The day proceeded like any other.

  Morning prayers. Breakfast. Education with the tech-priest droning on about the Great Crusade. Chores—today it was kitchen work, peeling those same gray vegetables that seemed to be the only food source in the entire hive.

  But through it all, Lilith's mind kept drifting.

  The dream. The Warp. The light.

  She'd told herself to forget it. To move on. To not think about it.

  But the memory refused to fade. It sat in the back of her mind like a splinter, impossible to ignore.

  During free time, she sent Eve and Lysander to the library with study materials and reading assignments.

  "I need to review some medicae notes," she told them. "You two work on these. I'll check your progress later."

  Eve looked reluctant to leave her side, but Lysander's enthusiasm pulled her along.

  "Come on, Eve! We can practice those new words Lilith taught us!"

  And then Lilith was alone.

  The medicae ward was quiet.

  Sister Marian was out tending to some sick children in another part of the orphanage. The space was empty except for Lilith and the shelves of medical supplies, the training dummies, the anatomical diagrams pinned to the walls.

  Lilith stood in the center of the room, her heart pounding.

  What am I doing? This is stupid. This is dangerous.

  But she couldn't shake the feeling. The need to know.

  She moved to the door and checked the hallway—empty. Then she pushed a chair against the door. It wouldn't stop anyone determined to enter, but it would make noise. Give her warning.

  Just a few minutes. Just to see if I can.

  She moved back to the center of the room and sat cross-legged on the floor.

  I used to love this stuff. Back when I was Maverick. Mythology. The occult. The unexplainable.

  Memories surfaced—late nights spent reading about ancient rituals, watching videos about mysticism, trying to understand things that existed outside the boundaries of rational thought.

  I even tried witchcraft. Real witchcraft. Or what I thought was real.

  She'd performed an initiation ritual once. Lit candles. Drew symbols. Spoke words in languages she didn't understand.

  And then stopped halfway through.

  Because it felt like it was working. Like something was actually responding.

  And that had terrified me more than if nothing had happened at all.

  She'd blown out the candles, erased the symbols, and never touched it again.

  But now I'm in a universe where the impossible is real. Where gods exist. Where thoughts have power.

  Maybe... maybe I can actually understand it now.

  She closed her right eye and focused on her breathing.

  In. Out. In. Out.

  The same controlled breathing exercises she'd used back then. Not for health benefits, but for focus. For clearing the mind. For reaching that liminal space between waking and something else.

  Her thoughts quieted. Her awareness sharpened.

  And in that focused state, she looked inward.

  Tried to see herself. To visualize her own form.

  An image appeared in her mind—a small girl with long black hair, mismatched eyes, delicate features.

  That's me. That's what I look like now.

  But as she stared at the mental image, something felt... off.

  The girl was familiar. She'd seen this face in mirrors, in window reflections, every day for months now.

  But it also felt alien. Foreign. Like looking at a photograph of someone she'd met once but couldn't quite place.

  Why does my own face feel like a stranger's?

  The disconnect was profound. Disorienting.

  That's me. But it's not me. It's Lilith. But I'm not Lilith. I'm Maverick. But Maverick is dead. But I'm here. But—

  Her eye snapped open.

  She was breathing hard, her heart racing.

  What was that? Déjà vu? Dissociation?

  The girl in her mind—herself—had felt familiar in a way that went beyond simple recognition.

  Like she'd seen that face before. Long before. In a different context.

  But that doesn't make sense. This body was created in a lab. It never existed before I woke up in it.

  ...Right?

  Lilith shook her head sharply, trying to clear the confusion.

  No. Stop. This is getting weird. I'm overthinking. I'm creating patterns where there aren't any.

  She stood abruptly, her legs shaky.

  Enough experimenting. Back to normal studying. Back to things I can actually understand.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  She retrieved her medicae textbook—the worn leather-bound one Sister Marian had given her—and forced herself to focus on the diagrams of the human circulatory system.

  Facts. Data. Things that made sense.

  But even as she read, part of her mind kept returning to that image. That strange sense of recognition when looking at her own face.

