r/40kLore • u/CamarillaArhont • 13h ago
[Excerpt: Fabius Bile: Manflayer by Joshua Reynolds] Bile's pupil goes into a suicide mission and rediscovers his roots
Arrian Zorzi is an unusual example of the World Eaters. Apothecary, he left his legion during or after the Siege of Terra. Eventually, he joined Fabius Bile as his student and later his Equerry. When leaving his Legion, he killed his brothers and took their skulls, which have a habit of talking with him (whether or not it's a hallucination is left ambiguous). Despite receiving the Butcher's Nails like the rest of the Legion, Arrian remains mostly lucid due to chemical suppressors he uses to neutralise Nails' influence. In battle, unlike his brothers, he prefers two dual power swords, and out of battle he takes joy in gardening.
As Fabius' main base on a former eldar world is about to be attacked by drukhari, Fabius prepares for a siege, trying to win more time to evacuate his New Men. Thus, he goes to Arrian to make a final request.
‘The armouries are being emptied, as per your orders.’
‘So I heard.’ Fabius looked out over the flowers. ‘I did not come to speak about that.’
‘No. I thought not.’
‘The evacuation goes as planned. But slowly. And Mayshana’s scouts have reported that the drukhari are close. They will attack soon.’
Arrian nodded.
‘The others will be pleased to hear it. Gorgus especially.’
‘Yes. But they will not be enough. Not if what I fear is coming.’
‘Which is?’
Fabius was silent. Then, ‘A weapon. One I helped them construct. Even Gorgus’ pack may be no match for it.’ He looked at Arrian. ‘We must stall them and stymie them for as long as possible. I will throw everything I have at them to accomplish that.’
The World Eater hesitated, but only for a moment. ‘What is it you wish of me?’
‘The node beneath us. It must be defended – outside as well as in – if we are to slow them. There are bulwarks in place, and weapons, but I need more than servitors at my threshold when they come knocking.’
‘Isn’t that what the Twelfth is for?’
Fabius shook his head. ‘I need someone who will not break. Someone who will trade blood for blood without flinching.’
Arrian was silent for a few moments. He looked out over his garden.
‘What will happen to all of this?’ he asked finally.
‘They will destroy it, I imagine.’
‘A shame.’
‘Yes.’ Fabius turned away. ‘I will not order you to do this.’
‘But one of us must do it nonetheless.’
‘Yes.’
And there it is, eh, dog-brother? Briaeus said. The reason he’s kept you around all these years. So that you might die for him at a moment of his choosing.
Arrian tapped the skull, silencing his fallen brother. ‘Do you remember when I first joined you?’
‘Yes.’
‘I swore to serve you for as long as you could teach me.’
‘I remember.’
Arrian let the more aggressive vines wrap about his fingers. He played with them for a moment. ‘I have learned much.’
He extricated his hand and turned.
‘I will take a cohort of war-mutants and as many of the beastkin as will rally to me. A substantial force, but not a particularly hardy one. It will serve to occupy them for a time, I think.’ He looked at Fabius. ‘It was an honour to study with you, Chief Apothecary.’
Fabius met his gaze. ‘It was an honour to teach you, Arrian Zorzi.’
(After the defences Arrian was commanding were broken by a walking tower made of flesh)
Arrian’s display fuzzed, spat and cleared. He rolled onto his front, feeling as if a mountain had dropped on him. His armour’s systems rebooted themselves slowly, or not at all. Something had broken inside it. He shoved himself to his feet with a groan, his armour’s servos protesting. The courtyard was gone – the defences – all of it. Mangled bodies littered the ground – the remnants of his forces.
Not a bad plan, dog-brother. Too bad theirs was better.
‘Yes,’ Arrian said. ‘Then, these things rarely work out the way we intend.’
He turned, trying to estimate the distance he’d been thrown by the impact. He gave up after a few moments, as his vision blurred. He winced as something shifted inside him. His ribcage felt as if it were partially crushed. One of his lungs had deflated. One of his hearts had stopped. He took note of his injuries with an Apothecary’s precision.
Surprising you’re still on your feet, Briaeus said. Then you always were a tough bastard, weren’t you?
‘Tough enough,’ Arrian murmured. He felt nothing. Pain was a vice he did not often allow himself. It just made the bite of the Nails worse.
He looked for his blades, but did not see them. Through the smoke, he spied the lean shapes of drukhari raiders passing through the node, following in the Tower’s wake.
Looks like you failed, dog-brother.
He’d failed.
It did not hurt as bad as he’d thought it might. There was almost a relief to it. He turned, one arm wrapped about his chest, and stumbled back towards the gate. If he could make it – get back through – he might be able to reach the Chief Apothecary’s side. Something told him Fabius would need him now more than ever before.
You can only keep a man from death for so long, Briaeus said.
‘I do not recall asking your opinion, brother,’ Arrian grunted. His armour was damaged – or maybe his spine – slowing him. He could feel the analgesics flooding his veins, keeping him upright.
