“Let’s talk.”

There were doubts behind my words, a sense that I was going to hear something that I wish I hadn't. But I couldn't continue fumbling through whatever this was.

Part of me still held out hopes that it'd end up being a really weird dream and I'd wake up back in whatever life I originally had.

"Yes, fine. But first, let's get some energy back in you. Wouldn't do to have you pass out from lack of mana."

I grumble slightly and sigh. I was more than a bit hungry, and now that I wasn't fueled by adrenaline and fear I was feeling a bit faint.

"Fortuitous that the tree you chose as your resting place happens to be a Birfruit tree. If you can manage to get to some of the lower hanging branches you should notice bunches of small yellow fruit."

I look up, squinting as the rustling of the leaves in the wind causes piercing rays of sunlight to pass through the foliage. Sure enough I saw the aforementioned fruit, it wouldn't be too much trouble getting a handful or more.

I get to my feet with a slight groan and start plotting my route. There were a few branches within arms reach, or at least a short hop and an arms reach. My body was thankfully light, and I had the strength left to manage to shimmy up the branches. Crawling on my belly on one of the larger branches I eventually reach my prize and greedily I snatch at the fruit and with zero hesitation I jam the bunch into my mouth.

The outsides were a bit sour, but not so much that it distracted from the amazing sugary goodness that poured forth from the innards of each fruit. It was so good that I almost felt like I could cry.

"As a golem you should only need a few to maintain your bodily functions."

I try to reply around a mouthful of Birfruit, "Ahm nojja g'lem."

The mask sighs loudly inside my head, "Are you still on that. Of course you're a golem. Look, tell me what you're feeling right now."

Immediately I respond, "ongry." And another handful was shoved in to my mouth.

"Exactly, you're not hun- wait. What did you say?"

With some difficulty I manage to swallow down the mass of fruit in my mouth. "I said I'm hungry. Why is that so weird?"

Another sigh. "As a golem you're not supposed to feel hunger. Or at least, it should be a very distant feeling."

"How many times do I have to explain myself?" I grab a few more fruit and push myself up into a sitting position, back resting against the trunk of the tree and legs dangling off the side of the branch. "I'm human. I'm not a golem, despite what everyone keeps trying to tell me."

"That is very much impossible." The mask speaks. I hadn't noticed before, but the way she pronounced S's was closer to a Z. "That body you're wearing, was meant for me. A new golem body to replace the one I lost. So to assert you are human is preposterous."

"Well, it's true. I feel human. I mean, I'm hungry and these fruit taste amazing."

"No. You don't understand. I specifically asked for you to be made. For me. Despite the... oddities. You are a golem. Of that I'm sure."

I stop chewing at that and touch the mask on my face. "What do you mean you asked for me to be made? What the hell does that mean?!"

My fingers find the edges of the mask and work under them, attempting to pull the thing from my face. As soon as I do so though the points where the skin had made contact with my face started burning as if I had submerged it in acid. The Mask would not budge, and attempting to use more force only intensified the pain. "FUCK. What did you do to me?!"

"Calm down." The Mask speaks, "You can not remove me. My soul is what was meant for that body and as such we are bound. Oh, did I forget to mention that when we met?" There is a hint of snark to her voice.

"Fuck you." I growl, "You just freed me from one prison to put me in one of your choosing." I slam my first down on the branch, losing balance for a moment but righting myself before I fall.

"Now now." She speaks again, "It's not like this is ideal for me either. Do you think I enjoy being a spirit tied to a mask, reliant on a clueless golem who has about as much wits about her as a newborn."

"Ughhh..." I press fingers to my temple and rub them vigorously, a lingering headache pounding inside my skull from my attempt to remove the mask. "Why me. Why is this all happening to me? Did I do something in a past life to deserve this?"

"Past life? Where are you getting preposterous notions like that? You only get one life. Which is why I went to such lengths to have you made. And look at me. Reduced to a trinket."

"Yes! Past life! I'm pretty sure... I mean... it's not a memory. But I have a sense that I was something else before this. Someone else. And now I'm stuck in a body that feels so wrong." I wrap my arms around myself, trying to contain a shiver.

"It feels wrong because it's mine, dear. It was shaped based on my body. Well, a younger version of it, at least. Ahh, to see you put it to such waste is painful."

"UGH." I exclaim again, "Of course it is. I don't even know what I used to look like. Who I was." I scoot back on the branch and start to make my way back down to the roots, slumping into a groove made by the roots.

"Well, you probably used to be no one. Like I said, you only get one life. Any feelings you have are merely because you're a defective specimen, nothing more."

"Yeah, not what I want to hear right now Miss Mask."

