She had no idea what time it was when she finally set down her chisel. In fact, come to think of it, she had no idea what day it was. ... it was still Summer, right?

"Fluffles," she called aloud, "how long was I working?"

The 8 foot tall stuffed bear padded up to her and began to pantomime. She really ought to have given him fingers, but he looked so much cuter with those great big paws, and it's not like the lack of thumbs stopped him using tools, so - she was getting distracted again. She focused as best she could. Her loyal bodyguard was spinning in place, his go-to demonstration for the passage of time. "So 1, 2 - just 3 days? Really? Huh... felt longer. These new enchantments are a doozy! Totally worth it though. His kingliness is gonna be thrilled - and that means more support for my personal projects. Now I can finally get some -"

The bear shook his head. She sighed, brushing a piece of long, white hair out of her eyes.

"Boss man wants to talk to me directly, doesn't he?"Fluffles gave her an enthusiastic nod, his polished quartz eyes glinting in the soft white glow of the magitech lights embedded in the ceiling. She really should - Focus, Sculptor! There would be time for tinkering later. Now... she had to go talk to her patron.

Or so she thought. When she moved towards the door, though, her faithful fluffy friend barred her path.

"What now?!"The bear waved one paw dramatically in front of his snout, then pointed at her.

Oh. Yeah. Three days with no sleep, no food, and no baths. "Fine, I'll take a stupid bath," she grumbled. "But he should really know about this ASAP. He's planning a war or something, I think, and the more of these we get made, the fewer soldiers get killed." On our side, anyway. She didn't worry too much about the morality of her situation - her side was the best side, obviously, so why didn't everyone just join that? - but she wasn't entirely unaware of the consequences of what she'd been asked to make.

Reinforced stone golems.

The simple granite she used as material was cheap, easily acquired, and sturdy - but that was nothing new. Any idiot could make a normal stone golem. But one strong enough to shatter steel, tough enough to take on ballista shots and cannon fire, and fast enough to keep pace with a modern military force? That was a discovery, an innovation - a masterpiece.

So, naturally, her benefactor wanted a few hundred of them. Which... was physically impossible for any one person to manage in the time available to them. She could always claim this was the best she could do, send out the dozen or so of these she might make in time, and call it a job well done, right?

Except...

Here, under the crown's protection, she could work on whatever she wanted most of the time, and never go hungry. Here, she had her own workshop. Her own team, if she wanted it. She was given respect, consideration, a place to sleep - hell, the Council didn't even scold her for having Fluffles follow her everywhere! No mockery, no derision, no 'but she's so young!', just a question; 'Will you help us?'

She sank into the warm bath with a sigh. Whatever else she might be, she was a woman of her word. Her Wish was all but granted - she'd pull her weight or die trying. Still... it felt wrong somehow, letting the halfwit 'crafters' the King had dug up copy her work. They weren't just tools, they were works of art! The very idea of seeing them mass produced made her skin crawl...

Fluffles bopped her gently on the head. Staring down at her hands, she smiled. Wrinkled and drenched. She'd spaced out again - this time in the bath. Had he washed her hair for her? She hadn't asked him to do that! "Thanks," she murmured, rising from the tub. "Hey, you give any more thought to what I asked you before? About a voice?"

The enormous stuffed animal simply stared at her."Yeah, yeah, keep up the act, furball. Honestly... I'm not an idiot!" She gestured around the suspiciously clean room, pointing at the polished tools and the fresh clothes he'd laid out for her. Fluffles slowly gestured for her to look down. She frowned. "Don't try to change the subject!"

"Sculptor, are you - oh. My apologies. I tried to knock but-"

The elf now standing in the doorway had one hand covering his eyes and had twisted to face away from her for some reason. "Uncle! Did you bring me a present?""I did but -""What is it? A new tool? Some new Milassi mess for me to reverse engineer?""Sculptor! Clothes!"

She froze, slowly looking down.

Oh. That was what Fluffles had been trying to tell her. She grabbed a towel from the bear's outstretched paw, her face going bright red."Honestly," the older man grumbled, still refusing to look at her, "how did you survive without us for so long? You didn't even close the door!"

"Stubbornness, Fluffles, and improvised explosives."

He let out a sharp bark of laughter, shaking his head. "But of course! Improvised explosives, your favorite! Are you decent yet?"

"Yep! Present?"

