I stared up the absurdly wide flight of stairs, there was light from above, faint though it were from reflecting down the many stone walls. I took a breath. “What have you done to these people?!” I shouted up. “What the hell are you doing?” I wanted to hear his words, surely he had to have some reason for doing this… Preserving their corpses, having them run from us, animating them…
“Leave me be, it’s all over, everyone is gone. Only me, only me…” It trailed off. I stared up. It didn’t nearly chill me after what I’d heard behind me. It gave me a light feeling of anger in fact. After what I’d heard him do to them that was his response? I narrowed my eyes. The others seemed more affected, Numen and Qent rushing to be up in the light.
“That’s not going to get you any sympathy from me.” I muttered under my breath, making my way up the stairs. In a way the darkness below had only made things worse, leaving their appearance up to imagination. I hadn’t played too many zombie games back home, horror was really not something I enjoyed as a genre. Still, sometimes scenes from the ones I had played would leap to mind, and all I could do was hiss a breath through my teeth.
On the second floor was a magical workshop. “This… would be where an Animus Mage might prepare the mechanisms for the golems we saw outside, the stone ones.” Qent remarked in a small voice. “Over there, you can see the beginnings of an anchor being made…” I walked over to the desk that sat off to the side. There was a book on it. Diagrams scattered across the desk showed the design of the golems themselves, I reached out, flipping the book open, and skimmed it.
It was something of a journal, it hadn’t been very diligently kept, sometimes skipping for weeks at a time to cover a single bad or good incident. Until the Edratchi war started.
---
Demons. Myths that now bang on our front gates. We barely had any warning, their army moved so fast. Our militia barely hung on, I watched as the gates fell in the time it took me to reach the third floor. My doors had to be sealed. They had to. If I hadn’t the demons would have come in, and I wouldn’t have had time to activate the golems. Why is the only sound I can hear the sound of Airi as she wailed against my door?
Everyone. Everyone is dead, and only I remain.
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I grimaced, that wasn’t going to do wonders for the psyche that was for certain… I turned to the next page, it wasn’t dated, but clearly time had passed, he had just managed to carve out the town as his space again.
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The demons finally stopped bothering with me. I guess they don’t really need to care about this town, or maybe they think they can just starve me out. They’d be right. There’s food here, unimaginable amounts, but they’ll all rot long before I can finish them.
Eventually I’m not going to be able to keep up with repairs. Most of them are holding together by prayer anyway.
I haven’t been sleeping well, every night you scream my name, and every night I watch you get killed over and over again. I don’t know why I haven’t joined you yet, probably cowardice, I’m good at that aren’t I? So many dead. I preserved your bodies, but I don’t dare go out to bury you all, the demons still come sometimes, testing, watching. I’m scared.
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I frown, how long had it been since the invasion? Had this place been under the demons since the start of the war? That… was an awfully long time… I turned to the next page. Madness was starting to stain his writing, it was hasty, sometimes spreading haphazardly across the page.
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I think I can bring you back. No. I know it. I am an Animus mage, all this time I’ve been working on golems, giving them souls, making them obey, I never thought about how wondrous that was. If I can make these souls, maybe, just maybe, I can bring you back, reknit your souls back into your bodies. I remember how they looked like, they were so beautiful…
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I frowned. The others were looking over to me. “Are you done reading that?” Rince asked. I shook my head. “Well hurry up, this place is creepy as Nem’s cloak…” I turned the page. This is starting to make sense… I thought. In his isolation…
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My experiments aren’t coming along quite as well, there’s something missing. Like I’m looking at something wrong. You walk, you talk, but only in the ways I tell you, you don’t learn, you don’t change, you don’t even seem to notice me. I need to give you memories, I need to give you personalities, I need to…
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Something stirred from the corner of my vision. “Brother? Where are you?” A female voice called out. “Is that you?” It moved closer, and I couldn’t help but turn to face the creature. It definitely used to be human. It was a girl, stitches showing where she had basically been ripped apart down the middle, her face was stiff and a rictus adorned it. Burns covered her body, splotching across like paint across a canvas. “You’re not brother.” She said suddenly, closing the distance to me. I set down the book, leaning back ever so slightly. “Have you seen my brother?”
“Your brother? He did this to you?” Rince cried out, appalled. She ignored him, repeating her question. “Is your brother home?” He asked, this time she turned to him.
“Yes. Do you know where he is?” She asked again. The others tried to ask her questions as well, but she wouldn’t respond to most of it, simply repeating her question again and again.
