In the era before magic broke the world, mages created golems to protect towns and cities from outside threats. They would gather enough clay to form a large figure, significantly larger than the average person, and were built with strong bodies capable of resisting attacks while also dealing massive damage. They may have had bodies and limbs that resembled a person, but they lacked distinct facial features and had limited speech capabilities. Once the body of the golem was constructed, the mage would inscribe a name onto it. Then, the mage would assign the golem a purpose, and with the power of the name and the purpose the golem would be brought to life.
These great clay figures were meant to be the champions of the people. However, in the Inner City they were little more than security guards. They patrolled the wealthiest streets, protecting shops from thieves more often than fighting any monsters. Magically made goods possessed great value in the inner city because of their scarcity. The inner city’s mages made an excellent living as forgers, mages with the ability to enhance non-magical items with magic. A clothing shop’s best pieces were those with magic sewn into the threads, a piece of jewelry was elevated if its precious stones mined from beneath the ravine were further enhanced with magical energy, even grocers sold premium foods that were magically enhanced. These magically forged goods were at risk of being stolen and sold illegally, so shop owners would commission golems from the Kashaph-Or to protect their interests.
Elsef was one such golem, tasked with watching over the shopping district. She was crafted with the appearance of a woman after complaints from wealthy ladies began piling up from feeling ill at ease from the large lumbering appearance of masculine golems. Elsef was still significantly taller than the average woman, but her uniquely constructed feminine face and figure seemed to satisfy the needs of the ladies while still being able to apprehend any would-be-thieves.
However, from the moment of her creation Elsef felt that something was amiss. Every day she watched countless people walk through the streets either wearing magically forged items or consuming magically enhanced food. The Kashaph-Or taught her that the magic within these items was protection magic, magic that was meant to enhance the physical strength of the wearer or consumer so that they were less likely to be sick or injured. They taught her that protecting these valuable magical items would protect the people, and Elsef swelled with the pride that came from having such a noble purpose. Only, Elsef could never detect magic with that purpose within any of these items. Instead, she could only sense that the magic was altering their emotions, specifically, these items were making people calmer, more complacent. More obedient. There was another thing she could sense within this magic as well: a deep fear of those who lived in the outer city. With every day that passed, Elsef felt the falseness of her purpose gnaw at her, filling her with the desire to protect people directly, not the items they purchased.
The sound of a child wailing quickly shifted her out of this mindset. A young boy with disheveled hair dressed in tattered clothes was cowering on the ground while two well-adorned men kicked his body. The golem knew that this would be her chance to fulfill what she saw as her true purpose. Without hesitation, Elsef ran to the boy’s side and shielded his body with hers. The force of the two men’s kicks did little to her other than enrage her further.
“What are you doing, golem?” shouted one of the men.
“I am protecting this boy!” Elsef shouted back. “Is it not my purpose to protect those in need?”
“You are supposed to protect our people! Those wretches from the outer city have their own golems. His people shouldn’t be here!”
The commotion drew enough attention that the city guard became involved, quickly rushing to the two men and calming them down. Elsef took this opportunity to release the boy, allowing him to run away to safety before the guards could question him. When asked about the boy’s whereabouts, the golem pointed the guards in the wrong direction in order to buy him more time. The two men, seemingly satisfied with whatever the guards told them, glared at Elsef and walked away to continue their business. The boy was safe and her purpose had been fulfilled. Elsef dusted off her clothes and continued her patrol.
As she scanned the people going in and out of shops, she noticed something odd in one of the alleys. There was a young woman alone pacing back and forth, and she appeared to be talking to herself. Curiosity burned with Elsef as she quickened her pace towards the suspicious woman. Once Elsef was closer she could see the woman’s fingers agitate her dark curls as she walked back and forth past a large package that had been propped against a wall.
“That’s it! I can’t deliver this,” she said, seemingly to herself, before noticing Elsef.
As a being created from magic, Elsef had a particular sensitivity to magical energy, both within people and objects. In this case, both the woman and whatever was inside the parcel she carried gave off strange amounts of energy.
