'It was a long time ago,' said Russ. 'The first Varagyr were with me then, men who had fought by my side before the Emperor came. The old Terran legionaries were still with us too. We were a mongrel Legion, two breeds of savage fighting together as one. We were at that time known as the Wolves that Stalked the Stars, for a speech I made before the campaign.' He laughed again. 'You spend so much time on crafting these damn addresses to impress the remembrancers and scholiasts, you miss the obvious thing everyone will remember. Wolves that Stalk the Stars. Space Wolves.' He shook his head. 'A child's name. To ourselves, we were always the Rout. Do you know where the term came from?' asked Russ.

'An old insult taken to heart and turned back upon those who hurled it. The word-spear caught, reversed and buried in the heart of its owner.'

'That it was,' said Russ with satisfaction. 'It is one of the last remaining legacies of the Terran Sixth. Anyway, I had not long been reunited with the Legion. Horus and the Emperor decided to test me with Eldkringla, the Wheel of Fire. It was a region of unstable nebulae and wandering stars. A hell-place, crammed with greenskins. We were asked to destroy them, and we did.'

'That is our nature, my jarl.'

'Aye, it is, but we wore down our teeth doing it. This mongrel Legion overthrew an ork empire that had resisted all earlier attacks. It took five years, and cost the Sixth a third of its strength.'

Russ poured himself more wine.

'For killing a billion orks and losing a third of the Rout, I was given two gifts. The greatest was the Aett, though not the name. Those bloody fools in the Chamber Castellanis probably thought they were being funny calling it the Fang. The other was that spear.

'There was a ceremony. The Allfather is cunning in His use of those. For the seeming of it, I don't think He enjoys them, if He enjoys anything. Ferrus was there, and so was Horus. Ferrus had recently been found, and he was looking all stem like he did before Fulgrim cut his head off, though I think he was just bewildered by it all. The Allfather has that effect. That parade was so calculated. The Allfather's chance to show the world His third son, while He lauded His second. That was when He gave me the spear.' Russ growled. 'The spear was a spear - huge enough to be wielded by me, exceptionally well made, beautiful like all the Emperor's gifts are, but it only appeared to be nought but a spear, until I touched it.'

Russ drank some more, poured some more, and continued.