"It's Ilianara."

"Excuse me?"

"That is my name." The mask states matter of factly, "We may as well be cordial if we are to be in a partnership."

I knock the tree once with the back of my head in frustration, "Honestly, being cordial with you is the last thing on my mind. I would love to be rid of you."

Tapping at the forehead of the mask I speak, "But that's impossible isn't it? You made sure of that, yeah?"

"You attribute such maliciousness to me. As I said, you were not part of the equation. Just an unfortunate accident. Or perhaps an intentional act of a third party."

I throw my hands up in frustration, "Of course. That's convenient. It's someone else's fault."

"Rather inconvenient, honestly. Will you please stop being so hysterical?"

I bristle at those words, "Hysterical?! I think I'm being the exact level of not ok with this as I should be. In fact, I feel like there's room for me to be even more not ok. So just... shut up for a moment, ok?"

Ilianara doesn't answer me, but she seems to oblige, and I'm left alone with my thoughts for the moment. My hunch from earlier seemed to be right, none of the information I had heard so far has been of any comfort. Even learning that the mask had a name just made everything so much worse, considering I didn't know if I had one of my own.

"It's not fair." I state.

"Oh. Are we talking again? I had thought you'd sulk a bit longer. Not listening to you whine has been nice."

"We can go back to that if you'd like. Or we can try and figure things out."

"I'd very much like that." Ilianara practically purrs in my head, "First intelligent thing you've said all day. It's better that we work together, yes?"

"Yeah. Fine. But I'm not going to just hand you over this body, if that's even possible. I'm alive. I'm human. I'm not going to just... just die. I want ot live."

Ilianara laughs a laugh that sounds like music. "I had figured as much. No sentient creature ever truly wants to die, I would know." A pause, "But yes, I had considered it. I think we can work something out, but it will require us to return to the one who assisted me with the spell crafting initially."

"And I suppose they're conveniently nowhere nearby."

"Oh ho!" The mask exclaims, "It seems there are signs of intelligent thought inside of you after all! Yes, they're unfortunately a distance aways from us. Not only was my soul not transplanted in to you, but the both of us were blasted to the far end of the continent."

My palm smacks against the surface of the masks forehead, "Yeah. Why would I expect any differently?"

"Which." She interjects, "Brings me to another important tid-bit."

If I were to say I was looking forward to hearing whatever bad news she was about to drop, I'd be lying.

"As you are now, you would not survive the journey required to get to where we need to be."

"Mmm." I murmur in agreement, "Yeah... I'm weak, and I hate it. You don't have to tell me twice."

I glance skyward and purse my lips, "I don't want to be stuck like that again... it was terrifying." Sighing deeply I continue, "I've spent my entire what, six hours of existence, scared and pathetically unable to do anything about it..."

I clasp my hands together, idly twisting my thumbs together, "So... I'm sorry. I hate you. I do. But I do appreciate your help in that prison."

"Are you done?" Ilianara asks pointedly. "Because we honestly don't have the time for these soul bearing conversations. I have much to teach you and little time to do so if we're to ensure our mutual survival."

An annoyed groan escapes my throat, "Yeah. Sorry." I don't know what I thought I was accomplishing there. Of course she only cared about herself, and if I wanted to live I kind of needed her help as loathe as I was to admit it.

Ilianara makes a sound similar to someone clearing their throat, "Ok then. Allow me to begin. You seem to have absolutely no knowledge of the world we live in. Probably a side effect of the mix-up that gave you sentience. Golems are supposed to have the knowledge necessary to perform basic tasks after all."

"And of course since you keep insisting I'm a golem, I'm supposed to know all of that."

"Good you're following along. So I don't have time to explain every tiny little detail about this world. So I'll just go over the most important subjects. Magic, in particular."

This actually caught my interest. After having tasted that tiny bit of power in the prison I had found myself wanting more. The rush of exploiting the very fabric of the universe? Yeah, not really much I'd experienced so far that even came close.

"Oh? I can sense you are intrigued. Good. I do hope you'll be a good study my dear because this may be the most important lesson you receive in this life."

"Do you remember what I explained in the prison?" I thought back to the event, trying to comb my memories for her exact words.

"Uhm.. you said I had earth mana. So that made it easier. I wasn't quite sure what you meant at the time."

She makes a pleased sound of confirmation, "Right. Magic is divided into categories based on the mana required to wield them. Earth, Fire, Air, Water, Metal, Wood, Light and Dark. It sounds simple enough, but that doesn't even go into sub categories for each type. To put it in plain terms, you have your base mana type and a specialization within that type that your soul is most attuned to. Those types of magic will be much easier to perform, and it's impossible to do magic outside of your mana type."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

A smug chuckle rings out through my skull, "Well, I say that. But rule breakers do exist. And lucky you, I happen to be one of them. The rarest type of magic, belongs to us Soul Weavers. And when I say us, I mean me. You, obviously are not. In fact..."

