A slightly smaller Mess

Laurence just looks at her, face drained of all energy and animation, his mouth a thin line, his eyes hooded. Without a word he turns and walks down the adjacent corridor.

she silently rolls her eyes

The telekine watches laurence leave with a look of confusion etched on her face. The man who was guarding the door upstairs walks over to sit with his fellows, placing his rifle between his knees.

lyanna sighs and follows after laurence

Laurence doesn't seem to notice, or doesn't care, continuing to descend floor after floor.

she keeps following

He comes to a blank concrete wall. gesturing at it, there is a loud CLICK, and the wall slides upwards along nigh invisible seams. Finally, laurence acknowledges her. "Are you sure you want to follow me down here?"

"You got a reason for me not to?"

He shrugs vaguely, his expression unchanged and daur. "Some pretty nasty shit down here."

"Try me"

"Alright. Sure." With that he descends the steps beyond the door. Into the unlit inky blackness beyond.

she follows again, silently

Another set of doors, thick plasteel and armaplas, then another, then another, before they stand in a wide dimly lit atrium. Doors line either wall, and another single, large door at the end. "Welcome to the menagerie."

"oh this should be good"

"Depends entirely on your definition of good." He walks to the first of the doors. Etched into the door is the word "SIDONAI" in bold, block capitals.

she watches

He taps a code into the pad by the door, at least ten digits, then, with no small effort, even for him, turns the wheel, sliding free heavy bolts within the door, and slowly wrenches it open. The door is four inches thick, its internal surface covered in hexagramic wards beyond counting, the floor, walls and ceiling of the space beyond too. Candles burn with flames that change colour when lyanna's eyes focus upon them, colours she cannot name. Scraps of parchment are nailed to the walls. the solid steel walls. Stained in blood, and fixed with wax. Chains hang from the walls, wrapped around a coffin sized box in the small room's center. the box shifts, rattling the chains, as laurence opens the door fully. A pitiful sound calls from within. Barely audible, like a scream heard on the wind. "Wiiiilllliiaaaaammm...."

she silently raises an eyebrow under her helmet

tentatively, and with a visible wince, laurence steps into the room. He reaches out, fingers grazing the metal casket, then pulls the door open. Within, is a... body. Chains wrapped around its body, arms pinned to its sides, metaphorically, and quite literally. Spikes are thrust through its flesh, alongside symbols carved into its body, and parchment strips nailed to it.

Laurence: "Sidonai... It's time."

she stays silent as she watches, the helmet masking any reaction still

Laurence reaches into the sarcophagus, and takes hold of one of the spikes driven into Sidonai's flesh. Through the daemon's heart. He tears it out, a iridescent ichor covering the metal. In that moment, the air seems to triple in pressure, a charge runs across lyanna's skin. The oppressive weight of unleashed power. The pale, corpselike flesh of the creature before her starts to writhe and change, the drawn, haunting lips sliding back forth to cover its teeth, sunken eyes sparkle with new life.

"Well aint this fun"

Flesh roiling, the very air around him...her...it.  Sidonai smiles widely at laurence, then, as glossy raven black hair begins to cover its head, the daemon turns its gaze to lyanna. "Did you have to bring that here?"

"That?"

"Machine Creature." it hisses the words at her.

Laurence's lip curls. "N rebd imo ewlg hrll" the syllables seem to rush eagerly off his tongue.

Immediately, sidonai flattens itself against the wall of the casket with eyes wide and pleading, then it yelps and recoils as skin touches iron, the smell of burning flesh filling the air as the hexagramic wards engraved there react to the daemon.

"*frowns* Do you know how many of your kind i have personally banished back from whence they came, spawn of unreality?"

its voice has lost its confident swagger, replaced with a desperate, gasping edge. "None such as I." Its eyes turn back to laurence, and in a somewhat questioning tone, as a punished child to a teacher. "For i am bound not to a god, but a man?"

"Funny. I've enslaved ones such as you as well, bound them within shells of metal and flesh, driven them mindlessly at the guns of my foes. Lesser and greater daemons alike. Be it bloodletters, bloodthirsters, keepers of secrets, plaguebearers, all of them. You do not intimidate me, scum."

Sidonai speaks with more confidence, seemingly sure this line of conversation will not irritate laurence. "I have no love for my kin. Do with them as you wish. But you will not do such to I."

"only so long as this guy stands between us"

Laurence: "If we are quite finished? Now i remember why i sealed you in a box, and am questioning why i saved your life." He looks at sidonai, and at lyanna as he mentions each of them.

"What can I say. I have experience with his kind. And I know full well why we banish, imprison and enslave them rather than make pacts with them like the others do."

"yes, but daemon engines are so unsubtle. Use the daemon's talents."

"You think that's all we do?"

"I have yet to encounter a daemonhost of yours."

"Because we're not exactly obvious with them."

"Fair enough." he turns at Sidonai. "Collect the Jaegers for me."

Sidonai's lip curls with unmasked distaste, but walks away to do as bidden. The daemon's form continuing to evolve as time passes. Fluctuating freely between male and female.

*watches silently*

"Is there anything in here you are particularly interested in?"

"me?"

"Is there anyone else?"

"You do You, I'm just here to see what the hell's down here."

He shrugs, and walks to the next door. Opening this one with tricks of telekinesis rather than a keypad. The door yawns open, and the lights snap on inside. Tanks of varying sizes, from a metre, up to more than five. Plasteel and glass, filled with a blue liquid, occasional bubbles floating up though it.

"this should be good"

"You have a talent for dispelling mystique you know that?" The room runs away some hundred metres, both walls lined with tanks. Stepping back, laurence scratches at his close cropped beard with his right hand, looking into the tanks. Those he is looking at contain things that are almost human, but not quite. They seem more hunched, with more hair than would be normal for any human. Small variations between each of them, size, muscle mass, gender.

"I have a lot of practice." she looks around, observing the things in the tanks.

The further she looks down the line, the further they dispatch from humanity. Aspects of other species, xenos and animal become more pronounced and mixed. She sees eldar, kroot, grox, and others she cannot identify. "I bet the gods love you."

"oh they fuckin hate me. *she chuckles* I made sure of it"

"I find their hate often comes full circle."

"Aint for me yet"

"Perhaps it is just for psykers."