“Deliver what?” Elsef asked.
Relief flashed in the dark haired woman’s eyes as she realized Elsef was a golem. She took a closer look at Elsef’s face, noticing the small inscription of her name on her forehead.
“Oh, Elsef! I am so glad you’re here,” she said. “You see, I’m a courier with Eveniyr Express, and I was tasked with delivering this package to one Lila Dorsett. But something about this package just feels wrong.”
Elsef, unmoved by the woman’s frantic speech, simply asked, “But what is it?”
“I don’t know! I’m terrified that if I open the package something bad will happen. But you’re strong, so maybe if you open it everything will be fine, right?”
“Perhaps,” Elsef said before ripping the package open.
The courier jumped back, expecting some kind of explosion or destructive force. But there was only silence. Elsef looked inside the box and saw what appeared to be a broken magical staff. Jagged fragments lay scattered about, along with a large shard of polished obsidian. The courier peeked around Elsef’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of the package’s contents for herself. Upon seeing the obsidian shard, she shrieked and pointed at it aggressively.
“Th-that’s it,” said the courier. “That thing just gives me this horrible feeling, I can’t explain it!”
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At first, Elsef had no idea what the courier was talking about. By all accounts it seemed like normal obsidian. But upon closer inspection, Elsef began to understand the courier’s fear. The shard radiated pure magical power, but it was nothing like the magic that brought her to life. This magic felt sick and warped. It was magic that was intended for destruction. With the right sorcerer, this staff could be repaired, the shard inserted in its slot at the top. The staff would then enhance the sorcerer''s abilities, allowing them to carry out incredible feats of destruction. Magic of this caliber was exactly the kind of magic that destroyed the continent, and was deemed illegal by the Eveniyr council.
“Who is Lila Dorsett?” Elsef asked the courier.
“I don’t know! I never heard of her until I was given this package.”
“And who gave you the package?”
“No one saw. It just appeared one day and my boss assigned the job to me. I should never have taken it!”
Elsef put the lid back on the package as best she could.
“Come, we must bring this to a guard at once.”
“I’m going to lose my job for this,” lamented the courier.
“I’m sure your goodwill will be rewarded by the city guard,” said Elsef. The courier made no further response but began wringing her hands as they walked. For a moment, Elsef thought she was muttering to herself, or perhaps to her dybbuk but made no comment on it. If nothing else, the woman did not seem dangerous to Elsef.
They arrived at a guard post and Elsef explained the situation at hand. A small group of guards was ordered to head to the address listed on the package at once to arrest Lila Dorsett. The remaining guard then ordered Elsef to destroy the fragments of the staff and the obsidian shard.
Elsef hesitated for a moment upon hearing this request. She knew that coming into direct contact with the staff, particularly the obsidian shard accompanying it, would expose her to enough magical force to destroy her completely. This put her at odds with her purpose. As a golem, she was designed to protect the citizens of Evenyir. Lately that meant protecting the shopping district from thieves, a deeply unsatisfying part of her occupation due to the fact that it seemed like the people of the Inner City had little need for her. Just today, it was the boy from the Outer City that she chose to protect, not the two men assaulting him. Moments like those were when she felt she truly embodied her purpose. This task would be a chance for her to be useful to others, more specifically, her body would be of use to others as it took the full force of the destructive magic intended for the city and its people. However, her destruction would mean she would no longer exist, and that would be the end of her ability to protect people.
