Jolly Part 3

Out Of The Woods

Zings must've been going too smoothly, the story must've needed zome zort of climax. Bah. All I knew vas zat it vas Christmas Eve and night vas falling.

Bartel and Krampus ver vatching zee factory. Everyone had been behaving zemselves nicely. Zee gangers ver assembling dolls and toy trucks. Zee machine men ver focusing on zee video games and remote controlled cars.

Zings ver on schedule.

I should've known better.

Jolly Part 2

Elves

Zis vould not do. Zis vould not do at all.

Vis Krampus and Bartel both in chains behind me, I had gone scouring zee city in search of a zuitable factory.

And yet, the only factory zuitable for zee task vas old.

And dirty.
And abadoned.
And nearly fallen apart.

It had been used to manufacture toys first, before being converted for veapons manufacture later zat same year.

Jolly Part 1

Staffing

It vas a veek and a half after St. Nicholas' Day and zis vas not Bavaria.

It vas not Europe at all. But it vas the only place humans still gathered. So it vould have to do.

I trailed my gloved fingers through Brittany's mane and my steed clopped forward, soft vite among ze falling snow flakes. She stepped gingerly among zem, prancing forvard thoughtfully. She had been mine for ze last thirty years. Hopefully, she vould last thirty more.

Zings had changed since ze last snow fall. So many rules. Only vere humans are, only ven it snows. Bah. Foolishness.

The Usurper Part 3

A Dissertation On The Fickleness Of The Common HouseGod

My wife had never believed in the gods. Stupid woman.

She refused to worship, to pray as we should. And so we were cursed with girls. Three girls. No sons.

I had the first two kidnapped from their bedroom one night. They were sold to a company overseas. I told my wife that it was a gift from my employer in concern over our loss.

He never even knew that the girls had been kidnapped.

The third, I paid the doctors to claim was stillborn. The newborn was deposited outside of a respectable orphanage.

The Usurper: Part 2

A Study In Charcoal

Yama was a slow and methodical god, as most old men are. But he was full of wisdom that I was not yet ready for.

Yama sat in my computer chair as he spoke, crimson robes draping over the arms of the chair.

I lay on the floor, still smoldering.

"I have a question for you Rajid before we begin our talk of vengeance. Why did you choose that verse as the password?"

"Excuse me?"

"Indra is no usurper. The son who councils is Shiva's son, Ganesha. Your verse is less than accurate Rajid."

The Usurper Part 1

Dying, The First Time

Being murdered hurt less than I feared it would.

Sayam strangled me while I was finishing the documentation on my latest work. As he choked the life from me, Samir flipped through my paperwork. He stopped and turned back to us as the edges of my eyes faded.

"Let him go."

Sayam released me and I fell to the floor at Samir's feet. He kicked me in the mouth with the very toe of his shoe and I swallowed a half dozen of my teeth.