Despite the picture above, Mistress Baeda's Gift (Written by Braden Campbell and featured in the Fear the Alien anthology) has nothing to do with Orks.
This short story features a Dark Eldar Archon who is lusting after a powerful woman and desperately wants her for himself. It is an interesting view into Dark Eldar romance and inter-gender relations among the high-ranking citizens of Commorragh.
Being so short, it's very hard not to ruin it as any detail is important.
PROS:
- It's short, but the characters are authentic feeling and it feels concluded when it ends
- It presents an interesting perspective on Dark Eldar and 'Love'
CONS:
- It's short. It could have been a little longer and included more detail near the end concerning the actual emotions going on inside the heads of the characters. I didn't get as much of an insight into Dark Eldar 'Love' as I would have liked. It left me with one question: Was it really love, or just lust?
In conclusion, Mistress Baeda's Gift raised the question of 'do Dark Eldar love?' but never really answered it concretely. It left me more thoughtful of the subject than before though, and that may have been the point.
Feel free to comment, I'm really interested in knowing what others thought about this one.
Thanks for reading!
-Symmaccus