The concept of her imminent destruction gnawed at her more than she expected it to. Other golems faced destruction at the hands of monsters almost daily when they were positioned in the Outer City. How she longed for a similar position so that she too could face such a risk. And now that a similar threat was before her she was…sad? Her thoughts returned to the young boy from the Outer City and others like him. She then imagined the staff in the hands of Lila Dorsett as she reduced that boy and the rest of the city to ash. Elsef looked to the courier standing beside her, but upon meeting her eyes, Elsef caught a glimpse of something unexpected. A woman with ethereal white hair and similar facial features to the courier was reflected in her eyes. The longer she locked eyes with the courier, the more she was drawn in by the sight of this white haired woman. Then, she began to see images she had never seen before. The two women as young girls, with matching dark curls, playing together. The courier, being the younger of the two, would look to this woman with the affection and admiration of a younger sister. Elsef saw the older sister’s efforts to take care of the courier, then she saw a pack of frost wolves lurking above the cliffs. Elsef watched in horror as they descended upon the older sister, and then, nothing.
Save her, came a voice in Elsef’s head. Please.
The voice faded, and Elsef could see the courier once again, her eyes darting between the people in the room as she waited to see what happened next.
Elsef took the box from the city guards and left the guard post, heading for the pathway up the cliffside. The courier followed her hastily.
“You should go home,” Elsef told the courier without looking at her, eyes turned upward above the city.
“Um, I am actually. This is the way I take to go home. I live in the Outer City.”
“I see,” said Elsef. “Don’t follow me. This staff needs to be destroyed.”
“But wait, isn’t that dangerous for you? I mean, you’re not invincible right?”
“I have my orders. I must destroy the staff even if it destroys me in the process.”
The courier rushed past Elsef and stood in front of her, blocking her path.
“Oh, come on! I know you’re not a mindless servant! You’re assigned to protect the Inner City but I saw you defend that boy earlier.”
Elsef’s gaze lowered back down to meet the courier’s eyes.
“I will protect all of Evenyir.”
“We both know you’re only assigned to the Inner City. There has to be another way to destroy the staff! If we lose you, who will protect us in the Outer City?”
Elsef was unable to answer, but she remained unswayed. She had to be the one to destroy the staff. She could not risk any human lives, and the other golems had their own assignments and orders. Elsef stepped around the courier and quickened her pace. She could hear the courier’s shoes against the stones and the wild huffs of her breathing as she ran towards her, but Elsef’s legs were stronger.
Climbing up the side of the cliff was easy at first, as there were stone stairs carved into the side of the cliff. However, eventually the stairs got steeper as they ascended higher and higher, making it necessary for Elsef to hold the box against her chest with one hand while her other hand grabbed hold of the stone steps to pull herself up. She could feel the obsidian shard throb against her body while the sharp edges of the stones scraped her clay fingers. The courier was calling out from behind her, but Elsef ignored her and kept climbing.
She passed many homes belonging to people from the outer city. They were not as elaborately constructed as the Inner City homes. Instead, they were dug into the cliff itself, almost like tiny caves. The only things distinguishing them as houses to Elsef were their stone doors and small lamps posted outside that contained lesser amounts of magic within them to produce heat. This heat would provide some warmth to the families within the homes while also helping to melt any fallen snow from the ground, preventing anyone from slipping and falling to their deaths. Most people remained indoors for safety reasons, but she passed multiple golems on patrol.
When she was finally past the highest part of the city, she had to climb up the rest of the cliff and pull herself out of the ravine. She held the box tighter against herself, ignored the pressure from the obsidian shard as much as possible and reached for a crack in the stone that gave her enough leverage to pull herself up. Her feet scrambled for footholds as she reached higher and higher, and when she could reach the snowy ground above the ravine, she pushed the box as far away from the edge of the cliff as she could and pulled herself the rest of the way out.
Elsef was unbothered by the significantly colder air, although it did feel crisp against her clay body. She took the box with two hands and started walking away from the city, and her feet began to sink into the snow. She did her best to shake off the snow as she walked, but her progress was slower than she would have liked. She could hear frost wolves howling in the distance, and a group of white griffins were circling in the sky above her. The thought of killing monsters with the staff as she destroyed it placated her.
She threw the box onto the snow and opened it, revealing the obsidian shard once again. Elsef sighed, closed her eyes, and grabbed the shard with both hands, crushing it with all her might. The throbbing sensation burned through her body as the destructive magic surged through her.
Elsef felt herself crumble.