Future Imperfect

(Author's note: I can't help but reflect on how by writing this, I'm filling the request made by me that essentially created the /wst/ we know today. While I'm under no illusion that I'll be able to surpass or even equal the other fics covering Macha's defloration, I hope that you lot find it good enough to jerk off to.)

(P.S. The text between asterisks *like this* is meant to be telepathy. I'd use italics, but Pastebin doesn't support them.)

Prologue- From the Farseer's Meditations:

    The events at Tartarus proved to me that for all their military might, the mon'keigh are fools who bring destruction upon us all. Why else would they undermine their victory against the Ruinous Powers when the battle was nearly won, even after I made every attempt to warn them of their folly? I expected the Astartes captain would be prudent enough to realize the demon's deception. I was wrong. Now my only comfort is the knowledge that he will one day regret his decision. Trying to work alongside the mon'keigh was a mistake from the very beginning.

Yet even now, the Eternal Star is making its way to one of their backwater worlds to save one of their fledgling psykers from himself. Truly, fate has a perverse sense of humor.

In any other circumstance I would be content to let the greenskins invading their world and the mon'keigh natives wipe each other out, but the runes foretell that if left unchecked, this psyker will lose control of himself and unleash the servants of She Who Thirsts into realspace.

Even if he does survive the Ork invasion, the mon'keigh's powers are still a potential threat in themselves. It would be best for me to find him for myself. Though he poses a threat to us in his current state, perhaps he could be a useful tool in the right circumstances as well if what my visions show me now are true. The idea of keeping him as a prisoner for all respects and purposes is...repugnant. It reminds me too much of the Commorrites and their obsession with slaves, but if I must do this to keep Biel-tan safe, then so be it.

-----

The Green Tide

Compared to the Maiden Worlds that Macha had visited in the past, the frontier world of Malgus II was far from impressive. The planet was a harsh and arid place, consisting of rocky wastes and badlands as far as the eye could see. In short, it was the kind of planet only the mon'keigh would see fit in inhabiting, true to their disregard for aesthetics. As she donned her ghosthelm and brandished her Singing Spear, the Farseer set out on what could generously be called a rescue mission. As much as she would have preferred a full Swordwind to deal with the Ork infestation, Biel-tan's armies were still weakened from their excursion on Tartarus for an all-out assault, and while the risks of failure were indeed great, she could not afford to waste the lives of her soldiers over a single mon'keigh. Nor could she expect the Imperium's soldiers to intervene and deal with the greenskins for her; from what her Rangers had told her, the Imperium's influence on this world was nearly nonexistent. No, she would have to carry this out by herself.

Orks were simple enough for anyone to track, let alone a centuries-old psyker. Slipping by the Orks was just as simple as finding them. Their tiny brains made it all too easy for her to cloud their minds, effectively allowing her to hide in plain sight. After what felt like hours of trekking through one rock-strewn canyon after another, the Farseer finally managed to come across the mon'keigh she had been looking for all this time.

She was not particularly impressed with what she saw.

It was hard to tell if the decrepit homestead that she assumed to be her quarry's home was always in a state of disrepair, or if it was a byproduct of the Orks' attempts at pillaging. At the very least it seemed to reflect its owner's appearance quite nicely. Even while armed with a laughably crude-looking sword and equally primitive laspistol, the somewhat unkempt-looking mon'keigh was doing a surprisingly good job of holding his own against the mob of boyz bearing down on him. But the way he seemed to perfectly dodge every one the greenskins' strikes made it clear that he owed his survival to more than just his skill with a blade. As a Farseer, Macha knew what precognitive powers could do in combat, and while the human's use of them seemed instinctive at best it was obviously enough to suffice- but for how long? It was all too easy for one of the human's "witches" to become possessed by the Ruinous Powers, and she could not stand idly by knowing what would happen to the Craftworld if he met that fate.

Regardless of whether he succumbed to the perils of the Warp, he still couldn't hold out against the Ork mob indefinitely. There had to be at least a dozen of them at this point, and even if he did have precognitive abilities one of them would manage to strike him eventually as fatigue dulled his reflexes. Macha couldn't just stay back and watch any longer. It was time for her to show herself and unleash her psychic might upon the greenskin horde.

****

Julius was no stranger to living through difficult situations. Between trying to make a living scrounging for junk from the ruins of abandoned settlements to sell and hunting the occasional feral grox, he had quickly learned the stubborn self-reliance that numerous generations of Frontier World inhabitants before him had come to rely on for survival. Of course, they couldn't boast the ability to get glimpses of the future like he could. He had never quite figured out where they came from or how he managed to do it, and quite frankly he didn't care. They kept him safe. That was all that mattered. Anyone else in his position would feel the same way.

Or at least, they used to right before the Orks showed up. The sword Julius had cobbled together from scrap metal and the laspistol he had discovered in an abandoned house had helped him fight off the small band of boyz that had ransacked his home, but the noise from their scuffle had drawn out what felt like an endless number of greenskins. Now, his movements were slowing down and even though he could still see what they were about to do his reflexes were beginning to fail him. Just as it seemed that the last thing he would see was a mob of Orks guffawing over his prone body, the battle took a turn for the unusual.

All of a sudden, the biggest greenskin in the mob started clutching its head and groaning in agony before its cranium burst open like an overripe fruit. Several more Ork heads exploded in succession in this manner, and a burst of lightning singed his hair as it surged through the air and electrocuted another Ork. Before he could try to figure out what in the Emperor's name was going on, a humanoid figure with a peculiar pointed helmet, green and white armor, and a finely made spear emerged out of thin air and immediately set upon the few Orks that had not turned tail when their comrades started dying all around them. The shape of the figure's armor made it clear that the newcomer was female, but whoever it was couldn't possibly have been human. No human could pull off that kind of sorcery as if it was as simple as breathing.

