"I heard that most of your predictions come from dreams."
Talos felt surprised, and there was understanding and regret in the other person's eyes.
"This shouldn't be the first time that you leave yourself to fate. I can feel this from your character."
Soshyan's words peeled away the scabs left by the past, as if Talos was now a specimen nailed under his calm gaze.
Talos stared back.
He still remembers the sky falling, and he also remembers that he fell with it.
He still remembered Char's face and his last hideous smile, and the wind on Holy Terra that carried the stench of the corpses of his slain brothers.
The Eldar tried their best to kill him, and he also planned to leave himself in that world of death.
This is what he saw, and this is what should happen, but it eventually changed.
Is there still power to change destiny?
"I can see that becoming an Astartes empties you out and leaves a void inside you. People might say it's the ashes of a scarred soul, and that hurts."
Talos tried to bring his attention back to the present, but he couldn't.
They left him and became dust and defiled ruins.
They abandoned him in that damned hell like a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
He can only keep running in a war about revenge and a broken future...
Soshyan continued his words.
"...giving up doesn't take away the pain, and you hope it does because it's easier to accept than the truth...but it leaves nothing behind, no hope, no relief, no forgiveness."
Talos remained silent, but he could feel his heart filling with stimulating blood, his muscles tightening slightly, and his skin prickling with sweat.
Then, he took a deep breath to calm down his body.
Soshyan closed the distance between them, looking at him less than half a meter apart.
After a long pause, Soshyan frowned.
He removed the lighting ball from the iron bracket and moved closer, the heat stimulating Talos's exposed face.
"Wait, your eyes..."
Soshyan tilted his head and took a step back, then picked up a scalpel from the table nearby and raised it in front of Talos.
"Look."
Talos's eyes widened and he found that on the surface of the silver-plated metal, there was his slightly distorted face, but that was not the key.
The key is that his eyes, the iconic black eyes of the Eighth Legion, turned into deep purple at this moment, just like the crazy subspace.
"how come........"
Soshyan looked at Talos, his face showed nothing, but in his heart, all kinds of guesses spewed out.
Does Talos' abnormal behavior mean that he has been seriously contaminated by the subspace?
Or has he become a meal for the dark gods?
Perhaps this prophet is not as valuable as Sevatar says.
But anyway, it's just that Talos is not someone who is quick to judge at the moment - he is a very complex person with strong emotions and desires, and he doesn't even look like an Astartes in this regard
.
"Do you understand what's happening to you?"
Soshyan asked slightly sharply.
"I do not know anything."
"There is a smell of lies in your words, although it is very little."
Talos looked away, and Soshyan smiled at him, his grin splitting his face in the light of the lighting ball.
"So I have a question too, what brought you to Nessen Six, Prophet?"
Talos turned back and stared at him.
"I saw my own death, right here."
"But you are not dead, which may prove that your predictions are not always correct."
"This is the only time."
"Then can we understand differently that fate is not immutable?"
For a moment, Talos thought he saw something on Soshyan's face, something that broke the mask of delicate control.
His eyes wandered in the shadows, and the prophet once again felt the touch of destiny, a firm belief and primitive ambition in the narrow cell.
Then everything disappears and recedes back into obscurity of the senses.
But Talos had seen it.
In that flash of light, he caught a glimpse of something, a slowly rotating, yellow and green planet, surrounded by an uncontrollable strong anger and impulse——
Talos's momentary distraction was also caught by Soshyan, who stared straight at him,
"...Did you just see something?"
Talos opened his mouth, feeling his tongue ready to form words to reveal what he had just seen.
He could tell the truth, he could tell it in a few sentences, and he felt the temptation to speak these words, the need to address these unanswered questions.
But does he really want to help this mysterious Eleventh Legion?
Talos still doesn't know what new arrangements fate has for him, but what he can be sure of is that he will never surrender, and he will never stand on the "loyal" position again, even if Soshyan said
Really, he hated the Eighth Legion.
But he is still the son of the Eighth Legion, this is an unshakable fact.
A decaying empire will never be his destination.
After a long period of time, Talos said calmly:
"I didn't see anything."
Soshyan nodded, his eyes like shining obsidian inlaid on his gray-white face.
"very good."
He put on the hood of his robe and walked towards the door.
"I will return, son of the Eighth Legion, and when that time comes, I will decide your fate."
Talos closed his eyes and plunged himself into complete darkness.
For some reason, Dietrian's figure appeared in his eyes - he was stripped of his noble bishop's robes, busy among the dirty gears, and muttering curses on a man named Loken.
Suddenly, Soshyan, who was about to leave, stopped.
"By the way, those people are very good. The pharmacist named Valier is under review. We need to get some information from him, but don't worry, they are all peaceful methods, and I have asked the couple to remain anonymous.
Go live in a peaceful place, and you don’t have to worry about them. As for the mechanical bishop named Dietrian, he is happy to accept his new identity and is now trying to atone for everything he has done in the past."
Talos opened his eyes suddenly.
"You are the most despicable lackey of the false emperor that I have ever seen."
Soshyan didn't speak, just looked at him quietly.
"I saw the world you were looking for, Ullanor."
The prophet narrated in a calm tone:
"Looking for a world with vast deserts and forests. In addition, it is threatened by a powerful force. I guess that force should be the green skins."
Soshyan nodded.
"Thanks."
Talos snorted and said nothing.
"Do you think I was threatening you just now?"
The prophet smiled but still said nothing.
"I'm curious, Talos, why do you think I would threaten a Chaos traitor with the lives of other people? Don't you still understand the character of Chaos traitors?"
Talos' shoulders stiffened.
"In the past, would you have accepted this threat?"
The prophet gritted his teeth, feeling as if he had been fooled.
Soshyan laughed.
"Taros Valcolan, as I said before, you are dead. The soul hunter of the Eighth Legion is dead. You have returned to yourself. From the time you cared about the lives of other people, you no longer belong
The Night Lord."
With that said, he disappeared outside the prison door.
Darkness once again enveloped the world of Talos...