'I gave him ample warning. It just so happens that your late manservant is incapable of following orders from any master.'

This is all Lucius says to Atella, their complaints and apparent sadness about the hunchback's murder falling on a mind deafened to pity and regret. Not a moment later, the androgyne's attention has passed to her next target, the most likely member of the group to become her newest thrall: the addict. The predictability could make lesser men roll their eyes; in Lucius' mind, those of weak wills were the most likely to fall to Nurgle or Slaanesh, the former for how easy it was to stagnate and despair in an empire already used to both, and the latter simply because it provided more of what many were used to... albeit to ever-heightening degrees of depravity. Judging by Sanath's own addictions, and the veiled character's excess of attentions toward him, it is simple logic to establish that they are a worshipper of Slaanesh after all. Unless, the thought occurs, they are dedicated enough to passing on Nurgle's so-called blessings that acting like a follower of another of the Four without passing into their worship is utterly simplistic, but he doubts the androgyne is quite that deep.

They are, however, tricky, as their barely-audible mutterings into the addict's ear can attest. A manipulator if he's ever seen one. The Fallen Angel understands that human psychology is exceptionally complex, and that no number of categories could ever wholly contain it; however, he has found that three particular categories have done quite well so far, and briefly recalls the basic traits of each: followers, those who do the bidding of their masters; leaders, those who exert their will upon others; and manipulators, those who attempt to twist leaders into doing what they want, rather than what the leaders truly want. Following is easy, leading is much harder, and manipulation is harder still, especially when pitted against a smart leader; whilst overlap and transfer between categories is more than feasible, it is a universal truth that the majority are followers doing what others tell them, with comparatively few leaders and manipulators vying for the top-heavy amounts of power that come with ruling the masses.

This leads further into his hypothesis about Atella's allegiances: the very nature of Nurgle's worship is such that those capable of anything other than following are exceptionally rare in his ranks (though followers of all the Gods and of Chaos itself are of course commonplace), whereas leadership comes more naturally to the Khornate and Tzeentchian masses, and manipulation is a forte of both Slaanesh and Tzeentch. In this case, the evident manipulation and its style would set them firmly into Slaaneshi territory, which brings him to why he is somewhat displeased with their actions: a drugged-up, sex-addled, and most likely heavily tortured follower, whilst happier in the short term, is far less useful in the long term. He takes in the small number of Khornate minions now paying attention to him, considers their worth as followers, then discards it. They are less useful than he likes, for they lack the subtlety with which Lucius prefers to work. Sanath, by contrast, is promising, and having him stolen from under his nose is something he'd rather avoid; thus, it is with a death glare toward the practically-molested addict that he mouths the word "no", a hopefully-obvious indication to not give the person pressing themselves against him the book.

[@Jbcool][@The Whacko][@Lord Coake][@Keepvogel]