After the skirmish came to an end, the stranger turned to Julius only to find itself at the end of his sword. Between the Orks wrecking his home and witnessing the freakish powers he had seen this being wield, he was not in a mood to live and let live.

"Who the FRAK are you?"
"Is this how you always show gratitude? I should have foreseen such obstinacy from your kind." Macha had expected the mon'keigh would be less than cooperative, but hearing him talk back to her so rudely was no less exasperating for it. For a moment, she briefly considered simply running him through for his insolence, but managed to keep her irritation in check lest she inadvertently cause the very daemonic incursion she was seeking to prevent.
"You did save my hide there, I'll give you that much. But why should I assume you won't try to make my head pop too?"

Macha took a breath, trying to calm herself down just enough to explain to this mon'keigh why she was going so far out of her way to help him in spite of herself. She was not used to being questioned about her motivations, especially when the questioner was one of the lesser races. "Because I know of your gift, Julius. And I would prefer that it be used in a manner that won't end up laying waste to this planet and everything else around it. Is that enough of a reason for you?"

How the hell did she know his name, let alone the existence of the powers that he had kept secret for as long as he had them?  "Alright, you've caught my interest; now tell me how you know who I am and where you learned about my visions."
"I would if we weren't in the middle of an Ork invasion right now. Just follow me, before more greenskins show up." And with luck he might actually listen to me, Macha thought to herself.

The stranger had a point. She certainly seemed strong, but the Orks would overwhelm them with sheer numbers eventually. And assuming he refused her offer, where would he go- back to the burned-out remains of his home? If nothing else, his foresight would warn him if she meant him harm. Hell, even if she did want to kill him it wouldn't be that much of a difference from staying where he was and getting an Ork's choppa lodged in his skull.

On the other hand, she was still a xeno. While the Ecclesiarchy and most Imperial authorities would consider the regular trade with alien races such as the Kroot which occasionally occurred on Malgus II to be heretical, it was viewed as a necessary evil by its inhabitants. That wasn't to say that they were particularly trusted. Only their money and goods were appreciated, and any xeno traders who made the unwise decision to linger after their business was concluded would learn this the hard way. And for all he knew, what she had in store for him might be far worse than just dying. His thoughts were soon interrupted by a bout of raucous laughter and the rumble of an approaching wartrukk. He could only assume that the earlier skirmish had been noticed and that reinforcements were on the way.

With very little time left to make a decision and faced with the imminent possibility of another Ork mob showing up, Julius resigned himself to picking the option less likely to kill him immediately. "Fine, have it your way. But if you try anything funny I'll cut you in two."
"Why am I not surprised that only the threat of imminent death is enough to make your kind listen? Hurry, before the Orks catch up with us." Had he been able to see her face, Julius might have noticed the Farseer rolling her eyes in annoyance.

*****

It took Julius less than half an hour after they had begun travelling to begin reconsidering his decision. At least he could be sure the Orks would kill him quickly. This...person on the other hand might want to sell him into slavery, drag out his death by torture, or worse. Yet even if he did manage to turn tail and run, where would he run to? And how could he be sure she wouldn't try to follow him? The canyons they were trekking through were not exactly the best place to hide oneself, and it would probably take months to rebuild his home. Assuming that the Orks wouldn't destroy that too, of course.

"You're having second thoughts so soon?" He couldn't tell if she could somehow tell what he was thinking or if he was just that easy to read, but either way it did nothing to help his mood.
"And third. And fourth. Thanks for noticing," he muttered sarcastically. "If those greenskins hadn't shown up when they did..."
"Then I would have needed to drag you back to my ship by force."
"I feel so lucky. Look, as long as I'm stuck with you the least you could do is tell me your name."

Macha sighed. For once, the human did have a point. "I suppose I can do that. I am Macha of Biel-Tan, Farseer of the Eldar-"

Her little speech was interrupted partway through, dashing her hopes that the mon-keigh might show a bit of respect towards her if he knew who she was. "Eldar? Great, I'm being kidnapped by pirates. Just what I needed to make this day better."
Macha had to remind herself that most mon'keigh couldn't tell the difference between her own kind and the corsairs which prowled the galaxy to keep herself calm. Were it not for his importance in her visions, she would have throttled him on the spot. "How many pirates go out of their way to save people who own nothing of worth? In any event, I don't care about whatever passes for valuables to you. I came here because of you and your future sight."
"Hold on just one moment, Macha. How did you even know who I was in the first place? If you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly the kind of person who appreciates visitors, let alone tells them that he can see the future."

About time his inane prattling gave way to something that might actually pass for meaningful communication, Macha thought to herself. Maybe he's not as unsophisticated as he looks. "You aren't the only one who has visions. Mine warned me that your death would lead to a great disaster, both for your people and mine. But we're almost at my ship, so if you can wait until we get on I can explain everything to you."
"Fine, fine. The sooner we get there, the better." He shrugged as they continued to walk through the canyons.

----
What Visions May Bring

    In all his life, Julius had seen no more than two voidships coming to and from Malgus II. The world had no spaceport, and even the tithe ships were rare enough that some people dismissed them as a myth. In both cases, he had only seen them from afar, making the sight of the Eternal Star all the more awe-inspiring. The organic curves of the ship's hull were a far cry from the bulky frames of the vehicles Julius had occasionally seen in the settlements, and the creamy white color seemed to almost illuminate the dull red crags surrounding its location. For what seemed like the first time since Macha had encountered him, Julius was speechless (much to the Farseer's pleasure).

"Impressed? Any of your kind would be if they took more time to look at our ships before trying to destroy them."
The sound of Macha's voice shook him out of his reverie, snapping him back to attention. "I'll admit it, I've never seen anything like it. What are the fins on its back supposed to be, though?"
"Solar sails. They help propel the ship in a far more efficient manner than any mon'keigh engine could ever hope to manage. I'd explain it to you, but I have to wonder if you would even be capable of understanding how it works."

