The Golem Tower

I'm sick and this took me the past few days, so it might be beyond terrible.

The Golem Tower

                Naedra, Ihicia, Verilae. Three inseparable friends. Although they were of slightly different ages – eighteen, seventeen and sixteen respectively – they got along like a house on fire. And they did, once, light a house on fire. These three young women were, at times, a bit of the curse on the village of Thick-Bramble. Despite the peacefulness of the region, these three were always looking for a little bit of adventure.

                This particular day they sat around a table in the village inn. Ihicia worked there on most nights, so they had a bit of leeway with the innkeeper. Most in the village didn’t approve of the adventurous girls – they were a bit old for the sort of stuff they did, you know. Naedra made a living winning games against drunks or travellers, although she played ‘fair’ games with her fellow villagers. Verilae was jobless – but more importantly, she wasn’t apprenticed. Of the three, she disliked the idea of ‘settling down’ the most. But she was also the youngest.

                “You said you have a great idea?” Verilae asked. The trio were deciding on an outing – usually nothing too exciting, although they had travelled further than any others in the village, and were among the few who had ever stepped into any of the well-known caves nearby. The caves had turned out to be rather dull.

                “Yep!” said Ihicia. “I think we should sneak into Jikhalv’s tower.”

                “Uh, what?” asked Naedra. Jikhalv was… A strange mage. A couple of years ago his creations – strange golems made of metal and stone – had built a tower for him near Thick-Bramble. He had coin from the distant city states, which he traded with the villagers for food and occasionally other supplies. But beyond his very rare presence in town, no-one knew anything about him – nor what he did in his tower. Rumours both ominous and strange abounded, though.

                “He’s a mage and he’s mysterious, and that’s all anyone knows. But we can find out everything if we sneak in!” said Ihicia, grinning.

                “Hisser, if he catches us, he could…” said Naedra worriedly. Although she found day to day village life a bore, she wasn’t particularly fond of taking risks.

                “Do what?” asked Verilae. “If he does more than teach us some kind of petty lesson he’ll get lynched by the village. I mean, if we manage to get in there’s no way he could keep everyone else out. But, so, how are we getting in?”

                Ihicia smiled. “Well, Very, last night Londric happened to mention that he saw Jikhalv’s golems working on an expansion to the tower,” she said. Londric was a hunter, and was one of the few villagers more travelled than the three girls. “There were holes, and a tunnel leading inside. So we can sneak in through there! And we don’t have to worry about the golems, remember what happened when we egged that one he brought into town? Big fat nothing. They’re just workers.”

                “I kind of remember him telling the mayor to warn ‘whoever did it’ that they were lucky it was in ‘safe mode’,” said Verilae.

                “Yeaaaah, I kind of did it again a while back,” said Naedra. “Nothing happened then, either.”

                “Really? You guys are meant to tell me everything!” exclaimed Verilae.

                “It was the day your mum was trying to hook you up with that sleazy trader,” said Ihicia. “So, you know how the rest of the day went… And Naedra only remembered to tell me a couple of days ago.” (On that particular day, a tearful Verilae had found her two friends, and they had together snuck off and not returned for a week – after the trader’s departure)

                “Oh,” said Verilae, frowning.

                “So are you guys in or what?” asked Ihicia.

                “Sure,” said Naedra. “This is one of the days he comes to town, isn’t it?”

                Ihicia nodded. “Of course! Otherwise we wouldn’t be discussing going today,” she said with a wink.

                “I’m in too,” said Verilae. She sculled the rest of her drink. “Are we heading off now?”

                “Yep,” said Ihicia. She pushed her empty glass to the middle of the table. Quick as lightning, her hand shot out and grabbed Naedra’s arm before she could slam hers beside it.

                “Don’t break the glasses,” she said, smiling at Naedra’s glare.

                “You were more fun before you had a job,” said Naedra as she stood up.

                “But whoever would you tease without me?” asked Ihicia in reply.

*****

                “There he goes,” said Verilae. The trio were hiding in some bushes on a hill overlooking the path Jikhalv took to the village. They knew the area fairly well, having come to gawk at the tower shortly after it was built (like most of the village).

                “Shhh,” said Ihicia softly, causing Verilae to roll her eyes. Despite the banter, all three of them remained silent as Jikhalv walked down the path and eventually popped out of sight.

                “Let’s go!” said Verilae immediately.

                “I hope there’s something cool inside,” said Naedra as the three of them wandered down the hill towards Jikhalv’s expansion. An earlier check had confirmed that the golems were still working, and that there was still a way for them to sneak in.

                “Probably,” said Ihicia. “He’s so damn mysterious that it has to be something someone wouldn’t approve of. Which means it has to be interesting, in my book.”

                “Maybe it’s treasure? He does have a lot of money,” said Verilae.

                “If there’s a lot of treasure I’m going to steal it and leave town,” said Naedra.

                “I’ll go with you!” said Verilae. The two of them looked at Ihicia expectantly.

                “… Maybe. Working at the inn isn’t so bad, you know,” she said.

                “I work the inn too, you know,” said Naedra with a wicked grin. “It’s not all that.”

                “You con drunk idiots and travellers out of their money, Nade, which is definitely not real work,” said Ihicia.

                “You’d do it if you could,” said Naedra, sticking her tongue out.

                “Maybe. Serving drinks and getting a few coins for being pleasant to drunks is a nicer way to get money, though,” replied Ihicia.

                “Can we talk about treasure and leaving town again?” asked Verilae. “Talk about making money is boring.”

                Naedra and Ihicia laughed. “You’re right about that, Very,” said Ihicia.

                “Thick-Bramble would be a terrible place without you guys,” said Naedra.

                “You’ve said that a lot,” said Verilae.

                “It’s true,” said Naedra. The trio stopped talking, as they had reached the edge of the golem worksite. Golems with shovels were digging easily into the earth and tossing it into wheelbarrows. It looked like they were about halfway done digging a large, four metre deep square (based on the side that was empty of golems). A makeshift ramp led up to a doorway into the tower basement; every now and then a golem would push a wheelbarrow loaded with stones up it. The dirt was being heaped a few hundred metres away – Jikhalv’s tower would soon have a new hill beside it.

