#37 The Hesitation of the Exorcist

Sequitor Prime Caesiana Wraithsbane watched the Lord-Exorcist with admiration. Calyx the Vengeful was one of the most dour, ruthless and brutal warriors she had ever met, and though his words were few, there was no questioning the intense passion of his service to Sigmar. As he slammed his redemption stave upon the ground once more, a crackling shockwave banished gheist after gheist in an ever widening circle around them.

Lord-Exorcist Calyx the Vengeful

The Nighthaunt were a constant threat among the tombs of Glymmsforge, but neither she nor her Lord-Exorcist had encountered this 'Procession of the Foolish Martyrs' before. She and her unit had originally been deployed under Lord Calyx as guardians of the Ten Thousand Tombs, where he had been posted for innumerable years. But this Procession was more recently manifested, and was associated with Barfunweltz Cemetery on the edge of the city. Now, the Lord Exorcist had been given a new post with the Gravewalkers, its scope wider than the Ten Thousand Tombs. He had brought Caesiana's unit of Sequitors as his personal entourage, and that was how they had come to encounter these Foolish Martyrs.

Sequitor Prime Caesiana Wraithsbane

"Black Coach!" cried one of her men.

Calyx turned to her and silently gestured that they would advance to engage it. Caesiana ordered her Sequitors into a protective formation around him as the Lord-Exorcist strode towards the spectral funeral carriage. Already it was drawing on the deathly energies around them, shimmering with cold light as greenish flames flickered over its surface and the freezing air vibrated with a chilling buzz.

Even as they drew closer, the wraith driving the funerary carriage turned its empty hood toward them. Lashing the spectral horses with a spectral whip, the gheist turned the black coach in their direction and urged it forward. Calyx the Vengeful pushed aside the Sequitors in front of him and stood before the ghostly vehicle as it bore down on him. Faster and faster it came, ghostly undertakers swooping in its wake, phantasmal horses straining at their ectoplasmic reins.

The Empty Hearse

Caesiana Wraithsbane braced herself as she watched the Lord-Exorcist raise his redemption stave. The black coach was almost upon them. Why was he hesitating? She glanced at the oncoming hearse. Suddenly, it screamed to a halt, the steeds' hooves flailing in the air like smoke blown on the wind. Both Lord-Executioner and black coach were motionless, facing off, neither attacking the other. She had never before seen Calyx the Vengeful hesitate to smite a foe, even for the briefest moment. 

This moment seemed to last for ever, echoing down the passage of time. Then, with a blinding green flash, the black coach vanished, and along with it the Nighthaunt Procession. She turned and stared at the Lord-Exorcist, still standing with his stave upraised.

"What just happened my Lord?" she gasped. Calyx the Vengeful hardly ever spoke, so she was not really expecting a reply.

His skull-faced helm did not turn to face her, but in the sudden silence she could just make out his whispered words. It felt disrespectful to intrude on this introspection, even though the Lord-Exorcist’s utterance meant nothing to her:

"The bud shall bloom
With petals five
But petals all shall fall.
When petals reunited are
Then blooms the grave cinquefoil."

* * * 

In the cold and silent darkness, an insubstantial phantom lurked unseen. The Baptist was watching the Gravewalkers. Through the featureless mask covering its face, the tormentor of spirits perceived their animas and thirsted for them. Stormcast souls such as these were the most gratifying, for Nagash coveted them above all others. But The Baptist sensed that one of these souls was somehow damaged, incomplete. It was ancient - much older than The Baptist himself - yet in some inscrutable way, familiar.

The Baptist (Spirit Torment)

My friend Owen (grave.walkers on Instagram) has kindly (and bravely!) let me write his Stormcast collection into my background narrative. Which means even he doesn’t yet know what might be in store for Calyx...

#38 THE RESURRECTION OF THE UNDEAD