Something told him that mentioning that it looked kind of like a giant fish with the way the sails stuck out like a fish's tail would not go over well, so he quickly changed the subject. "Sure, whatever. Now didn't you say you were going to tell me what you wanted with me?"
"Yes, I most certainly did. This way." She gestured to a ramp leading to the interior of the ship, and he followed her in, marveling at the sleek and almost organic design as he did so. The idea of even being on a spacecraft would have been nearly unthinkable to him mere days ago, and if someone had told him that he would be invited onto such a ship by a xenos witch who had been specifically looking for him, Julius would have assumed that the person so informing him was insane. But now here he was, about to leave what was once his home for...well, he couldn't say for sure but with any luck it would be better than what he was leaving behind.

******

The interior of the Eldar ship was no less striking in appearance than the outside. The ivory-colored walls seemed to meld seamlessly into the floor, as if the ship had not been built so much as grown. As Julius waited in the chamber where the Farseer had bade him to stay while she changed out of her armor, he took the time to get his bearings. A design resembling a thorny vine covered the areas where the floor met the wall, but otherwise the room was the same shade of white as the rest of the ship's interior.

The Frontier World native noted that apart from the bone-white benches that he was sitting upon the only kind of decorations to speak of were the peculiar runes dotting the walls. They seemed to come in countless shapes, but the most common of them by far looked like a cross with a U-shape attached to its top with a heart above it. Judging by its frequency, whatever it meant had to have been important to the xenos. Asking someone to figure out what it meant was out of the question for now, though. Macha might have been a stuck-up, condescending xeno witch whose every other sentence seemed to be a veiled insult directed at him and his species, but at least she was willing to acknowledge his presence. The few other green-and-white clad xenos he had thus far encountered refused to even glance in his direction.

It was at this time that Macha entered the room, as if she had been summoned by Julius' ruminations. As he noticed that she had taken her helmet off, his eyes widened with surprise. He had expected her to look like a disgusting monster, but instead she appeared almost human.

"Almost", however, was the key word. Sure, the red-haired witch could pass for human from a distance if one ignored her distinctively pointed ears, but the brilliant blue hue of her eyes, the sharp angles of her tattooed cheeklines, and the unnatural grace of her movements betrayed her true nature as a xeno upon closer inspection. Her robes had the same characteristic white-and green coloration that he had seen so frequently on the ship itself, and their lower portion was embroidered with runes similar to the ones on the walls. However, the most eye-catching feature of her outfit by far the necklace she was wearing, which featured a single red gemstone. Julius could swear that he could see the stone dimly pulsing with light, as if it was synchronized with the Farseer's heartbeat.

"Hello again, Julius. I trust that everything is to your liking?"
"Well, apart from the fact that your crew can't even be bothered to look in my direction, it's just wonderful. Look, can I just speak my mind for just a moment here? Assuming you haven't read it already, I mean."
Macha sighed; just when she though she was getting through to him he was getting willful again. No matter, indulging him just this once wouldn't hurt. "Very well, just make it quick," she said, the exasperation in her face plainly visible.

After taking a moment to compose his thoughts, Julius proceeded to air his grievances with the alien who he appeared to be stuck with for the time being. "You were the one who came up to me saying you needed my gift- for what, I don't know, but that's beside the point. Now, if I was the one who came crying to you for help, I might understand why you'd be so hostile to me, but since I'm supposed to be your guest here the least you could do is to to drop the passive-aggressive groxshit. Practically every other sentence that's come out of your mouth from the moment we've met has been a thinly veiled insult, and if I was in your place I'd at least be willing to express my opinions about you openly. So would it really be too much to ask if you could at least try to be a little more hospitable?"

For the next couple of seconds, Macha could only open and close her mouth in surprise. She had indeed read his mind, in a sense. While actually reading a person's thoughts was a difficult act which could easily be detected even by an untrained mind, she had in fact been surreptitiously been sensing his surface emotions for some time. From this, she knew that his mood had been rather poor, but had no reason to believe that it was because she had offended him as badly as she did. And he did have a point; if she was to train him in the use of his powers as she had been planning, it would be better to treat him as an equal as an inferior. Though the prospect of having to deal with this crude mon-keigh as if he was an Eldar himself would be humiliating, it would be for the best.

"I...yes, I suppose you're right. It is only fair that you be treated with respect as my guest here. And I do owe you an explanation of why I insisted that you come here as well." Julius noted to himself that Macha's voice was nowhere near as haughty as it had been a moment ago, and the fiery gleam in her eyes seemed to have faded somewhat. Part of him wondered if he had hit a nerve somewhere, but his curiosity won out over anything resembling concern for the time being.
"And about time too. Let me start with the obvious question, then. How did you know about my powers in the first place?" He had never told anyone about his visions, and even if he did tell someone, there was no way that information could have gotten the attention of anyone other than perhaps the nigh-mythical Black Ships that came to take children away to Terra.

"Like I said, you're not the only one who has visions of the future. As a Farseer, my entire existence revolves around reading the skeins of fate and ensuring that the futures which work best for my people come to pass. In one such instance. I saw you, and what might become of my home if you had fallen to the greenskin onslaught."
"What do you mean by that? Powers or not, I'm just one human out of who knows how many. Why am I so special to you?" The irritation in his voice from earlier was gone now, replaced with genuine confusion.

Macha pondered how best to explain how he might have become a living Warp rift if it weren't for her intervention. He didn't seem to understand anything about how his powers worked, and knowing the Imperium's secrecy the nature of the Great Enemy was almost certainly unknown to him. It would be better for her to start her explanation there and then breach the subject slowly, as if talking to a child.

