Altdorf
"Would you like to buy some matches good Sir?"
"I have a lighter as everybody else these days girl. Find something else to hawk."
"Would you like to buy some matches milady?"
"Don't bother me."
"Would you like some matches good Sir?"
"Begging is forbidden, you know that?"
"Would you like to buy some matches milady?"
"The Sisters of Shallya have a homeless shelter close to their temple. Go there."
"Would you like to buy some matches Sir?"
"There is honest work enough, find it."
"Would you like to buy some matches milady?"
"Clean yourself up, you are a disgrace."
"Would you like some matches good Sir?"
"Fuck off."
"Would you like to buy some matches good Sir."
"Hon, sorry, but these things are dangerous. They will ignite if you rub them against anything, including themselves. Get yourself some of the new safety ones, then you might sell some."
The girl had tried to sell her matches for several hours now. At first she had shivered from the cold, had stomped her feet on the ground and embraced herself when there was no chance of making a sale. Now she felt warm again after a fashion and instead she yawned pretty often.
She looked at the full bundle of matches and shivered. If she were to bring them all home and had no money to show for it bad things were to happen. Her pale skin still had marks from the last time. She simply had to make some sales.
"Good sir, would you buy some matches?"
"If you'd sell something else, na, I would catch something. Get lost."
Kelk Hive, Joule IV, another universe
The universe had tried to kill Leman Rus for millennia and had so far failed. The head-over-heels tumble in the dark that the Primarch was now subjected to made him fear that it had finally found a solution.
Hive quakes were real things and happened every so often. Overloaded by new construction up top and weakened by neglect below whole sections of a hive would just collapse into themselves, often smashing levels far below them with their inertia and weight. The Space Wolf had so far bested all enemies, but a few megatons of rubble on their way down might be too hard to beat even for him.
So far none of the rubble had settled down on him to crush him to death, no far no jagged spike of rebar had found its resting place in his chest. Something like that was going to happen though and that was not an end fit for a Space Wolf warrior. He felt something push and twist things around him. For a precious few moments the lamps on his armor pierced the darkness and dust around him sufficiently to reveal his oncoming doom. It might have been a part of the great pillars that bore the weight of the hive levels above them. It might have been part of a giant wall or something else. Now it was a gigantic, wedge-shaped piece of reinforced concrete. As it stayed in one piece and was more dense than the rubble around it it pierced the falling debris like a ship's bow.
He was Leman Rus, he would fight even this. Pushing his legs against the largest pieces around him he managed to alter the course of his descent in bits and pieces. He could not get out of the way of his doom in time, but he managed to avoid being in its direct path. He collided with its flanks, getting rolled around several times. It was about to plow him under when he managed to grab a piece of rebar. Pulling himself up he made his way up to the place where the huge fragment's progress created a little bubble of space. It might not be clever, but it was so much him.
Standing up and balancing himself against the movement below him he surfed a 50-meter fragment of concrete to the lowest levels of the hive.
Top choices on the Christmas Wish-lists:
Action Figure: Reiksbund Paladin
Doll: Asrai Spellweaver
Toy gun: replica of the Rebel shotgun, made in the Breton Republic
Used Smartphone
Griffon ride
Bicycle with electric booster
Book: "With the Dragoons in Bretonia" Walther Theodoric St. Helier
Toy tank: Leopard II
Toy train: the Hammer
Pet: Soft-Scaled Wyvern
Game: Siedler of Lustria
Altdorf
The cold wind was like a knife, combining itself with the humidity of a busy city to cut through the girl's clothes like they were not really there. They met a body that used the absolute minimum of energy to survive as nourishment was scarce and came irregularly if at all. It had tried to keep up the temperatures necessary to survival with increased activity and failed after burning up precious reserve
By now the girl sat still, having relaxed to the point where her back rested against a cold wall and her face settled into something of a smile.
She stared at the bundle of matches in her apron. She rarely lit one herself, and she knew she would be harshly punished if she were to light one of them just for fun. That punishment seemed so far away now and the cold was right here. Just one would surely not be missed.
Her fingers were remarkably free of shakes when she pulled one from the bundle, but so weak that she was hardly able to hold on to it when she scraped it along the wall. The sulfur reacted to the increased temperatures provided by the friction by igniting. Sputtering and giving of smelly fumes and smoke it broke into a yellow flame.
The girl watched the flames intently, yet she did not see them. Instead she saw an oven. Not any oven, but a beautiful one, made of iron, decorated with the most beautiful ornaments. It gave off such delicious warmth and it was fed by the woman who loved her, her grandmother.
"It will be alright lovely, it will be all right"
The girl felt the warmth coming off the oven and the love of her grandmother. She smiled for the first time in a long time.
Christmas Market Altdorf
The smells were nearly overwhelming. Spices from all over the world went into pots, pans and ovens to make all sorts of food. Several kinds of tea tried to hold Ulrich Stoiber's nose for ransom and had to fight for attention with incense, mulled wines and cacao. There were unwashed bodies, even if there were less than a few years before, there were the perfumes that tried to mask them.
The German would not have noticed much a decade ago, but that was before Skavenblight, before he had to fight the Horned Rat and caught the attention of Ulric, the war god. Now his nose was somewhere between what it had been and a bloodhound's and he had to consciously work at not being overwhelmed. There were enough things to distract him from the olfactory assault. There was food ranging from sausages and crepes to Halfling stews and Imperial pies. Stalls offered trinkets from far-off Cathay and Skaven undercities. The stalls themselves were often marvels, decorated with elaborate carvings and LED lights, the people who operated them were an eclectic mix.
