Secret War: Upon Blood Sands by BAD Agar, Adrassil (amazing books to read TXT) 📕

She had never seen Attelus so driven. She had never seen him so commanding. It seemed he was only her master in name in their three years working together. While he would constantly teach her, he always treated Adelana as an equal. He'd politely ask her to do tasks instead of ordering. But then he'd seemed like a master—a leader.

Vark and Torris had tried to argue, but Attelus would brook nothing. He shot them down with a cold, calm rationale. I got to the point where Vark was almost yelling in his face, but Attelus never raised his voice, never showed anger, but he didn't back down. His lessons with the autarch were already making a difference.

And Adelana liked it.

She walked alongside him as they led the others down the ramp of the guncutter and into the Eldar hangar bay.

Twelve Eldar stood waiting a few metres away. They wore elaborate, finely made robes. In her travels with the eldar, Adelana had seen a few wearing such beautiful garments, even the males. Despite their bright colours and designs, they never seemed gaudy. If a human attempted to wear such clothing, they would, but the eldar had such refined style and grace they could get away with it. None of them was alike; it was such a contrast to their incredibly uniform armour.

Adelana was never much into fashion, but secretly she liked to try on those robes just once. But she didn't think they would have any clothing in her size, and again she'd make it look ugly.

The eldar regarded them with impassive expressions.

Attelus stopped, and so did everyone else. He looked relaxed with his hands in the pocket of his flak jacket but radiated purpose and strength,

Then the eldar silently parted, and Raloth Arlyandor stepped forward. Unlike the others, he was only what looked like an advanced, black bodyglove. His long brown hair wasn't in a top knot and flowed around his strong shoulders. Despite this, his force of presence wasn't negated; in fact, his more it seemed to enhance it. He was quite a sight.

The autarch regarded all of them one by one. His large eyes lingered on everyone for a good time. He seemed to see into Adelana's very soul, but this didn't make her uncomfortable. Adelana almost felt privileged that such a great leader would bother giving her his attention.

"Greetings," he said. "I am autarch Raloth Arlyandor, and I apologise. I am no seer, but I can see the vast, vast majority of you do not want to be here."

He paused. "So again, I apologise. I apologise to all of you."

Then he did something that shocked Adelana; he looked at everyone again and, in turn, said their names.

"If there is anyone you should be mad at, it is me," said Raloth. "It was partly my decision that led you to be here. Yes, Attelus here hid it from you until the last minute, and that was a foolish thing to do, isn't it, Attelus Kaltos?"

"Yes," murmured Attelus through clenched teeth.

"But yet, can you blame him? Really?" said Raloth. "Our races have had a long, chequered history. You hate us, do not trust us, and much of us look down on you, deem you a lesser species. We have used you and manipulated you for our own ends for millennia. So I, for one, think your hatred and mistrust is well-founded."

Raloth paused again, letting his words sink in, "so when you know this, can you blame Attelus here for being scared? For being hesitant in telling you of our alliance? I do not think so. In fact, I know so. I am here; we are here to put that behind us. We are here because of a common cause. Believe it or not, we are not here to manipulate or use you; we are here on equal footing. As allies."

"Because it does not matter who is better or who is lesser. In the essence of all things, we are equal. We are nothing but ants in the vast cosmos. Our existences mere eye blinks in this universe. I think we eldar who stand before you here believe that we have done things the wrong way. We believe that if our races are to survive in this grim, dark universe, we will do so by co-operating-"

"So will you be there with us?" interrupted Vark, whose voice boomed from the back. "You and your people will be fighting with us on Sarkeath?"

Adelana expected anger from the autarch at the interruption, but Raloth sighed, and his gaze fell to the floor, "we are not, I am afraid."

"Well, you go on about co-operation but won't even help us in a fight?" said Vark. "Typical Xenos!"

"Believe me, Vark," said Raloth. "I want to be there fighting almost as much as you. But we can't, and for good reason."

"Yeah! And I'm guessing you're not gonna tell us!" said Vark. "Everyone has their frigging secrets!"

"No, actually, I am going to tell you," said Raloth. "You deserve to know. As you know, the reason why our enemy is destroying your worlds is to collect souls. We eldar, without exceptions, are what you call 'psykers', so our souls have more power than the normal human. What our leader, farseer Faleaseen, fears is any eldar dying will fuel whatever scheme Etuarq has, bringing it into fruition faster."

Vark grimaced and shuffled his foot, muttering something Adelana couldn't hear.

"If it means anything, I agree with you, Vark," said Raloth. "I believe the farseer is being too cautious, and one day, no matter what, we will have to show our hand and fight. That will be sooner, not later, I am sure."

"I would like to know," said Torris. "Why you are talking to us and not this 'farseer? Who is your actual leader.'"