  I need to stop. This is how people go insane in this universe. Asking too many questions. Looking too deep.

  Just focus on what's real. What's practical.

  Survive. Learn. Protect Eve.

  Everything else is just noise.

  That night, sleep came easily.

  Too easily, almost.

  One moment Lilith was lying beside Eve, her right eye closing, exhaustion pulling her down.

  The next, she was somewhere else.

  Not the Warp this time.

  Somewhere different.

  A forest.

  Trees surrounded her—tall, ancient, their branches forming a canopy overhead. The light was soft, diffused, coming from no particular source. The air smelled of earth and leaves and something else. Something sweet and unfamiliar.

  A path stretched before her. Clear. Obvious. One way forward.

  This is...

  Familiarity washed over her like a wave.

  I've been here before.

  But that was impossible. She'd never seen a forest like this. Never walked on earth instead of metal. The orphanage, the ship, the pod—those were the only places she'd existed in this body.

  Yet the recognition was undeniable.

  How do I know this place?

  She took a step forward. Then another.

  The path was easy to follow. Not intimidating or ominous. Just... peaceful.

  Surprisingly peaceful, actually. The kind of calm she'd never experienced in the 40k universe. No threat of violence. No crushing weight of survival. Just quiet.

  Cold, but not uncomfortably so. Calm in a way that felt almost meditative.

  She walked, her small feet making no sound on the soft earth.

  The path opened into a clearing.

  And there, in the center—

  A temple.

  Unlike anything she'd seen in the Imperium. No Gothic architecture. No skulls or eagles or religious iconography. Just clean lines, elegant proportions, and a sense of age that spoke of centuries, maybe millennia.

  And beside the temple, dominating the clearing—

  A statue.

  Massive. Golden. Beautiful and terrible at once.

  The figure depicted was... demonic, in a way. Not in the Chaos sense—no corruption, no wrongness. But otherworldly. Powerful. With features that suggested both benevolence and danger.

  Lilith stopped, staring up at it.

  What is this place? What is that statue supposed to represent?

  Should I go in? Should I turn around? Should I—

  Movement.

  The temple's entrance—a simple doorway without actual doors—framed a figure.

  A woman stepped out.

  She was... hard to describe. Her features seemed to shift slightly, like looking at someone through water. Beautiful, but in a way that felt almost too perfect to be real.

  She saw Lilith and smiled.

  "It's been a while," she said, her voice warm and familiar.

  Lilith's entire body went cold.

  "Who are you?" she demanded, her voice sharper than she intended. "I've never been here before. I don't know you."

  The woman chuckled—a sound like wind chimes, pleasant and slightly unsettling.

  "You have been here. Multiple times, actually."

  "That's impossible."

  "Is it?" The woman tilted her head, still smiling. "Memory is a strange thing, little one. Especially when you're wearing a new face."

  Lilith took a step back. "What are you talking about?"

  The woman's expression grew more amused. "You really don't remember. That's... interesting. I suppose the transition was more complete than I anticipated."

  "What transition? Who are you?!"

  "I told you—you know me. Or rather, Maverick knew me."

  The name hit Lilith like a physical blow.

  Maverick. My old name. My real name.

  "How do you know that name?" she whispered.

  The woman descended the temple steps with impossible grace. "Because you came to me. Months ago—or was it years? Time is so fluid here. You performed a ritual. Made a wish. Asked for something you desperately wanted."

  Lilith's mind raced, trying to remember.

  The initiation. The candles. The words I spoke without understanding.

  "You wished to ███████ █ ███," the woman continued. "You even created a fragment of it, I took care of it because you invoked me and I decided to stay with you."

  She smiled wider.

  "And then you stopped halfway through and though, I should assume you forgot about the ████████ ██████████. Sadly, those will chase you even here."

  The woman lets out a sigh.

  "Why can’t I understand what you’re saying? Is that about that stupid ritual?" Lilith's voice was shaking now, "It was just me being stupid. Playing with stuff I didn't understand. It didn't work. Nothing happened."

  "You really have forgotten" The woman's eyes gleamed. "Perhaps, it’s part of that as well."

