Haven't tried 40k fanfiction in a while, but had some inspiration. Let me know what you think:
It was the week before Crusaders’ Day that Alyssandra, the governor’s youngest daughter, fell ill. At first, her family barely even noticed.
“It’s only a cough,” said the Governor, “Drink plenty of fluids and get a good night’s sleep.” Then he went back to preparing for the festivities. He couldn’t afford to be distracted now. Decorations had to be hung, charitable donations to the ecclesiarchy had to be made to prove his piety, and every noble in the Spire had to receive a personal invitation, lest a family feel slighted and plot revenge. Imperial politics was a delicate, perilous, and time consuming thing.
Alyssandra followed her father’s advice, but it didn’t help. The cough grew worse. She started vomiting everything she drank or ate. Her head throbbed and she felt dizzy every time she stood up. Still everything continued as normal. But when the girl collapsed at the Crusaders’ Day opening ceremony, spewing blood all over her fitted, eagle embroidered silk robes that had been tailor made to match the rest of the family’s, the problem could no longer be ignored.
The best physicians in the Hive were called in. Then the best physicians from the other Hives. No treatment had any effect. The disease was like nothing any doctor had seen before. The Governor began to worry. Rumors began spreading all through the Spire. The Governor’s family had a mutation in their blood that had caused this illness. The Governor’s youngest daughter had been cursed because of her family’s wickedness. The Governor was hiding his own sickness and would soon be unable to rule. The other noble houses stirred the pot as much as they could, hoping to weaken the Governor’s position while strengthening their own.
So the Governor had Alyssandra placed in a heavily secured private room at the very tip of the Spire. There she stayed, spending day after day and month after month alone, except for the three times each day that servants brought her meals, and the occasional times when her mother came to talk to her and give her some new toy (but never to touch her or get too close, she might be infectious after all). The Governor himself never visited. He was far too busy running planetary affairs, making public appearances and proving to the nobles that he wasn’t dying. Her older brother and sister didn’t visit either. Neither had been very close to her. They blamed her for ruining their Crusaders’ Day celebration, and for the subsequent rumors they had to put up with.
Alyssandra prayed hard every day for the Emperor to heal her. She wasn’t healed. In time, even her mother began to visit less and less frequently. The girl’s condition wasn’t improving, and there were so many other things to do. It was a perilous time for the family after all, and it wouldn’t do for the Governor’s wife to look weak.
Alyssandra’s long blond hair began to fall out in clumps. Her skin broke out in raw, red sores. She bled frequently from the mouth and nose. Soon she was so weak that she could hardly leave her bed. Now Alyssandra prayed that she could simply die, so that her suffering would end. It was then, wracked with pain and abandoned by everyone, that Alyssandra had another visitor.
It was night, and pitch black in Alyssandra’s windowless cell of a room when the visitor arrived. It wasn’t a sound, so much as a sense that woke her, a feeling of a presence. The first things she noticed when she opened her eyes was the glow. The windowless room was pitch black in the evening hours, when the servants shut the lamps off from outside, but now everything was bathed in a faint red light. The light was coming from the foot of her bed…
Slowly, Alyssandra lifted her head and looked. Down past her feet, by the bedpost, a monster was looming over her. It least it seemed to Alyssandra that it must have been a monster. It was far too big to be human, and had glowing red eyes that were the source of the light. It’s body was completely covered with plates of armour that were stained red in the light of its eyes, but with some kind of liquid running down them and seeping out of the cracks that appeared black in the crimson glow. Puffs of steam rose from a grate over the monster’s mouth.
Alyssanda’s first instinct was to scream, but she no longer had the lungs or the energy for it. Instead she gave a low groan, followed by another hacking cough that tore its way out of her chest. Looking up blearily at the huge figure at the foot of her bed, she suddenly realized that she had no reason to be afraid. Nothing that could happen to her was worse than what she was already going through.
After moment of silence, save for the faint whirring of servos and distant machinery, Alyssandra cleared her throat and managed to speak.
“Are you… are you here to end my suffering?” This figure could only be an angel of death, come for her soul.
The giant tilted its head to one side. She could hear its raspy breathing. Rasp in. Rasp out. In. Out. It seemed to be pondering her words.”
“End your suffering? A flawed way of thinking. Only you can end your suffering.” The voice was deep and booming, but had an odd burbling quality to it, as though the speaker were talking through half a mouthful of juice.
Alyssandra was surprised. She hadn’t really expected the giant to answer her. She hadn't expected it to speak. She propped herself against the bedpost with her pillow, so she could look at her visitor without holding her head up.
“How did you get in here?” she asked.
“Walked,” came the reply.
Alyssandra snorted in disbelief, an action that caused a painful stinging in the back of her nose. “Impossible. The guards would have seen you and raised the alarm. You would have had to break through the door. I would have heard.”
The giant shook its head. “I didn’t say I walked through the door.”
“But there’s no other way,” Alyssandra replied, confused.
“Oh, there are other ways,” the intruder answered cryptically, “More ways than you could imagine.”
Alyssandra sighed. Her head was starting to pound again, and this conversation with her visitor was going nowhere. “What are you?” she asked, “And if not to kill me, why have you come to my bedchamber and disturbed my sleep?
The giant laughed; a low, gurgling laugh, like the sound of a waterfall from a holotube movie. There was genuine joy and mirth in that laugh, and it was oddly pleasant to listen to. “Once I was a man. Now I am many things more and less than that. You may call me Brother Eseus. I am sorry for disturbing your slumber, but something called to me, and I was compelled to answer.”
Alyssandra frowned. Her headache had seemed to ease for a moment as the giant… as Brother Eseus spoke, but it quickly returned in force. “Called you? Nobody called… unless… I said many prayers, but nobody answered.”
Eseus chuckled again. “Well perhaps I am the answer, little one.”
Alyssandra sighed and settled back against her pillow. “Well if you’re the answer to my prayer, cure me. Cure me of this cursed disease.”
Now it was Brother Eseus who sighed, a wet, wheezing sound filtering through his helmet. “And if I did that, what good would it do you?”
“What do you mean what good would it do me?” Alyssandra gasped in disbelief, “I wouldn’t be sick! I wouldn’t be in pain! I wouldn’t be dying!”
“Wait a moment,” Eseus raised a hand, cutting off her outburst. “You’ve just said something very interesting. You said you wouldn’t be in pain. Is that really the truth?”
Alyssandra paused. “Well...,” her mouth was dry. “I…”
“Is this sickness the only pain in your life?” Eseus asked calmly. “Without it, would you be happy?”
Alyssandra swallowed. She was quiet for a very long time. “…No,” she said at last. Her eyes and nose stung. Tears began to run down her face. She tried to wipe them on her shoulder.
“Just as I thought,” Eseus said gently, circling around the bed until he was standing right beside her. “I cannot take away your pain, but I can listen. Perhaps sharing your troubles will ease the pain. So tell me, what in your life causes you the most pain?”