                “They look really cool,” said Verilae, staring at the golems. They seemed to be mostly made of stone, with intricately patterned metal plates covering most of their bodies. At times the plates would glow lightly – showing evidence of the magic that animated them.

                “I didn’t realise he had this many,” said Naedra, taking the worksite in. There were at least thirty golems bustling about. At the rate they were working, it wouldn’t be long before the expansion was complete.

                “Well, there was always going to be enough to make the tower in under a week – Londric still swears to passing by a week before the tower was up,” said Ihicia. The tower wasn’t very large – it was a fairly broad, four storey tall structure built of black and brown stone. Rumour said it had floor after floor of basement, which might be true – the trio had found black stone during one of their cave trips.

                “Yeah. It’s pretty intimidating, though. They’re all about as big as the three of us put together,” said Naedra.

                “Come on guys,” said Verilae. “I don’t want to get caught! Mum said she’d hook me up with Vintil the farmer if I get into too much trouble. Then it’d be Veril and Vintil and stop laughing!”

                Ihicia and Naedra stopped their giggling. “Your mum wouldn’t be cruel enough,” said Ihicia. “But let’s go.”

                The trio started to make their way down into the construction site, avoiding the golems. The golems ignored them almost completely – they each quickly noticed that the golems would try to avoid walking into them if possible, however.

                “I wonder if Jikhalv can even make them attack people?” thought Verilae aloud.

                “Who knows,” said Ihicia. “He’s mysteriouuus.”

                Naedra and Verilae chuckled at Ihicia. The trio continued through the work site, taking a ramp down into the dug-out area. The sound of the golems at work, digging their shovels into the earth and tossing it into metal wheelbarrows was almost deafening up close.

                “HOW IS IT THIS LOUD?” shouted Verilae over the noise.

                “MAYBE HE HAS SOME KIND OF NOISE DAMPENING MAGIC?” replied Naedra.

                “LET’S JUST GET INSIDE!” said Ihicia. Naedra and Verilae nodded.

                They reached the ramp leading inside without incident, and – one wheelbarrow pushing golem dodged later – they were inside. As soon as they crossed the threshold the noise of the golems working became very faint, far quieter than it had even been from outside the worksite.

                “That’s definitely some kind of magic,” said Naedra, as the trio wandered down the corridor. The walls were made of the same stone types as the outside, a haphazard mix of brown and black. Although it seemed to have been put together haphazardly, the walls, floor and ceiling had all been polished smooth. Oil lamps hung from the ceiling, illuminating the corridor. It led straight forwards to some stairs, and a handful of doors lined each side.

                “I wonder what’s in these rooms?” said Verilae. Her face was lit up by a smile of intense joy – she was finally exploring somewhere cool!

                “Probably store rooms,” said Ihicia. “See the huge muddy mess the golems have made on the floor? It leads to a couple of the rooms, so they’re probably full of rocks. I still want to have a look, though.”

                With a rare mischievous grin Naedra sauntered up to the nearest door. It had a massive metal handle built for golem hands, which Naedra grabbed hold of and pulled to slide the door into the wall. “Easy enough,” she said, brushing her hands off on her shirt.

                The trio crowded into the room, looking around curiously. Neat piles of rocks lined the walls, organised by size. This room seemed to have the largest, including some slabs that were larger than a golem. Verilae immediately scampered up the side of the pile, and sat atop it with a triumphant “Ha ha!”

                Ihicia smiled at her, and Naedra wandered around peering at the rocks. “The bigger ones look like they’ve been cut out, rather than dug up,” she said, “There really might be a mine under here, or, perhaps more of a quarry? He can’t have dug that deep with only this to show for it.”

                “You’re right,” said Verilae, leaning over to check out the edge of a slab. “Wanna go down there?” she added, excitedly.

                “After we poke our heads into the rest of the storerooms, Very. We probably won’t get another chance so I don’t want to miss anything,” said Ihicia.

                Verilae leapt down from the slab pile, and followed the other two back into the corridor (and remembering to shut the door behind her). They walked along the corridor, opening doors and peeking in as they passed. Many of the rooms were filled with different kinds of stone – brown and black, but also a yellowish kind they had only seen small amounts of before (Ihicia said it was a type of ore).

                Other rooms held bars of metal that had been refined from the ore, as well as some alloys – steel and bronze, for the most part. A single room held more ordinary supplies – food, water, lamp oil. There were also a few rooms containing golem components, and near the end were three rooms full of finished but inanimate golems. They spent a little while staring into the third and final room, looking at the neat rows of golems.

                “There’s got to be more than a hundred of them in total!” exclaimed Ihicia.

                “I wonder why they’re not alive like the others?” asked Verilae.

                “Maybe they are, but he doesn’t want to scare everyone with his golem army so he’s left them inactive,” said Ihicia.

                “Or he can only animate one every month, and these are the spare ones he’s built since he arrived here,” said Naedra. She stood at the front of the trio, and neither of the others could see her sly smile.

                “Stop making up boring explanations!” said Verliae, punching Naedra on the shoulder. Naedra started giggling in response, having baited Verilae successfully. Verilae was not fond of simple explanations, finding them too boring. She preferred outlandish ones, or at least those that were exciting.

                “After you two finish,” said Ihicia, pausing until Naedra stopped giggling. Ihicia continued, saying, “Thank you. I think we should head down first, then up.”

                “Why?” asked Verilae.

                “Well, if there’s a mine down there I don’t really want to explore it. It should only take us a few seconds to check and take a little peek if it is, and if it isn’t I don’t want to miss whatever’s down there because we get fascinated by something upstairs,” explained Ihicia.

                “Sure,” said Naedra.

                “Okay,” said Verilae.

                The trio closed the door to the last storeroom and made their way down the stairs. The staircase was straight and turned at landings every two and a half metres. It continued for quite a while – Ihicia counted eight landings before they reached the bottom. The stairway opened up into a large chamber with a reinforced roof and stone struts holding the weight of the earth above. Several large wheelbarrows were neatly organised against one wall, as were some mining tools (including lanterns). Although the chamber was illuminated by several oil lamps, the tunnels that led out from it were not.

