No.9 Phoenix Roost - Chapter Fourteen "The Progenitors"
Turns out when you have writer's block on all but one fic, that fic updates pretty fast.
Read the new chapter here
Summary:
Ferrus goes seeking answers from the only man who seems willing to give them. Unfortunately, his approach is less than helpful.
This is a big one for the central mystery of the story. Who and what is Ferrus?
A lot of very spoilery commentary under the cut.
I forgot to mention last time that the portrait is Edwardian. So Ferrus was right when he thought it was made later than the photos, which were Victorian. The Ferrus that married Fulgrim was a very early 20th century version of Ferrus. Fun fact - WW2 Ferrus was the next one after that! I haven't made a timeline of all the different Ferruses, but I have planned out the plot/reveal-relevant ones. I'll keep ssh about which one was the original Ferrus for now, but Ferrus is also correct in concluding that because there was a DuCaine in the 18th century, there was a him then too.
Whilst I haven't unravelled the entire mystery for you yet, enough has been revealed to explain the inspiration around Ferrus and Fulgrim's backstory in this AU. This is not, in fact, a reincarnation AU, as some have guessed. The Ferrus we've been following for fourteen chapters is not the original Ferrus. He's more like a copy, an imperfect copy.
Yep, the main source of inspiration for this Ferrus and Fulgrim was the short story "Imperfect." For those that have read that, please feel free to think over the implications of that. For those that haven't, I highly recommend. I will say now though that Fabius isn't the one creating these Ferruses.
But let's rewind a bit first to Ferrus' attempt to get answers from Ahriman. I'm not sure how well I communicated it, due to the story being in Ferrus' POV, but Ahriman is tiny compared to Ferrus. Not being an astartes in this AU, he's short and much physically weaker. He's a scholar, not particularly active, and definitely doesn't eat properly. Having a very angry man, who's over twice your size, yelling at you and breaking down your door, is terrifying. Ahriman would very much have tazed him if Ferrus hadn't realised the error of his ways.
Here's an unfinished drawing of these two sitting on the floor for the purposes of showing the height difference. I haven't worked out how to satisfactorily draw Ferrus yet.
In my original plan for the story, (which was admittedly only 10 chapters long), Fulgrim explained everything to Ferrus. He didn't work anything out by himself. Also the poisoning happened at the Eternity Gala (the big event Pinnacle is employing Iron Forge for) rather than a New Years party. However, Ahriman has become a bigger character since that version. This gave a chance to show off his more duplicitous TS side. It also makes Ferrus look appropriately smart in the fact he pieces it together from what he's heard. He's blunt and occasionally-aggressive but he's not stupid. He can't know the full story from what the vampires talk about, but he's clever enough to suss out what he is - a Progenitor.
Ahriman's descriptions of Magnus and Fulgrim serve two purposes. The first is to add to his own backstory. The second, and main one, is to emphasise that the characters portrayed in this story are AU versions of the Demon Primarchs. Fulgrim has his softer more caring side, however he is very Slaaneshi. We know from last chapter that he has a debt to a being of Void. The same being of Void that has now claimed Lucius. Yep. Slaanesh is about! (Vampires are a natural fit for Slaanesh, what with representing the taboo and how they deal with living forever.) Similarly, Magnus fell to Tzeentch. The TS's story isn't too different to canon, just on a much smaller scale.
Upon learning this, Ferrus comes to a very Ferrus conclusion. Primarily, "ok, I can do better." Whilst he does need to learn more about what he is before he can talk to his Men, he's immediately determined to be a better leader than Magnus or Fulgrim. He sets about this by deciding to feed the tiny wizard.
Thankfully the tiny wizard is very receptive to free food.
