All around Lemurya, the process was repeated as Terra's floating continents were tom down. Rodinia's outer rings had been broken off several days ago, the hub boosted to higher orbit for dissection. Gondavana had already been divided up and carted off. High Alba and Up-Brasyl bled pearls of light to the surface and back, lines of craft evacuating their populations while Mechanicum demolition crawlers scuttled over their surfaces, preparing them for dismantling.

Piece by piece, Terra was stripped of her metal garments, leaving her aged body shivering nakedly in the coldness of space.

Rumbling a thunderous growl, Russ tore himself away from the view of Terra's impoverishment.

'Send Valdor in, then. Let us hear what he has to say for himself. I'll wager a holdfast's worth of mjod he's come to warn me too. People seem to enjoy that. Warning me. Terra is a hall full of crones, washing their hands with their tears.'

Kva shrugged.

There were many doors into the gallery. By the nearest stood Kva's twin guardians, armoured in bone-white plate covered in protective runes and wolf talismans.

One squeezed his way through the door. Its dimensions suited menials bred to low gravity, not legionaries, yet he moved with utmost stealth and his plate touched not one part of the doorway.

A moment later Valdor emerged with difficulty, the golden plates of his armour clashing off the sides.

'My Lord Russ,' said Valdor.

'You don't look happy,' said the Wolf King. A touch of dangerous humour entered his eyes, the glitter of cold on a helfrost blade. 'If I were honest, I would say I enjoy your discomfort. If you hadn't left us after Prospero we might not have been boxed into that skjitna nebula.'

Valdor joined the primarch and glanced out of the window. His armour was pristine, scented with recently applied sanctifying oils, but his stolid face was pale, as if he had seen too little natural light and his attempts to hide his tiredness were unsuccessful.

'If I were a more insolent man, I would have to ask why you have chosen this benighted spot to skulk in,' Valdor said.

'Skulk, is it?' said Russ.

'If I were a more insolent man,' said Valdor.

'I'm here because I wanted to be left alone,' said Russ affably. 'I didn't do very well at that.'

'You've been asking to see me.'

'Then I was asking to see you, when I was on Terra. Now I am leaving. What good does it do me to see you now?'

'I am sorry my lord, the state of the war—'

'You can make up for it by telling me where you have been,' said Russ, 'and why my father is not speaking to me.'

Valdor looked pained. Russ folded his arms. The amusement went from his eyes, just like that, quicker than light from a doused lamp.