Timestamp: Two months ago, as the Imperials count time

Location: Sicarus, Eye of Horus

Situation: Responding to an unexpected summons by the Dark Council

Body: You were just about ready to leave for Bokiba-Bapas - you had learned some time ago that Abaddon was calling for a third reaving of Finial - when the summons came. A summons from the Dark Council. Signed 'Aurelian'. Which doesn't mean anything really. Half the upper echelons seem to have taken Aurelian as a name to honor the Primarch. There is only one Lorgar - but there are very many Aurelians. Gol Badar Aurelian. Der Mog Aurelian. And of course there is THE Lorgar Aurelian. But no-one calls him that. There is no need. There is only one Lorgar. One Bearer of the Word.

But I digress. Back to the matter at hand. The Dark Council. One does not turn down a summons from that august body of Apostles. It would be as unhealthy as it is impolite. You find that you are not alone. A score more brothers are here. Some well known to you, others less. You've one thing in common - you command the loyalty of others. And you're all going to Bokiba-Bapas.

The Council has a few words of caution and advice to you. It is the Word and Will of Lorgar that you support Abaddon's plans. His previous two reavings have failed - for lack of faith no doubt. Now you will all go to Bokiba-Bapas and make sure the thrid reaving is not a failure. Lorgar is watching. Lorgar is testing your faith and mettle.

The Council also wishes for you to keep your eyes and ears open. They would like to know why (other than lack of faith) the other two reavings have failed. Who are commanding the Imperials with such foresight and brillinace? Why is the Inquisition so good at rooting out Abaddon's agents? Where are all the Imperial reinforcements coming from?

The unspoken message is this (Castor is sure the messagfe is lost upon many of the commanders, but a few catch the Council's meaning): Take Finial and burn every world to the edge of the galaxy if you can - if you can't then stay alive and report back to us. That's the real Word and Will of Lorgar.

For you the 13th Black Crusade has been a rather dull affair. Your prophet and leader, Lorgar, remains secluded within the Templum Inficio - as he has these past 10.000 years. His concerns they say, are far weightier than those of mortal man - his Word Bearers included. A less faithful man would perhaps have pondered upon the odd resemblance between this secluded, non-communicative prophet and his former object of worship - the Corpse-God. And so it fell to the Dark Council to rule over the world of Sicarus and its resident Legion of Adeptus Astartes. Once again a less faithful man might have considered how this arrangement mirrored the one between the Corpse-God and his Ruling Council - the False Lords of Terra.

Be that as it may. What is important is that the Council is much given to internal debate, interpretations of the Will of Lorgar and other esotericum. With the Council things are best measured, not in days or weeks or months, but years or even decades if the matter is of grave importance. The Chapter Masters will sometimes grow restless and do things on their own, but rare is the Master who is not either a Dark Apostle himself or under the iron fist of one. Word Bearers are also a proud lot, as are all Astartes, so that they are unlikely to meekly follow where Abaddon goes. To them he is no more than a favored servant of the Powers - he may command a legion of Asartes, but he is no Primarch.

So it was that the bulk of the Word Bearers sat out the opening stages of the 13th Black Crusade. Not before Abaddon's bloody victory over the Imperial Navy in the skies above Cadia did the Dark Council find it in the omens that it was indeed the Will of Lorgar that the Word Bearers join their brethren in their holy quest to liberate Terra - and the rest of Mankind. A man of little piety would perhaps think that the Council got of their fat asses only when the road to Terra had already been paved with the corpses of other, braver men. Abaddon certainly wasn't impressed. And he was said to be even less impressed with the way the Word Bearers subsequently clamored to mount their own little crusade against the Imperium. So unimpressed in fact, that he allowed them the honor of leading the advance into Segmentum Solar. The Warmaster is even said to have smiled when the word came of the Word Bearer's ineviatable collision with reality - the Imperium of the False Emperor is not defeated yet. Segmentum Obscurus may have fallen to Abaddon, but Segmentum Solar is another matter entirely...