"Would I be correct in assuming that you know nothing about how your visions work?"
"I don't even know what triggers them. They come to me when I'm in danger, but that's it. They've saved me from plenty of bad spots in the past, though. Warned me of rock slides, greenskin attacks, and the like. I just wish they told me a little more than that, though. Seems to me they don't seem to show me anything further ahead than by a minute or two at most."

As do I, the Farseer thought to herself. All too often, "what could be" and "what will be" were utterly indistinguishable from each other, even for one as skilled as herself. But that would be something for her to talk about another day, when the human was ready for such knowledge.

"The simplest way I can describe it is that any being who uses psychic powers like yours or mine taps into the power of the Warp.  Without the proper training, there are things there that can get inside your head, and use you as a portal to wreak havoc on our world. I had a vision showing me that if you were left to your own devices, you would lose control of your powers and unleash something terrible upon your world. More importantly, it would then try to attack my own people as well. The fall of your planet would have been an unfortunate but ultimately irrelevant event to the Eldar, but we cannot afford a threat to the Craftworld to go unanswered."
"Figures that you weren't just trying to save my ass out of kindness." It was at this point Julius realized something incredibly obvious that had gone unspoken. "But if the threat I supposedly posed was as bad as you make it out to be, then why didn't you just make my skull burst open and call it a day?"

Macha's eyes widened as she heard him say this. She had been wondering the same thing herself. Killing him would have indeed been a much faster solution than what she had elected to do instead, and even now it would be all too simple to throw him out an airlock or fry him with a bolt of psychic lightning. Was she just trying to prove to herself that not all humans were irrational brutes after the Tartarus incident, or was it something more? For the time being, she would have to give a partial explanation and keep her introspection to herself.

"Why waste your talents when we can use them instead? Though I confess that I have little affection for humans, I have no quarrel against teaching you to harness your powers. As long as you are willing to use them for the sake of the Craftworld, at least."
"And if I refuse?" Julius was tempted by the possibility of being able to better harness his powers, but part of it still seemed too good to be true.
"You are free to do so, but for your own safety I would have to keep you confined within this ship at all times, lest you lose control of yourself."

It didn't take long for Julius to come to a decision, if it could even be called that. "Well, since once again it looks like I don't have a choice in the matter, I'll have to agree to it."
For the first time he could remember, Macha smiled in a way that didn't seem tinged with smug superiority. "Excellent. We should begin with something simple, like trying to levitate a pebble. Divination is a difficult psychic technique, and even many of our experienced Seers struggle with it at first."
"Fair enough. No point running before you can walk, as they used to say back home." Julius had to admit, maybe the witch wasn't quite so obnoxious to be around after all. At least, not right now.

------

To Hone Oneself

The following few months proved to be difficult for Julius, but rewarding in their own way. The "simple" act of levitating objects proved to be much more difficult than it appeared to be. In fact, it had given him a nasty headache more than once before he could even lift it an inch off the ground. The look of pride on the Farseer's face when he did it made it feel worth the effort, though. She had warmed up to him ever since she had taken it on herself to instruct him on the use of his powers, and over time he had begun to see her as a mentor figure. A difficult to approach and enigmatic one, but a mentor nonetheless.

Why she had been so eager to take him on as a student, he still had no clue. He had tried asking Macha before about it, but she had always changed the subject when it arose. The most specific answer he had ever gotten out of her was that she would tell him "when the time was right", although she annoyingly refused to specify when that would be either. For the moment, he was resigned to focus on his training and hope that time came sooner rather than later.

By contrast, divination came to Julius naturally. After all, he had been unconsciously using it for most of his life. Though the future still could only come to him in brief glimpses, he had gained enough control over his visions to have them come to him at will. More importantly, he had been able to gain no small degree of insight onto Macha's role as a Farseer, as well as his own role in her life.

"So, your whole life is essentially tied up in trying to change the future in a way that benefits your kind as a whole?"
"A rather crude way of putting it, but you are correct."

Macha's brow furrowed, as she puzzled whether or not to speak her mind about something she had been dwelling on for some time since Tartarus.

"I've always wondered how you mon'keigh-no, you humans have managed to gain such great influence over the galaxy when you know so little of the consequences of your actions. If your Imperium as a whole had powers like my own or even like yours, perhaps it would not have entered into its current sorry state- doomed to be picked apart by the Great Enemy, the greenskins, and our own dark kin. Were it not for their own actions against us, I would pity them."

Julius at first assumed that she was just being sarcastic again, but there was something in her voice that gave him the impression otherwise- sorrow, perhaps? "And here I was assuming you despised humans in general. Except for me, of course."
The Farseer barely seemed to hear him, lost in her thoughts as she was. "Well, "hate" might not be the right word for it. It's more like disappointment. Our empire fell through our ancestors' shortsightedness, and now your own empire is making many of the same mistakes that we did. Even with my foresight, I can't see how long any of us will be able to go on as we are now. Are we simply fated to keep acting as the agents of our own destruction?"

The human couldn't boast that he had the same psychic mastery that Macha possessed, but that didn't mean that he felt compelled to stay silent as she vented to him.

"Humans like me might leap before we look, but at least we're doing SOMETHING other than worrying about the exact results of every action we take. Besides, the fact that we can keep what we see in our visions from happening at all means we're not "fated" to do anything. If that wasn't the case, I'd have been split in half by a choppa and my homeworld would have been overrun by something neither of us would prefer to think about right now. Right?"

The Farseer perked up a bit, and the frown that had crossed her face began to fade somewhat as his words sank in.