                “Cooool,” said Verilae.

                “We’ve been in caves before, Very,” said Naedra as she wandered over to the tools to take a closer look.

                “But this one was dug by golems!” said Verilae.

                “There’s still not much to see,” said Ihicia. She walked around the chamber, looking at the walls. At the depth they had reached, most of the earth was made up of the brown and black stone Jikhalv’s storerooms were full of – as well as the occasional spot of ore.

Verilae rushed up to Naedra and grabbed a lantern. “Aw, it’s empty,” said Verilae, disappointed. She had a quick glance around, but couldn’t find any oil to refill it with.

“Probably better that we don’t wander off into the tunnels; it’d be stupid if we got caught because we managed to get lost down here,” said Naedra, looking at Verilae.

“I guess so,” replied Verilae. She felt a bit like she was missing out on some adventure… But they were still in the mysterious mage tower, which made up for it.

After a few more minutes spent wandering around, Ihicia said, “Should we head back up now, guys?”

“Yes,” said Verilae, tossing the lantern back into the tool pile. It landed with a clatter (but thankfully no shatter), causing Verilae to look sheepish.

“I’m not looking forward to the stairs,” said Naedra as the group made their way back to the staircase.

“You can do it!” said Verilae, enthusiastically.

Her enthusiasm lasted three flights of stairs. “This is exhausting,” she said between huffs.

Naedra chuckled, and Ihicia said, “We’re half way already, you’ll be fine.”

“Only half way?” exclaimed Verilae. Despite her complaints and tiredness, the trio made it back up the stairs just fine; they even managed to get up to the floor above the storerooms without stopping.

“It looks just like the floor below,” said Verilae, disappointed. She was correct in saying so – although the corridor was shorter inside the tower itself, the rooms seemed to be of roughly the same size. The only real difference was that a door stood at the end of the corridor, normally the tower’s only entrance.

“Let’s get to it,” said Ihicia, striding confidently towards the first door. She pulled it open, revealing a furnace and an anvil as well as several pots, moulds and other tools.

“This will be where he made all those metal bars,” said Ihicia. “I wonder how he works the furnace? There doesn’t seem to be a chimney anywhere.”

“Magic!” said Verilae, excitedly. She rushed over to the furnace and examined it intently.

“I might check out one of the other rooms,” said Naedra, leaving Ihicia and Verilae to examine the forge. It was interesting that the mage had a forge, but Naedra had seen forges before. A (probably) magic furnace wasn’t that interesting to her, either.

The room opposite the forge was another storeroom, this one containing more day to day supplies. Naedra guessed that this was the room Jikhalv had the villagers deposit their goods in when they brought them up for him; which led her to wonder why he paid for the goods in coin – the bars of metal he had plenty of would’ve easily covered it, and prevented the villagers from gossiping about his money. It wasn’t as if the villagers could steal (or even take) the metal from him with at least forty golems around.

Ihicia and Verilae grew tired of the forge just as Naedra was pulling another door open. “The one right across was a storeroom,” she said, indicating with her hand. “And in here,” she continued, “is… Huh.”

The room Naedra had opened contained a large number of strange machines. They were skeletal in form – consisting of poles and joints that looked like they could be rearranged, with cage-like slots obviously intended to hold something. There was a space in the centre that seemed to be just about the size of a golem, as well.

“Wow,” said Verilae. “This is the kind of thing I thought we’d find! What do you reckon it’s for?”

                “I think it’s for finishing the golems,” said Ihicia. “See the big space in the centre? A golem could fit there. I’d say it’s where he brings them to life, actually.”

                “Wooow,” said Verilae, walking through the machinery. She let her hand gently slip over the poles as she passed them, eventually pausing and taking a grip of one of the cage slots.

                Naedra and Ihicia also wandered the room, pausing to take in the shape of the strange machine. Even if it wasn’t used to bring the golems to life, it certainly had some magical purpose. Unlike the storerooms, mine and forge they had seen so far, this was something only a mage would have need of.

                “I’m glad we came here,” said Naedra. “This has made my day.”

                “There are plenty more rooms after this one,” said Ihicia, grinning. The three girls spent a while wandering amidst the framework of the magical machine, admiring and (at times) fiddling with it. There were strange knobs and pipes, mirrors and switches, all begging to be touched. Jikhalv would, when he returned, probably have to spend quite a while undoing their meddling.

                Eventually Naedra grew bored, and said, “Onwards?”

                “Yep,” replied Ihicia, waving at Verilae to follow. The three of them headed back out into the corridor, and closed the door on the fascinating machines.

                The next room and the one after, while interesting, were not quite as fascinating. The first was a golem assembly room – a half-finished golem sat near the middle of the room, propped up on some supports. All the pieces necessary to complete and case it (stone limbs and metal coverings) were neatly arranged beside it, and unusual but sensible seeming tools for assembling the golem sat on benches that skirted most of the wall.

                The second room was a stone carving room – several half-finished golem limbs leant against the wall, and there were a few blocks of stone waiting to be carved as well. A multitude of stone working tools and benches were spread about the room haphazardly; all told, it quite closely resembled the masonry workshop in Tenpole (a town a few days walk away that the girls had visited a few years ago).

                The very last room on the floor was another mysterious one, which made Verilae very happy. It seemed to be used for glass working, but the results of Jikhalv’s work were strange glass and metal jars that lined the walls. They were very intricately patterned – Naedra was sure she recognised some sigil magic that a traveller had once written for her – and looked to be just the right size to fit into the cage slots of the awakening room.

                “Awesome,” said Verilae. “Want to stick them in the slots?”

                “I don’t think that would do anything. These seem to be empty, except that one there – see how it has a little bit of… A white light inside of it? That tiny flash, there,” said Naedra, pointing to a jar.

                Verilae stared intently at the jar for a while. “Oh! There it is. I saw it,” she said, having spotted the flash Naedra was talking about.

