+How long has it been here?+

‘Sixteen centuries, since it was built. Watched over by a succession of magi.’

+Of which Draven Sark is the latest?+

‘The greatest. He found his grandfather’s samples. The Torment. The Chaos disease. From it, he refined an inoculation. A viral enhancement that would render test subjects immune to etheric corruption. Thus they might withstand the first stages of transformation by the Loom.’

+Has this worked?+

‘There is a high wastage of test subjects,’ said Jaff. Drusher could see the horrified look in her eyes. She was fighting not to say these things, and they were coming out anyway. ‘A high wastage. But the process has now worked. It worked on Sark. Such devotion. Such self-sacrifice. Such perfection. He has made it work. He has made it work the way Lilean wanted it to.’

+To do what?+

‘To construct vessels,’ gasped Jaff. Blood was beginning to seep from her left nostril. ‘Flesh is weak. What we wish to accomplish surpasses the limits of the human form. We are building better vessels. Vessels that can survive the stresses involved. We call them graels. They are precious, but hard to make.’

+I have met a grael before. Grael Ochre.+

Jaff shook as if the name hurt her.

+It said it was the Yellow King. Or that it served the Yellow King.+

‘It does,’ whined Jaff.

+And Orpheus? Is that this King’s name?+

‘Please stop this!’ she wailed. Drusher glanced at Eisenhorn in alarm. Eisenhorn was trembling. His lips had peeled back to reveal his clenched teeth. He looked to be in as much pain as Jaff.

+Tell me.+

‘Lilean is making the grael vessels to serve the King in Yellow,’ she moaned.

+And they are vessels for what?+

‘To contain the truth of the warp. To be strong enough to speak not one word of Enuncia, but all the words. A fluency in the first language that would shatter human form.’

+Like daemonhosts? But in reverse? A human soul wrapped in an etheric body, rather than an etheric force bound in human flesh?+

‘Exactly. They are eudaemonic beings.’

+‘Good daemons’? I would take issue with your terminology.+

Jaff snorted, amused. Blood bubbled at her nostrils.

‘They are the future and they are hope,’ she said. ‘Through the graels, the truth may be whispered in the ear of the Rot-God-King and end His domination.’

‘Well, that makes so much sense now she puts it like that,’ said Drusher.

‘Please be quiet,’ said Eisenhorn with considerable effort. Jaff was starting to tremble. Blood dripped from her nose, and the drops froze in the ice around her feet.

+How many has he made? How many of these graels has he built?+

‘The f-first eight. Th-they have gone to the Yellow King to be deployed.’

+Where?+

Jaff coughed. Blood frothed over her lip. Blood was dribbling from her nose and running from her tear ducts.

‘Please stop…’ she spluttered.

+WHERE?+

‘Qu-queen Mab.’

+Where is that?+

‘S-sancour, i-in Angelus.’