  "That was—that was just—I died in my sleep! That entity, Naic, he said—"

  "Naic. Such a silly name." The woman's smile never wavered. "Yes. He's certainly one explanation for your presence at where you are. Perhaps even the truth. But tell me—do you really think your arrival in this universe was random? That is was purely by coincidence?"

  Lilith felt her legs go weak. "You're lying. You're trying to trick me. This is—this is the Warp, isn't it? You're some kind of daemon—"

  "Am I? Well, you’re a little bit correct and almost wrong." The woman laughed again. "Look around. Does this feel like the Warp to you? Though I understand the confusion.”

  She spread her arms, gesturing at the peaceful forest, the serene temple.

  "I granted your simple wish, Maverick. Or should I call you Lilith now? That’s a wonderful name and coincidence."

  "I don't believe you," Lilith said, though her voice lacked conviction.

  "You don't have to believe me. Not yet." The woman turned back toward the temple. "But you will remember, eventually."

  She paused at the entrance.

  "Come back when you know who I am. When you remember what you asked for. Until then..." She smiled one last time. "Sleep well, little Lilith. And dream deep."

  "Wait—" Lilith started to move forward, to demand answers, to—

  Exhaustion hit her like a hammer.

  Her legs gave out. Her vision blurred. The forest, the temple, the woman—all of it faded into darkness.

  And she fell.

  Fell into sleep within sleep.

  Into nothing.

  Morning light filtered through the dormitory window.

  Lilith's eye opened slowly, reluctantly.

  She felt... exhausted. Completely drained, like she hadn't slept at all.

  Something poked her cheek.

  She turned her head and found Eve's face inches from hers, red eyes wide with concern.

  "Lilith? You... awake?"

  Eve poked her cheek again, gentle but insistent.

  "Mm," Lilith managed, her voice hoarse. "Yeah. I'm awake."

  But she didn't feel awake. She felt hollowed out. Used up.

  What was that dream? The forest. The temple. That woman.

  She knew about Maverick. About the ritual I did. About...

  Fear crept through her chest.

  What if she was telling the truth? What if my being here isn't random?

  What if I did something—made some kind of deal—that brought me here?

  But that didn't make sense.

  Naic had explained it clearly. Maverick died in his sleep. His soul was brought here on a whim. Simple. Clean. No hidden agenda.

  ...Right?

  But what if that was a lie? What if there's more to it?

  She sat up slowly, her head pounding.

  Eve watched her with worried intensity. "You... okay? Look tired."

  "I'm fine," Lilith lied. "Just bad dreams."

  Bad dreams. Sure. Let's call them that.

  Not prophetic visions. Not encounters with mysterious entities who claim I made promises in a past life.

  Just bad dreams.

  Nothing to worry about.

  But even as she thought it, doubt gnawed at her.

  That woman. The temple. The familiarity of it all.

  It didn't feel like the Warp. It felt... different. Like something older. Something outside the usual framework I understand.

  And she said she granted my wish. That she's been waiting.

  Waiting for what?

  Lilith pushed the thoughts down, forcing herself to focus on the present.

  "Come on," she said to Eve, her voice still rough with exhaustion. "We need to get ready for morning prayers."

  Eve nodded, but her worried expression didn't fade.

  As they went through their morning routine—washing, dressing, preparing for another day—Lilith's mind kept returning to the dream.

  My being here isn't simple. Naic might have been lying. Or that woman is lying. Or they're both telling different versions of the truth.

  Or I'm just going insane and creating elaborate paranoid fantasies because stress and trauma have finally broken my mind. Or Naic and that woman are from the warp and are trying to confuse me.

  She looked at herself in the small, cracked mirror above the washing basin.

  The face that stared back was familiar now. She'd seen it every day for months.

  But for just a moment—just a split second—it looked alien again.

  Like a stranger wearing her skin.

  Who am I? Really?

  Maverick Langley, reincarnated by chance?

  Or someone who made a deal and forgot about it?

  Or something else entirely?

  She didn't know.

  And that unknown terrified her more than anything in this nightmare universe ever had.