My golem bent down to where I now lay in pain on the cold stone floor. He took me into his arms, seeming to know that I was too weak to walk on my own. Vamp reached over and tied the golem's weapon into his pack. With everything back in its place, the orcs led us back out of the quartz cave and into the woods.

For whatever reason, the same life that seemed to be teeming from the woods during our first journey through it seemed to be gone now. Without the sounds of small critters moving through the woods or birds singing the world seemed all too quiet. Part of me had to think that this sudden silence was my fault. It could be that performing the ritual had caused the animals in the area to flee and avoid the area.

While I was lost in thought I heard a sudden snapping of a tree branch as the silence of the woods was broken all at once. We had moved with a steady pace through the woods and now we were over a mile away from the cave.

Suddenly a voice called out. "Stop! Don't move another foot from that spot!"

The golem turned around so both of us could face our attacker. I could not help but wonder who would be dumb enough to challenge us now. Maybe some dumb bandit had thought that we were easy targets to rob. But what bandit would be dumb enough to think that of two orc hunters and a golem? Especially in a place like this where I surmised that Marco and I were the most dangerous things in these lands. Since we had not seen anything to show us that this was not true.

Then I saw him. I had to shake my head a few times to make sure that my eyes were not deceiving me! Was it truly him in a place like this?

"Alfonso?" I questioned, holding back my excitement.

His flowing brown hair covered his neck as it draped down to his shoulders. He was more heavily armored than I had seen him in the past. Each clasp from his plate mail pulled the armor into his body. It gave him a fitted but muscular look. At that moment as he came onto our path he looked like a prince who had come to save me. His expression mirrored that sentiment in my head. Maybe he could save me?

"Devin?" Alfonso said.

Two others appeared from the tree line with him. The female dwarf I did not recognize the, but the other person was Clive. Clive, the kid who tried to kill me in cold blood. He had made my life a living nightmare whenever he got the chance. So, why would Alfonso have added Clive to his party, but never even considered me? Not to mention that I would have thought Cynthia would object to his inclusion. Was she only ever using me as a plaything? The anger within me boiled over to the point that my face grew red with anger.

"Devin, I always knew you would end up in chains. But I always assumed it would be to some Lord who took you as a plaything. After all, even now you are hanging on to the strength of others," Clive sneered out at me.

At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to kill him on the spot. As if prompted by that, my golem handed me to an orc. Then the golem reached for his sword and drew it on the three adventurers. The golem towered over them standing over 2 feet taller than any of the others. My rage seemed to be convincing the golem into action against the adventurers. A part of me wished that the golem would use that sword to kill Clive right here and now, but what would Alfonso think if I killed his party member in front of him? Even if that party member was Clive.

"No, no, not like this!" I cried out.

Tears filled my eyes as I looked over at Alfonso, who looked like he had seen a ghost. He had been stunned into silence after realizing it was me. But, when the golem had moved to fight the adventurers it seemed to shake him out of his haze.

"Devin, why are you with the orcs who took Annabelle? If you turn her back over to us now, it won't have to come to blows," Alfonso said to me.

It seemed like he was talking to a child when he said it as if he were afraid I would break. Did he think that I was so fragile that the slightest transgression would break me? Then the realization washed over me. He was looking for a girl and I had just used one as a sacrifice for my golem. I had killed a girl without knowing her allegiance or even really caring about it. The robotic process of it all had let me separate myself from it at the moment, but now that seemed foolish. I had killed the girl for no other reason than that it was easy to do so.

"I..." I cried out, "I didn't know. I am sorry."

Alfonso had a look of true pain on his face. But, before anyone could react, Clive put his hand on a tree. The tree's limbs whipped out towards us. It was too slow, though. Clive's powers hit nothing but the edge of the golem's blade. The golem, not needing my commands or even my wishes, launched forward at Clive. My hatred of Clive seemed to push the golem forward. One strike from that blood blade of the golem would kill Clive. Lightning flashed as Alfonso intercepted the golem. The explosion of his feet pushing off from the ground had left charred marks on the earth itself.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance!” Clive shouted as he seemed to cower behind the presence that was Alfonso.

Alfonso was matching and exceeding the swordsmanship of the golem. The golem was slow but powerful, but Alfonso was quick and precise. This made it so that only Alfonso’s attacks were making contact. Every swing of the golem was another opening for Alfonso to exploit against it. It appeared as if Alfonso was dancing around the golem and making it into a fool. But Alfonso’s attacks landed harmlessly on the hard surface of the golem. That was until he started to put his powers behind the blows.

“Die you wretched beast!” Alfonso screamed.

He had slammed into the golem with a great surge of wind behind his blade. The gust of wind sent small rocks and golem fragments flying at the orcs and me. A few of the sharper debris left small surface cuts on us. But they mostly fell to the wayside harmlessly. The real damage had been done to the golem. Cracks were beginning to form on the golem. One well-placed strike caused the near destruction of my creature. I quickly began a ritual to fill the cracks while the golem fought off Alfonso. The practice I had received with 18 came in handy as I repaired the golem with what materials lay around. I could not fully restore the golem in the middle of combat. But I could keep it going longer than Alfonso could maintain his powers. At least I hoped that I could stand up to him.

