The report from Shield-Captain Valerian was delivered in Roboute Guilliman's private study. Even here, the Primarch found no peace. For the first time in his long millennia of service, Valerian's voice was strained.
"He… witnessed it, my Lord," the Custodian said, the words tasting like ash. "The moment of the Great Betrayal. He drew it from the very stones. We felt the psychic backlash. Ten thousand years of grief, delivered in a single, crippling blow."
Guilliman sat behind a desk of petrified wood, his hands clasped. He did not look surprised, merely grimmer. He had suspected the Monarch's abilities went beyond the physical, but this was a violation on a conceptual level.
"He can read our history," Guilliman stated. "Not the scripture we have written, but the truth of what transpired."
"He is a key that can unlock any door in the Imperium without touching the lock," Valerian affirmed, his fist clenching. "This is an existential threat. We must… contain him. Properly."
Guilliman looked up. "Contain him? We have placed him in the most secure fortress in the galaxy, and he has turned our home into his personal library. Every wall is a page to him. We cannot cage a being who is not bound by physical laws."
The Primarch rose, his eyes alight with a new, dangerous resolve born of sheer desperation. "If you cannot stop a river from flowing," he murmured, "you must instead dig a channel to direct it. If he is a reader, then we will choose the book. If he seeks the truth of this Imperium, we will show him the one, absolute truth upon which it all rests."
Valerian's eyes widened slightly in understanding and horror. "My Lord… you cannot mean…"
"He came here to speak with the Emperor," Guilliman said, his voice hard as iron. "It is time we granted his request. I will take him to the Sanctum Imperialis myself."
"Lord Commander, the psychic outcry alone… for an unsanctioned entity of his nature… it could be an apocalypse!"
"Or it could be the judgment we have been unable to render," Guilliman countered. "The light of the Emperor is the ultimate anathema. We will see what happens when this 'antithesis' stands in the heart of that fire. It is a risk. But leaving him to wander our past, uncovering secrets I do not even know we possess, is a risk without measure."
The decision was made. It was the ultimate gambit. He would lead this strange new power into the very heart of his own, hoping the resulting inferno would consume only one of them.
The Monarch was on the balcony of his spire when they arrived. Guilliman came himself, flanked by Valerian and a contingent of the Victrix Guard. He turned to face them, his own five knights materializing from the shadows.
The Primarch did not waste time with pleasantries. "Monarch," he began, his voice leaving no room for argument. "You have demonstrated your ability to pry into the past. You seek to understand the nature of the Imperium. Your reading in the garden was… informative, I am sure. But it was merely a footnote."
He stepped forward, his immense presence commanding the space. "You came to speak to the master of this realm. I have decided to accommodate you."
A heavy silence fell, thick with unspoken possibilities.
"I will take you to the Golden Throne," Guilliman declared. "I will bring you before the Emperor of Mankind himself."