“Well made,” Emet breathed upon seeing the scar carved into her skin, “though if it was not there would be…. no rune to show.”

The instant the symbol had been completed, Î’s arm had twisted slightly, for the bone hadn’t been set properly, and then there had been a flash of pleasant warmth which washed away all her pain. The rune had become a faint scar a moment later.

“I wish I had known I could put runes on myself sooner.”

“Why?”

“I could have made myself invincible!” Î declared, “Then my arm would not have broken.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“You didn’t have… the skill.”

“I do now!”

“Yes… you carve better than any Rebeka ever spoke of but… the risk is still too great.”

“But—”

“No… We will not speak of it again.”

Î frowned, “What are we doing today?”

“Creating a guardian… of flesh. You will write on a scroll… Help, the first word is the most powerful… Then you will write Destroy, Stay… DieTruth. The golem will die if it hears… its true name.

Î jotted down the words, one line after another, adding to Die the few extra tails that made up the word Truth. She wrote the tails in red ink rather than black. She was pretty sure the colour didn’t matter, but it felt right.

“You will take a rat corpse… place the scroll in its mouth… Name it…”