                “I guess he stores these in here,” said Ihicia. “I wonder why he has so many that are empty?”

                “Maybe he’s planning something big?” said Naedra.

                “Ooooh, mysterious,” said Verilae with a giggle. The girls grinned to one another, and shut the door on the room. Their conversation continued as they made their way back to the stairs.

                “I hope we find a library or a journal that I can browse,” said Ihicia. “I want to know how his magic and the golems work.”

                “I’m not sure it would be clearly explained,” said Naedra. “Although if you’re willing to steal a journal or book…”

                “No, Nade. No. No stealing!” said Verilae. “You know what the town council does to thieves!”

                “I know. They kick them out of town with a few less fingers. I’m not sure anyone would be up in arms over Jikhalv losing a book, though. And how would anyone know it was us?” Naedra said.

                “I’m not going to steal a book,” Ihicia assured Verilae. “And Nade, no stealing knickknacks or coins or anything else we happen to find, or I’ll pinch it all back and return it to Jikhalv myself.”

                “Alright,” said Naedra, grinning slyly.

                Ihicia rolled her eyes, and started heading up the stairs. The first floor of the tower was slightly different to the one below. The doors were smaller, human (rather than golem) sized and with knobs to turn and open. The floor was carpeted, and the walls while still stone were decorated with curtains and the occasional painting.

                “This is pretty cosy,” said Naedra.

                “Do you think he lives on this floor?” asked Verilae.

                “Maybe, but I’d live on the top floor,” replied Naedra.

                “Let’s get exploring,” said Ihicia, excitedly.

                The trio headed for the closest door, Ihicia in the lead. She opened it and revealed a library –shelf after shelf of books, each completely full. The shelves extended all the way up to the ceiling. Unlike the rest of the tower, this room was magically lit – little studs embedded into the shelves emanated enough light to illuminate the room brightly.

                “Oh wow! I’ve never seen so many books,” said Ihicia in awe.

                “Makes a complete joke of Endon’s collection, that’s for sure. He has thirty books? And then here there’s too many to even bother counting,” said Naedra. She started to wander amidst the shelves, glancing over the titles of the books. Despite their lack of education beyond the village scholar Endon’s lessons when they were much younger, all three of the girls could read the ‘common’ script.

                Ihicia looked at every single title, trying to figure out what each referred to. Most seemed to be reference books, tightly organised by topic – there was an entire shelf dedicated to duplicates of the research journals of other mages, mostly those from Mechanis. Maybe he really is from Mechanis? That’s a very long journey, she thought to herself.

                Verilae wandered through the stacks quite quickly, barely pausing to glance at any of the books unless one caught her eye. She was checking for interesting stuff, like jars of pickled eyes and animals, or open books on a desk, or a mysterious glowing tome… She was a bit disappointed when she didn’t spot anything on any of the shelves except books.

                “This room is boring!” she said loudly.

                “Some of these book titles are making me consider befriending Jikhalv, if that’s at all possible,” came Naedra’s voice. “There’s enough here to learn the basics of… Quite a few types of magic, all told. I’m sure you’d enjoy being able to do some spellwork, Very!”

                Verilae rolled her eyes and wandered back to the doorway. She could see Ihicia down one of the rows, reading a bit of a book. “Is that a good book, Hisser?” she asked, wandering up.

                “Hm? It’s kind of interesting – it’s a history book about Mechanis. Like the one Endon has, but without the damaged pages,” Ihicia said. “Take a look at this – the drawing of the machine that was missing from Endon’s copy.”

                “Cool!” said Verilae, staring at the image intently. It was a to-scale diagram of the ‘great war machine’ Mechanis had built for and used in the war against the Great Undead Empire, far to the west, a very long time ago. The tiny human figure beside it indicated that the great war machine would’ve stood half again as tall as Jikhalv’s tower – around fifteen metres high.

                “See, there’s awesome stuff in books,” said Ihicia, flicking through to later pages.

                “But we can’t spend all day here,” said Naedra, popping up behind Ihicia.

                “You’re right there,” said Ihicia, closing the book and slotting it back into the shelf. “Off to the room across the passage!”

                Verilae smiled as she led the way out and across the corridor, Naedra bringing up the rear and closing the library door. Once at the other side, Verilae pulled the door open to reveal a disappointingly similar room. This one had fewer shelves, and in the centre was a writing desk and chair. Although there were a lot of books, there were many loose papers, scrolls and other documents arranged on the shelves. Even the books seemed to be journals, of varying age and make.

                “This must be where he keeps his research!” enthused Ihicia.

                Verilae sighed. “We’ve already seen enough books,” she said.

                “It won’t hurt to take a bit of a peek, though,” said Naedra, shuffling Verilae in so she could slip past. “How about you check out the latest journal while I browse?”

                Verilae sighed, and walked to the writing table. She took a look at the latest page – it was written using the characters of the common script, but in what looked like a different language. “I can’t read it,” she said, prompting Ihicia to swoop in and grab the journal.

                “Ooh, it’s in code,” she said with a grin. “Hmmm…”

                Verilae stared at Ihicia as the latter stroked her chin wisely. Eventually Verilae got bored and said, “You know, we can probably sneak back in some time if you really want to decode it.”

                “Hmm, you’re right,” Ihicia said, flicking through the journal. “There are some pictures that look like schematics for the golems, and the device downstairs, and some other stuff we haven’t seen yet.”

                Verilae wandered off to explore the room, leaving Ihicia with the journal. “Oh, that’s cool,” she murmured to herself, having seen a particularly interesting drawing. He has a good drawing hand – I wonder if he could have been an artist? Magic is probably more interesting, though, Ihicia thought. She turned the journal back to the latest page, and set it back onto the table.

                Naedra was just wandering back with Verilae in tow. “It’s all very dense research notes, although I’m not sure that much is Jikhalv’s – there are a lot of different writing styles and some of the journals have got to be centuries old,” she said.

                “Nade managed to tear one,” said Verilae with a grin.

