‘Should I be?’ said Guilliman mildly.

‘I have come to recommend you do not do what I think you are about to do.’

Guilliman’s smile was audible in his voice. ‘You disapprove so much you will not specify my actions? How do I know you and I refer to the same matter?’

‘Such things as you intend should not be named,’ said Felix.

‘Perhaps,’ said Guilliman. ‘But you do not have to agree with everything I do, my son. You do your duty as you see best. You are not an unthinking man, you are not afraid to defy me. I gave you the role of tetrarch because of that. If anything, I am pleased you came.’

‘And if I had remained at Alveiro instead?’

‘Then I would also have been pleased,’ said Guilliman. ‘But you are here. Your instincts are good. What we are about to attempt is a risk. You see that. You come to warn me. Good intentions should not be punished.’

Felix looked up. He was mystified. No matter how much he thought he understood the primarch, he realised he never would. If one of Felix’s own men were to behave as he had, then Felix would not hesitate to censure them. Often, Felix felt himself to have left humanity behind, but Guilliman had never been human, not truly.

‘You plan to question it. That is why you called it back rather than allowing me to destroy it when it was found. I am right?’

Guilliman did not answer, but looked down at him, giving him his full attention for the first time. Felix felt his gaze as a weight on his soul.

‘There is no need to kneel, Decimus. Please stand.’

Felix got to his feet. The smallest noises were made large by the chamber. Its acoustics were perfect, designed to amplify the reediest voice of the most ancient sage, and it lent the sounds of his panoply, even the swish of his cloak upon the mosaic floor, great portentousness.

‘There, that is better,’ said Guilliman. He clenched his fist in the heart of the hololith, banishing it. The primarch looked Felix up and down, and approved of what he saw.

‘You seem well. Strong. The office suits you, my son,’ he said. ‘How do you like your new domain?’

Felix was still angry, and could not keep it completely from his response, so his words came out tersely. ‘I was on Vespator for precisely twenty-three hours before I moved on to continue my inspection of the province, my lord. I couldn’t tell from so short a visit, but it seems defensible enough.’

Guilliman smiled again. He had a sad smile, full of the pain of understanding. His melancholy smothered the fire burning in Felix’s heart. ‘I meant the people, Felix, I meant the world.’