‘Aelyn, I couldn’t tell you precisely where we were going in case anything happened to us on the way. The fewer people who know about it the better, you see? This is the city’s reserve armoury. A shared facility between the militia and the watch, stocked in case of a disaster like the one that has occurred. You learn about it when you progress from third class to second. Kole, this is Aelyn and the injured priest is Romilla. They’re… crusaders, in the captain’s employ. She charged them to aid us with the city’s defence before she passed.’

‘The captain is dead? How?’ exclaimed Kole, and a ripple of dismay radiated outwards through her fellow watchmen. While Thackeray explained as best he could, Aelyn had time to feel silently grateful to him for avoiding the term mercenaries. She supposed that crusader was closer to the truth, now, than mercenary. Certainly, vengeance for her friends had become a crusade to her, and Aelyn highly doubted she would be getting paid for her work here. If she even survived it.

The watchmen were interrogating Thackeray for more information on Captain Morthan’s death, but Aelyn interrupted.

‘Her loss is tragic. I have not long been in this city, and of all those I have met within its walls she was without doubt the most courageous and determined soul. But if I’m right, there is no time to discuss it now. I am sorry.’

The watchmen all turned to look at her, and Aelyn felt hostility radiating from many of them.

‘Why do you say this?’ asked Stephan sharply.

‘The omens. The Bad Moon’s rise. The level of planning the greenskins’ attack must have taken. We believe this to be more than just a chance invasion,’ said Aelyn, looking to Thackeray for support.

‘We came here for the view, Kole,’ he said. ‘What have your people seen from on high?’

‘Bloodshed, carnage and horror,’ she answered, and for a moment Aelyn saw just how tired and drawn the watchman was. ‘The enemy have looted and rampaged, and we’ve been forced to sit up here out of sight and watch it all occur. No orders, no communication, nothing. And when the rocks fell from the skies…’ she tailed off and exchanged looks with several of her comrades.

‘There’s the rock in the square,’ said one of them. ‘Whatever they’re doing there.’

‘The meteor that hit Fountains Square?’ asked Aelyn. ‘What of it?’

‘When the fumes cleared, we saw that a few of the meteors had survived the impacts. Bits of them, anyway,’ said Kole. ‘That one’s the largest by far, and the greens have been swarming round it like skitterlings. Last word from the rooftop came down an hour ago, said they were carving a face on it, but how that could put the city in any more danger than it’s already in, Sigmar only knows.’

‘Show us,’ said Aelyn.