He finally turned back towards her, adjusting the orante domino mask that covered his eyes with one hand while the other slipped into a pouch at his waist. "You're such a child," he grumbled, trying without success to hide the exasperated smile that pulled at the corners of his lips. She never understood why the rest of Council said he was hard to read. It was easy! He was just a big, grumpy teddy bear - like Fluffles, but with a drinking problem. And a voice. And -

Her train of thought was thoroughly derailed as he pulled a polished, pitch black hammer and chisel from the pouch. "You've no idea how difficult these are to get ahold of! But I did miss your birthday, so..." he shrugged, making a great show of indifference as she squealed in glee and launched herself at him. "Ah, Sculptor, wait - did you even bother to properly dry off? Your hair is soaked! Honestly..."

As always, she ignored his complaints, pulling him into as tight a hug as her tiny arms could manage. "They're perfect! Thanks, Uncle Silas!""Not your Uncle..." he grumbled half heartedly. "Would you prefer Grampa?""Listen here, half pint-"

"What about Dad?"He pried her off him and firmly placed the new tool in her hands. "Absolutely not! Now put your present somewhere you won't lose it and let's go. If we leave now, we'll still have time to swing by the bakery before the Council meeting."

"Ooooh! The one with the weird chocolate hazelnut things?""That's the one. Now move! We're already going to have to pull rank to skip the line..."She barely even remembered the walk to the bakery, exhausted as she was. In fact, she barely even registered that the elf had asked her a question until the third time he repeated himself.

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"Sorry, what?"

Silas raised an eyebrow as he handed her one of the two pastries he was now holding. "When was the last time you slept?"Shit. "Oh... ummm...""Sculptor!" Great. He was using his Dad voice.

"I was busy! We need those golems ready ASAP, and the copycat crew can't get to work until I have a functional prototype!""And sleep deprivation is how you miss critical errors in your work that end up causing problems later! We've been over this before, kid, you gotta take care of yourself." The heat left his voice before he could even finish the second sentence. He just sounded tired now, exhausted and defeated in a way that sleeplessness couldn't quite explain.

"Is everything ok, Uncle?"

"It's fine," he insisted hurriedly, schooling his expression just a little too slowly for her to see the flicker of concern in his gaze. Something had happened - and if he wasn't telling her of all people, it was something personal.

Something pre-Council. Interesting. A small voice in the back of her head demanded to know more, but she squashed her growing curiosity with brutal efficacy. Apart from the occasional joke at her expense, he never asked her about her past. She might not be the most socially adept person, but she was at least aware enough to value reciprocity - he did right by her, so she'd do right by him. That meant no piercing questions, and...

"Whatever it is, if you wanna talk about it, you know where to find me."That actually got his attention. He gave a soft chuckle and ruffled her hair with one hand, ignoring her outraged squawking and ineffectual smacks to the offending appendage. "I swear... I'll never understand you."She did her best to imitate the vain and arrogant pose he so often wore in front of his fellow council members. "Good. Thorn Knight says being mysterious keeps boys interested." She paused, her brow furrowing. " I dunno why I'd care about that, but I'm sure there's a reason."

"Ignore her. You're what, 17? If you haven't started noticing boys yet, that's not likely to change. "

"Noticing?"The elf sighed. "Remind me to get you a copy of the Libra Titania sometime. As... enigmatic as the Majestic Nymph may be at times, her divine texts do an excellent job of explaining things that some of the other religions went to great lengths to ignore. But that's for another time. We should hurry - the meeting will start any minute now! Do you think you can stay awake through it all, or should we grab you some coffee?"

"Dunno, but I'd rather risk passing out halfway through than not being able to get decent sleep afterward. Let's just have me give my report first! His Royal Spookiness is usually pretty good about stuff like that."

Her Uncle stifled a laugh at that. "Please call him that to his face. I'll get you as many of those stupidly expensive pastries as you want, but please. I need to see his reaction."

"You'll get me whatever I want anyway though."

"Brat.""Softie."

The walked in comfortable silence the rest of the way. She liked that about him - he didn't feel the need to waste his breath filling every possible moment the way some people did. Of course, once he got going it became clear that he loved the sound of his own voice, but hey, nobody's perfect.

Except maybe Fluffles. Wait, where was he?She turned around, a faint sense of panic begging to rear its ugly head, but Silas put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Deep breaths, kid. He's back at the workshop. You told him to move the prototype out and bring in a fresh slab of stone, remember?"

