“I welcome you, visitors from afar. Allow me to be your guide,” said the stone woman with a jittery bow. She looked up, her glass eyes glinting in the dim light.

“Well, uh, we’ll be in your care, I suppose,” said Captain Kastel gruffly. He extended his hand cautiously for a handshake, then retracted it quickly as the golem stared at it without moving.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Jedda. She was leaning in close to him and looked primed to throw her fists around.

“I don’t think we’ve got much choice in the matter,” he said from the side of his mouth.

Just as Captain Kastel said, denying the invitation didn’t seem like an option. We’d barely pulled ourselves up into the palace when a group of five identical golems came streaming into the room to greet us. Four of them were carrying vases full of bright orange flowers while the one in the middle was wearing a fancy headdress covered in purple and blue feathers. They were all made of smooth grey stone and wearing revealing tribal outfits with orange skirts and bare stomachs. Each one had long, wavy hair with glass beads woven into them. On their arms were jangling bone bracelets and around their necks were large, ornate necklaces with small seashell chimes that clacked together as they moved. Their faces were static apart from their eyes, which were made of red stained glass. All but the one wearing the headdress had thin cracks creeping over their bodies.

“Please trace my path,” said lead golem. She turned on her heel and marched out of the destroyed room without hesitation. We all looked at each other, then at the remaining four golems. I grabbed Bravesreign from my back and wound up a strike, ready to slice the nearest golem’s head from her shoulders, but Sherri put her hand on my shoulder and shook her head. I sucked on my teeth and put Bravesreign away. I’d get my chance to show those golems who was boss soon enough.

The room that The Escallion Grand Climax Binder had pierced through, the one we’d just exited, was some sort of open ballroom with nothing more than a few stone benches inside. It hadn’t been anything of note, but the corridor that it led into was mystifying. It was like we were walking inside of a titanic bone. The walls were a smooth, polished cream with ridiculously intricate carvings of ships, people, fish, battles, love, betrayal, and anything else someone could think to etch. Hanging from the ceiling were twisting vines whose tendrils wrapped around large bulbs that glowed about as bright as a candle. The ground was paved with a cobbling of large seashells that crunched lightly underfoot. On the ceiling, slaloming between the vines, was a faded mural depicting some impossibly long sea creature, possibly a serpent, as it wiggled through the water. Doorways to plain rooms and side corridors came and went. Sherri and I almost wandered down one of them, but Jedda was quick to pull us back to the group.

“Get back here!” she said with a frown. “We’ll never find you if you get lost, so stay put!”

“Sorry . . .” said Sherri.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m just getting antsy,” I said. I really don’t like the golems.

They were so unsettling. They looked like people, and one of them even talked like a person, but they were obviously statues. Their movements were jerky and there was no light in their eyes. None of them but the one wearing the headdress spoke, and I wasn’t sure they were even capable. And don’t even get me started on those unchanging masks that passed for faces! It sent a chill down my spine that made me want to destroy every one I saw. I fell back in line with the rest of the group but still felt the need to frequently look over my shoulder to make sure a golem wasn’t sneaking up on me.

“So, what is our end goal, Kastel?” asked Priss. “Are we going to simply follow these things around until we flop over from exhaustion?” I turned and saw that she was clutching Tuet’s jacket around herself and frowning. Her eyes were red like she’d been crying, but her expression was stern.

“Hey! Show the captain some respect!” barked Jedda.

“Its fine!” said the captain. “Its fine. Let’s just ride it out for a minute and see where they take us. Not like we’ve got any other leads.” I could see that he had his hand on the hilt of his sword. He must have been feeling tense as well.

We reached a section of the hallway where the ceiling had collapsed and rubble blocked the way. The lead golem shuffled us down a side path that led us through a large open hall with scattered columns dotting the floor space. On the ceiling, laid into a shallow dome, was a mosaic depicting both the moons and the stars on a cloudy night. On either side of the hall were dozens of golems dancing slowly and mechanically atop short pedestals. As we passed, they paused their dancing to bow at us.

