---

Rain hits the narrow streets of Altdorf.

Workers drag carts through mud-black water.

Smoke covers the sky.

---

Mara watches from the apartment window.

Silent.

Listening.

---

Coughing in the next room.

Heavy footsteps above.

A woman below struggling to carry water home.

A child trying to help her.

Too small.

Still trying.

---

Mara:
“Why are adults always tired?”

---

Chibi tears a loaf of bread in half carefully.

---

Chibi:
“Because things are heavy.”

---

The answer feels too simple.

Which is why it’s true.

---

Outside—

workers keep moving through the rain.

No one stops.

No one rests for long.

---

Children carrying coal.

Children watching siblings.

Children working market stalls.

---

Nobody calls it strange anymore.

---

The city treats exhaustion like inheritance.

---

Mara:
“Does it stop?”

---

A pause.

---

Chibi:
“Sometimes.”

---

Another pause.

---

Chibi:
“Usually not.”

---

Mara notices the bread is smaller this week.

She says nothing.

Children in Altdorf learn scarcity before they learn politics.

---

A small boy slips in the mud pulling a cart.

He stands immediately.

Keeps pulling.

---

Mara:
“He didn’t cry.”

---

Chibi watches the street quietly.

---

Chibi:
“He already knows nobody else can pull it for him.”

---

Silence.

---

The city continues moving.

That’s the frightening part.

---

Not the suffering.

---

The continuation.

---

Factories burning.

Workers coughing.

Parents apologizing for resting.

Children learning to ask for less.

---

The Empire does not collapse loudly enough for people to panic.

---

It simply becomes heavier every year.

---

Mara:
“Does everyone become tired?”

---

Rain runs down the glass.

---

Chibi:
“Yes.”

---

A pause.

---

Chibi:
“Unless they make someone else carry it for them.”

---

The bells ring again somewhere deeper in the city.

Another shift beginning.

Another day continuing because exhausted people refuse to let the Empire fall apart.

---

And for the first time—

Altdorf no longer looks powerful.

---

Only heavy.

---

⚒️ Month 5 — Sacrifice & Belief

⚒️ Week 1 — The Serious Child

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game — The Old World

Sigmar suffered for the Empire himself.

Later generations discovered it was easier to ask others to suffer in his place.

---

If you remember what this felt like —
you already know what you’re missing.

Step back into it.
Or keep missing it.

👉 https://startplaying.games/gm/dunchan

Want to go deeper?
Then don’t stop at the surface.

The full stories. The dossiers. The things behind it —
they’re waiting. Or they’re not.

👉 https://www.patreon.com/c/mythveilchronicles_bydunchanhuntergames