Chapter Text
Chapter 9
-Sanguinius-
I walked across the steps of our fortress monastery in Baal, with one hand I brought the glass of red wine I was holding to my lips occasionally taking the time to admire the flavor complexity, whilst with the other I made simple signs of recognition to the many servants and astartes that crossed my paths.
“My lord!” Daniel said with reverence, a servant that was in charge of helping manage our logistical operations, from what other servants told me he was a cheerful young man man of 19 standard terran years that once every week baked different types of pastries and brought it to the office, furthermore from what some of my sons told me, his blood also tasted surprisingly well with an aftertaste of orange.
But that wasn't the particular thing about him, no, it was the fact
“Good morning Daniel, what did you bake this week for the workers in the logistical sector? “ I said with a smile biding him with a gesture of my free hand to follow me as I walked to my destination.
Truth is that, that honour should only be accorded to my closest sons rather than some of the many servants, but I felt in part guilty for his fate and the fact he was denied becoming part of my sons due to factors outside his control, not that becoming one of us is a particularly good thing.
“Oh I did some crepes and then master Sondes brought some honey, it was pretty good albeit I messed up the first three” Daniel said with a shy smile at the end, I just smiled at him.
Daniel was not born as pure baalite, both in upbringing and culture.
Daniel was born out of the marriage of a native to Baal secundus, and a solar auxilia lieutenant stationed here.
He never had to fight giant scorpions whilst growing up, he never had to be careful with the water he drank lest he be consumed by it, he never had to fend off hordes of mutants, he was pampered from birth protected by the mighty walls of our fortress monastery.
Thus when he came to the age of 12, like much of his fellow youth he tried to pass the trials to become an angel.
Compared to many of his other contemporaries he actually managed to get to the final trial, ready to undertake the last duel to inherit my accursed blood, not because of any particular condition, but simply because it's just that rare for one to be fit to become an astartes, ina average only one in one hundred were able to.
At the end just as his final trial was about to begin he was pulled out of the examination under the pretense of not satisfying the requirements for the next trial.
At the time I didn't think anything of it, but after digging a little bit on why no aspirants that were born from the children of the servants, it was revealed to me that they were deemed unfit due to not growing with the harshness of a death world.
I couldn't blame my sons, not when I myself had these biases for so long, but perhaps now that the all encompassing duties of the great crusade was gone I could ponder more about such matters.
After all, don't the Ultramarines hail from civilized worlds yet are considered amongst the best of the legions?
Or the emperor’s children, hallowed be their legacy, that despite hailing from a pleasure world, aren't they amongst the most perfect examples of Astartes?
It was those thoughts that now plagued my mind now that my visions were thankfully proven wrong and my secret project is going well.
I used to believe that hard conditions created strong men, now I wondered if perhaps I should return Baal and its moons to their original Arcadian like appearance before the fratricide between those nations made of this land's realms of death.
I’ll probably send a message to Guilliman for counsel about how to proceed, but for now I had a conversation to end, and despite the lengthy internal monologue I just had, only a fraction of a second had elapsed from the beginning of my interaction with Daniel, courtesy of my Primarch abilities.
“Do you have any problem with the workplace you are in? From what I’m told you’ve only begun working in your department for 3 months” I said to the man, in general I tried to remember the names of all the servants and get to know their personal lives within reason, not just the particular cases like him.
“Well not really, everyone has been so nice yourself included, I’ve never felt happier in my life my lord!” Daniel said with an even bigger smile, it warmed my twin hearts to see him like this, unfortunately I had duties to attend to and I simply couldn't humor him much longer despite how much I wanted to both to his denied future and his bright disposition.
“I fear to say Daniel that I have already taken too much of your time, please return to your station” I said with a kind yet decisive tone, the place where I was going needed to be kept secret at all costs, finally downing the rest of my wine, me and my guard entered deeper and deeper into the fortress, the walls going from brick to bare stone to finally red crystals that seemed to have some sort of effect in the warp.
Eventually through a set of stairs carved from red gemstones that glowed faintly as we traded we arrived at a hidden laboratory where many of my apothecary corps worked to cure our bloodline from our defects.
“Merios, how are things advancing?” I asked the chief apothecary which after bowing curtly he began to speak.
“My lord, I fear to say that we have stumbled upon a wall in our research, and whilst the work of brother Raphael seems promising, progress is frustratingly slow” Merios said curtly.
“Well then, that is why I’m here” I said as I went towards a special chamber to disinfect myself and join my sons in their search to cure the red thirst.