Clance patted a nearby golem on the back, one of the ones holding a pot of flowers, and said, “Hey miss, where’re you and your friends taking us? The boss of this joint got a welcome party planned or something?”

The golem didn’t respond. It didn’t even look at him.

“That’s no way to talk to a woman, even if she is made of stone,” said Tuet. He pushed Clance aside and put his arm around the golem. “I apologize for my friend’s uncouth behavior. I know a fine, sturdy piece of work like yourself is above such mockery.” He adjusted his hat and smiled a horribly charming smile. The kind that could turn any fair young maiden into a puddle on the ground in an instant. I looked away and closed my eyes, lest I fall victim to it as well. “If I may be so bold as to ask, would you be so kind as to tell us where we’re being taken?”

The golem didn’t acknowledge him in the slightest. He may as well have been talking to a wall.

“I don’t think it’s going to tell you anything,” I said. I opened my eyes and saw Tuet sulking with his chin on his chest. “These things have bricks for brains, you know.” I turned to Sherri to crack another joke and saw her blushing and tapping the tips of her fingers together. “What’s wrong?”

She seemed to snap out of whatever daze she was in at the sound of my voice. “I-It’s nothing! I just— didn’t realize how cool Tuet was . . .”

The golems led us out of the hall, into a side corridor, and down a staircase into a round room with a circular seating area carved into the floor. There was a mosaic on the ceiling like a star wreathed in coral. On the edges of the room were several statues of muscular men dressed in tribal attire similar to that of the golems. Each statue was carrying a spear or harpoon in one hand and a large fish in the other. On the far side of the room was a square window that looked out to the whirlpool. A single bulb, larger than those that lined the hallway, hung from the ceiling and cast its dim light over us.

“Please remain here while The Shaper deliberates,” said the lead golem. She grabbed a handle at the top of the doorway and slid down a thick slab of white stone to block it. After that came the crunching of shells as she walked away. There was only one set of footsteps though. The rest must have stayed behind to guard us.

“Great, now we’re in jail,” I said under my breath. I walked over to the door-slab and beat my fist against it. “Hey, get back here! What are you going to do with us? Hey! I know you can hear me!”

“Will you cease your howling, please?” asked Priss. She was leaning against the wall near the window with a sour expression.

“At least I’m doing something!” I said. “Geez, we should have smashed those golems the second we saw them!”

“Hmph, for once I agree with you,” she said. She turned to look out the window, then winced.

“Maybe they’re going to bring us some snacks?” said Sherri with an unconvincing smile.

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“I wouldn’t count on it,” said Captain Kastel.

We sat there for at least an hour waiting for the golem woman to return. I spent most of it pacing around and grumbling to myself. The more time passed the more anxious I got. It wasn’t entirely due to the golems, however, just mostly. We were in the Prism Palace, yet there we were sitting in a holding cell waiting for our captor to return. I should have been exploring, seeing the sights! There’s no telling what kind of mind-blowing wonders there were to be witnessed! I had to get my mind off of it before I jumped out the window and tried to climb my way to freedom.

I stopped in front of Priss and looked down at her. She was lying on her side, Tuet’s jacket wrapped around herself like a blanket. Tuet himself was sitting on her right with his head hung between his knees and Clance was sitting on her left picking the lint off of his sleeves. I crouched down in front of her and waved my hand to make sure she was awake.

She glared at me and said, “What do you want?”

“Just checking on you,” I said with a smile.

“And what is there to check on? Be honest. If you’re here to frustrate me, you’ve succeeded. Now go away, please.” She sat up and shooed me away like I was a rodent or a stray cat.

I suppressed my urge to yell at her and kept smiling. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just— wanted to say I’m sorry about what happened. To The Klazmitz I mean.” I scratched my cheek and looked to the side. “I know it meant a lot to you.”

