After concluding the campaign against the Squat League, the Fifteenth and Fourth Legions underwent a brief rest.
Subsequently, both Legions were ordered for another joint operation, heading to Morningstar to rescue the local populace.
853.M30, the 28th Expeditionary Fleet arrived at Morningstar.
Ahzek Ahriman led his retinue to the ruins of Zharrukin.
Although he hadn't yet followed the new system established by the Primarch Magnus after his return, requiring each Captain candidate to be seconded to other Legions, as the former de facto Legion leader, he still had over a hundred attendants.
Ahriman had no worries about obtaining a Captaincy. His gene-father hadn't assigned him a Legion for secondment merely because a suitable opportunity hadn't arisen.
What concerned him now was the vacant position of Chief Librarian. As Magister Templi of the Corvidae Cult, he foresaw that, due to their father's preference for knowledge and psychic power, this position held far greater importance than in other Legions.
Even though Lord Nareth first sought the Emperor's agreement to establish Librarian positions, Thomas of the Shadows of Order wasn't the Legion's second-in-command.
The highly accomplished Sanchez, Bukayo Arshivan, who discovered crucial worlds like Cypra Mundi, and Howard Fender, who implemented order and reconstruction in domains like the Osiris Sector, were all obviously more core figures.
Another Primarch advocating psychic use, Sanguinius, was similar in his Legion.
Only the Fifteenth Legion was different. The Chief Librarian was the Legion's second-in-command.
Ahriman also always believed the Chief Librarian position was his for the taking.
Though Amon was their father's mentor and trusted equerry, he lurked in shadows clearly unsuitable for the position.
From the information Ahriman possessed, most Thousand Sons also believed he should become Chief Librarian.
But recently, this shifted. Hathor Maat's sudden rise, his performance, especially bringing back Squat knowledge and several rare runes condensing Warp energy, greatly elevated his standing in their gene-father's eyes.
Though his father never explicitly stated, Ahriman foresaw that the upcoming operation on Morningstar would be the arena for his duel with Hathor.
The best performer among them would become Chief Librarian.
Ahriman wanted to win. To date, besides Cezak of the Eleventh Legion, all Legion commanders reuniting with their gene-father later became second only to the gene-primarch.
He didn't dwell on Hathor's brief lead being closer to the Primarch during the earlier First Council.
But the Chief Librarian position was different. Gaining it would allow wielding power to command many Thousand Sons.
To win, Ahriman chose Zharrukin.
Facing the impending magnetic storm, remaining here was reckless even for Astartes.
But to secure victory, Ahriman willingly risked it. He aimed to extract precious knowledge painstakingly accumulated over generations from the lost age.
His consciousness drifted with the wind, merging with the pale ash carried by gales, howling through collapsed ruins and shattered structures.
Marble column surfaces were pitted. Among grand structures, glass shimmered.
Zharrukin's rugged mountains unfolded along broad river valleys, trenches unnaturally straight.
Ahriman strolled through ruins. His gaze penetrated time. He knew the last time this city was inhabited was millennia ago.
Nature had reclaimed territory from its ancient plasticrete canyons and broken streets. The structures he passed were predate the Age of Strife style.
Styles were unique, varied, lacking the modular aesthetic typical of humanity's later hyper-rapid expansion among stars.
Morningstar was settled early in humanity's Golden Age. Zharrukin was among the planet's earliest cities.
"Was this where Morningstar's first king established his capital?"
Ahriman inquired. He studied the playful dance of particles in his palm, watching them spin in increasingly complex iterations.
Iron oxide micro-particles shimmered with bright, fragmented light. Ancient meta relics, long turned to dust in this desolate ruin of a city.
Now awakened, they danced under Corvidae arts' compulsion.
Ahriman sought meaning within pattern motifs, listening to echoes of the past.
Divining the future was always his focus. Now, he sought the hidden past from the ocean's depths. Both held equal challenge.
"Now is the time for us to open our minds, communicate."
Ahriman elevated to the second layer of the Enumeration, lowering psychic barriers. His consciousness sank into the ocean's vastness, communicating with this place's awareness:
"Why did your world alone remain untouched by madness, surviving the Old Night?"
"Why did Morningstar survive, yet your capital fall and collapsed?"
"Was it your greed? Your arrogance? Or merely time's passage?"
Nine breaths later, Ahriman suddenly elevated to the third layer, capturing a trace he sensed streaking through the ocean's vastness.
The ocean's flow poured into his body, like water cascading down complex channels, guided and shaped by thoughts constructed in the third layer.
Unknown became known. Unseen, unwritten possibilities now revealed.
Ahriman's body trembled, excited by his discovery. A captivating image formed in his mind.
He glimpsed a dreamlike city standing atop the world, its towering spires melting as the world burned.
'Is this Zharrukin's end?'
As Ahriman's arts unfolded, excavating Morningstar's historical mysteries, his sole competitor, Hathor, also led his Third Fellowship and some Pavoni Cult members not assigned to Fellowships onto Morningstar's surface.
All in the group had their left pauldron's curved surface adorned with pale ivory white on crimson power armor, the Thousand Sons Legion's serpentine, star-shaped emblem.
Upon Hathor and several hundred others' emblems, an additional shining feather was added.
That was the Pavoni Cult symbol under Hathor's control as Magister Templi.
Every Thousand Son with a shining feather painted on their pauldron ha visibly more handsome faces than their battle-brothers.
Not a single Pavoni wasn't exceptionally handsome. In this aspect, they resembled the Emperor's Children.
Some among them, upon completing the ascentation surgery to become Thousand Sons, weren't initially this handsome.
But using Pavoni arts, they repeatedly adjusted their flesh with psychic power, attaining marble-like features, eventually winning Hathor's approval.
Hathor himsel even more so. Standing among the Emperor's Children, he would stand out.
Rumors within the Fifteenth Legion, including the gene-father and many others, believed Hathor should be seconded to the Third Legion. He would surely gain Lord Fulgrim's favor.
Though Thousand Sons felt regret about this, after Hathor received Lord Nareth's attention, even gifted precious runes, they were pleased he was seconded to the Shadows of Order.
From Ahriman's choice to go to Zharrukin's ruins, Hathor already guessed his competitor's intent.
He didn't choose ruins. No ruins' history surpassed Zharrukin. His ability to extract information from them was inferior to Ahriman.
Hathor knew his only chance was tomake good use of the ability bestowed by his Lord.
Therefore, he chose Morningstar's largest city. Here, as a "Psychiatrist," he could best utilize his abilities.
.....
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