"I suppose you're right. To think I would need a human to remind me of something that ought to have been so obvious..."
"Just remember, if you see something you don't like in your runes or however you do it, let me know and we'll find a way to change the future together. I know I'll tell you if I see anything worth warning you about."
"Thank you, Julius. I am glad that the fates have brought us together like this." Her eyes seemed to light up as she softly tapped him on the shoulder, and Julius thought for a moment that he saw Macha's soul stone start blinking faster than usual. He couldn't have known that the act of touching another was reserved among the Eldar for their most trusted companions, nor would he have believed exactly how important he had become to the Farseer without ever realizing it.

*****
His attempts at the practice of telepathy were by far the most unusual. In retrospect, Julius now realized that his assumption that the Farseer could read his mind at will was misguided. As it turned out, even trying to look into the surface thoughts and feelings of another took a great deal of effort. Between the natural if unconscious resistance put up by the target of any mind-reading attempts and the risk of being overwhelmed by thoughts and feelings that weren't yours, even the Eldar often refrained from true mind-reading unless there were no better alternatives. It was only after a grueling set of willpower tests that the Farseer deemed him ready to learn the basics of telepathy.

Macha had agreed to act as a volunteer for these mind reading attempts; according to her, it would be better for him to practice on someone he knew rather than a stranger. He couldn't blame her for that. Macha might have been able to convince the other Eldar on her ship to treat him as an honored guest rather than an animal, but it went without saying that none of them were willing to let a human try to get into their minds. Even then, she had given him a warning:

"The Eldar mind experiences emotions far more strongly than any human is capable of feeling. Do not be afraid to withdraw your mind from mine if you must do so."  There was a note of concern in Macha's voice that Julius couldn't remember hearing before then. Initially, it didn't worry him much. After all, she always appeared to be so focused and even serene at times when compared to him. He was sure he could handle it without too much trouble.

He was wrong. Very wrong.

It felt as if his mind was being bombarded by myriad images of the Farseer, with each one carrying its own emotion amplified beyond anything he had associated with her- while the image depicting her as she was now seemed to be the most distinct by far, he could vaguely make out several others as well. One version of her was clad in bone-white armor and a helmet whose red hair matched her own, screeching at the top of her lungs as she sliced the head off a Greenskin's shoulders. Another was clad in a long robe as she explored an alien world. Between each of these aspects, the fledgling psyker felt like his head would split open from the sheer intensity of the emotions contained within them. But as his consciousness began to fade from the strain, he caught sight of something whose vividness was matched only by how out-of-place it seemed to be.

He saw Macha with a human- specifically, himself. She was clad only in her undergarments and whispering something that he couldn't make out into his ear as she moved in to embrace him. Then, everything around him went dark.

----
Here and Now

When Julius woke up, he felt as if his head was resting in something soft and rather firm, but couldn't quite figure out what it was. Then he opened his eyes and looked up, only to blush as he realized Macha was cradling his head in her lap. Not like he didn't appreciate the gesture, but seeing the otherwise distant Farseer acting this way was a bit of a surprise. When she noticed him stirring, she turned to him with a look of concern on her face.

"I had feared the worst when you fell unconscious. Are you all right?"
His head was still spinning, and he now had several questions he wanted to ask, but Julius had the feeling that now wasn't quite the right time to ask. "Ugh. I've got a nasty headache right now, but apart from that I think I'm fine. But why were there so many of you in your mind?"

Macha's eyes widened briefly as she realized what he was referring to. She knew that she was taking a risk in opening her mind up to him, but she didn't expect him to go as deep into her mind as he did. And yet the fact that he was still conscious and sane after the experience spoke volumes about him. As far as she knew, any other mon'keigh would have been driven mad by the experience if it didn't render them catatonic.

"It is difficult to explain how the Paths affect us in a way you might be able to understand, but essentially you saw who I used to be."
"Who you used to be? I don't think I understand?"
"How shall I put this...essentially, those images must have reflected who I was on my earlier Paths. Each Path lets an Eldar explore a different facet of life. While I allowed myself to be lost on the Path of the Seer a long time ago, before then I was once an Aspect Warrior of the Howling Banshees, and after that I allowed myself to explore the galaxy as an Outcast. It was only after I returned to Biel-Tan that I became a Seer, and soon afterward I lost myself on the Path."
"That's just a fancy way of saying that you became a Farseer, right?" Julius made a note to ask Macha if there was something he could read about this. It all seemed too complicated for him right now, and his head had just stopped spinning.
"I suppose you could say that, yes. The truth of the matter is far more complex, but it will suffice for the moment."

A thought came to Julius at this time; the last image seemed different in the rest in more than its content. It was more vivid- more real, for lack of a better word. "There was one other thing that I saw in your mind I wanted to ask you about, actually."
"Oh? What do you mean?"
"Well...in one of those images you were nearly naked and snuggling up to me like a soft toy. I'm no expert on the subject, but I get the feeling that had nothing to do with any of your Paths. What was that doing in there?"

Nearly two minutes of awkward silence passed before the mortified Farseer could respond. Her face had turned a shade of crimson that nearly matched her tattoos, and she could do little more than open and close her mouth wordlessly. She didn't know if it was fate or simply bad luck on her part that the human managed to see one of her innermost fantasies, but in either case it did little to reduce her embarrassment. Eventually, she calmed herself down just enough to explain herself to her student. Denying her desires at this point would be pointless now that he had witnessed them personally.

*****

"...My path is one that has given me few opportunities for companionship. To my people I am a distant leader figure, respected and feared but otherwise unapproachable. And until I met you, there was nobody I trusted to get this close to me. In more ways than one, I might add. So perhaps it was inevitable that I began to develop feelings for you."

It was now Julius' turn to be at a loss for words. Sure, he had to admit she was very pretty. And he had been developing a crush on her, but he had never believed she might possibly feel the same way about him given her views about his species. "This is some kind of joke, right? Because you know I don't like being made fun of."
"My dear Julius, if I was joking would I do this?"

