Chapter One - A Choice

47th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Golden Era

The Sapphire Ocean

"It's active," a voice said. Soft, calm. It was... bored, perhaps, as if saying something that it had oft repeated.

"I see," another said. This voice was deeper, more somber. "Check its vitals."

There was movement, a limb being compressed, then pulled out, then moved again. Then others. Arms, legs, then the head was turned this way and that. "Seems nominal. Its core is reading normally. This is... a strange choice you've made, Magus."

"It's a choice that I made with all due consideration, Adeptus," the man said. "Sit her up."

"Her?" the Adeptus asked.

"We can offer them some consideration, can we not? The donor was a woman, and so we will be respectful. It costs nothing."

"But the rest of this project costs much."

"Hmm, indeed," the Magus replied with a hum.

There was movement once more, the impression of being sat upright for a moment. More noises, and the voices came and receded. Then a long period of nothing.

Finally, it snapped.

Vision. Initially painful as though the dimly lit room was akin to staring into the blazing noon-day sun, but soon the brightness receded and the vision adjusted itself.

It... she, looked around. Just moving her eyes. They didn't shift smoothly, but instead snapped to the right, then to the left, before snapping back to the centre. In that moment, she managed to make out a few important details.

She was in a room. One that felt like it was perhaps swaying ever so gently. Wooden walls and floors and a ceiling crossed by a few thick beams. The room was lit by several small lamps, glowing stones within iron cages.

She wasn't alone. The room was occupied by two others. A tall man, lithe and wearing a white apron over black robes, and a smaller woman, with pinched features and a pair of thick spectacles on the end of her nose.

The woman leaned in, obscuring a view of a table covered in torturous implements. "Hello there, Unit Two."

"Unit Two?" the man asked.

"We need to name them something," the woman replied tersely. "Or would you rather an alphabetized naming system? Alpha Two? Unit Beta? It would limit us to twenty-six units if we don't change the nomenclaturive system at a later date."

"I'll think of something," the man said. "It feels wrong to name something with a number. It makes it more of a tool."

"Are they not?" the woman asked. She turned her attention back to Unit Two. "Run diagnostics," she ordered.

There were several clunks within Unit Two, small motions that were felt rather than heard, then a warmth that started in the chest and raced down the arms and legs. A small, yellowish glow suffused the room for a moment.

And then Unit Two started to blink. Her eyes opened and shut like shuttered, clacking in time to an unheard beat. There was precision in the motions. They were communicating something that the woman with the glasses clearly understood. She took notes.

"Seems like this one is successful," she said. "Fewer issues than the first unit. And this one seems to have an affinity as well. Congratulations, Magus Maldrak. Two for two. Do we expect the third to do likewise?"

"That would be charming, but I won't push my luck so far," the man replied. So his name was Magus Maldrak. She made note of that, though... it felt like it was going to be hard to remember. Her memories were straws grasped on a windy day. Fleeting and quick to slip away.

The two continued to move about her, and she tried to follow them with her gaze, eyes snapping towards any large motions they made. Neither seemed to mind, or even notice at first. The woman eventually looked up and met her gaze. "This one seems aware. As did the last. Is that a byproduct of their affinities?"

"To some degree. It's more likely that the quality of their construction lends itself to faster, smarter growth," the Magus replied. "The smartest people are often those raised in the most desirable conditions. Likewise for a puppet. Better quality means better results."

"And greater cost, and fewer models," the woman continued. "The Wyrms have apparently sent thousands to the mainland."

"And we will send three," Magus Maldrak replied. "And three will suffice. I believe we're done with this one. Have one of the men bring it, her, to the storage room with the other. We'll start on the third."

The woman left, and soon the room was filled with two young men who came closer, grabbed her, and moved her bodily out of the room. She was brought into another, one with only a tiny round window on a far wall for illumination. The world outside was dark, a starlit sky above and little else for light.

The room itself, however, wasn't unoccupied. There were chests and containers strewn about, but what caught her eyes was another figure right next to her. She could only barely see it from the corner of her eye.

