Attempts to unpick his wyrd had failed. His runes lay in a confusing pattern across the floor. Dorn's anger on Terra still stung at him. Sanguinius withdrawn behaviour worried him. And Magnus' last words echoed daily in his ears. You are a sword in the wrong hands. You have severed an innocent neck.

He stared around the hall. He had been duped once. In pursuing Horus he could be making the wrong decision again. Choosing the Fenrisian way of outright attack over Terran circumspection could be wrong. The trouble was, it wouldn't be clear until it was too late.

He snorted. He was neither Terran nor Fenrisian. Sometimes, he didn't know what he was.

He heard the quiet mechanisms of a lesser door working at the back of the hall. To his sharp ears the sound was as good as any herald. When the doors rolled back into the walls to reveal Kva, Russ was already staring unblinkingly at where he knew the Rune Priest would be.

Few but Kva could stand Russ' piercing stare when he was in contemplative mood.

The Rune Priest was not old by Legiones Astartes standards, but his disease made him appear so. He walked with obvious effort across the black stone floor, his armour amplifying his difficulty for others to see even as it aided him to move. He glanced at the scattered runes, careful not to crush them underfoot.

'Kva,' said Russ.

Freki yawned widely. Fangs like combat knives glinted in the firelight. Geri stared at Kva, his feral intelligence shining from his yellow, black-pinned eyes. With no warriors in it the Wolfs Hall was sepulchrally dark and gloomy. Flames in bowls and atop candles cast wavering roads of fire onto the granite flooring. The occasional shudder running down the ship's length contorted the flames and broke the roads. Then, as the tremors passed, they rebuilt their routes to their unseen destinations.

'I cannot give you the answers you need, Great Jarl,' said Kva. 'I say this for the fourth time. The wights are watching. They will come to the slightest summons, however unintentional.'

'I know, I know.' Russ waved his free hand impatiently. 'It is too perilous to lay out the rituals of the Underverse while in the warp.

'I recognise my failing and will be sure to correct it,' said the primarch, only half ironically.

Kva tilted his head to the side and scrutinised Russ carefully. 'You are the primarch, you do not need to justify your actions to anyone. We will follow you anywhere.'

Russ reached for his silver ewer of wine. 'If you let me believe I'm infallible, we could have all sorts of problems,' he said. 'I am arrogant enough as it is.'