They all vied for his attention, yet the real marvel was something else, it was the market's visitors. The vast majority were unsurprisingly Imperials, and a few years ago that would have been that for Ulrich. Now he saw the hints that allowed him to spot the Ostländer, the Wissenländer, the Pfeilländer and the others. And there were more than a few to spot, the railroads made short trips from journeys that would have taken months before. There were Tileans, Estelians and Bretons. And while they were the smallest group of them all, Ulrich had spotted a few non-humans already.
It was peaceful, a bustling scene and a marvel to boot.
"Sir, can I ask you for a small donation to the Sisters of Shallya...is that you Ulrich?"
"Hey, hey our Brother of Shallya. Are you still giving the doctors at the Charite` the creeps?"
"They get used to us these days. Still driving that Iron Pig of yours?"
"Different one, but yes. May I introduce Ulrika von Carstein to you?"
"A pleasure milady, Ralf Winkler at your service. I met that strapping tanker when a witch hunter became too interested in the fiancee of a mutual friend."
"A pleasure Herr Winkler. So you were that healer, I heard about it a few times."
"Ulrich covered my big behind back then, he is entitled. Nice glasses you have Ulrich."
"Got the prescription for them in downtown Skavenblight."
"Oha. Forget about the donation, I'll get you some stew and a mulled wine from our booth if you are interested. I am sorry Frau von Carstein, we have nothing for your kind."
"No problem, I am used to that."
"I can imagine that. I`ll be back shortly."
"Sorry Ulrich, we have to go, now"
"Ulrika, whats up?"
"That guy down there, there you oaf, that is Martin von Carstein and my liege has a couple of questions for him."
"Then let your liege ask them himself."
"Ulrich, Martin never did take the vow to the pact. He could be an embarrassment, or he could be a bloody massacre."
"See you later Ralf."
Kelk Hive, Joule IV, another universe
The fragment that Leman Rus rode had terrible inertia and weighted as much as a battleship. And yet, with each meter of rubble it parted, with each floor it broke it lost energy and slowed down ever so slowly. It had long left the upper reaches behind, the places where the well-off lived. It had cut a swathe through a manufactory district and buried itself in the warehouses below.
Leman's ride shuddered and groaned, it came to halt before something broke with a groan and dropped the fragment to the vertical. The Primarch's perch converted itself into a steep slide that provided next to no purchase and his handhold came loose.
Digging into the rough surface with armored gloves Rus could slow his descent into blackness, he could not stop it. He dropped past many meters of reinforced plascrete and into a huge cavern. Below him was a mound of something undefined and he was still trying to recognize it for what it was when he realized he was now free falling. After dropping dozens of meters he barely managed to turn himself around in time so that his legs would take the impact. They promptly sunk hip-deep into the soft ground and it took Leman quite a bit of work to extract himself.
By that time his augmented eyes, his augurs and above all his nose had told him where he had landed. Below the nicer districts, below the manufactories and life support each hive had a bilge. It was the place where all the waste only such a huge macropole could produce ended up. It was the home of the lowest of the Imperial citizens, humans who spent their life sorting through and recycling the waste of others.
Here the Primarch of the Space Wolves had ended up. He had no way to contact his brethren and no idea how to rejoin them. He would have to make contact to the denizens of this level if he ever wanted to see the Fang again.
Altdorf
She had been here. Her grandmother, the only person who had ever loved her as she was, with no reservations, had been here, with her in this cold street in Altdorf. Her smile had warmed her as much as had her fabulous oven. The girl pulled the next match from her apron and pulled it along the coarse stones.
Longingly she looked into the sputtering flame, hoping to gain the vision again. And her grandmother did indeed appear before her and opened her arms so she might find shelter in them. She could already smell her granny, the smell of freshly baked bread, of milk and a bit of grandmother herself. Oh how she loved that smell. In the very last second before she went into the embrace she saw her grandmother's eyes become large and look at something outside of her field of view.
Christmas Market, Altdorf
The man, if he was indeed one, was tall and lanky as a scarecrow. He was clad in clothes that had been the latest fashion a long time ago, which included a long coat and a wide-brim hat that slouched over his face. The few times light met skin it had the pallor of a corpse. One side of the face was pulled upwards with irregular ticks and he moved his head with fast, abrupt movements that would have been natural on a dove, but not on a human.
And while he tried to scan the milling crowd before him he missed the tall woman that approached him from the side.
"Hello Martin, whats up with you? Father writes you letters, you never answer. He summons you, you never come. He asks you to.."
"Who are you, crazy bitch?"
"Oh Martin, you disappoint me so. Don't you recognize another von Carstein when she is in front of you?"
"Leave me alone. I am not whoever you think I am."
"Do you take me for a human Martin? I can smell you for what you are from the other side of that plaza. Come with me, we have many things to discuss."
"I don't think so."
Martin von Carstein turned with the speed of a rattlesnake and started to run. He made three steps before colliding with a man who gripped his right arm with the strength given to a vise.
"Stay put Martin, Ulrika wants to have a chat…."
Ulrich Stoiber had been a mere human once. A mere man could not have fought the Horned Rat and so Ulric had ...changed him. He was able to fight a vampire like Ulrika in melee with acceptable chances these days. Ulrika was not centuries old and utterly mad, so Ulrich Stoiber took to flying for a few meters before colliding with the wall of Altdorf's cathedral.
He managed to get up in time to follow his partner before she and her prey disappeared out of sight.