'''HERE BE SMUT'''

The next thing Julius knew, Macha's lips were pressing against his own as she moved to catch him in a tight embrace. Her lips were yielding and soft to the touch, and he tasted what might have been some kind of alien spice as she forced her tongue into his mouth. Instinctively, he reciprocated the gesture in kind and their tongues entwined together. Once Julius would have balked to think of himself kissing a xeno, and Macha would have been no less disgusted at the prospect of acting in such an unseemly manner towards a mon'keigh, but there would be no turning back for them now.

*In all the centuries I've lived, I had never imagined that my first kiss would be with a human. Nor could I have ever dreamed it would be this enjoyable.* Even in the heat of the moment, Julius noticed something was off. How was she speaking to him when she had just started kissing him again? But then it hit him- she was using telepathy to communicate with him.

"Huh, that's one way to get your two thrones in when your mouth is occupied, I guess. Just try to remember to breathe so I don't need to explain to your men why you're passed out naked on top of me."
*There is no threat of that, I can assure you. Now, let us be off to my chambers.* The Farseer reluctantly broke off the kiss, giving her student her best attempt at a "come hither" look as she beckoned him into her bedroom. Julius duly followed, still surprised at the recent turn of events but no less eager to follow through with them.

Julius couldn't say he was overly surprised with the Farseer's choice of decoration. The only furniture that he could recognize were the bed itself, what appeared to be a closet of some kind, and a small table near the bed. None of them were overly remarkable in appearance; beyond the green and white coloration he had since learned were the traditional colors of Biel-Tan, none of them possessed much in the ways of adornment. The sleek and minimalist appearance was itself appealing in its own way, he supposed- and the bed certainly looked better than the one in his old home. For a fleeting moment, he wondered if anyone back home even noticed he had left.

Macha had clearly been waiting for him. She had already stripped herself down to her underwear, with her soul stone hanging around her neck. Her panties looked more than a little damp as well- how long HAD she gone without "companionship", anyway? That being said, Macha was far better-looking than most of the women he'd been with even if she was still a xeno. Her hips were flared ever so slightly- not too thick, but still visibly toned. Her breasts were a bit larger than he had expected from someone as slender as she was, and he could make out the nipples poking through the fabric. And while he couldn't put his finger on how she was doing it, he could swear he could feel the Farseer's desires filling the very air around her. At the moment, she was lounging on the bed and beckoning him to join her.

Then he suddenly felt a draft.

With a frankly alarming degree of alacrity, Macha had telekinetically undressed him without him even realizing it and was currently ogling his shaft. Normally he might have at least tried to cover himself up, but the time for modesty was long past. "Well, aren't you enthusiastic about this?" He snickered quietly to himself, bemused by how eager she was to bed him.
*Indeed I am. Now do not keep me waiting, my dear mon-keigh.*
The shock of having someone speaking to him in his head had worn off, but not by that much. He'd just have to think of it as a way to practice getting more comfortable with his abilities.

Macha had only dreamed of this moment for much of her life. The fates themselves seemed to conspire against her in this respect. Her youthful trysts would inevitably falter when one of Biel-Tan's many military campaigns required her to part from her prospective mate. Even on the rare occasions she did meet with a would-be lover again, time and more pressing duties would invariably result in them drifting apart before anything could develop between them. Becoming a Seer was no better in this respect, and when she became lost on the Path she quickly learned that her new authority came at the expense of being viewed as something separate from the bulk of the Eldar race. She was to be respected, revered even- but not viewed as a person who might have her own desires and feelings. For all her psychic might, she still had the same mundane needs as anyone else. And as uncouth and ill-mannered this mon-keigh had been, he alone had been willing to treat her as a person with her own desires. Which, incidentally, he had proven to be surprisingly good at fulfilling, no less.

The whole course of events was no less unusual for Julius. Only a few months ago he would have scoffed at the very idea of living alongside an alien, let alone having sex with one. From the moment he first saw her outside of her armor, he was surprised by how alarmingly human she looked. She was an Eldar, after all. Her very similarity to mankind should have been enough of a reason to distrust her. Even now he knew on an intellectual level that what he was engaging in was heresy of the highest level. Yet as a psyker who had never set foot on the Black Ships, he would eventually be damned by the Imperium even if he had never even met Macha. Given that he would be viewed as a traitor and a heretic no matter how he handled himself, Julius saw no problem with becoming one in reality by indulging his attraction towards the all-too-human xeno who loved him back. Who could have thought that an alien- a being that by definition was nothing like a human- would be so attractive, and so willing to give herself to him?

When he climbed onto the bed, Julius found his head being pushed back onto Macha's lap again as the Farseer repositioned herself so his member was close enough for her to reach. As she ran one hand through his hair as if he was some kind of pet, she undid her bra. One of her succulent pink nipples dangled right over Julius' head as he felt her take a hold of his penis.

*Don't be shy. Go ahead and touch them.* He could make out more than a hint of playfulness in her...well, "voice" wasn't quite the most accurate word for it given that she was speaking to him telepathically, but it was close enough. In any event, who was he to refuse?

As Julius took a hold of the Farseer's breasts, he marveled at how smooth and soft they felt in his hands. They were a little larger than he thought they would be, but they were just the right size for him to take one in each hand. He could feel her heartbeat quickening under her skin, and he took the soft moans that escaped from her lips as a sign that he was doing well. All the while, he felt not only aroused but comforted by her presence. He had never taken her for the kind of person who was prone to nurturing behavior, and the sound of her heartbeat calmed him even as blood rushed to his member. Macha was gently stroking his shaft, taking the time to feel every part of it from its tip to the veins that could just barely be seen under the skin as it grew harder in her hands. Given her early attitude, he half-expected her to start jerking him off to orgasm within a minute, but her passions hadn't overwhelmed her to that extent. He couldn't say he could do the same thing if he was in her position.