“It’s a golem…” I said. They turned to me with a look that screamed I know. “He’s been trying to bring them back from the dead, he thinks that if he tries, he can recreate their souls. She’s like an automaton, she only responds to certain phrases, certain keywords… Baby steps.” I continued. “The journal at least… tells me that he is nowhere near stable. Isolation will do that to you…” I should know. I thought to myself, reminded of the Chtichs and the isolation I’d been placed in. “Be careful.”
It moved closer to me, reaching out and grabbing onto my wrist. It’s eyes somehow swivelling to look me in the eye. “Mister, please bring me to my brother.” I shuddered, reaching out and gently working my hand from its grasp. “Mister…” She paused, then stepped back. Maybe he didn’t want her to be hurt? Just like the other people downstairs, they ran from us after all… I stepped away from the now unresponsive corpse, moving towards the stairs.
“Come on, let’s end this.” I said quietly, making my way up the staircase. The others followed suit, Frejr and Azarint putting themselves ahead of me. Our steps resonated against the cold stone, a sound I was now acutely aware of. Upstairs was a hallway, several rooms off to the side, but it was the man standing before us that took precedent. He hunched over, looking haggard, his face covered by a hood and obscured by flickering light. “You’re the Animus mage I assume…” I said.
“I can fix them. I know I can.” It spoke, it sounded tired, almost deflated. “I will bring her back, then the others, I’m close, I can feel it!” His voice gained a little conviction, and he raised his head, trying to look us in the eye.
“Your actions are unforgivable.” Frejr said, slightly shifting the grip on her weapon, her voice carried anger. “Come with us or I will cut you down where you stand.” I arched an eyebrow, Delving to look at the others. They were angry, Numen and Qent had tinges of fear in their souls as well. Should I say something? I asked myself, then I saw the man’s soul, and nodded. So be it.
[I guess this isn’t really something we can interfere with huh?] Page remarked. I shook my head. No, it isn’t, nothing I could say will sway them, it seems he knew this.
“No!” It cried out, and a gust of wind blew down the hallway. Even so, he’s going to make us work for it. I gritted my teeth, crouching down to keep myself from falling over. Frejr and Azarint had no problem going against it, the weight of their armour easily keeping up with the wind. Qent focused, cancelling the effect, and I moved forward, drawing my sword. He raised his hand again. Flames pouring forth, Frejr and Azarint dodged, rolling forward and tossing a throwing dagger at the mage.
I hadn’t seen them throw it, but the effect was obvious enough once the flames cleared, they had penetrated the man’s shoulder and stomach. With little hesitation, he pulled them out, thick globs of blood leaking from his wounds. He then stepped forward, laying a hand on Azarint’s armour, ducking under his greatsword. A crackle sounded, and he collapsed, twitching uncontrollably. An arrow then struck his throat. I looked over my shoulder, nodding to Numen. He looked surprised, raising a hand to his throat, his hand closed on it. Oh gods… I thought. He pulled it out, and jerked once before falling face first onto the ground. Good, that could’ve been a terrible disaster…
Frejr walked over, thinking, then brought the hammer down on the back of his head. There was a loud crunch. “I think he’s dead.” I answered. “Please don’t uncover his hood. I want to keep my lunch…” She turned to me, and nodded. “Nice shot Numen.” I turned to her and smiled.
“That’s that then?” Numen asked, her voice shaky. I nodded, and hesitatingly put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m fine.” She said weakly. I shrugged, patting her shoulder once and turning to Qent.
“I’m okay!” He said. “It’s okay, really.” I cocked my head, then nodded.
“You guys can go downstairs, I think you’ll much prefer the outside than this damned tower.” I said. “I’ll just take his corpse and get rid of it so the soldiers don’t have to deal with the miasma.” They nodded, slowly trickling down the stairs. I Delved, watching them leave the tower itself, and turned to the only other soul around. Nearby, the soul of the golem started to fall apart.
“Guess you really are close…” I said. “That’s memory isn’t it, what it’s seen, what it’s heard, what it’s felt…” I sighed, memorising how it unravelled, it was quite something, perhaps I could even pass the idea along to Gaven, see how he might be able to reverse engineer a golem that used it. “You should listen to yourself, you’re being irrational. You can’t bring them back. Their souls dissipated once they died, just like the golem, you saw it, you know how this works.” Not a sound came from them. “I’m going to let you go. If I had been in your shoes, perhaps I would have done the same, but you should bury their corpses, and swear it off. If I hear about something like this ever again, I will find you, and I’m not merciful enough to forgive you twice.” His soul changed a little, I could see that at least he could hear me.
“This probably sounds harsh, but you need to let the dead lie. You can’t bring them back, but you can find new bonds, new friends. It’s what they would want, for you to move on and be happy.” I said, using the hood to wrap up the golem’s pulped head. “Goodbye, may we never meet again.” I said, picking up the golem’s body.