The Bane of Æonex reflected on himself while he waited for her to walk past. The town of Sonque in Chalcrystis was a pretty one, in his humble opinion. Music was not something he had much experience with as it was not exactly a priority in the divided West of Empyrea.
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His name was Karl Freeman. That was not his birth name but rather the one he had chosen when he had rejected the idea of a state.
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The Ad Coelum Federation of Syndicate was one of a handful of combined Umbracresti factions. It was made up of the Free Western Enclave and the territory taken from the dissolved Mater Anarchia. It was an Anarcho-syndicalist territory named on the basis that it owned everything in that area Ad Coelum (up to the heavens).
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Karl Freeman had been a Voice of the Syndicates until he was told a story by his father - which in turn had been told to him by his grandfather - about the day that everything changed when it rained blood all over Empyrea. Then he was told about CATAE and off to the North he went.
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The Umbracresti had been quickly assigned the task of permanently destroyed the oldest of the Æbyssal Triumvirate, Æonex the Tormentor. And to go that he needed to get rid of Earl Malum Astyr Ego.
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A woman of slightly above average height walked briskly past. She wore a hood and did not look up from the ground.
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She did not walk briskly enough to prevent the Bane of Æonex grabbing her and covering her mouth.
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"Scream and I will have to kill you." He grunted. He uncovered her mouth.
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"What doth thou want with me?" She lowered her hood to reveal that she was Viscountess Valerie Reine Ego.
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"CATAE sent me to find you. I am the Bane of Æonex the Tormentor, tasked with ensuring the killing of the bastard actually happens, and for that, I need Malum dead." He snarled at her in a rumbling, low growl.
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"The Coalition of the Æbyss know I am on the run?" Valerie asked fearfully.
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"Better than that, they know that you are connected to the notoriously independent rebel cells in Narciss. Mr Eirlys Ravyn-Valtor extends his salutations and sorrow that he may not meet you in person, by the way." He said formally, the fancy words sounding strange in his thick Umbracresti accent.
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"How do I know that is not a trick, that thou art not an Inquisitor of the Covenant of the Void?" She retorted, not trusting him in the slightest.
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The CATAE official rolled up his sleeve in response to reveal something more permanent than a tattoo. An anarchist symbol - a stylised Circle-A with a slogan below it that read "NO GODS. NO MASTERS." - had been carved into the man's arm until it had left an irreversible scar that signified his allegiance.
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"The mark of the anarchists... Thou were a Voice of the Syndicates." She said slowly, the significance of that symbol dawning on her.
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The Bane of Æonex knew that she would listen now.
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"Yes...The Shield of Empyrea wants you to continue your actions and plan to kill your older brother and sister. They will make you the Guardian of the Northeast, allow you to choose the Guardian of North-Northeast, shall recognise you as the legitimate ruler of the Earldom of Narciss as Countess Valerie the Second. CATAE only asks that you destroy that Dreadnought of his soon as well as any under construction projects that the cultists have. You will receive a letter of congratulations when we receive word that the GNA Firestorm shall plague the cause anymore." Karl told her everything that he was meant to.
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Valerie changed her tune from one of polite interest to one of scalding fury without warning
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"The cultists leave the West alone! There are no rebels in Umbracrest." She snapped.
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The CATAE member sighed, knowing that this would happen. "That is true, but unfair of thou to assume I have no reason to hate the Covenant of the Void."
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Viscountess Valerie simply waited for him to continue.
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"The West was, for centuries, a stronghold of the Covenant. The second Ætharch of the seventy-sixth Council of Ætharchs was a woman that went by the name of Ester Noctè. She led Mater Anarchia as Mother Anarchy in an attempt to further destabilise Umbracrest. They called her the Instigator. Umbracrest had more High-Priests and churches than any other region at the time."
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"Everyone that hates them has read the records published by the Order of the Dragoon. That happened over one hundred and forty years ago. What is thy point?"
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"During the Umbracresti Civil War, the Adeptus Genetic broke the oath she swore to create Biological Superweapons for the Commisar of Sovia and the Regional Biotechnological Commission of Umbracrest. These ruined the biosphere of the West, it is full of irradiated cesspool; areas swarming with mutated, hyper-aggressive fauna, and bandits that would shoot thou to steal the cloths from thy back..."
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"Umbracrest has suffered. I have, too. The Æther Defence Force bombed my families home that had been passed down for generations before my father was even born because the Order of the Dragoon tricked then into believing there was Bio-Terrorists in the nearby town when it reality it was a sub sect of the Faith of the Æbyss called the Conclave of Æther - a peaceful sect compared the Covenant. - they killed 78% of its members."
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"Oh dear, poor cultists." Snickered Valerie sarcastically. "Tell the Shield of Empyrea that I will continue my efforts. Now get out of my sight, Westerner!"
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He did as he was told.
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Once he was out of sight, he pondered his own faith. Karl Freeman believed in Celestialism. But was now beginning to doubt the existence of the Star of Cerulea and the thirty-two stars - the eight directional deities, the eight half-winds, and the sixteen quarter-winds. And if they were more than concepts, why had they not managed to stop the Æbyssal Triumvirate?
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Perhaps he aught to be atheist as the scars that read "NO GODS. NO MASTERS." demanded.
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