When she looked, she discovered that the figure was gazing back at her. It was masked in the darkness. A shapeless form with only the glazed, reflective surface of a blue eye to show that there was someone there.

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They were made of wood. A face carved from a single piece, mouth very slightly open, features that hinted at a vaguely feminine form without being too deep or careful.

The body was a metal cage. Almost a small keg, with wooden slates across it and large metal joints for shoulders.

The figure's eye snapped away and towards the window after a moment.

They sat there in almost absolute quiet, though there was the distant sound of soft waves lapping against woods, and the occasional shift in the stars as the room moved ever so slightly.

It took several hours before the door opened.

Another figure was brought in, carried by the same two young men, with hands around its armpits and knees.

A doll. Or perhaps a large puppet. It was placed on the floor beneath the window, facing the two already present.

It had the same barrel chest and carved face, though its eyes were a deep red.

They stared at one another through the night. There was little else to do.

In the morning, as the sun started to brighten the sky, the door into the room opened once more and one-by-one, the puppets were moved. They were returned to the laboratory and carefully set upon a table, sitting with their backs to the slightly curved wall so that they could face the interior of the room.

One of the young men carrying them left and returned with a high-backed chair which he placed before them. And then the room was cleared once more.

Now the only sound was the clicking of their eyes as they scanned the area, looking for anything of interest.

It took some time, but a familiar man entered the room. The Magus.

The man was dressed in fine black robes over a well-tailored suit. A cravat was cinched around his neck, pure white in the darkly lit room, and he moved with the simple grace of a man in his prime. He sat across from the three puppets, then regarded them each carefully for some time.

"My name is Magus Montgomery Maldrak," he began, his voice a low baritone that echoed slightly in the room. It was a nice voice, she decided. "I am a mage and scholar of some repute. A member of a noble family of Oraya Lyscara and a student of the Avaris Myrcana Academy in the nation of Draya Calyrex. None of this will mean anything to you."

He sat back and regarded them all for a moment more.

"I believe in quality above all else. I believe in opportunity. I reward the one with the other whenever possible, and that approach to life has led me well so far. I would like to extend an offer to you."

The Magus reached into his robes, then removed a trio of small glass bottles with cork stoppers. They held a milky white liquid. "This is an elixir commonly given to automata. It ensures blind loyalty and obedience. I do not enjoy employing it. Blind loyalty is foolhardy, and there are better ways of obtaining obedience."

He took one of the bottles in his off hand and stared at it for a moment.

"I am getting ahead of myself," he said before looking up once more and meeting each of their unblinking gazes. "You three were corpses very recently. Washed up and quite dead. I turned you into what you are now. Automata of some quality. Puppets, some would say. You have bodies that were crafted with little care, wrapped around cores and systems made by some of the best magical artisans in the world. You were given potential in the form of working bodies, and then drive in the form of amnesiac souls. You are not yet blank, however. You could be." He shook the bottle. "But I'd rather give you the choice."

The Magus gestured past them, as if to the world outside.

"There is an entire continent gone mad, a place where the living lose their minds, where magic has run wild, where one of the most powerful and prestigious civilisations known to history fell some short months ago. As a Magus and former resident of that land, I cannot allow myself to sit back and watch. I must know what happened and why. Others are scavenging the land already, like carrion birds on a fresh corpse. I do not care for the riches of the land. I care to know why it fell in the first place."

He narrowed his eyes, though it wasn't a threatening look.

"All three of you were dead. Serve me, willingly and with loyalty, and I will give you a second chance, the likes of which most can only dream of having. I will give you a path to power, to redemption, to growth. I will reward your work and efforts on my behalf with more power, greater abilities, and strength enough to carry out my will across these blighted lands."

He smiled, confident and sure of himself.

"So, what say you, nameless ones? Dead who yet live? Will you join me?"

She glanced to the side, to the other two. Did she want to join? She wasn't sure. There was a lot she didn't yet know, so much that she felt she should but couldn't grasp. This man, the magus, seemed honest to her. She wasn't sure if she wanted power, but-- the doll next to her nodded, and the other did the same a moment later.

And so she nodded as well, accepting, for better or worse.

***