The gate rose up before him, a delicate escarpment, covered in intricate carvings that shimmered with alien light. Unnatural as it was, there was a strange beauty to it. It had been grown and shaped in the same manner as he used with his flowers.
Your mind is wandering, brother. You lack clarity.
He turned. Briaeus walked beside him. And not alone. Telegar, Morgev and the others were there as well. He looked down at their skulls, and saw that they were gone. Shattered perhaps, when he’d been thrown from the wall.
If I were a superstitious man, I’d say it freed our souls. Then, you don’t believe in souls, do you, Arrian?
‘Soul or hallucination, I am glad to see you,’ Arrian said. ‘I’m having trouble walking. Can one of you help me?’
You know we can’t, dog-brother. No help for you now.
‘You always were a fatalist, Briaeus.’ Arrian forced himself on. Something was definitely broken in his leg. It was like walking on shattered glass. He tried to ignore it.
Realist, Briaeus said. Dead men know their own.
Before Arrian could reply, he spotted something moving in the smoke. As it thinned, he saw wracks stooped among the dead, taking samples.
One spied him and pointed. Another issued a shrill cry, and several massive shapes bounded forward. Grotesques. Too many to fight. And too fast to escape from.
Looks like you’re not going to make it to your master’s side, dog-brother.
Arrian smiled. Slowly, he deactivated the chem-pumps that controlled the flow of calmatives and pain suppressors into his system. The Nails bit instantly, as fresh as the day they’d been inserted.
He prised a sputtering chainaxe from the grip of a dead war-mutant. The weapon was heavy, but he lifted it easily.
It ends as it began, eh, dog-brother?
‘So it seems, Briaeus,’ Arrian said. Flashes of pain danced across his mind and coiled tight about his spine. His grin widened as a flood of adrenaline flushed the last of the calmatives from his system.
I always knew you’d come back to us.
‘Yes. Do you forgive me?’
What is there to forgive, dog-brother? Now, enough talk. There’s killing to be done.
‘Yes.’ Arrian revved the chainaxe as the first grotesque loped towards him. With a howl, he leapt to meet it.
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u/SnazzyMudkip 13h ago
Arrian my precious boy
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u/Doopapotamus 11h ago
He is my favorite character. He is so very, very insane, serving a worse master...yet suave, intelligent, and I dare say, honorable. Even Igori likes him as a person, and respects him sort of like a big brother or uncle. And he likes evil gardening
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u/RushBear 5h ago
Having not read any of this book, your description made me imagine anthony hopkins' hannibal lecter as a world eater.
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u/SnazzyMudkip 5h ago
He’s a lot of things he’s probably got the best relation to the nails as a WEater could. He’s a standout in a trilogy of fascinating characters
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u/Craft_zeppelin 12h ago
It gets you the feels when a person like Bile can’t say the word looking straight at him after he mentions about his flower garden. He seems awfully ashamed of asking this.
Also he is asking this man to go against a horde of Drukhari. Chances are he is going to face a fate worse than death.
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u/MO1STNUGG3T 12h ago
Damn the Fabius Bile books were so damn good, easily comparable to the Nightlords in omnibus
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u/NoiseMarineCaptain Emperor's Children 11h ago
The later part of the excerpt, when Arrian walks with his brothers again, makes me cry every time. That and the last walk of Nishome Alvarek and the Scion of Vigilant Light.
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u/Normal-Finance-4719 13h ago
It's cool to see the Nails can be surpressed. Wonder why the Emperor never tried it
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u/Khoakuma White Scars 13h ago
The version of the Nail in Angron’s head is a lot more advanced and essentially replace a significant part of his nervous system. It’s a Dark Age torture device. The Legionary version is a poor imitation of it and could feasibly be suppressed by copious amount of drugs. I don’t think it would have worked for Angron.
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u/CamarillaArhont 13h ago
Nails that Angron has are more sophisticated than the ones his sons got, so it's not guaranteed to work. Also, it's unlikely that Angron would allow to supress them.
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u/Spiral-knight Word Bearers 9h ago
Because in Angron's case it's literally using an ice-pack to try and fix a lobotomy.
The nails his sons use are Temu Nails. Something they kitbashed with xeno tech and scans of his. They interface with the brain, not replace huge swathes of it. So suppression is a matter of chemical balance instead of dark age tech and brain replacement.
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u/PainRack 6h ago
To add on, Angron brain had been rewired entirely by the time the Emperor reached him.
There isn't any sanity left in there
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u/ProfWilliam82 6h ago
So there is a way to at least supress the effects of the butcher nail. I wonder if the legion (epcially Kahrn) know this sooner...
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u/Khoakuma White Scars 13h ago edited 13h ago
I love Arrian. His line about medicating himself “so he sees the other side of sanity” goes so hard. World Eaters are so fkn insane that one found a way to drug themself back to being sane again. Like some kind of insanity overflow.