There are rumours of legionaries, even whole legions turning traitor, and you believe that some of the astartes you have been assigned to are among them.

‘But first, I must prove that I am you,’ said Kasiya, ‘by explaining why you summoned me.’ The only person I can trust for this is myself.’ ‘No one should know the span of their life.’ Kasiya nodded, ‘It was the same when I performed it.’ The legionary in red frowned, ‘The ritual was not precise enough to know when. Kasiya stared, then grinned at his younger self. And standing in the centre, a dark-skinned astartes with a shaven head and gold trimmed ruby armour adorned with a scarab on the chest. Candles sputtering green flame were placed around an intricate design of runes and wards painted onto the pale rock in a thick, glistening substance. On the western horizon a gas giant rose into view, bathing the white rock of its cratered satellite in pink and amber light.īefore him were laid out the tools of a ritual just as he remembered them, in the same places and the same condition as if no time had passed. The broken remnants of the moon’s siblings tumbled across a tapestry of nebulae and galaxies above him.

A world he hadn’t seen for many thousands of years, unnamed and unremembered, save for him. When his vision returned, Kasiya found himself on a barren moon beneath a kaleidoscopic sky.

The pale moon was rising abve