She rose to her feet in a huff, Tuet’s coat falling from her shoulders. “I do not need your pity, Darni Voker!” she growled. Her words ricocheted around the room like a misfired arrow.

“Well excuse me for being concerned!” I said. I stood up and leaned in with an angry look. Tuet and Clance were giving each other worried looks behind Priss. “I saw you when we were climbing, you know. You were crying! You were sniffling! You were doing everything you could to keep from falling to pieces! Now you’re going to stand here and get mad when I try to comfort you?”

Priss leaned in as well. Her face was red with rage and I wouldn’t have been surprised if she punched me across the room. “You think you have the right to tell me about my own feelings? Don’t be so conceited! Of course I’m upset! I’m distraught, devastated, distressed even, but the crew of . . .” she stopped for a moment as her face fell. She shook her head and stiffened her lip. “But standing here moping around won’t bring The Klazmitz back! The crew gave their everything so that I may be here at this very moment.” She straightened out and held her head high. “To fall to tears now would be to disgrace their sacrifice!”

So that was it. She was determined to put on her strongwoman façade until the end. “Fine, be that way,” I said. “But don’t forget that I offered you a shoulder to cry on!” With that I turned away and stomped to the center of the room. I sat down next to Sherri, who was staring at the ceiling singing a little song to herself, and let out an angry sigh.

“Talking to Priss was a mistake,” I said.

“I can hear you!” shouted Priss.

“I don’t care!” I said over my shoulder. I heard Priss grumble and sit back down, then heard Tuet and Clance say some words softly, likely in an effort to calm her down.

“I think it’s good that you tried to be nice to her,” said Sherri with a light chuckle.

“I’m always nice!” I said. I crossed my arms and legs both. Who did Priss think she was denying my kindness! I huffed and frowned. She didn’t deserve it anyway.

A bit after that Captain Kastel unscrewed the hilt of his sword and slid out the little scroll inside. He laid it across his lap. He and Jedda examined it for a while, pointing out various things on the diagrams and nodding to each other. Whatever they were talking about it seemed to be way more intriguing than what I was doing, which was nothing.

“Learn something interesting?” I asked.

“Not particularly, but seeing a bit of this place first hand makes it easier to understand these scribbles. Like here,” he pressed his finger down on the scroll, “it says something about the ribs. I never got what the fella meant, but seeing that hallway we were in gave me a clue. And here it mentions the glowing plants.” He pointed up at the ceiling.

“Does it say anything about destroying the golems?” I asked.

Jedda shook her head. “Only that they’re a pain to finish off. Makes me wonder how many punches it’d take to crumble one.”

“It’d be best to avoid conflict, if possible,” said Captain Kastel. “Our supplies are limited and there’s no telling how many of those things are crawling around. I believe our best bet would be making our way down to the bottom level and starting from there. The scroll here has a lot of details on the upper parts, but almost nothing about the bottom.”

“Do you think it’ll be dangerous?” asked Sherri. She worked a knot out of her hair and winced.

“Most likely,” said the captain. “We should—”

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

His sentence hung in the air as the dinging of a titanic bell rang through the walls. The sound waned to a deep, reverberating rumble before the ringing of tinny chimes rang out in response. The ringing was simple and chaotic at first but soon grew into a complex, haunting melody. There had to be at least a hundred chimes involved in whatever setup they had. It sounded . . . sad, melancholic even, with an underlying sense of loss. It wasn’t my sort of tune, but it was impossible to not listen. Soon a thin voice, light and ephemeral, joined the chimes. It was singing in a language I’d never heard, but its words floated through the air and disappeared like mist. The song continued for maybe three minutes before fading into an echo. We were silent after that. The song was like a spell that cast a gloom over the room.

TOCK TOCK TOCK

“I am entering,” came the golem woman’s voice. She slid the door open and stepped into the room. She was holding a small, curved knife in front of her chest. On either side of her were other golems carrying short spears with barbed tips. “The Shaper has decided. You are intruders.”