                “Only because a certain rascal came up behind me and jabbed her finger into my ribs,” said Naedra. “I guess you were too enthralled by the journal to hear me yelp?” she asked.

                “Yeah, I was,” said Ihicia sheepishly.

                Verilae giggled, and said, “Let’s keep going, guys. There can’t be books in every room up here!”

                Together the girls left the journal room, and headed down the corridor to the next room. Verilae pulled the door open with a grunt, and immediately said, “Well, that’s pretty creepy.”

                The room had been divided up into six smaller rooms, five accessible from the central one through doors. The doors were, however, obviously cell doors – a small flap at the bottom for food, and a barred window at the top to see into the room through. All the doors were hanging open, and the cells were completely empty.

                “Wow, I wonder what they’re for?” said Ihicia, stepping into the room.

                “I’m pretty sure they’re for people, Hisser. Although they don’t seem to have been used, which I’m thankful for,” said Naedra, moving past Ihicia to inspect the cells. “Yeah, well, this one’s clear at least,” she added.

                The girls inspected each of the cells in turn; they were spotless. If Jikhalv had ever used them, he had cleaned up the mess very well. Still, what could the cells before?

                “Maybe they’re for golems that break and become dangerous?” suggested Verilae.

                “The golems would just smash through these walls,” said Naedra, slapping a wall as if it was nothing.

                “She’s right. Maybe he was planning something horrible but changed his mind? The village isn’t a bad place,” said Ihicia.

                Verilae frowned. “I think I want to get out of here, guys,” she said, backing towards the entrance doorway.

                “Agreed,” said Naedra. Ihicia followed her and Verilae back into the corridor, and pulled the door shut behind them.

                “Should we tell the village elders when we get back?” asked Ihicia.

                “No, I don’t want to get in trouble!” said Verilae.

                “If we find something worse, yes, but this isn’t too bad,” said Naedra. “I want to keep exploring anyway, so…”

                “So do I,” said Ihicia. “Very?”

                Verilae nodded, and the trio headed across the corridor to the room opposite. Naedra pulled the door open, and muttered “Is that?” before striding right into the room. Verilae and Ihicia followed close behind.

                In the centre of the room was a strange looking seat, and around it had been drawn a powerful piece of sigil magic – so powerful that it was glowing, lighting the room with eerie blue light that was visible even though the room was brightly lit by four oil stands set around the room. Opposite the seat sat a cage similar to those found on the machine downstairs, and next to the door stood an idle (but alive) golem. Apart from that the room was empty. What had caught Naedra’s eye was a particular detail of the chair – shackles.

                As she got close, she noticed that there was dried blood around them. “Oooh shit,” she said.

                “Menace’s glare,” said Ihicia, staring at the chair. “That can’t be good.”

                “Or it could just be something really strange he does to himself,” said Verilae, deciding to take a turn at providing ‘reasonable explanations’.

                “I guess…” said Ihicia.

                Naedra seemed to be on the edge of saying something but unsure if she should, causing Ihicia and Verilae to stare at her. “What is it, Nade?” asked Ihicia.

                “Y-you guys remember the kid who disappeared a few months back, right? I, um, saw him talking with Jikhalv a few days before he disappeared. Jikhalv was offering to teach him magic if he came here, but he had to keep it a secret-“ Naedra said.

                “What! Why didn’t you tell anyone?” shouted Ihicia. Verilae looked at Naedra, shocked.

                “Well, the next time Jikhalv came to town I confronted him after checking that his golem was off and I, um, I blackmailed him. It’s how I’ve gotten Dunder off my back about scamming travellers – I haven’t needed to as much because Jikhalv’s been giving me a few coins. Your boss thinks I’m selling him my body, actually, Ihicia but-“ said Naedra.

                “Nade, there are… There are things that we should just tell everyone. For everyone’s safety. You should have at least told us before we came here!” said Ihicia.

                “I’m sorry, but I figured… Well, I figured the kid would be dead, but… Damn it, let’s get out of here. We’ll tell the council and we can all lynch Jikhalv and be done with it. I don’t even mind revealing that I was blackmailing him,” said Naedra. She didn’t really sound particularly sorry, but that was how Naedra was.

                “We’re not going to finish exploring first?” asked Verilae. None of them had noticed the golem by the door starting to move…

                “No, Very. This is and what Naedra knows is proof that Jikhalv killed Daddles. We can’t risk being caught by him now that we know, and… He could do anything to us if he does catch us!” Ihicia said worriedly. She turned from the seat to look at the door just in time to see the golem slam it shut.

                “What was – oh shit!” said Naedra, turning as well.

                “What, oh no!” said Verilae. “Get out of the way golem!”

                Ihicia instinctively backed away from the golem after it slammed the door shut, but after it didn’t move she stepped hesitantly forward.

                “It’s blocking the door,” said Naedra, striding forward boldly. “I don’t think it wants to hurt us, though. Do you – do you think it understood what we were talking about? Lynching Jikhalv and all- WHOA!” Naedra leapt back from the golem as it raised an arm towards her; Ihicia and Verilae flinched as well.

                “Oh, I get it. That makes this your fault, Nade,” said Verilae petulantly.

                “Huh?” said Naedra, recovering from the shock. “Oh, I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t have said what the rest of the village will probably do. But if we say nothing else… Maybe we can get around it?”

*****

                The trio immediately discovered that, as the door opened inwards, the golem was in the way of any attempted escape. It did not respond at all to their attempts to open the door, nor their later attempts to move the golem itself. Poking the walls was fruitless, as all of them expected there were no secret passages to be found. They tried kicking the door around the golem, in an attempt to knock it free, but it was made of thick stone and barely moved at all (despite the girls nearly breaking their feet).

                With the simple possibilities exhausted, the girls decided to try more complicated escape plans. The damage the sigil in the floor, and pushed over the seat, but the golem stayed still. They talked about killing Jikhalv in great (and graphic) detail, but although the golem would clench its fists and reach out if they were close it did not move from the doorway. They tried again, closer, but the golem refused to move its body or legs.

                “Damn it!” said Ihicia. “I’m pretty sure it’s getting late – he’ll be getting back soon!”