Oh. Right. Damn, she really was tired. "Thanks Uncle Silas.""No problem half pint. Now, you ready?"She gave a firm nod. She didn't love the idea of giving her report in front of the whole council without her trusty sidekick to back her up, but it wasn't as if the bear was able to provide anything more than moral support when it came to public speaking. Sorely needed moral support, but still.

The doors swung open as they approached, revealing a sizeable room with a massive rectangular table in the center. Surrounding the ornately engraved table, which currently projected a shimmering illusory map of the continent, were her colleagues: the Council of Terra. Thorn Knight stood near the head of the table, muttering something to the hooded figure seated there as she adjusted the crimson steel helm that still covered the upper half of her face.

Beast Knight and Shadow Knight, their masks off for a change, turned in unison to stare at them as the doors slammed shut. Or rather, to stare at her. Silas - Songweaver, she reminded herself - had vanished almost as soon as they stepped inside, warping directly to his place across the table from Thorn Knight.

"Hey," she said with a lazy wave, "sorry I'm late. Been busy. We ready to start?" She knew full well that they were waiting on her - the Shadow King never sat down until he was prepared to 'call this meeting to order' - but she wasn't about to admit it. They weren't late until the king said they were!

"You're late."Damn it.

"Sorry. Hadn't eaten, bathed, or slept in a few days. You know how I get. Speaking of which - prototype one should be arriving at the copycat brigade's front door any minute now!" Shit, wait, did she just call them that out loud?

"Sculptor...""Sorry, boss. They are what they are, and I'm three days overdue for a nap. No energy for bullshit." Beast Knight gave a feral grin at that, while her dear Uncle struggled to disguise his laughter as a coughing fit.

"I see." There was a long, almost ominous pause as the man leaned forward, folding his hands on the table before him. "Continue."

"All preliminary tests showed a 50% improvement to durability, 20% to output, and no material degradation at all! Bad news is, the changes to power input stabilized just over 32%." "Which means?" Beast Knight asked, raising one bushy eyebrow.

"The cost of 3 of these is roughly the same as the cost for 4 of the old ones.""Golems and gold can be replaced with ease," Thorn Knight scoffed dismissively as Sculptor took her seat. "The same cannot be said of our soldiers. We simply need to expand the treasury."

"That shouldn't be a problem." The King waved one hand, and the map shifted, the country of Milassi expanding to fill the whole of the table. "Reginald Ironwood, heir to House Ironwood, has finally taken action. Apparently, he found evidence of his father's less palatable practices, and seeks to supplant him. Shadow Knight, I want you to deal with the negotiations.""And if he doesn't make an attractive enough offer?""You are a thief, are you not? Loot the manor! While if the aid of a major noble would prove most helpful, our plans will proceed with or without him. Songweaver, I'll need you to take action as well."

"Oh?""We have a potential new recruit. I'll go over the details with you later, but it's worth noting she reached out to me directly."Even Sculptor straightened in her chair at that. How in the hell had they managed to reach the King?! He was protected with everything from basic shielding runes to ornate anti-scrying displays almost constantly!

The King chuckled. "I understand your concern, but please, relax. This is no small matter, but neither is it a disaster. The person in question is an oracular mage of considerable skill whom I met prior to claiming my crown - a particularly unusual combination of skill and circumstance that allowed them to slip through the enchantments surrounding the castle. Not only am I unharmed, I find that I'm rather pleased by this particular misstep. If what they claim is true, we will soon count them amongst our most trusted allies, and if not, Songweaver will handle them."The old bard smiled, barely able to contain his excitement. "Well how could I possible decline after such gratuitously flattery? I'll leave at dawn, your majesty."Shadow Knight cleared his throat. "Are we to travel together, sir?""Only as far as Bellum."The spymaster sighed. "Splendid."

Sculptor allowed herself a small smile. It was so nice to see the others getting along with Uncle!

Beast Knight looked around the table as all eyes turned to him. "Is it my turn? Finally! As I'm sure Shadow Knight reported already, we dealt with the majority of our targets in Invicta pretty easily. There were... complications with the Captain, but he can be worked around, at least. All other obstacles and undesirables have been removed. The anomalous Core you requested was acquired directly from the Guild, and the Bleakwood Project should be finished in just a few more months. We'll need at least one of you to come down and help with the actual harvesting process though.""You shall have all the support you need. Thorn Knight?"

The armored woman gave a reflexive salute. "All is ready on my end, Your Majesty. The troops are on the move, and we expect them in position by mid-autumn at the latest."

There was more said after that, of course, but Sculptor had long since stopped caring, and drifted off to sleep.