Thunderstrike & Other Stories (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)

by Richard Strachan

Actinus stepped forward and crouched before him. ‘It is not given to us to decide when we live and when we die,’ he said. ‘We have only one choice, and that is to face death with courage and dignity, or with disgrace.

‘None of us are made heroes,’ he said, standing up. He winced at the pain of his injuries. ‘It is something we have to choose instead.’

In another life, Garradan of Demesnus had known how to ease pain with words. In little surgeries, during a fearful incision or a knitting together of flesh, he would speak to the patient, ask questions. Often, the simple questions were best: asking after children, or hauls from the river, or the news from abroad. There was no magic ward against suffering – there were only words between people, spoken at the right time.