                “I can’t think of anything else we can try,” said Naedra. “We’ve done everything we can – unless you want to stab the golem with one of the lamp stands?”

                “I don’t see how that would help,” said Ihicia.

                Suddenly footsteps started coming from outside. Not soft, human footsteps, but the heavy stamping of at least three golems. “Oh no, that’ll be him with backup, oh no,” said Verilae, panicking.

                “Just keep calm,” said Ihicia. “He doesn’t know we’re in here, so we can escape past him by hiding in here.” She motioned for Naedra and Verilae to join her beside the door. They quickly hurried over, huddling beside her.

                “And keep quiet,” Ihicia added softly.

                The footsteps grew closer, and the girls faintly caught the sound of the door opposite being opened. Soon after, a faint “What the?” came from the other side of the door, followed by “Golem! Move out of the way!” The voice was recognisably Jikhalv’s.

                Upon hearing the command, the golem stomped quickly out of the way. The door opened immediately afterwards, and Jikhalv walked into the room. “What a mess,” he said as he looked around.

                Jikhalv dressed very differently compared to the villagers. Where they wore fine knitted wool shirts and pants that were perhaps a little crude, Jikhalv wore a reserved, yet formal and elegant dress. Or ‘robe’, as he liked to call it, but it was truly more akin in shape to a dress. He also had proper cow-leather work boots, compared to the sheepskin the villagers mostly wore.

                When Jikhalv took another step away from the door way Ihicia started to move, Verilae and Naedra close behind her. As she reached the doorway, the golems outside all turned straight to her – and one of them slammed its fists together with a crash.

                The noise made Jikhalv whirl around. “Aha! My ‘guests’,” he said. “Stay put unless you want to be squished by a golem.”

                “Shit!” said Ihicia. She felt the urge to run, but the golems had formed a wall of stone  with barely any gaps – there was no way around them. She turned around, and faced Jikhalv. Verilae and Naedra did much the same, though Verilae seemed on the verge of fainting from fear. Naedra was… Calm enough to stand straight, but very tense.

                “I should have expected it would be you three – yes, I have noticed you in the village. You did egg one of my golems. You’re very lucky that particular golem was able to understand that eggs are not dangerous, actually,” said Jikhalv. “But more importantly, you’ve definitely seen too much. And though I know Naedra here would happily continue black-mailing me – so she did tell you – I don’t think you two have the same greed as she. So what should I do with you?”

                “Let us go,” said Ihicia. “Then you can admit to your crimes and flee, or even face justice for it.”

                “That is what I should do, I suppose, if we’re working within the confines of the morally right. I’m quite certain you understand that I work outside those confines. Do you have any other suggestions?” asked Jikhalv.

                Ihicia ground her teeth. She wasn’t sure there was a way out of this mess-

                “I’ll do whatever you want as long as you let me live,” said Naedra, knocking Ihicia’s train of thought completely off.

                Really Nade? thought Ihicia, at the same time as Jikhalv said, “Really? Ha ha ha. And what if I was to ask you to do something that is truly terrible?”

                “I’ll do it,” said Naedra, without hesitation. Ihicia looked at Naedra critically – was she really that afraid of what Jikhalv would do to them?

                Jikhalv grinned. “Alright then. Bring the entire village – or as many as you can – up here. Get them riled up, maybe. I don’t care. My golems are enough to take them all prisoner, and then I can perform my work. Hm, do you girls understand what it is I do here?”

                “Don’t do it, Nade,” whispered Ihicia.

                The girls remained silent long enough for Jikhalv to decide to continue. “This room is used to extract souls, which are placed in the jars I believe you have seen several of. Another room on this level contains a very old, very powerful machine from another world that I can use to ‘mix’ the souls – cutting them into pieces,” he said. All three of the girls looked shocked – extracting souls was bad enough, but to harm them was an act of true evil (and usually impossible).

                “I then imbue the souls into the golems downstairs. It takes about a third of a soul to power one – in essence, the attempts of the bound soul to escape power the golem. The ‘mind’ of a golem is another construct, so I do not have to deal with them going rogue. Unless… Unless I am foolish enough to not mix souls, in which case the partial soul will sometimes cohere enough to cause issues. A mindless, insane partial soul is no problem, but anything with sentience… That’s why this particular golem is up here. It works fine, unlike the other one I made, but it refuses to leave this place and is strangely over-protective of me.

                “So, Naedra, I want you to bring the villagers up here so that I can tear out their souls, and use them to animate more golems. If you refuse, you’ll be extracted and cut up instead. Though I will eventually take the village. Do you still feel like doing whatever I ask?” said Jikhalv.

                “Yes,” said Naedra. The way that she said it, Ihicia could tell she was serious. She wasn’t even trying to trick Jikhalv so she could warn the village.

                “Ha ha, even if you’re lying you’re very bold. I’ll give you a chance, if you tell me why you’re so willing. You don’t seem that scared of me – your valiant friend is putting up a front, and your young friend is, well, I think she has passed out now,” requested Jikhalv.

                Ihicia dropped to Verilae’s side. Jikhalv was right – the girl had fainted. As Ihicia checked over Verilae, Naedra spoke. “I don’t want to die, and I hate the village,” said Naedra. “It’s so pointless. I would’ve left years ago if it wasn’t for these two – and if the other villages nearby weren’t just as bad. Or even if I was dumb enough to believe the stories travellers told. There’s no-one there I care for.”

                Jikhalv tilted his head from side to side, considering Naedra’s answer. “Well, I have no way of knowing if that’s true. But it sounds good enough. Golems! Let this girl pass!” Jikhalv said, finishing with a shouted order. “You may go.”

                Naedra nodded, and said, “Thank you.”

                JIkhalv smiled in amusement as she turned and left. A little way out the door, she turned back and asked, “Are you going to extract the souls from these two? It’d be nice if you didn’t.”

                Ihicia looked shocked – as did Jikhalv. “Uh, I assumed that was ‘my end of the deal’, so to speak,” Jikhalv said, a little confused.

