wanted to see me?”
“Andrallo.
That was quite a show you put on with our Apothecary.
You’re not the marine you used to be, it seems, so I thought I’d have you join our council.
Share in the glory with the rest of us.”
A servant offered him a hallucinogen once more.
Andrallo turned it down again.
Seeing him carry on a clear-headed conversation without any drugs in his system, the Chaos Space Marines around the room looked equal parts baffled and envious.
An addict who’d suddenly kicked the habit entirely, and now recoiled from the very drugs he used to crave, was more than a little unsettling to warband members who were still hopelessly hooked themselves.
“Andrallo, brother, where’s your daemon companion?
The two of you used to be inseparable.”
“Got bored of me a while back and took off on its own.
No idea where it went.”
Andrallo lied without so much as a flicker in his expression.
The Chaos Lord just smiled and moved on to the matter at hand.
“Our last engagement was a perfect victory, but it’s also left our supplies completely drained.
I called you all here today to work out how we solve that.”
One of the warband members jumped up immediately.
“No supplies left, and you throw us a feast anyway?”
“Our brothers just came off a bloody fight against the False Emperor’s dogs.
Would you have them come home to nothing but a bare floor to sleep on?” the Lord shot back loudly.
“Then let’s go ask Abaddon for more.
After what we pulled off this time, even Abaddon owes us something.”
Andrallo had to suppress a laugh at that.
He’d already gotten the full story of the previous raid from Maen and Charlotte.
The Chaos Warmaster named Abaddon had ordered their warband to assault a Hive World, in order to sever the Warp routes connecting the nearby systems.
Instead, the warband had walked straight into an ambush the moment they landed.
After losing dozens of Chaos Space Marines, the Chaos Lord had ordered a retreat, and it was during that retreat that Maen and Charlotte had been dragged aboard.
In other words, the whole warband had gone down for a stroll, grabbed a handful of captives, and run for it.
All told, they hadn’t even broken even on the ammunition they’d spent.
“So, brother Andrallo, what’s your read on this?
You’ve been quiet since the start.”
The Chaos Lord smiled at him, his gaze fixed on Andrallo the way a serpent fixes on prey, and the daemon at his side seized the moment to throw Andrallo a curious look of its own.
The Lord had already taken an interest in Andrallo.
Ever since he’d arrived in this world, the man had completely broken from his old habits, giving up the hallucinogens entirely, staying calm and quiet, keeping himself shut away in his quarters most of the time.
It was deeply out of character, especially given how thoroughly depraved and dissolute the body’s original owner had once been.
The contrast in Andrallo’s behaviour now was impossible to miss.
The Chaos Lord had originally planned to simply eliminate Andrallo outright, but the daemon at his side had talked him out of anything so rash.
The small clash between Andrallo and the Apothecary had only proven the daemon’s foresight correct.
Just remembering how Andrallo had cracked ceramite armor with his bare hands was enough to give the Chaos Lord a lingering chill.
Andrallo: “My lord, my thinking is this: take a self-sufficient world first, ideally somewhere remote, and use it as a base to recruit and rebuild.
Beats drifting through open space.”
“Relying on the ship alone as a base leaves us far too exposed.
One ambush and we could lose everyone.”
“Hm…”
The Chaos Lord appeared deep in thought, as though weighing Andrallo’s proposal, but in truth he was speaking privately with his daemon.
So?
Did you find anything in Andrallo’s soul?
No.
This is wrong, all wrong!
The daemon’s voice trembled.
There’s nothing in him but darkness.
His soul is utterly still, dead.
It’s like throwing my mind into a hole torn straight out of the Warp.
I can’t feel anything at all!
When the Daemonette tried to approach Andrallo’s Warp-presence, all it found was a void.
Every instinct in it screamed a warning, driving it back.
For the first time, the daemon felt real fear.
It had no idea why it couldn’t read Andrallo at all, but it reported the truth to the Chaos Lord regardless.
The Chaos Lord made no comment.
He gave Andrallo a small nod.
“Well said, brother.
Truth is, I’ve had my fill of Abaddon for a while now.
We’ve more than earned back what he gave us with this last raid on an Imperial world.
From here, we go it alone.
We find our own glory.”
Andrallo still had more to say, but the Chaos Lord had already turned to celebrate with the officer beside him, leaving Andrallo standing there, forgotten.
Feeling like he was wasting his breath, Andrallo made a quick, offhand farewell and headed straight back to his quarters.
Only once the Daemonettes in the room watched Andrallo leave did they let their guard down.
The Chaos Lord’s own daemon companion asked, uneasy:
“Are you sure it’s wise, letting that one just walk out like that?
Have you considered dealing with him quietly?”
“Is that really necessary?” The Chaos Lord tipped back a large cup of a mixture of blood, milk, and sweat, draining it in one go.
“Brother Andrallo has turned his back on the path of perfection.
He’s already weaker for it.
Beating an Apothecary in a fight is nothing special.
Besides, it’s rare enough to have a brother aboard this ship with a clear head.
If it ever really comes to it, I’ll take his skull off myself.”
“Will you win?” the daemon asked.
“Of course I’ll win!
I am the Perfect Phoenix, favored by our father himself!
Forget Brother Andrallo, I wouldn’t even flinch from Abaddon himself!”
Click.
Andrallo returned to his quarters to the hiss of the automatic door, and the moment he stepped inside, he caught Maen and Charlotte huddled in the corner, up to something.
“What are you two doing?”
The sisters spun around at the sound of his voice and started straightening their clothes with obviously forced casualness.
“We, we were just cleaning up.
It’s really dusty in here.”
“Relax.” Andrallo waved a hand.
“You don’t need to play these little games with me.
We’re all in this together.
I’m not going to hurt you.”
He pulled out a plate of fruit he’d swiped earlier without much thought.
“I checked it with my power.
It’s safe to eat.”
Maen hesitated for a moment before finally picking up a small piece of fruit and popping it into her mouth.
Fresh fruit like this was a genuine luxury aboard the ship, something ordinary warband members only got a taste of when the Chaos Lord threw one of his feasts.
Once Charlotte saw her sister was fine, she dove in right after her, and the two of them tore into the fruit like a pair of hungry puppies, not a trace of noble bearing left between them.
“The Chaos Lord’s agreed to raid one of the Imperium’s outer worlds next.
That’s when I’m planning to break away from the warband.
What do you two think?”