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At that moment Liz and Vamp used the main fight to close in on Alfonso’s allies. Clive’s vines were nothing in the face of Liz’s Sunfire. Each vine that sprouted out of the ground was quickly burnt away as Liz closed in on Clive more and more. Vamp on the other hand had already downed the dwarf girl. His use of his club seemed to match Alfonso’s skill with the sword. With the distance already close the dwarf girl had no chance to fight off the attacks from the orc.

Two bolts of black water sprang out of Alfonso’s hands and onto the tops of the orc’s heads. The momentary distraction was enough to stop the orcs. Both Vamp and Liz took a few crucial moments to clean the black water from their faces.

"Run!" Alfonso shouted back at his allies. "I will hold it off here until you can get out! I can’t kill the golem if it keeps getting healed.”

“No, we are staying with you,” the female dwarf began as she rose back to her feet. Clive was not as brave and had already begun running. "Well, I am staying at least. I will try and take out the two orcs." Clive continued to run using Alfonso as a shield.

I could not let my creation kill Alfonso! Coming back to my senses, I screamed, "Back now!"

As Alfonso swung down with a massive fiery blade, the golem used its lead foot to launch itself back toward me. Alfonso's swing smashed into the ground, shattering his sword. The swing left a bed-sized hole in the ground. Had the sword’s explosion been meant to be a finishing blow to the golem? Was the power of the hero’s ability this strong?

The orcs also seeing the end of the fight made their way back to my side. Both of them not looking worse for wear after facing an adventurer each.

"Devin," Alfonso started, "I don't know what is happening here, but it's not too late to surrender. If you help us take out those two orcs I can promise you a fair trial."

"A fair trial?" I stuttered out trying to push down my tears. "Alfonso, I am a weapon. There is no fair trial. My punishment is life. Life as a mindless weapon in somebody else's game."

"You killed Annabella. You will need to pray to the gods above that divine retribution doesn't take you now!" said the female dwarf.

"Nerma stop!" Alfonso scolded his female counterpart. "Judgment is not ours to bring. Devin, tell your golem to kill those orcs and then surrender to us."

"What?" I started.

The orcs stood there unflinching after coming to my aid during this battle. My shoulders now once again resting on their legs. Alfonso was acting like I was some kind of a demon for killing his ally, but now he wanted me to turn on mine. He did have a point though. Doing what I did to her, Annabelle, was not something any rational person could do.

"I understand now Alfonso, but you don't. I will not turn my back on Vamp or Liz. You're right, though, I should receive punishment for my actions.”

“So, come back with me and you can atone,” Alfonso said, reaching out his hand to me.

“No, since I am a slave of our great Nucrestria, I will leave that in the hands of the inquisitor in charge of me." I reached up to my golem, who lent down with one arm to pick me up.

Our group turned our backs on Alfonso walking away in the other direction. I had hoped that Alfonso would try to stop us from leaving. But, all he did was stand there saying nothing to us. I turned back one more time to see the two of them leaving in the direction Clive had run off into.

We returned to the outpost and I tried my best to explain our situation to Tiger. She and Mouse had listened to my story without interruption.

"So, that's about it," I said to Tiger.

She was sitting in her makeshift office, an office that I had created for her. It was one of the many buildings I had reestablished inside of the outpost walls. Tiger hinted that our presence here would last deep into the winter months. So, as a precaution, she had me make many earthen houses within the walls.

"And?" Tiger questioned.

“Well, shouldn't there be some kind of reprimand?'

"For what? The death of some adventure girl? 471 you are nothing but a weapon, and all I see here is a weapon that fired on the wrong target. Do you know what we do to weapons that fire in the wrong direction?" Tiger paused as she asked.

"Decommission it?" I replied with a bit too much hope.

"No, we turn it in the other direction. Which is why you are here. I need you to get those other tribes we talked about."

"Maam, with all due respect," Mouse interjected. "471 is right, that girl was no doubt the daughter of some aristocrat. You need to report this to the general at least!"

"Mouse, you know how I get when I am questioned. Not to mention you stand there defying my decrees in front of a weapon."

"But this decision could cost both of us our careers! I won't stand by any longer as you run this operation with no regard for any standards. There are ways things are to be done, and this is not it!"

Tiger looked over at me and then at my golem. I needed no further instruction as I motioned my golem to seize Mouse.

"See, even 471 can listen to nonverbal commands. So, why can't a trained soldier pick up on those same ques?" Tiger spat out. "Bring all your inquisitor-issued belongings to me within the next twenty minutes. Your time here and as an inquisitor has ended. Don’t worry since you like formalities I will send word of your direct insubordination to the general. Be thankful that I don’t take your head since that is the usual punishment for this transgression."

"But," Mouse began to plead.

"I told you to be grateful I don't have that golem take your soul as well. After all, even that part of you belongs to the cause."

I had the golem carry Mouse out of Tiger's office as I followed behind. He tried to say something to me, but my mind was elsewhere. He was persistent, though, so persistent that I waved my canine golem over to guide him to his tent. I figured it might be good to have that golem follow him around for a while in case he tried to do anything else dumb.

Why had I killed Annabella? She was only some helpless adventurer that the orcs had brought me. I didn't mean for it to come to human sacrifice, especially one like that. Her death was meaningless even in the golem's construction. My blood and the connection that brought to me had given the golem more power than even an additional soul did. Besides, the golem was already going to have three.

One day, those questions could get answered. For now, though, it was best if I put my nose into my work. Killing some orcs who consented to it may help lessen the death of one girl I did not know.