By Kernschatten
A trinket. A knick-knack. A curiousity. The little statue looked like a caricature of a grinning horse seated on its haunches, nothing more than that. Could it really have driven a man to butcher his entire family? Lukas seemed to think so. I picked it up and found it cool to the touch. Turning it over in my hand I asked, “Where did it come from?”
“From the Mounds,” said Lukas. The Mounds were a series of low, regular hills that stretched out into the Solland Waste like waves upon the ocean. Local legends said that the Mounds were the mass graves of some ancient battle from long before the Blessed Sigmar had united the tribes.
“Relics and artifacts are all the rage at the Imperial Court this season,” continued Lukas. “A man could make himself wealthy selling such trinkets.”
“I don’t feel any taint of corruption. Could it really have driven him insane?” I asked.
“Before he died, he kept screaming over and over that his family was mocking him and the statue knew it.”
“Mocking him?” I set the statue down, turning towards Lukas. And then I sensed it. From the corner of my eye the statue seemed to rear up and loom over me, all teeth and claws. The stench of some dark, ancient evil was so strong that it felt like a kick to the stomach that doubled me over and left me retching.
“Ah, you felt it,” said Lukas.
It took a while for me to heave my insides dry. When I was done, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and looked towards the statue. Looking directly at it, I felt nothing of the evil within it. But I knew that as soon as I turned away it would pounce again. I reached out for my hammer. “Sigmar, give me the strength to destroy this abomination.”
“Do you think you can?” asked Lukas. “Do you have the strength?”
“Do I have the strength?” I tightened my grip on the haft of my weapon and turned towards Lukas. This time, I felt the evil sidle up alongside me to whisper in my ear. And I knew what I had to do. “Do I have the strength?” Raising my hammer high, I reached out towards Lukas. “Are you mocking me?”