As a young maiden, the Farseer vaguely remembered stories about how mon-keigh were better endowed than Eldar men, but this didn't seem to be the case with her student. That was probably for the better, though. It would make things easier for the both of them, especially with what she was thinking of doing to ensure that their lovemaking would be special. Assuming she could concentrate on it, that is- with every caress and pinch of her rapidly stiffening nipples that Julius performed, the Farseer felt as if jolts of electricity were flowing through her body. The pulsating of his shaft made it clear that he wouldn't last much longer, and as he took one of her nipples into his mouth she had to muster all the willpower she had not to climax herself.

It wasn't long before Julius felt that he was on the verge of orgasm, and the growing feeling of wetness beneath his head suggested that Macha was getting close as well. But before he could climax, Macha simply let go of his shaft and nudged him off of her lap. His frustration didn't last long, however. In mere seconds Macha was lying flat on her back, with her legs spread open to reveal her hairless crotch. A small trail of clear liquid oozed from her opening, which Julius could see clenching as if it was anticipating what they were about to do.

*I think I've had enough foreplay for now. But before we do this, I need you to open your mind up to me as far as you can.*
"Open...my mind? Is this going to be something I'll regret later?" Julius wasn't sure if he should be looking forward to this or if he should be worried, but on the bright side at least the telepathy was getting a bit more bearable.
*Far from it. It will be a way for us to share our pleasure on a far deeper level than we would be able to otherwise.*
After a few minutes debating with himself as to whether or not letting their minds join at a time like this would be a good idea, Julius made his decision. "...all right. Just try not to leave me brain dead by accident or something."
*You will not need to fear anything of the sort. Now, take me.* While Macha's voice rang through Julius' head once more, she took his shaft and guided it between her lower lips. Isha, it almost felt as if she was in a dream- to finally share her bed with another after centuries of solitude. Then she felt him slipping into her folds- expanding, wrapping around the welcome intruder within her even as it broke through her hymen. The pain was greater than she had expected, but the pleasure from his shaft as it rubbed against all the right places helped her to endure it.

As Julius hilted himself within Macha, he noticed her eyes watering up in apparent pain. Unsure if he had hurt her, he took a look down. To his surprise, he noticed a trace of blood trickling out by her labia. "You...you're a virgin?!"
*I thought I told you that I have never had opportunities for companionship before I met you. But do not worry about me. It hurts a little, but I have suffered far worse pains through the course of my life than this. Just move as you like, and I shall follow.* Even as her words filled his mind and her inner walls undulated around his member, Julius could feel a sense of emotional warmth encompassing his very existence that far outstripped the heat of her body. He could only assume that this was what she meant by "sharing their pleasure on a far deeper level".

Macha was tight; far tighter than any human he'd been with. Her silky walls rippled against his length with each slow thrust as she moaned into his mouth, even as she telepathically urged him to go faster. The whole experience was almost surreal for Julius- this xeno who first saved his life from the Orks and then took it upon herself to train him in his powers was at least several centuries his senior. Yet here she was, with her legs wrapped around his back and mentally telling him to (in her words) "fuck her as if their very souls depended on it". And the peculiarity of the situation only deepened as they continued to copulate, as Julius slowly became aware he could feel exactly what Macha felt, down to every last touch. It was as if the very boundary between their physical bodies had begun to grow blurry, and the sensations that resulted were nothing short of blissful.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the red-haired Farseer and her human student turned lover continued to mate as the room filled with with her moans and the sound of his flesh slapping against her own. Macha was just tall enough for Julius to take one of her nipples into his mouth without letting go of her, eliciting a rather undignified squeak as she felt his tongue massage the sensitive protrusion. All the while, he allowed his hand to run across each and every part of the Eldar's body, from the tips of her ears to her finely toned buttocks. Julius silently noted any place where his caresses seemed to have an especially strong effect and made sure to lavish extra attention upon them as he moved in and out of Macha's welcoming passage. Her ears in particular proved to be far more sensitive than he imagined them to be. The slightest brush of his fingertips was enough to induce screams of pleasure from her as she suddenly tightened up around his length.

*More...Don't stop making love to me...* The aura that surrounded the lovers felt different now. At first it felt purely warm and loving, but now there seemed to be an element of lust to it. Or need, perhaps. Such things didn't matter to either of them now. Not while they still had each other.

As much as both Macha and Julius wanted this moment to last forever, they both knew that even her powers couldn't keep him from running out of endurance eventually. As Julius felt something building up deep within him, he instinctively took Macha's hands in his and allowed her to pull him in close as his thrusting reached a fever pitch. The discomfort he might have felt from her legs wrapping around his body so tightly didn't even register to him.

"Macha, I-"
*I know. Don't pull out, I need you in-AHH!*

It was a testament to the willpower of everyone involved that their simultaneous orgasm didn't open a Warp rift. In what felt like an eternity but couldn't have lasted longer than a few seconds, Julius' vision went white as he hilted himself within Macha one last time as he came, filling her vagina with his seed. No woman he had ever slept with had ever made him feel so good, to say nothing of what the Farseer had demonstrated what she could do with him even as they copulated with each other. Xeno or not, she had made herself special to him, and for all his earlier distrust towards the Eldar he felt nothing wrong with that. After she had opened up so fully and so strongly to him, how could he do anything but trust her?

Macha was no less overcome by it all. Over all the centuries of her life, nothing she had ever felt in a lifetime of centuries had been even vaguely as blissful as the climax that ran through her body that second. She shuddered violently as her folds semi-consciously convulsed around the human's member, as if she wanted every last drop of the white liquid heat to fill her core. With fatigue quickly overtaking her, the Farseer pulled her student in for one last kiss before they collapsed in each other's arms. There was nothing more that needed to be said between them- the lingering connection between their minds could convey so much more than a simple "I love you" could ever say.

