School was, well, schooling, even if a number of the subjects were different it remained much the same from my previous life. Sure, there were no computers to write our reports and essays on, and sure, we had much more gym, and it was significantly more violent, but boys were boys regardless of the time period or place. The administration was always trying, and failing, to enforce discipline, the students always determined to get into one or another of any number of bits of trouble.

While I myself had been involved in a minor rebellion on our first day here today it wasn't my turn, it was Simon's. One of my closer friends in this institution of education the boy had been caught in some shenanigan, and for some reason I'd been brought in with him. A message for me at lunch informing me I was to come to the headmaster's office, nothing more.

“Why is it always you who ends up in my office?” our headmaster said, looking down at me.

“Honestly sir, I've no idea why I'm here.”

“He had nothing to do with it sir,” Simon protested.

“You two expect me to believe that?” He leaned over his desk glaring.

“Sir,” I told him, my heckles raising. “We've met, when have you known me to lie? If I'd done something I thought you'd be this angry over, I'd just tell you.”

He narrowed his eyes even more, picking up a small box and putting it on the desk between us. With a frown I opened it, and inside found something most unexpected. The pieces were small and complex, more complex than most people worked with, but they weren't mine. This wasn't machined, but rather magically constructed, and while I could see clearly that they moved I didn't know what they did. There were even a pair of highly polished gems.

“What are they?” I asked.

“Pieces of a golem, headmaster, Percival had nothing to do with this, it was all me.”

“You? Young Simon, a skilled enough student you may be, but I've seen enough over the years to know that you're not good enough to design these. I'd even doubt you could come up with the instructions to make them on your own.”

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That was why I'd been brought in then, the headmaster thought I had helped him create a golem, though this one would only be about the size of my palm. I hadn't of course, they were rare things, hard to design, harder to control, magically speaking they were among the most complex of projects.

“Ah... I didn't do either. The designs and instructions came from a book. My father designed these, they're supposed to be a toy. He never made any, but there's this girl, and I thought...”

“That you would make a highly banned item in my school?” the older man growled.

It was true too, there were laws, lots of them, about magical items. Certain wards were disallowed, too dangerous to the public, certain functions completely banned for even study. Golems themselves were highly, highly regulated, to the point that I'd never even saw one. Most of the designs were showpieces, kept to prove that it could be done, or war engines, useful for generations of people.

The law used to be a lot looser, a lot more permissive on what people could make, but there'd been incidents. As both magical theory and technology increased so too had the danger of certain spells, ideas that wouldn't have been feasible in years passed were now very possible. In the case of golems there'd been a particularly bad incident where a security model had gotten confused on what it was to guard and from whom. Massive magically enhanced metal monsters were not simple to kill, and that one had required military intervention in the form of artillery bombardment. Golem construction had been highly regulated afterwards.

“I'm sorry sir, I didn't think...” Simon began.

“Clearly, golems don't either, that's the problem with them. A golem made to dig, digs, it doesn't care if there are people in the way, or buildings, or anything else. Even simple toys made to do things like run in circles can become dangerous if there's nothing to stop them, no proper protections. These things are banned for a reason boy!” Then he turned to me. “Well Percival, you at least have my apology. It seems that for once in the past two years you're actually not part of the mess I find on my desk.”

“Thank you sir,” I quickly said, happy to be excused.

“Leave now while I decide what to do with your companion here.”

It wasn't until dinner that I managed to find Simon again. I'd been worried when he missed our next class, but he was still here, just looking thoroughly tired.

“You alright there?” I asked, sliding in next to him at a table.

“Yes, I'm... well.”

“What happened? Percival here wouldn't share the details,” Lucas added, joining us. He may have been an upperclassman, but he still hung out with us every now and again. “Though he did insist it wasn't his doing this time. What'd you do? Sneak naughty pictures into the school? Steal from a classroom.”

“I was trying to make something I shouldn't have, and he got dragged in because he's a troublemaker,” Simon said, looking over to me. “Sorry about that by the way.”

“It's fine,” I answered. “What I'm more interested in is how you planned to actually make it. That would imply that you finished at least the first level of your core wouldn't it?”

I knew the people in the class for making magical items this year, and Simon here wasn't one of them. How did he plan to make a golem if he couldn't even do that? No, if he was planning that, if he even went through the effort of making the parts he had to have thought of that issue.

“Uh... don't share it around, but I got one years ago.”

“What how!?” Lucas asked.

Simon seemed a bit taken aback. “Dad's a wizard, likes books and all that stuff, he taught me when he thought it was right. Reason I don't advertise is, well, it's kind of nerdy isn't it?”

“Should I take that as a personal insult?” I asked lightly, I didn't think he meant it as one, but I didn't like his tone.

“No, I mean, you do amazing things with machines, guns and engines whatnot, not... toys and pretty lights. Does that make sense?”

“Only if you're willing to help me with a few projects,” I asked with a smile.

“What did you have in mind?” Simon asked, while Lucas just laughed.