There was a pregnant pause, "Your specialty... doesn't exist? You're just a generic earth wielder. Shame, would've been nice if you had a useful specialty. But we'll make do dear." Every time she referred to me as 'dear' it felt pointed, like it was meant to prod at my nerves. And it was working.

"You don't have to be so rude about it." I half-whisper through grit teeth.

"Merely stating facts, dear. Nothing more. Luckily enough, I can cover for your inadequacies." The word was pointed, and plucked at at nerves that were already starting to turn raw from her constant needling on top of the less than stellar introduction to this world I've had lately.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, or rather where the bridge would be had I not been wearing this stupid mask, I let out a tired sigh, "You really just can't help yourself can you? Were you this annoying when you were a person?"

A peal of laughter was the response to my question, and I couldn't help but imagine a woman bringing the back of her hand to her face mockingly as she did so, "Why, I'm told I was quite the charmer. After all, you can see how pretty I was."

My lips quirked and I shook my head, "Actually I can't. I've not had a good chance to look at myself really. Yourself. Our self. Whatever. All I know is we've got red hair and we're way too short."

A tingling sensation like tiny pin pricks ran across my face where the mask touched skin. Was this her way of showing annoyance? "I am of the ideal height for a woman! Why, I believe no one has any need to be taller! To think otherwise proves how much of an idiot you truly are!"

Okay, I had definitely struck a nerve there. I couldn't help but smirk a little at that. Had to take the small victories where I could after all. For a moment I wondered if I had been the type to be sarcastic in my past life.

Of course thinking on how little I knew about myself immediately brought my slightly elevated mood plummeting back to the earth.

There was a silence as it seemed Ilianara was taking the moment to settle down during my slight existential crisis before it was broken by her sing-songy voice, "Hrmph. Now where were we? Right. Magic."

"As I was saying earlier, I am a Soul Weaver. The rarest type of magician in this world. But in this form my power is... very limited. I'm not much more than a focus for you at the moment. But I think that, in itself, has some advantages we can put to use."

Another pause, "Could you get up and pace? This would feel a lot more profound if at least one of us is pacing."

With a groan and a sigh I bring myself back to my feet. I was feeling a bit better after a short rest and a snack so I'd oblige her this once and get to pacing.

"Ok. Good. My soul weaving was unique. I could store the souls of others within me, and make use of what my magic deemed to be their most useful traits."

That... sounded useful. Not that I wanted to give her the pleasure of knowing that I thought that. No reason to give her even more of an inflated ego for a costume ornament.

"But unfortunately, I don't seem to have access to my vast repository of souls. It seems they were tied to my original body. Frustrating, but I think working together we could rebuild."

I pondered for a moment on what she meant by that, "Wait... how exactly did you collect these souls? That doesn't seem like something that is given up too easily..."

"Mmm. You'd be right. Souls can't be collected willingly. But it's a rather easy process to take them from the freshly dead."

A chill ran up the length of my spine and my pacing came to an abrupt halt, "You're telling me that you want me to kill to get you more power?"

"Us more power, dear." She made sure to emphasize, "If we are to survive until we can find a way to fix this we will both need to become much stronger."

I drew in a breath and shake my head, "No. I... I don't think I can kill. At least not people. That... that's a line I don't want to cross." This conviction I was feeling, something was telling me this was something that was wholly me. Something I could say was part of my character, part of who I was.

"You are making this very difficult for no reason." Ilianara remarks, "I assure you, I only killed people who deserved it. So if it helps soothe your little conscience we can stick to that."

I shake my head again, "No. I won't kill a person. That's the line. If you want my help in not being a children's party favor you'll not push that."

There was a slight grumbling in response, "You are just so insufferable, you know that?" It almost sounded like she was talking through gritted teeth. Ironic considering the mask didn't even have a bottom half.

"Fine." She sighs, "We'll stick to your silly rule for now. But I do hope that you've no compunctions when it comes to slaying monsters and animals."

Did I? I don't know if I've ever encountered a monster in my past life, but I do know that the idea of eating meat wasn't reprehensible to me so in some sense I was ok with the death of animals... at least out of necessity. Would stealing their souls to survive a magical faerie tale world count as necessity?

"I... I guess I could be ok with that. So long as it's not cruel."

"Oh goody." The mask retorts, "I'll make sure we only kill ethically raised basilisks, and let them know we're only doing it out of love as they're trying to pry our skull open."

