"I am the Head Succubi of the Wych cult of Venom and while you will never be a part of my wych you will be a part of my raiding party." She seemed to be busying herself while she said this.
"The first thing you must learn is that betrayal and treachery are the only thing us drukhari will ever know. There is no safety whether you live within the inner segment of Commorragh or the outer recesses. Assassination, poison, bombing or even simple mistakes will lead to your demise in this place my Ezdazar." she began walking through corridors so dark and twisting it was weird for my soul to comprehend.
"There will be many coming after my life and yours by proxy so you must continuously be wary. There is no safety here. But what we lose in safety is made up for in other aspects." she began.
"Entertainment. Gladiatorial arenas being a solid staple that we own leads to not only slaves as income but even the services of other drukhari us trueborn have few issues with such things however as your mother you must understand your place among our society you will always be above the riff raff of the lower regions."
"They will never have our blood, our power and our position for as long as their worm like lives last." she laughed "But this does not ever mean grow lax. They will try to crawl from those cesspit slums they call home to take our legacy's and you must strike them down with wrath until there is not even a cell to regenerate from. Do you understand me?" she spoke this with fury.
"I understand mother. I will be a blade to strike down the enemies of our house." I speak quickly trying in some ways to bind a trust to have one person among the drukhari who I may be able to trust.
"Very well then." she seemed to stop before a door. "Then it's best we start one of your first lessons then my son." In some way I could feel a smile creep on her face. "Our race the drukhari are among the last of the Aeldari where our race derived from where they saw our excess and pleasure as sin and sacrilege to our race we found power we found pleasure and above all we found pain." The doors opened and with my soul's senses I could feel or rather sense hundreds of bodies writhing and wriggling like maggots on contraptions.
From the senses my soul gave out it was like the most horrific horrors imaginable: splayed bodies that were dissected only to have alien appendages attached. Things that could no longer be considered whatever race they were a part of I sensed human-esque creatures that were strung on cables, limbs cut and molded and shaped into spindly things of horror and terror incarnate.
My mother seemed to revel in her abominations as if accepting my souls reactions she informed me "They are my most recent creations for the upcoming raid oh how delightful my very own son seeing his mothers perfect work I cannot wait to cut up the battlefield causing terror upon those Mon-keigh and foolish Aeldari" She laughed hysterically.
"When Commorragh was founded it was for the express purpose of having a city for us to revel in our deepest desires, a place safe and secure to ensure our access to 'entertainment' and also to travel." She explained walking deeper in the room. The sensations on my soul would be strange and horrific if not for the creeping feeling of ease at accepting these for my life now.
The Warhammer Universe has always been a deadly and terrifying place with eldritch gods and demons beyond all understanding and comprehension. The Drukhari were among the most vicious species in the galaxy and also one of the strongest with the bulk of their power safe after Slaneesh's birth.
Mother or rather succubus of Venom Alera was a member of high society the leader of her wych cult, a rather renowned one at that specializing in the sale of Astartes prisoners and exploring the deeper sections of the imperium of man.
The place I will soon be birthed into is named Commorragh and it is a place of distortion and terrors that human minds and even some Drukhari struggle to truly comprehend there are time distortions space anomalies among the many strange walls and twisted spires that complete this sacred city.
The city is situated in a space known as the webway, an intricate web spread throughout the known galaxy that can allow faster than light travel without the dangers of the warp. The warp or chaos or any other number of names refer to the space that human and other races' ships travel through to achieve FTL travel.
This space requires extreme caution to traverse for humans; it requires psykers and navigators among other things to travel and even then with the often side effect being demons killing or manipulating many if not all the people aboard to their demise.
Chaos is ruled by several beings but the most powerful of which are the big 4: Khorne the god of war and bloodshed, Nurgle the god of plague, disease, and entropy, Slaanesh the god of excess and pleasure and lastly, Tzeentch the god of magic and bringer of change.
All gods are not equally powerful however they are similar and as long as their machinations continue the mortal races will forever be at their whims. The god of excess Slaanesh has a strong history with the Aeldari and especially the Drukhari.
The god Slaanesh was essentially brought into the world by the excess and fall of the Aeldari society which eventually birthed the god and killed the vast majority of the now scant few Aeldari left. The god also causes a soul drain effect on all Drukhari or rather did as I am now one of the only if not the only who has no such condition.
My mother is a powerful figure among the Drukhari but I imagine telling her that there is no drain on my soul will likely end up with me being experimented on mutilated and killed over and over again until they either figure out how to replicate it or my mind and body give out.
So until she notices I have come to the conclusion to not sacrifice my life this early into my now reincarnation. But while this is true I would not be opposed to helping her assuming she truly has no ill intent. It would be hard to say now or even thousands of years from now simply because she is a Drukhari and if they are known for anything it's not for telling the truth.
The benefit is that I am a sign of her prestige and power. Drukhari society is mostly born in vats or clones and they will likely die without ever experiencing a moment of respite. The Trueblood of the Drukhari are the true upper echelons, those powerful enough to rise above all of this treachery and backstabbing and wars and still have a child is seen as a status symbol above all else.