                “Really? Why would that be part of the deal if I didn’t ask for it at all?” said Naedra.

                Jikhalv stared at her for a moment, and said, “That’s, uh, what people would usually expect. You’re a scary girl.” He paused, then said, “I like that.”

                Naedra shrugged and turned to go, leaving Jikhalv stewing in thoughts about her.

                Oh Nade, thought Ihicia. As Naedra had turned, Ihicia had spotted a smile on her lips.

*****

                Naedra made her way back to the village quite quickly, though she headed through the light woodland instead of taking Jikhalv’s path. It’d be a bit strange if she came straight down – especially since she planned to say that she had escaped. “I was keeping an eye out,” she’d say.

                She smiled to herself. She was in the clear, safe. Jikhalv was a very, very evil man; but he wouldn’t go back on his word. He’d probably even pay her for her help before she went on her way. If she went on her way. Perhaps she’d stay and… get to know Jikhalv a little better. He had power, and he obviously had plans to do perhaps not great but at least interesting things. Naedra found that quite attractive, in truth.

                Despite feeling pleased about getting out of a sticky situation (and hopefully into one better than ever before) she did regret betraying her friends. The village could rot, for all she cared, but her friends would probably never forgive her. She wished they were as lacking in attachments as she was, but she knew that would probably have made them far less interesting. Verilae’s adolescent rebellion, Ihicia’s determination to forge her own path… Both were traits that came from their interactions with their parents, and others.

                Naedra’s parents had dumped her in the village when passing through, and although a kindly old spinster had taken care of her she had been little more than an ornament to the woman. Luckily for Naedra, by her tenth year her carer had grown frail, and did not question how Naedra was able to bring home food for them both. She had passed away just over a year ago – and with the way Naedra (and the spinster) had acted, all in the village believed them to have been as mother and daughter. But beyond being civil and generally pleasant to one another, there had been nothing.

                That was lucky for Naedra. She realised early on that she couldn’t feel like other people – most things were dull to her, lacking in any great meaning. To live another day was a sensible goal, but it wasn’t anything more than a necessity. As for people, she found most of them to be lacking any sense of adventure. Her friends were a true blessing – whether it was her influence that had made them seek out adventure, or just natural luck, she had no idea. But without them she would have left the village many years ago (and made several unwise decisions).

                So she did hope they would forgive her, eventually. Verilae might; she was young and had long had a vicious streak that Ihicia discouraged. There was no series of events that Naedra could think of to make Ihicia forgive her, though. Not for decades, and probably never. Tears welled in her eyes, surprising her. She decided to lament about it some more, as it would help when she reached the village.

                Naedra knocked on the inn door and trod heavily in, tired and red-eyed.

                “Where the heck have you girls been?” asked Pine, the innkeeper. When the other two did not follow Naedra in as expected, he added, “Where’s Ihicia? She’s meant to be serving tonight.”

                Naedra stumbled to the nearest table and sat down. “Jikhalv,” she said, puffed. She took a deep breath and continued, saying, “We snuck into the tower and he caught us – I was in another room so I managed to get away.”

                “Of all the places… What made you decide to go there?” asked Pine. “I suppose I’ll be seeing to well-chastened girls in about an hour.”

                “No, he’s – he’s going to kill them. We found –“ said Naedra.

                “What?” interrupted Pine. “This better not be a story, girl!”

                “Let me finish! We found a machine with shackles, and blood, and jars with souls in them and journals about it all. We were trying to collect enough evidence to prove it to everyone before he caught us, we lost track of time,” said Naedra, sobbing. It was a trick a traveller had taught to her – thinking sad thoughts to bring tears while saying something else.

                “Damnit, girl,” said Pine. “We’ll have to grab him next time he comes into town for supplies. Those golems of his will tear us to pieces. Or if he hides away up there we’ll just have to get everyone from all the nearby villages and storm the place.” The patrons of the inn that evening, who had gathered around, nodded sagely.

                “No, please! He’ll kill them! You don’t need to worry about the golems – most of them ran out of power from all the excavation work he has been doing. That’s why he’s going to kill them so soon!” rambled Naedra. Despite her reasoning sounding haphazard, she had thought it out ahead of time in case someone had brought up Pine’s point.

                “She’s right about the excavations,” said Londric the hunter. “Wait, did Ihicia plan this? I shouldn’t have told her about it. You guys snuck in through the open tunnel, didn’t you.”

                “Yes,” said Naedra. “We thought the worst that could happen was him having a go at us!”

                “Alright,” said Pine, who had been mulling over what Naedra said. “We’re having an emergency village meeting. Head out and wake everyone up, we’ll assemble in the square. Honoured guests to our village, you may remain here if you wish – in fact, please look after Naedra while we discuss what we are going to do.”

                The only two travellers staying at the inn that night – a sheep farmer who lived not too far to the south and a travelling fine-smith – nodded their agreement.

                “I want to come with you,” said Naedra forcefully.

                “We’ll come get you when we’re leaving. Rest a bit – you look worn out,” said Pine, waiting behind as the villagers headed out of the inn to rouse the rest of the village. “We’ll not be long,” he added as he stepped out the door.

                Pine was correct in saying that it wouldn’t take long. Naedra barely had time to finish a glass of the clean water Pine kept behind the bar before Londric burst back in and said, “We’re heading off! Almost everyone is coming along, excepting the elderly and the kids, of course. Do you want a weapon? I have a couple of spare javelins at home.”

                “Please,” said Naedra. She said her thanks to the travellers, and followed Londric out of the inn. She followed him down to his house, waiting outside while he nipped in to grab her a javelin. It wouldn’t be the best weapon in a melee, but that didn’t actually matter for her.

                “Thank you,” she said after Londric handed the javelin to her, and he smiled broadly in reply.

                They made their way to the edge of the village, where the other villagers were also assembling. A few wore leather armour and had well-kept swords or spears (the town militia), but the vast majority had whatever was on hand – large kitchen knives, mallets, farming implements or rusty older weapons. There were about sixty villagers, all told, which would have seen them through if there were only a handful of golems. But against forty, well.