And there she was with the snark again. This was a frustrating endeavor for both of us, and I suppose her way of coping was to be a huge bitch.

"Since you do get hungry, I suppose you wouldn't mind killing animals for food then, yes?" She picked up the conversation, "It's much easier to show you how it works than it is to explain."

While the Birfruit had been good, they didn't quite fill me up like a whole meal might. "Sure. Fine. But I've got no weapons, and I don't think I've ever hunted anything before."

"With magic all things are possible dear. You'd do well to remember this mantra. Come. Let's go kill something." There was the slight hint of something in her voice as she spoke, almost as if she was looking forward to that part.

---------------------------------------------------

And so it was that I found myself seated on the branch of a blue barked tree, trying not to fall asleep as the sun slowly drifted across the sky. Despite the glowing orb nearing the end of it's time in the sky the temperature barely seemed to dip at all. Still warm to the point that it seemed like perfect napping weather, making this 'hunt' even more of a struggle than it already was.

I entertained myself by imaging the shadows cast by the leaves were people dancing, all dressed up in fancy garb and gossiping as ball room goers did. I imagined it was fun, getting to put on your best outfit and sip wine while gossiping with your peers. Maybe some day I'd get to. Something to work toward at least.

"Focus." The mask hissed at me, "Something could come along any moment and you need to be ready. Have you been doing the imaging exercises I told you about?"

Ilianara had explained to me on the way here how to keep an image of my element always at the back of my mind. A method developed by magicians that essentially allowed them to section off parts of their mind, using mana. She had said that eventually it would be possible to do so without expending mana, but at this point I wasn't ready.

It took a lot of effort even with the supply of mana I was dripping in to it, and if I didn't always keep at least some conscience effort on it the image would slip and I'd have to reform it. I got the feeling Ilianara was handling some of it though. Occasionally I'd feel a slight tingling and buzzing in my mind, causing the image to sharpen and keeping it from slipping completely.

But hopefully all this effort would pay off, and I'd be able to work magic at a moments notice. I didn't have much faith, but Ilianara seemed to.

"Hey." I whispered to her, "Is it alright if I call you Ilia? Your names a bit of a mouthful."

That pricking sensation across my face from earlier returned, "You will not shorten my name! Ilia! Pah! I am a magician of great renown, and you'll put respect into my name as you say it!"

I raise my hands in surrender, "Okay. Fine, I just thought it'd make things easier. No need to get so upset."

"I am not upset! And you should be paying attention. Look."

I squinted ahead, trying to spot what she could've possibly been warning me about through the underbrush. Sure enough, there was something approaching.

Black fur and a powerful form loped out from the brush. A creature that walked on four legs with a decidedly canine bend to it's figure, though much larger than a typical house pet. It probably stood at least four feet high at the shoulders, and it's massive head and shoulders had large bony prominences peaking out from underneath the fur.

"W-what the hell is that?" I ask, trying to keep my voice as small as possible.

"A skull hound. Common predators in the forests around here. They look imposing but typically they're more afraid of you than you are of them."

Honestly, I was getting pretty afraid just looking at it. It's head was larger than my torso and I could just imagine it having no problem crunching down on my skull if I wasn't careful.

"Okaaaay... so now what? Surely we're not going to try and kill that. Can't we wait for a smaller animal or something?"

Ilianara laughs, "No no. This is perfect. I've had one of these souls before, at the least you'll be able to handle more physical exertion if we attain it. It should be easy, just make an earth spike and pierce it's heart as it walks by. It won't even know what hit it."

Easy, she says. Like bending the earth to do as I say and kill a hulking beast was just something you did on a whim any old day of the week. As it was I could barely concentrate on holding on to the branch and keeping my element in mind while my imagination ran rampant with all the ways it could kill and eat me.

"What are you waiting for?" There was a sense of urgency in Ilianara's voice, "It'll get away if you don't strike now. Just form it under the beast and be done with it."

"Right..." I swallow and reach a hand out, palm generally aimed at a point under the beasts chest. I took the swirling image of dirt and rock in my mind and reshaped it, forming it into a spear. Pushing forward I urged mana to leave my body and infuse the earth I gestured at.

I could feel my energy drain significantly as I did so, and suddenly the ground beneath the hound burst open. Spearing upward an earthy spike shot into the beasts body, but it had not formed fast enough and the beast had stepped forward leaving only it's back leg impaled.

It let out a loud, bestial, roar and jerked it's body forward. The spike, no longer fed by mana crumbled, freeing the beast, and it started sniffing at the air. My hands clasped swiftly around my mouth and I held my breath, hoping it wouldn't notice me.

