The Outcast Dead

by Graham McNeill

‘Learning is always easier if the subject doesn’t know it’s being taught.’

News of the massacre on Isstvan V spread, as all bad news does, with gleeful rapidity, as if those who bore it took unseemly relish in passing it on.

In his heart Magnus had carried a warning for his father’s Imperium, but in his actions he carried the seeds of its doom.

What a radical adept of Mars had sought to harness through technology, they broke open with the very power that was killing them.

‘The dead need no one to apologise for them,’ said Atharva. ‘It is the living who need forgiveness.’

In any case, the future is the future, and my feelings towards it will not change it one way or the other.’

‘Because sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning.’

‘I know some people think me omnipotent, but there is a catch with being all powerful and all knowing.’ ‘Which is?’ ‘You can’t be both at the same time,’ said the figure with a wry smile. ‘So what happens now?’ ‘I finish the game.’ ‘This one?’ asked Kai, puzzled. ‘No,’ said the figure. ‘Our game is done, and I thank you for it.’ ‘Will I see you again?’ His opponent laughed. ‘Who knows, Kai? If our game has taught me anything, it is that all things are possible.’ ‘But you’re going to die.’ ‘I know,’ said the Emperor.