                Naedra had to stop herself from smiling, which was difficult. It would’ve been easy to pass off, but some of the villagers were preternaturally canny, and many weren’t particularly fond of her. Her reputation as a confidence trickster and general strangeness put most of them off. Although most thought of Verilae and Ihicia the same way, the links the other two had in the villager – through their parents, and in Ihicia’s case, Pine – ensured the entire village was willing to help.

                The few villagers still arming themselves trickled in over the next few minutes, often coming up to Naedra to reassure her, or simply because they felt they had to. The forced politeness some expressed reminded Naedra of why she disliked the village so much. After the villagers had finished assembling, the mayor – Pine’s elder sister Maple – looked over the crowd and nodded. “Time to go rescue a couple of foolish girls!” she said. Then she turned and led the way out of the village.

                The walk to Jikhalv’s tower took just under an hour, the villagers managing a brisk march. The sun had set before Naedra’s arrival, so many of the villagers carried lit torches. The glow of the torches lit the tower quite eerily, somehow managing to catch strange edges of its windowless form. The stopped the crowd behind her about twenty metres from the tower.

                “I’m going to place old explosive at the door to blow it!” she yelled over the chatter. “It shouldn’t be dangerous but don’t come any closer!”

                Leaving the crowd, she started to move towards the door, only to see it open in front of her. From inside stepped Jikhalv, and then four golems that moved to flank him. “And for what reason is – must be most of the village here! For what reason is most of the village paying me a visit?” he asked.

                “Let those two girls go,” said Maple. The crowd made a mostly incoherent ‘Yeah!’ behind her.

                “And why would I do that?” asked Jikhalv.

                “Because if you don’t we’ll have to break your tower and rescue them ourselves!” said Maple. The crowd made a louder affirmative noise, although what anyone was saying was lost.

                “Alright. Two important things: firstly, I’m pretty sure that you’ll destroy my tower even if I hand over the girls. Secondly, what makes you think you can defeat me and my golems?” asked Jikhalv, honestly curious.

                “We might not be able to defeat them all, but we can defeat the few that haven’t run out of power!” replied Maple, as if delivering a surprise with the knowledge.

                “What?” said Jikhalv, confused. Then to himself, he quietly said, “Oh, you clever girl.”

                “So what will it be, Jikhalv? If you release the girls we may show you mercy. If you do not, we will show none!” yelled Maple.

                “I’m afraid to say that you fine people have made a mistake,” said Jikhalv. He paused for effect, and then said, “If you take a look around you, you’ll discover that my golems are in fact fully operational.”

                “What?” said Maple. She and the other villagers looked around, and were shocked to find that they had become completely surrounded by the golems – all forty-odd of them. The villagers outnumbered them slightly, but it would take more than two poorly armed villagers to defeat one.

                “Oh no,” said Maple. She turned and yelled to the villagers, “Flee for your lives! Break through the rear! Naedra was wrong!”

                A few screams and other sounds of panic came from the villagers as they charged towards the golems blocking the path they had only minutes ago walked up. Those in front attempted to engage the golems, only to be knocked aside and over by those behind them. The golems immediately set to work pummelling their attackers – slamming their stone fists into head after head. Those struck dropped like stones – some were probably dead. Villagers who managed to squeeze by the first few golems found themselves lifted up and hurled back by a second row behind.

                A handful of villagers – five in all – managed to get through the golems, and started to run for the village. The rest, unable to break through, found themselves in a quickly tightening circle of golems. “Stay back!” said Maple, putting on a brave show for the rest.

                The golems closed in, and soon those few her were still conscious found themselves grabbed tightly; this time held rather than thrown. Maple was one of those grabbed, and though she struggled, she could not break free. She screeched and hollered as it hauled her inside, glancing around at the other villagers, both conscious and not, being taken in as well. In the distance she could see a few golems running in the direction of the village, after the few who had made it out.

                The scene was one of true horror for her, but she was proud to see that one of the golems that had ambushed them from behind was no longer moving. Then she realised something odd: she hadn’t seen Naedra anywhere during the fight, or even for a while before. The coward probably slunk off, or lied about the golems so we’d rescue her damn friends, thought Maple angrily.

                After all the villagers had been dragged inside, Naedra emerged from the same bushes she had hid in earlier that day. A lot had changed since she had huddled there earlier. She was about to find out if it was for the better.

                “I was wondering when you’d appear,” said Jikhalv, smiling at her. “Someone as greedy as you pretty much has to come and ask me for some sort of payment. Although it was a toss-up between that and you chickening out.”

                “You’re reading me wrong, Jikhalv. Cowardice is letting fear get the better of me; not only take risks that will almost certainly pay off. And I am not greedy – perhaps a little, but it doesn’t define me. I’m here to ask something else,” said Naedra.

                “What’s that? Oh, your friends are free to go after my golems hit the village – they should be coming back out in a few minutes to handle that. I don’t need them, and although we didn’t discuss it directly it is what one should expect from a deal that both parties honour,” he said.

                Naedra smiled. “I want to stay,” she said. “Here. Help you with your… research. I’m sure you could use a maid, or an assistant. Your golems are going to miss someone, so my name will be mud around here. Working for you would also be a lot more interesting than making my way to the coast, or to the city states.”

                “Really?” asked Jikhalv. “I suppose you can stay. The lack of company has been troublesome, at times, and you seem bright enough to pick up the basics of my studies. So alright. I’ll take you on as my assistant and maid.” His thoughts added one last bit: and perhaps more.

                Naedra smiled broadly and did a mock curtsy. “Thank you, Jikhalv,” she said. The warmth in his smile let her know that her plan to seduce him would be quite easy. More so, it felt… Good, in fact. I really am attracted to him – or his power, at least, she thought to herself. That was a very nice thing; they might actually end up with a real relationship.

                “Well, come on in,” said Jikhalv, turning to the door. “We can figure out somewhere for you to sleep, and I can show you the rooms you didn’t manage to sneak into.”

                Naedra pushed her plots from her mind (for the moment), and entered the tower. Through the front door, this time.