-----
Ours to Decide

That night Julius found himself plagued by strange dreams. Or were they dreams? They felt too real to be dreams.

He found himself standing in the midst of some distant hellscape, with the bodies of slain Eldar and Space Marines strewn about everywhere; obviously something terrible had just happened, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Apart from himself there were only two people there who were alive, both of which were standing only a short distance away. One was a white-haired Astartes in golden armor, bearing a great hammer and carrying himself with an air of grim determination. The second was a dark-skinned man with a cybernetic eye and the sigils of the dreaded Inquisition adorning his wargear. Between the three was a black stone covered in ominous runes, and if he concentrated hard enough he could hear something whispering from within it.

Suddenly the Marine took up his hammer and readied it, sending a surge of electricity crackling through its head. Julius knew the Marine intended to destroy the stone, and he knew that destroying it would cause something terrible to happen, though he couldn't explain how he knew this. To his surprise, when he spoke it was with Macha's voice instead of his own.

"Human! Do not destroy the stone! You will doom us all!"

Neither of the two men seemed to listen, and the dark-skinned man merely egged his companion on as if trying to spite him. "Ignore her, Captain. Destroy the stone before it leads others to ruin!"

There was only one thing he could do. He turned to the Guardians standing behind him in a desperate attempt to save the men from their own ignorance. "You know not what you do! We cannot allow this! Take this human down!" It was only then that he noticed that when he stretched out his arm to give the order, it was in fact Macha's arm. In a fleeting moment of clarity, he realized he was in Macha's body. A newly arriving contingent of Space Marines in red and bone-white armor arrived at just that time, and he could only watch as his - or more accurately, Macha's- soldiers were cut down in a hail of bolter fire, and the stone was destroyed in a swing of the golden-armored Marine's hammer.

Julius woke up in a cold sweat, and nearly jumped out of the bed when he heard Macha's voice. He had gotten so used to her telepathic communication over the past night that he had nearly forgotten that she could speak normally as well.

"Did you have some sort of nightmare? I could hear you talking in your sleep, and when I tried to wake you up you weren't responding." Julius couldn't remember her ever sounding so concerned, even after the time when he strained himself so hard trying to levitate a rock he gave himself a nosebleed. Something in her voice also suggested that she had an idea what might be wrong with him, but was waiting for him to talk first.

"Sort of. I'm not sure if it was a dream, or a vision, or something else entirely. But I saw you- well, I WAS you- in some burning hellhole along with this black stone-"

It was now Macha's turn to go pale as she realized Julius was recounting a situation she remembered far better than she would have liked. "Wait a minute. By this stone- did you see anyone near it?"
"How did you know? There were two of them, and they spoke of destroying the stone." Was Macha reading his mind as he slept, or was something else at play? In any other circumstance he might have gotten suspicious, but after what they had done with each other last night his remaining reservations about Macha had faded away.
"And were there Space Marines there, with the symbol of a raven on their pauldrons?"
"I don't remember, but I recall their armor was red and bone white."

The Farseer gritted her teeth as unpleasant memories came back to her. "What you saw was no dream, though I can only guess as to how you were able to see into my memories as you slept. That was Tartarus, the planet that I had fought on shortly before my visions guided me to your world. And my greatest failure."

Julius struggled to understand what she meant by that, until he remembered his dread about the stone in the vision. It couldn't have been for no reason. "You mean the black stone?"

"Indeed. It contained the essence of a daemon possessing terrifying power. Our goal was to ensure that it did not fall into the clutches of the Dark Gods, but we were left too weak to keep it safe when a chapter of Space Marines ordered to the planet stumbled onto our camp and allowed the servants of Chaos to claim it. They realized their mistake soon afterwards and were able to reclaim it with our help. But to the detriment of all of us, they insisted on exchanging one error with a far greater one." The Farseer's fists balled up as she spoke, recalling all too well the bitterness she held towards the ignorant mon-keigh who had been so intent on damning themselves.

"A far greater error?"

The Farseer gave herself a minute to calm herself, lest she lose her temper and lash out at her lover for reopening old wounds. "No doubt they assumed that destroying the stone would destroy the demon with it. Only I knew that it would free the demon from its prison instead."

An obvious question came to Julius' mind when he heard this. "But they wouldn't have realized that- they can't see things like either of us can. Couldn't you have just told them what would happen if they destroyed the stone?"

Macha shook her head, averting her gaze from him. "There was no point in doing so. Even if I used the simplest possible terms to warn them, my species alone would ensure that my warning would fall on deaf ears." Her countenance grew somewhat softer as a new realization dawned on her- one that she might not have come to without the human's unwitting help. "And I was too proud to consider warning them earlier, let alone try to tell them everything that I have just told you. Even now, I fear that the ignorance of your kind and my own arrogance may have doomed all of us." The Eldar's eyes began to water slightly as the resentment she held towards the Blood Ravens turned inwards as her own fault in the incident became painfully clear to her.

Julius paused for a moment as the implications of her words sank in. No wonder she was so short-tempered with him when they first met- if he was in her place at the time, he wouldn't have had much patience with him either. Still, there was nothing that either one of them could do about the past, and it didn't feel right to let Macha beat herself up like this. As he took her delicate hands in his own, he reminded her of an earlier conversation that now seemed relevant given the circumstances. "I told you once before and I'll tell you again, nothing's ever "doomed" unless we let it be that way. If that daemon does show up again, we'll kill it and put it back in its rock- together. We decide the future, not some Warp-spawned freak."

Such bravado was typical of mon'keigh, but the conviction in his words rang true enough. That alone was all that was needed to raise the Farseer's spirits as she leaned in for a kiss. "Indeed. But for now, we should enjoy what we have between us. No daemon will ever take that away."