Although he had many doubts about Brother Callistarius, Soshyan was not stupid enough to bring it up on this occasion.
Maybe he'll never ask the question again.
After the two battle groups introduced each other, the blood slaves quietly walked into the house, holding basins filled with fragrant water.
They ritually washed the lips and gauntlets of their hosts and placed white towels on their left arms.
Other servants followed, carrying wine jugs and silver goblets set with rubies and gold filigree.
What the Blood Angels value most is beauty, and beauty is reflected in excellence in the way they act. Therefore, their servants work at a flawless pace, serving their masters with machine-like precision.
They placed the wine glasses on the stone table without making a sound.
As master, Dante waited for this sacred baptism to be completed. A high-ranking Chapter servant brought him a silver basin containing thirty-three rubies, each engraved with the recently sacrificed dead.
name.
Dante picked them up and put them into the bowl in front of him.
"Let future generations remember them."
Dante said,
The first one raised the filled wine glass, and the blood slaves also retreated one by one.
"Blood will not stain our words, anger will not stain our reason."
The Blood Angels warriors recited the following sentences, and Soshyan looked curiously at the mysterious rituals of this ancient war group.
"Live up to the blood of Sanguinius!"
After completion,
The sons of Sanguinius bowed their heads in search of communion with their father's spirit.
When everyone raised their heads again, their expressions relaxed, and then Dante raised his glass to Soshyan and Randall again.
"Welcome once again to our cousins, the brave sons of Dorne!"
Randall raised his glass with a normal expression, while Soshyan raised his glass with a hint of embarrassment.
After Dante drank the contents of the cup, he drank too
Got some red wine.
The moment he entered, Soshyan felt a flaming touch, like hot blood.
These aged wines are all made from fruits grown in the Bal Desert oasis plantations. Soshyan feels as if a trace of blood has been added to them for seasoning. The taste is very unique, mellow and intense, but not overpowering.
Instead, there was a long aftertaste after he swallowed it.
Barr's fine wine is well-deserved.
Afterwards, there was a relaxed communication session. The exquisite food on the table was almost untouched, because they did not actually need to eat, especially those exquisite meals, but this was a symbolic gesture.
Dante seems to be very interested in Soshyan and has been listening to the wars and battles he has experienced over the years, especially the battle with Huron.
Of course, Soshyan also had to hide many details, which made his narrative sometimes appear inconsistent, but Dante did not point out those, but he fully affirmed Soshyan's boldness and carefulness.
According to Dante, when any commander encounters a strong enemy, he will instinctively choose to defend. Those who can make a desperate move to attack are either geniuses or madmen.
The Blood Angels have always pursued the tactical philosophy of 'preemptive strike' and 'offense is the best defense'. Dante even joked that Soshyan's style looked more like them than the Imperial Fists.
Of course, Soshyan could only smile awkwardly in return.
However, during the subsequent chat, Dante seemed to have been asking about the League of Sufferers, or the Lamenters, intentionally or unintentionally.
Soshiyan caught this, and he immediately realized that this legendary chapter leader seemed to have something unspeakable.
Before he could speak, Dante suddenly invited him to meet alone in another private cabin nearby.
Soshyan didn't think much and immediately accepted the invitation.
But when he entered the cabin, he discovered that it was a private library belonging to the Chapter Master.
The Lord Commander's personal library on the Vengeful Blade contains thousands of books, many of them unique, transcribed manually from long-broken data retrieval machines.
Among these priceless treasures, none compares to the Scrolls of Sanguinius - nineteen scrolls written by the Primarch himself, recording his innermost thoughts.
Their originals are stored in the Librarian's vault, protected by a stasis field from the erosion of time. There are only five copies of these scrolls in the entire galaxy.
In his long life, Dante only came into contact with the original three times.
Now, a copy is taken out.
Dante was sitting at his desk. Although this copy showed no signs of being read, in fact Dante had read Sanguinius's works countless times.
There was a chapter in the work that he read most often, as his fingers moved over the scroll, silky velvet gloves ensuring that the parchment scroll was not stained by sweat.
Soshyan was right opposite him, sitting upright, like a student in class, with seriousness and caution.
He didn't know what Dante was going to say to him, but it must have extraordinary meaning.
"I'm concerned about what I saw—"
Dante narrates the words on the scroll.
"My powers of foresight plague me with darkness, and I find no comfort in these visions. As I wrote before, our victory will only have tragic consequences. However, even so, some of the visions are too
Darkness, they fill my heart with despair, making it difficult for me to write down them... My father's dream is dead. There is no doubt that even the Emperor will feel sad when he sees the endless war and suffering in the future.
Broken, he never hinted to us that he saw how dark the future would be, did he already know it? I have no reason to think he didn't know, my gift of foreseeing the future - if it can be called a gift at all
The words come from him, and his power is so powerful that I can't imagine. I ask myself again and again whether he has always known all this, whether he has anticipated everything that is coming? Or is he and
I, too, had no idea of this before? The bright future I once saw has been burned down, replaced by another extremely rotten possibility...I curse you, Horus, even to the end.
I won’t forgive you even then.”
After reading this paragraph, Dante paused for a while. When he saw Soshyan's thoughtful expression, he continued:
"-I have written about these things countless times, and I still don't know the answer to this question, so let me change the topic. I will write here about the dream I had last night. It can't be found in
The time of comfort brought me comfort and therefore deserves to be recorded.”
Dante unfolded the scroll to reveal the next page.