Of course that didn't work. Why would it? Luck didn't seem to be a trait I was born with, and the beast had only needed a few sniffs to zero in on my location.

"MORE. HIT IT AGAIN." Ilianara practically screamed in to my skull and I startled slightly, nearly falling off the branch.

I tried again, keeping the image of the spike as clear as possible in my mind as I moved my hands to where I wanted them to be formed.

The beast, despite it's injury, was loping toward me. It's gait was unsteady, but picking up pace as it closed the distance. I urged my mana forward again, and created more spikes. They each took about a second to form, and the beasts pace made it hard to hit. Panic was starting to well up in me, and I haphazardly wasted energy on more spikes that missed their mark.

It was getting dangerously close now, and I got the feeling it could climb tree's. I was starting to feel faint, my energy very obviously nearly depleted. I probably only had one more shot at killing this thing.

The beast stood at the base of the tree, craning it's massive head upward toward me. The grey bony ridges across it's eyebrows gave the impression the beast was scowling at me as it reared up on it's hind legs to dig large claws in to the tree's bark.

This was my chance. While it was staying relatively in one place trying to climb I imagined the spear again... only larger this time. I had noticed that despite any difference in size the spears I made were, they all took about the same time to manifest. About a second, two at most.

I could use that. It was still struggling to get a good grip on the blue bark, but I knew that wouldn't be the case for long. So I pointed my palm directly down, under the climbing hounds form. One final push, with every thing I had.

One... two... and there was the burst. The ground split violently and my last spear shot out, driving into the flesh of the hounds rear and continuing a few feet into the creatures innards. It let out a pained howl and tried to retreat causing the spike to snap, leaving half the mass of crumbling rock and dirt within the newly made opening in it's body.

It groans and whimpers, using it's forelimbs to drag it's body away from the tree. Twitches and jerks of it's legs told me it no longer seemed to have control of the lower half of it's body.

It looked pitiful, desperately trying to escape the inevitable. Perhaps it wasn't intelligent enough to realize that the wound was mortal, or perhaps it was and still held out some sort of hope. Either way I wished I had the energy left to put it out of it's misery.

Instead I did the only thing I could think of to honor the life I had taken. I waited and watched it's last moments, ensuring it had an audience as it took it's final breath.

I waited a bit longer after it's movements ceased, and slowly lowered myself from the branches. Ilianara broke the silence, "Well? Get to the body before the soul get's cold."

I really hoped she wasn't making a joke right now, because honestly even if it was an animal having taken it's life left me feeling rather hollow at the moment. Approaching it's still form, I couldn't help but imagine what it might've looked like as a puppy. Could one of these have been trained as a pet? The thought didn't help settle my unease.

"Ok." I whispered, "So what do I do now?" I felt guilty saying it. Here I was, about to take the soul of a living creature. I think in most stories that might make me a bad guy.

"Place your hand on it's body. Doesn't matter where. And I'll do the rest."

Hesitantly I did so, choosing to put my palm directly on it's skull. As I did so I felt a warmth wash over me. I felt rejuvenated, like the exertion of using my magic had just vanished. A pale blue glow surrounded my hand and started working it's way up my arm, eventually encompassing my entire body.

I felt calm. I actually felt better than I had since I awoke in that field. The glow subsided and Ilianara spoke, "Done. Now... let's give it a try. Shall we? Imagine that beast you just killed, and give that image some mana."

I gave the body one last lingering gaze before closing my eyes and trying to imagine the creature as it had been. Before I had poked a few extra holes in it. It surprisingly came easily enough, and when I filled the image with mana I felt something about my body change.

The skin on my shoulders and forearms tingled and burned slightly, and when I opened my eyes I could see the flesh splitting and bony ridges emerging from underneath. For a moment I started to panic, until I realized I wasn't feeling any pain associated with these changes.

When the transformation finished my arms were quite a bit larger than they had been before, and I had bony plates covering a good portion of my upper body, to the slight detriment of my only article of clothing.

"Wow... I feel... strong." I say, flexing my arm and clenching my fist experimentally. It was true, I honestly felt like I could lift a fully grown man if I needed to.

"The changes only last as long as you have the mana to maintain them. At your current level... I'd say ten minutes tops."

"Huh... I mean, that should be plenty if we get into a fight. Right?"

I give myself a once over before catching something in the corner of my vision. A faint blue glow catches my attention and I turn toward it, only to come face to face with the spectral image of the hound I had just killed.

I let out a shrill shriek and fall backwards on to my rear, scrambling away from it.

"Oh." Ilianara chimes in, "Don't worry. The ghosts can't hurt you. You'll get used to them."