Chapter 204 - Iron Hands — Words Unspoken
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Kaelen and Horus walked side by side toward the Iron Hands Chapter encampment.
Horus looked calm. He wasn't.
"I don't know how this meeting will turn out," he said, his voice low. "I can only hope the Iron Hands don't resent us too much."
"Seems like you've forgotten your famous diplomatic touch, my Lord of the Lunar Wolves."
Kaelen grinned.
"Strictly speaking, the Iron Hands should be the ones answering for this. Alpharius was able to infiltrate their Chapter. That's a failure of their internal security, not ours."
He let that sit for a beat, then shifted.
"That said — neither side gains anything from letting this spiral into open suspicion. The Imperium doesn't need another internal bleeding wound. So yes, we go to them. We lower our heads. We 'apologize.'"
Horus nodded. "My friend, well said. If we don't speak with them directly, the suspicion between us will only grow — just like..."
He stopped.
The Lord of the Lunar Wolves frowned. He muttered under his breath, clearly searching his memory for the right example. Nothing came.
Kaelen waited 3 seconds.
"The Emperor of Mankind ordering Guilliman and the Ultramarines to burn Monarchia? Does that count?"
Horus blinked.
"It counts."
His expression loosened slightly. "They are the same in nature. We cannot let something greater fester from this incident. We strangle it now, while we still can."
"Even if it costs me my personal dignity."
Kaelen frowned at that.
"This is diplomacy. Not surrender."
He kept his voice even. "Our tone can be conciliatory. Our posture can show goodwill. But there's a line. You are Horus Lupercal — the Lord of the Lunar Wolves, son of the Emperor of Mankind, Warmaster of the Great Crusade. You don't grovel."
"Loken and the others will find the evidence. Until they do, we stall. We keep this quiet. Once they have something concrete, we can come clean with the Iron Hands. There's no harm in waiting."
Because the alternative, walking in there and announcing that the representative the Iron Hands sent was Alpharius in disguise, that said representative had tried to assassinate Horus and ended up dead for it, Kaelen didn't believe for a second that Iron Father Kardan would hear that calmly.
The Iron Hands already had grievances against Horus. Add "we killed the man you sent us" on top of that, and rage would do the rest. Reason wouldn't get a word in.
"An excellent piece of diplomacy." Horus smiled and clapped once. "You've made real progress."
Kaelen puffed his chest out just a little. "Learning does that to a person."
He hadn't been idle. Bucephelus carried a library that could swallow a hab-block whole, Legion tactical manuals from the Great Crusade era, Imperial administrative flowcharts, everything. As Horus's mortal attendant, the outside world's term for him, not his own, Kaelen occupied a position that most mortals would spend a lifetime failing to reach.
He didn't particularly care about the title. But if he was going to stand at a Primarch's side and actually be useful, he needed to understand the game. Not play bureaucrat. Just know how it worked.
Sharp eyes. Sharper tongue. Political sense. The basics. He was working on them.
The two finished the last stretch in silence.
The gates of the Iron Hands encampment opened before them with a heavy boom. Cold metal hit them first, followed by the smell of machine oil and welding smoke.
They gave their names and stated their purpose.
An Iron Hands warrior came out to meet them. Blank-faced. A rank-and-file battle-brother. Nothing more.
Kaelen took one look around the entrance and understood immediately.
The Iron Father was making a point.
Setting Horus's identity as a Primarch aside entirely, his rank as Warmaster of the Expeditionary Fleets sat a full tier above any Chapter Master. By every rule of protocol, Kardan Sturnus should have been standing at this gate himself.
He wasn't.
Horus said nothing. He knew exactly what reputation he carried in the hearts of his brother's sons.
They followed the warrior through security gate after security gate, each one guarded and sealed, until they came to a halt outside the Chapter's main council chamber.
Two Clan Company commanders and Chapter Master Iron Father Kardan were already waiting.
They stood on the steps above, straight-backed, chests out, gazes cutting downward, sharp, unmasked, and deliberate. Every stare said the same thing: you are here to be judged.
If it had been the Phoenix Lord who showed up instead, Kaelen thought privately, these engineering types would have already lost their minds.
Horus drew a slow breath and walked forward.
Same as always. That bearing, that quiet gravity, the warmth that seemed to come off him without effort. Kaelen noticed it again and didn't quite have words for it.
Noting the absence of any Librarian, Horus channeled his psychic presence and let it settle over him, quiet and invisible.
What the Iron Hands warriors saw was a demigod. Commanding and sharp-featured, his scalp gleaming under the lights, his expression composed, his wide eyes bright and clear. The kind of figure that made a room organize itself around him without a word being spoken.
Horus smiled and inclined his head.
"I come for peace. I come for my fallen brother Ferrus Manus. I come for the future we might still build together."
The voice was warm. Steady. The burning resentment coiled in Kardan's chest and in the chests of the warriors around him cooled, fractionally, without any of them noticing it happen.
"If you truly come for those things," Kardan said, "then you may enter council."
He stood to his full height. "I am Kardan Sturnus, Chapter Master of the Iron Hands."
"I have heard of your deeds on Holy Terra, Horus Lupercal." A beat. "My lord."
He bit down on the last two words.
The Emperor of Mankind had personally forgiven Horus. Kardan would preserve that much face for the God-Emperor. It cost him something.
But it didn't make him forget how his gene-father had died. It didn't make him forget the teeth marks on Ferrus Manus's skull, still sitting in the Chapter's reliquary where every warrior who passed through could see them.
"One question." Kardan's frown tightened. "Why has my Chapter's representative not yet returned?"
"They're still in talks with senior officers across three Legions," Kaelen said, stepping forward. "They couldn't break away. We had matters that couldn't wait, so we came ahead."
Kardan's eyes moved to him. A mortal. No power armor. Not Captain Loken. Not any Astartes officer at all.
The contempt crossed his face before he could school it away.
"My lord." The Company commander beside Kardan leaned in and dropped his voice. "I believe this is Lord Kaelen, the one who saved multiple Primarchs."
"Why didn't you tell me that immediately?!"
Kardan shot him a look. Then he turned back, and the contempt was gone, evacuated with remarkable speed, replaced by an expression that was still severe but no longer hostile.
"Lord Kaelen. Lord Lupercal."
"I'm glad you came in person." He gestured toward the chamber doors. "Urgent matters, and peace, then please, come in."
Horus and Kaelen looked at each other.
Then they walked inside.
➤ Next: Diplomacy — The Conversation
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