"Excuse me, autarch Arlyandor," said one the eldar, a female whose blonde hair was cut short to her thin jawline and whose robes shimmered with shades of purple. "May I answer that question?"

"Of course, Coulyte," said Raloth, stepping back with a slight smile.

"Thank you, autarch," said Coulyte. "I am now upon the path of the weaver, but only a few cycles ago, I walked the path of the seer. Our enemy is powerful; we do not know for certain, but we are sure that this Etuarq uses those souls to power himself. We do not know how. The farseer and the seer council must stay in the main ship. There they are near the infinity circuit, so there they are at their strongest. They attempt to break into the skein, to catch glimpses of the future to guide us. This Etuarq has somehow blocked our vision."

"I thought the eldar were meant to all high and mighty," said Vark.

Coulyte frowned, "we thought that too. Our enemy has humbled us somewhat."

"Now I bet that's the understatement of the millennia," snorted Torris.

"All this exposition is good and all," said Vark. "But why are we here exactly? There must be some other reason."

"There is no other reason, Vark," said Raloth. "We are here to talk. If we are going to be successful, I believe this bridge must be gapped and believe it will start here."

Vark raised an eyebrow. "Just by talking?"

"Yes," said Raloth. "It must happen and must start somewhere. So here we are. So talk."

"About what?" said Vark. "We haven't got anything in common. You're not like us."

"Oh, I disagree," said Raloth. "I think you will be surprised just how much we have in common."

The eldar Coulyte approached Adelana, smiling.

"I noticed you seem interested in our garments," she said. "My name is Coulyte. What is yours?"

"Adelana," said Adelana hesitantly.

"Pleased to meet you, Adelana. As I mentioned earlier, I walk the path of the seamstress. I am only here now as a guardian assigned to the Kaltoria on a temporary vocation. I have brought some material with me if you would like me to make something..."

Attelus watched in shock. They were talking, actually talking. The only one standing separate was Vark; he leaned against the wall, arms folded and grimacing in disgust. Attelus didn't expect the ex-guardsman would. But he didn't expect all the others would. There was Torris, hesitantly conversing with a female eldar in green and orange robes. And Delathasi talking to a male in blue. Karmen was engaged in conversation with two, both male. Attelus could tell they were talking about their powers.

"Do not look so shocked," said Raloth he approached. "Such a display of emotion is unbecoming of a commander."

"I-I can't believe it."

"Another saying you humans have, seeing, is believing. Which I think is a foolish saying as your mind and eyes can lie and be deceived, but in this case, I think it is true."

"When do you think a fight will break out?" said Attelus, finally regaining himself.

Raloth sighed. "So cynical-perhaps-in fifteen minutes? I will concede. It is possible."

Attelus' didn't answer; his attention was busy being fixated by Adelana as she talked to the eldar in purple.

Adelana caught him and gave him a smile with a wave.

He couldn't help smile widely and wave back. His heart was all aflutter.

"Can I ask you a favour?" said Attelus.

"You wish for the Adelana girl to join in our training sessions?" said Raloth.

"How?"

"For someone who has supposedly been trained from an early age to be an assassin, you are truly terrible at hiding your intentions."

"Well, can she?"

Raloth smiled. "Yes, of course, she can."

Attelus couldn't help jump for joy.

Despite Attelus prediction, a fight didn't break out, but it didn't take long for Vark to storm into the guncutter when one of the eldar tried to start a conversation with him. No one tried to stop him.

They did this for half an hour before the eldar leader ordered the other Xenos to their duties, and the team walked back into the guncutter in silence.

Torris' mind whirled; that was, without doubt, the strangest thing he'd ever gone through in his life. The eldar he talked to was named Faldreth, and he was very interested in law enforcement of the Imperium once Torris said he was once an Arbite. Faldreth bombarded Torris with questions, most of which Torris was hesitant to answer.

But he did for a few reasons; the first and foremost was the eldar seemed to ask them with an almost child-like elation born from curiosity than anything sinister.

They only were in the small hanger-storage area, which held their armoured all-terrain vehicle five bikes; their feet clanged across the metallic floor when Attelus stopped and turned back to the group. Smiling.

"I'd like to thank you, all of you," Attelus said. "You have truly amazed me today, and I am forever in your debt."

Torris frowned, and no one said anything. He wasn't sure if this was Attelus being manipulative or not.

"From now on, every three days, we will be having gatherings with the eldar, just like this one," said Attelus. "These will be strictly voluntary, but I strongly request you come."

He turned and started on. "Adelana, can we talk, please?" he said, and the pretty redhead nodded and followed. A slight smile on her full lips.

The rest of the group didn't move an inch; they stood silent for a good minute.

Uncharacteristically, it