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Ahriman watched the video a dozen times and a dozen more as he took in the evidence before him. Each and every time he did so the witch gripped the pendant which he was thankful for. He had to watch this many times for if he was not to do so then it would have been in vain and the one who accepted this fate would have done so in vain.
The subject that was standing in the vid was a normal Astartes by any other Legion’s standard. For the Thousand Sons he was an oddity in that he lacked the psychic aptitude that they all enjoyed so many years ago.
Watching the vid, Ahriman would have thought them cursed instead.
The Astartes stood there passively with eyes that were clearly drawn out and a limp that was damning him for future service. The Sargent was a desperate man who found himself in a dying Legion with no war for him to fight in sight. Thus he had agreed to one last battle against the Flesh Change in hopes of bringing their people a future.
As he stood there a victim was brought into view. On the vid that showed the sight of mortals the Astartes had no issues or anything that could be called unusual. In the screen though he was overflowing with the forces of the Warp, his soul sprouting ever more changes.
This was the second Test conducted like this at the suggestion of TalOS. He wanted them to bring a Victim who was originally not a psyker to act as a sort of baseline test. For that test the Sargent stood strong with nothing happening.
When they brought in the second variant of victim in, that is when issues began to come up.
First and most immediately the Witch Sighted Vid showed an aura of power which was not present within the previous Astartes. When the two were closer together this aura seemed to concentrate itself towards the form of their companion.
It was slow and steady, but maybe thanks to the thoughts of the Sargent, he held no resistance as the infection leached into his soul and began to consume it fully. Like the Astartes he was, he stood there without batting an eye as his death was being measured for the sake of science and understanding.
The infection was indeed from one Astartes to another. With their Psykers as vectors for the infection Ahriman had to wonder if he too might be a cause for his brother’s death. He was not battling it yet, but that might have been because TalOS gave him the amulet at just the right time to stop the infection.
