Today was a good day for stunned silences. Echo and his entourage stared at Felidae in a new light: here was a rare living human from one of their empire's peaks, a walking memorial to the accomplishments of their species. She remembered a time when the Emperor Himself dispensed wisdom not by psychic whispers to a chosen elite, but in glorious speeches to the masses, bringing enlightenment and unity from the bridge of unequaled voidships. And Felidae herself, it seemed, had faced the devils of her age and survived. The times, events, heroes, and villains Kennoch knew of only through scraps of surviving lore--the Great Crusade, the Horus Heresy, pride and pain and glory and dishonor--she had witnessed firsthand.

How was he supposed to respond to that?

He walked slowly to the Navigator's well, rested against its outer shielding, and slid down the wall to sit. "...We must seem we must we must like hollow shadows hollow shadows of the galaxy you knew galaxy you knew. Children at play children amid the rubble rubble rubble rubble of giants giants. How do you bear it bear how how how?"