Su-Kassen looked around at the sound of the voice. A woman in grey robes, with chromed hair, sat cross-legged on the top of a polished wooden cabinet. She was resting her chin on her hands. Her posture looked bored, but her eyes were alight and glittering. Su-Kassen knew who she was instantly, even though they had not met in person before. The woman was called Andromeda-17, and she was one of the last of the Selenar, a scion of the near-extinct Luna gene-cults that had helped the Emperor raise the Space Marines from armies to Legions. She was a specialist in empathic and non-linear reasoning, and was part of a hazy grouping of servants that existed between Dorn and Malcador. Su-Kassen knew Andromeda-17 by rising reputation, and disliked most of what she heard. Nothing that she saw of the woman in the flesh undid that impression.

‘It’s all right, admiral,’ said Andromeda. ‘Despising me at first sight is what most people do.’

Archamus shifted, and if Su-Kassen had not known better, she would have thought that the Huscarl was trying to suppress a smile.

‘Thank you for the attempt to leaven the mood, Mistress Andromeda,’ said Malcador, looking directly at Su-Kassen. ‘This is a council, admiral, after a fashion, but not one that can involve the wider staff, you understand?’

‘In all honesty, I don’t, my lord. I believe I am aware of all the dimensions of the defence, and the senior staff also knows all of those details. If it is a matter of trust…’

‘It is not,’ said Rogal Dorn. ‘It is a matter of perspective, of judgement.’

Sanguinius looked at his brother primarch for a second, and the gravity in his expression became a brief flash of raw emotion.

‘It is not weakness, brother. Our limits are what make us.’

Su-Kassen thought she saw something within Dorn’s gaze then, like the flare of lightning hidden by a far horizon.

‘What they are trying to say,’ said Andromeda ‘is that they are struggling with some things that don’t fit in the normal patterns of war.’

‘Specifically?’ asked Su-Kassen.

‘Things unseen and incomplete,’ said Malcador, sounding very tired suddenly. ‘Shadows on the wall…’

‘If you would indulge us by summarising the position, admiral,’ said Valdor, activating a micro holo-projector that spun a display of the Solar System into the air.

‘The enemy progresses through the gates off Pluto and Uranus as planned for,’ said Su-Kassen. ‘They have also, by other means–’

‘By sorcery,’ injected Andromeda.

‘–inserted a large force above the plane of the Solar System. That fleet has divided into two, with both elements making speed for the inner system, for us and for Mars.’

‘Why?’ asked Dorn.

She looked at him. ‘To divide our efforts. To put direct pressure on the inner-system defences while they take the gates off Pluto and Uranus. They pin us in place around the Throneworld and pour forces in from the outer system and overwhelm us.’