I stood up and drew Bravesreign, but Captain Kastel held out his hand to stop me. “I’d like an explanation, if possible,” he said. “When we arrived you were calling us guests, what happened to that?”

The golem held out her knife and said, “The Shaper has decided. The intruders must be eliminated.”

The captain frowned. “Jedda!” he shouted.

“Blazing Buster Hook!” shouted Jedda in response.

She lunged forward and struck the golem woman in the side of the face with her right fist. The golem’s glass eyes shattered and sprayed across the floor. She staggered to the side as half of her face crumbled away, revealing a hollow void within, then righted herself and raised her knife again.

“I knew these things were evil!” I said. I pushed the captain’s arm away and swung Bravesreign at the golem, lopping her head off in a single swipe. She didn’t react.

“Intruders must be eliminated,” it said. I recoiled at that. It talking without moving its lips was unnerving enough, but talking without a head? Downright creepy! The golem thrust her knife at Captain Kastel’s neck and was met with another stone-shattering punch in the side from Jedda.

“Looks like we’ve gotta fight out way out of here!” she said, almost joyful in tone.

The spear-wielding golems spread around the sides of the room and closed in. I turned to slash at one on my left, but its hands flew from its wrists as a streak of shining gold crossed my vision. “I will not allow anyone to eliminate me so long as my name is Afinsheer!” growled Priss. She raised her oversized axe over her shoulder and pointed at the golem. “That goes double for you cracked statues!”

She looked to have things handled, so I turned to the right and saw Sherri helping Captain Kastel as he pinned the headless golem to the ground. Jedda was on the other side of him dueling with another spear wielder. She struck it with her shoulder, then pushed it against the wall and crushed its thigh with her knee. After that, she heaved it over her head and threw it out of the window with a grunt. I was glad to see Ufie hadn’t been exaggerating about her strength.

Another golem came at me with its spear pointed at my stomach. I parried the strike away and struck it with the flat of Bravesreign’s blade on reflex. It was shaped like a person, after all. It skidded across the floor, its stone feet grinding against the shells, then thrust at me again without hesitation. I shouted and brought Bravesreign, the sharp part this time, down on its skull. Bravesreign cut straight down its head, torso, and pelvis, leaving it in two perfect halves that fell convulsing to either side.

“Get off of me you brute!” shouted Priss. I whirled around and saw the handless golem had dived on top of her and was punching at her head with its arm stumps. She was rolling her head side to side, narrowly avoiding the ground-cratering blows. “Tuet, Clance, do something!”

“Help her, Clance!” said Tuet. He was crossing blades with a spear-toting golem and looked to be losing the battle. He kicked it away and shielded his face as it crashed against one of the statue men that lined the room.

“Already am!” said Clance. He tackled the golem off of Priss and caught it in a wrestling hold with its legs pinned beneath him. Priss popped to her feet and brought her axe down on the golem’s face, brutalizing it beyond recognition. Despite the damage, it continued to flail wildly beneath Clance.

“The scroll guy wasn’t lying, these things don’t quit!” I said. I bashed another golem in the head with Bravesreign’s pommel before pushing it away so Jedda could toss it out the window. Another one came lunging at me, but I deftly stepped back and tripped it with my foot. It fell and snapped its own head off as it crashed into the wall.

“Maybe we should retreat?” said Sherri. She’d taken the lead golem’s knife and was standing back-to-back with Captain Kastel as they fought off two more golems.

“It’s not retreating when you’re backed into a corner, it’s a breakthrough! Gya ha ha!” cackled the captain. “All hands, prepare to charge! We’re leaving this Loros-forsaken cell and never returning! Our objective is to explore and loot as much as we can!”

“I call point!” I said with a raise of my arm. I charged through the doorway with Bravesreign raised. Any golem that got in my way was going to get ground to sand beneath my heel!