Memoirs of Anya Eisenjaeger
~ Behzaltag 30th Kaldezeit 2522 ~
I can still taste the acrid smoke. Still hear the screams in my mind. My eyes still sting from so much woodsmoke.
It was only some hours ago I watched the flames catch the first homes and work places of Reiksbruck. Fire is a terrible thing when not contained in the hearth or by torch, but to know what would come without it is worse still. Before the sun sets on this day I am stunned by the knowledge that I have taken my first life. More than one in fact, as I have now been accomplice to the deaths of a whole towns worth of people.
It was only some hours ago I watched the flames catch the first homes and work places of Reiksbruck. Fire is a terrible thing when not contained in the hearth or by torch, but to know what would come without it is worse still. Before the sun sets on this day I am stunned by the knowledge that I have taken my first life. More than one in fact, as I have now been accomplice to the deaths of a whole towns worth of people.
When we made it to Reiksbruck from the Baron’s house via the garrison, so Pieter could rouse the guards, we found the market square beset by the powers of chaos. A being most foul stood butchering the cattle sent to infect the people with the pox in the name of Nurgle. In this Pieter had his suspicions made real from the words of the Baron and the letters we found in his study. The townspeople were all imprisoned in cages guarded by cultist strangers in league with the dark forces. Their breath steamed in the winter air- women and children’s faces wet from crying, cold stone of no comfort underneath.
The butcher creature itself towered above the height of a man with its pallid sore-marred corpse-flesh heaving with maggots and dripping putrid effluence. The stench was worse than a Marienburg gutter in the summer sun; thick with flies and miasma. It’s face was from the realm of nightmares with its horned brow, fang hungry mouth and a single staring eye. Pieter and Grunnd called it plague bearer.
I was glad of the leather jerkin I had picked up from the garrison and the two muskets Grunnd had passed Danielle and I. We needed them.
The fight itself did not last long. Pieter and Grunnd took on the beast of Nurgle, felling it with violent flare and the eruption of its’ innards onto the stones of the market square, but not without injury. The chaos guards didn’t stand much chance against the garrison’s guards. Three made a line for myself and Danielle, and both of us defended ourselves well in light of such a baptism in battle.
As soon as the agents of chaos were dispatched Pieter ordered the town raised to the ground.
Fire cleanses all.
The discussion on the matter was short for a Witch Hunter is not a person to be argued with. I myself am in no position to argue the methods of cleansing, though something more humane for the men, women and children would have soothed my womanly conscience. I cannot think on it now for it would lead to madness and upset. Out of the safety of the family home is not the place for gentle virtues. This is the real world where death will take you as soon as look at you, and there are worse things than dying in this world.
Stefan did the work of Morr in offering blessings and the last rites to ensure all departing were taken into his sleep to be judged by him on the other side. He then took the protesting Danielle and sombre Hans quickly away past the gates with the guards who were ordered to ensure no one escaped the cleansing. I helped Grunnd with the torches and we all retired to the safety outside the town walls to watch the flames lick from roof to roof. Not all roofs in the river towns use tile with reed being so plentiful; a boon for the terrible task.
Now my buttocks hurt from so much sitting on this cart. My mind pains me from knowledge I do not want.
Almost as soon as Hans guided the mule away from the palisade and towards Altdorf, Grunnd tucked his trusty hammer into his side, lay back, propped his hat over his eyes and folded his arms snug over his broad chest. It’s almost enviable how quickly he falls to snoring. No jarring of his mind to keep him awake. Maybe some day I will take such horrors in my stride as he does. Will I wish to be so someday?
Danielle looks like she could sleep too from the rocking of the cart. We’ve left the fields and the ever-watching presence of the Grey Mountains in the western distance. We plunge head-long into the winter woods of Reikwald Forest as Hans tells me. The light is almost gone with the shadowy branches swallowing us up, and the sun sliding west-home for the day.
I will finish quickly. My fingers stiffen in this bitter air. I need to find myself some gloves soon.
When we were not long on the road Pieter turned in his seat beside Hans and decided to speak to us. He looked grim. He said that now we had shown ourselves somewhat trustworthy he felt we should know more of why we are on this journey with him, a journey which we won't see the end of.
We are journeying to find the Van Tanncred Sword which came out of the Crusade of Sun and Sands a thousand years ago. It entered the empire through Marienburg where it was sold to a merchant and then onto a man with some sort of a family claim on it. Grunnd and another, now no longer with us, were recruited to find information on the Knights of the White Rose who Van Tanncred- the man who fought in the crusade and brought back the sword as his own - was a member of. One of Pieter Verstohlen’s ancestors was squire to this knight and so the Verstohlen family fell in tandem with the Van Tanncreds. It seems this sword is not just a piece of sharp forged iron but an object with the power to bring the whole world to its knees with a deathblow. So now we are on the road to Altdorf where we shall gain passage to Talabheim further up the river in pursuit of the last clue to its whereabouts.
We are journeying to find the Van Tanncred Sword which came out of the Crusade of Sun and Sands a thousand years ago. It entered the empire through Marienburg where it was sold to a merchant and then onto a man with some sort of a family claim on it. Grunnd and another, now no longer with us, were recruited to find information on the Knights of the White Rose who Van Tanncred- the man who fought in the crusade and brought back the sword as his own - was a member of. One of Pieter Verstohlen’s ancestors was squire to this knight and so the Verstohlen family fell in tandem with the Van Tanncreds. It seems this sword is not just a piece of sharp forged iron but an object with the power to bring the whole world to its knees with a deathblow. So now we are on the road to Altdorf where we shall gain passage to Talabheim further up the river in pursuit of the last clue to its whereabouts.
We should reach Altdorf in over a weeks time. A long uncomfortable journey in the open on a cart.
~ A ~
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