Warhammer 40: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 14 Forward and Backward
"Leave this palace. This city, this kingdom." Morse added a joke at the end of his words, "But not leaving this planet."

Perturabo forced himself to be calm: "Are you threatening me?"

"What threatens you, my departure? Can this actually pose a threat to you?"

"This, can't!"

"Then how did I coerce you, am I going to hurt your body or your soul? Am I going to take from you what you can't give? Or do you have other reasons?"

Morse knowingly distorted Perturabo's true meaning, and all of the boy's reactions fell within the scope of his inferences.
Perturabo looked away, more dazed than angry.

He is not dull, in fact, thanks to his gifted creator, Perturabo's understanding and analysis of things is faster than almost all life in the entire human race.

The only thing holding him back was a particularly naive part of his own character.

"Morse, you are trying to hurt me. You are clearly not leaving. You have brought your stone carvings, your tools, and you are staying in Lokos."

He said, and swallowed the second half of the sentence painfully, asking what kind of result Morse was waiting for.

"Come here, Perturabo." Morse said, no longer his usual casualness, but a strange solemnity and solemnity, which did not make him seem inaccessible, but added to his mild.

Perturabo's feet were stuck to the ground, but then this inseparable state was released, and he opened his legs with a determination and compromise that could not be simulated by the most exquisite machine.

very good.Morse thought.Then I will stay.

He saw a smiling man reflected in Perturabo's eyes.

"I'm hurting you. I'm looking for every flaw in your mind, and you and I both know that."

Morse stopped all the work at hand, and put his right hand, palm up, flat within Perturabo's reach.As if bewitched, the boy places his hand on it; and Morse knows he's not using any supernatural tricks—and that's what fascinates him.

"But not this time, not exactly. I do have plans to leave Lokos. You can see that everything Lokos can give me is worthless to me, even if Damex walks into the room and kneels now It would not give me any pleasure to say that he would give way to a more worthy man."

Perturabo left for ten seconds, dragged his seat, and looked for something equal through equal height.

The boy sat face to face with him, his back still straight.Morse waited for him for a moment, then continued his narrative.

Moore said calmly: "I am a person with extraordinary talent, but my wisdom and insight are not beyond the best era of mankind. However, in the waves of receding times, I am already ahead of the people in the world just by standing where I am .”

"I don't deny my ability, and I don't deny yours. You should be able to understand that when you stand taller than everyone else, and much higher, then other people's retention and expectations are no longer for you. What was just recognition and trust has become more of a responsibility and even a drag.”

"If you want to shed tears for them, you must come down from the top of your mountain. The endless history of mankind is never short of tragic examples."

Some mean and vain words floated from his lips, Perturabo's eyes flickered slightly, and Morse knew that the boy had listened and was thinking.

That's fine, even if Perturabo is willing to listen to him temporarily, it's just because Morse is stronger, more perfect, and more mysterious, creating an illusion in Perturabo's mind that submitting to him is not unacceptable .

One day Perturabo's supreme Creator comes, and Morse is sure that he will be the only one who will serve Perturabo wholeheartedly at once, and the boys of today and the men of tomorrow will quickly put this "shameful" story to rest. The past is forgotten, even erased with a vengeance.

But he's listening now.

Morse needed nothing more.

"Are you one of the Exemplars?" asked Perturabo.

"Never. I have always been unknown and unknown, but a pawn is always insignificant."

The example he gave is actually an inference of another person, and this need not be mentioned.He was no longer relevant to him, and Perturabo had nothing to do with him after all - Morse told himself.

Perturabo fell silent, confused.Then he shook his head and threw the distracting thoughts out of his mind.

"Is it my change that made you stay?" He lowered his voice, and the change in his voice made him look like an adult.

"You let me confess, save time, and tell everything in my mouth, so now you will be the one who casts a lot of fog in the words."

Saying these words made him uneasy. Perturabo realized that he was stepping into a brand new field. Mors forced him to reflect on himself again and again, using his cold power to force him to go back to the depths of his soul. To examine everything in the outside world and the shell of his own thinking, he finally saw a flaw, a clue.

He felt that something was wrong, something that could be known without knowledge—it seemed to be a part of common sense, after escaping from the blindness of knowledge and identity, it was still a part of the rational basis of human beings like prior knowledge, and he had no doubts about it. It has been invisible for a long time.

He glanced out of the window, and the vortex of the stars disappeared without a trace.

Only now did he realize that the source of his fear had disappeared from the beginning, and Morse had helped him so profoundly—only then did he dare to admit how afraid he had been of the eyes of the stars.

"You are the first person I have met since I can remember." Perturabo didn't know what he was talking about, he was just expressing some words, some emotions, he almost felt that his speech was weird and unreasonable.

He gazed at Morse, gazing at his calm and ruthless surface, as if looking into a steel mirror.He spoke to him and to himself at the same time.

Morse waited tolerantly for him.

He felt nervous, scared, and then all the emotional membranes were dug out of the leaky holes, a kind of constant gurgling clean surged from the spiritual source, filling the holes and washing away the panic, he looked for the right words, and thought that maybe it should be is defined as peace of mind.

"From the beginning you talked to me about fairness and trade. All taking and giving must be put on the table. I put out the chips and you took the goods and put a price on everything. We calculated the price clearly, just like except Otherwise you cannot understand me and I cannot understand you.”

"But the truth is far from this. At least you have been able to skillfully manipulate my psychology. This is not a normal thing. You and I both know that humans cannot survive forever through transactions alone."

"What do you want from me? Morse, your attitude makes me confused by your tolerance at times, and thinks you hate me at other times."

Perturabo admitted everything he had to admit. These words were full of barbs, and every word made his throat and mouth hurt like blood. However, facing a steel mirror that was always cold, his pain Frozen and smoothed out with ease.

He did not imagine that if another person were here, he would be able to speak like this.Damex?Miltiades?Unknown courtiers and priests?

He made no assumptions, for the fact was that the man here was named Morse.

Under his watch, unable to see the slightest wavering, Morse was as unfathomable as his ordinary moments, if not more elusive.And he has confessed so much.Perturabo gritted his teeth and asked, "Do you hate me?"

Morse lowered his eyes. "Remember what I said before?"

Then he smiled. "'Your Creator has not finished his work. Perturabo, you are not a qualified tool. And what should a qualified craftsman do with steel that has failed to be forged? I choose to melt it back into molten iron, quench, beat, and cool , and the cycle continues.'"

"Of course I don't hate you, I'm just taking over the work of your creator. I can't bear to have a piece of excellent material dusted, Perturabo, I'm just reforging you. That's why I decided to stay, and I see my Staying there can shape you better."

"So I'm a tool," Perturabo said. "So you and I talk deals. So you and I never get close."

Morse smiled slightly. "Are you ready to establish a closer relationship?" He shook his head, "At least I'm not yet."

(End of this chapter)