Tale and Departure
The Golem awoke submerged under the water, having at some point sat down on the floor in their panic, such that the waist high reservoir left only the very tip of their hat-like head dry.
They spent a long moment just sitting and watching Ka-cketika’s lights reflect off the surface of the water, twinkling whenever a small wave or ripple caused by their own interference broke the lights path.
When Wanderer felt they had recovered enough of themself and gotten enough of a handle on the situation, they began to stand up from the water, signalling to their compatriots that they had returned to reality once more.
The Golem had scarcely got their head above the surface when they were forced back down again by a little ball of moss with far too much worry in its artificial mind.
Emio’s tendrils closed around them like a vice, as if trying to prevent even the thought of abandoning them again, the most recent of Wanderer’s breakdowns having acted as the limit for the verdestry’s nonchalant attitude.
“I'll have to do something to repay them for all the worry.” Wanderer thought.
As soon as the Vessel had calmed Emio down, the librarian took their chance to address Wanderer, likely curious about what had happened.
“Have you sorted things out with your Spirit?” they said hesitantly, in case they were to dredge some element of the panic from moments ago back to the surface.
The smaller Vessel replied with respectable haste.
“They decided to take break, they can get themselves on the path they want to be on.”
Ka-cketika nodded and fell into a companionable silence before finally speaking up once again.
“If you are able, I would like to know one thing that I have wondered about for a long time. What has become of our people, the Golems?”
Wanderer hardly knew the answer to that question themself, yet realised that whatever they knew was at least up to date, while the librarian had been sitting alone for hundreds of years.
It must have been torture.
“The Golems are hunted, killed one by one. I watched one being killed. I have heard of home of Golems which was raided, there are not many left.”
With every word Wanderer said the librarian seemed to flinch back, as if they were being physically attacked with every syllable, by the time the Vessel finished their crude message, Ka-cketika hung their body low and close to the ground, as close as their position would allow.
Now it was Wanderer’s turn to be worried, wading forward a little bit to check if their companion was OK.
As if they could read the Vessel’s mind, Ka-cketika answered the unspoken question.
“I am fine, Wanderer, you need not worry about me. It is simply that I have been down here so long, I have fantisied of what our people would have become, how prevalent, how accepted. I dreamed that we overcame the cruel Spirits who claim us and moved on, lived as our own people, united and whole.”
“But I know now, that was always a foolish dream, we Golems have always been creatures of fighting and pain, it is only natural that we should be destroyed in that same way.”
Wanderer didn't know how to react to that, having never truly thought about the destruction of their kin to such an extent, having never realised that they might be one of the last of their species alive.
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How much had they lost without knowing.
Despite the enormity of the subject, however, the Vessel felt nothing.
Perhaps it was because of the hollow tiredness that still lingered in their mind, or the extremity of the fact being simply too much to comprehend, yet when they tried to relate to the deep suffering that the librarian felt in front of them, they came up with nothing.
However, before the Vessel could hope to act upon their absence, a deep rumble echoed throughout the library and a wave of heat hit them like a punch.
From their left, blocking the way they came, dark red lava spilled from a new crack in the earth, vaporising the water below it and filling the area with billowing steam.
Wanderer could hardly believe it, how could this happen, they were just beginning to hear the origins of their people, just beginning to learn from the infinite source of knowledge that was Ka-cketika, just getting to know the first Golem they had ever met beside themself.
The librarian whipped their body upwards, snapped out of their stupor, and flared the lights in the library to almost unbearable levels before bringing them back down again.
“Why now!” they screamed, “I have been ready for this for so, so long, but now, the one moment when I find someone to guide, to help, the end comes!”
The tiny burst of emotion that Wanderer’s felt at the occurrence was drowned once again by a wave of exhaustion, forcible indifference provided by their mind, too much had happened too quickly.
They need some time to rest and make sense of things again.
“You must leave. now. I don't want you to be hurt.” Ka-cketika asserted, leaving little room for argument.
“I can't, you die if I leave and there is so much I want to ask you.”
The librarian was having none of it, “As long as you live, continue to explore, you will eventually learn all I have to teach you but if you remain here you will die and your journey will end.”
“But the books and scrolls, they be destroyed if no preserved them!” Wanderer argued a remnant of heat rising in their chest.
“All things must die eventually, even information, in truth every book here has been dead for hundreds of years with no one but me to read them, there is little point in mourning them.”
“But you, do you even care for own life?” The smaller vessel asked, It was inconceivable to them that anyone could give up so callously.
A long drawn moment of silence rang out as the heat in the room grew, causing Emio to begin tugging on Wanderer, encouraging them to get away.
“I am much like the library, I have been dead for a long time” Ka-cketika finally replied “In truth I have been waiting for this day, the day I can be relieved of my duty. This is how it is meant to be and there is little point in trying to save me.”
Wanderer made to argue, insist there was a chance even if they didn't know what it was but they were interrupted.
“You must leave now, Wanderer, that is not up for argument. But before you go, I think I should let you borrow a book, no charge, and no need to return it.”
The lights in the room flared once again, yet instead of the entire library brightening, a single section of Ka-cketika's vine-like lights lit up, and by a process quite unknown to the Vessel, shone a single ray of light directly at one book in the massive shelf next to them.
“That book is one of the final additions to my library ever made, and a rather controversial one at that. It is a basic translation of the language Orsha was forming while they were still consolidating their hold on the desert after the great catastrophe, made for one who has no knowledge of the language at all, as I assume that is your affliction.”
Wanderer took the book from the shelf and flicked to a random page, seeing hand drawn diagrams paired with characters and phrases, all slightly distorted by the humidity of the room seeping into the pages but coherent enough to be readable.
It was a great gift.
Another rumble went out through the room as the lava flow widened and the water at the Golem’s hips began to simmer.
“Go now, there is no more time. Run to the right until you see another passage up, if you continue going straight you will reach the surface. Thank you for talking to me and giving me a final companion after my long isolation, but you can't stay any longer.”
Wanderer bowed their head but didn't argue, and after saying a final thank you, they rounded the shelves and sprinted off.
A part of them wanted to stop and take more books from the shelves, but their mind informed them otherwise, the books on these shelves were not written in the language of the book in their hand, and it was likely there was very few anywhere who had a capability to read it.
Even if they could, their satchel was nearly full and in this situation they had no time to throw anything away.
And so, without another regret, Wanderer and Emio sprinted up the passage marked by the librarian, away from the spewing fires below.