The Trueblood like myself are the aristocrats of Commorragh, a society built to please their betters. Commorragh has something close to a ruler in the form of overlord Asdrubael Vect a Drukhari who was once a slave but rose to be the most influential archon through schemes and plots.
My mother is the leading Succubus of the Cult of Venom; she was born roughly 6000 years ago and has led this wych cult for 3000 of those years. To the Drukhari who can almost never truly die once they reach such a rank she is considered exceptionally cunning and to rise to the rank of Succubus is no small feat.
Drukhari society is as if pleasure and pain were made and etched into the souls of every living being. They revel in bringing terror and fear to their 'slaves' or lesser beings. In return they are rejuvenated and turned young again by breaking the minds of other races and even their own.
Alera started as a fighter in the coliseums bringing the most exquisite pains and pleasures to the slaves and warriors making a 'dance of it' "ahh how I revel in those memories more of a dance a performance to bring out the very essence of their terror." she exhaled breathily.
It has been a week or so it feels as time here is finicky since my incarnation here and while I did enjoy the novelty of using soul sense to see the world and gather my information on this life I realized quite quickly how monotonous it was being attached to your mother like a leach unable to truly see and explore.
"Is the raid coming up, mother?" I asked, hoping for a change of scenery. The spires, while innately strange and gothic, have a beauty. However they inevitably grow quite dull when all you can do is sense they exist and not see their beauty.
"I believe so I am awaiting news from some of the spies I planted but as soon as- " she was replying to me when the door swung open. A curved blade appeared in her hand and flew towards the intruding visitor's thigh.
"Succubus Ale" the tall Drukhari man in armor stumbled to his knees as the knife with coated poison ripped through his thigh armor. "What have I told you rodents to do when you walk in my office? '' My mother imperiously said, not even glancing at him, still enraptured with an orb in her hand.
" GAh… My most sincere apologies Mistress I was running to inform you of a assassination attempt on the Archon Bulery." That seemed to get her attention as she raised her gaze and told the man "Gather the forces we march to end that pathetic excuse of an Archon" She stood and marched past the man.
"Is this the one who the raid is planned for?" I asked inquisitively, thinking the raid would be to a world inhabited by Astartes and Human forces. "No but an excellent opportunity has arrived" "With this assassination attempt our forces can grow and if we can control who will succeed him or better yet replace him we can increase our prestige." She had a twisted smile on her face now as she waltzed through the halls.
Living here for just a mere week and I have noticed every action the Drukhari did was with an innate grace almost as if a predator stalking prey, or a choreographed dance that the world revealed in. Their every movement was precise, surgical and elegant and it was as if the world molded to their whims.
I had seen my fair share of horrors this week. Alera was quite fond of experimenting with new creations, a habit she picked up from her tutor, an old Haemonculi who often taught her the intricacies of flesh craft in her youth.
Every item she wore was to either protect herself against would be assassination attempts or to cause pain and agony to people who displeased her. I remember just a few hours ago a maid who was wiping up one of mother's lab tables caught my eye for just a moment when an orb appeared in her hand.
The moment a glint of killing intent appeared in her eye's my mother whose back was turned before my warning shot out a needle that was used to tie up her hair. A generous neurotoxin strong enough to put down an Astartes coated the tip and the maid lay prone before the orb could even be used.
"Mother, what was the orb you've been looking at it ever since?" I asked if I couldn't sense anything from it other than an occasional thrum of energy. "This is something similar to a void mine I can't quite tell" She commented tossing it and catching it casually.
"Planning on using it on the Archon?" I ask all too curious to know how she plans to follow through with her intrigue. "I plan to have his impudent daughter kill him this is for entertainment I have been meaning to drop a gift off to the bitch Succubus of Wrath" she smiled "it just so happens she's been trying to steal a particular off shot of our webway gate and I can't let such injustice go unanswered" She then tossed it up caught it.
She rounded the corner to an unassuming wall and threw the orb at it. I could see the orb approach it and then disappear. "That should leave her distracted while I deal with more important matters" I could feel that whatever just happened through that wall would be better left unknown and refocused on where we were heading.
She walked into a room that seemed much bigger than it had any right to be for such a narrow tower. The room opened up into what must have been either a warehouse or a hanger. Filled with female Drukhari each itching for a fight I could sense blood crazed lust for battle on all of them.
Some appeared to want to rip open Alera; others were more interested in inflicting pain on themselves with armor that was filled with shrapnel and thorns. Others looked as if calculating the odds of this excursion and others held themselves back from killing the slaves putting the armor on them.
"Mistress Alera, we are ready for battle." they said in unison even those who wanted nothing more than to rip us apart. "Good board the ships we set off now afterall we must protect our good friend from any more assassination attempts." she chuckled.
They all began to climb into the ships, some human slaves and abominations among them and oddly a single female Astartes in battle armor. I couldn't tell what legion but I could see she was heavily corrupted with something. Interesting indeed.