“Not once did mother tell me that
runebinding experts tested their constructs in the Grey Gardens, using vessels
holding dark spirits to power their golems. “ Gwenllian thought as she sat on
one of the garden walls and swung her legs over to the path. “And why would she. That type of ending to the story would have
crushed my daydreams into nightmares.”
Gwenllian spotted one of the vessels resting
in a place of honor at the center of the path.
The unassuming container showed no outward signs of corruption, apart
from its destruction, but as she approached it began to tremble, a purple fog emitting
from the seams. As she closed the last
few steps the voidspawn released from the largest remaining piece of vessel.
“I see.” She said coyly. “You are here to protect this vessel? Your master didn’t plan on having an ascended
come to kick you out of your home.”
She shot a beam of energy from her staff
and the spawn disappeared into a puff of darkness. Pleased at the simplicity of the event, she
began to collect the smaller pieces of the shattered vessel. As she put the last few portable pieces into
her satchel a dark shadow formed around her.
She stood and turned around quickly finding one of the enchanted golems
had spotted her working.
She pushed the machine back with a spell of
air, hoping it would loosen its focus on her, but it continued towards her as
if nothing had happened. Looking around
at the other vessels, she noticed they seemed uninterested in her. Confused, she slowly backed away from the
approaching golem, changing course. It
continued to follow her. And then she
realized.
“This golem is controlled by the voidspawn
I released.” She thought to
herself. “I disrupted it and so it will
now use a more physical being to finish the job.”
She continued to back away as she
considered her options; she was unsure how to destroy a metal golem. After several minutes of circling the garden
she attempted the same spell that had worked on the voidespawn guarding the
messenger. The energy rebounded off of
the golem’s metal chest and it continued toward her. Panicking slightly, she considered the
being. It was an old, partially rusted
golem. It had stood in the harsh
highland elements for more than 20 year; its weakness would not be light or
energy, but those elements. Her panic
continued to grow with the realization.
She had never been adept at conjuring weather or elemental magic. Her calling had been in life spells, and it
was those classes she had excelled in, and focused on, at Quicksilver.
She ran quickly to behind the nearest tree,
allowing her a few extra seconds to focus, and conjured the most basic earth
protector she could remember. When she
was sure it was solid she stepped out from around the tree and directed it to
the golem. The earth elemental was
slow – no doubt the job would have been done faster if she could remember the
greater spells – but it seemed to work much better than her preferred branch of
skills. As the stone protector crushed
the legs and arms of the golem, Gwenllian divided her focus and attempted a
windstorm, the type of spell that caused her to fail the basic elemental
classes during exams. It was feeble,
more of a heavy breeze than the targeted hurricane her classmates could conjure,
but together with the earth elements, it was enough to crush the golem into
submission.
The voidspawn disappeared into a second
puff of darkness but Gwenllian was sure it would return. She quickly scanned the garden for additional
vessels, and saw many, but decided they would have to make do with the half
dozen pieces she retrieved from the first.
She turned to leave the garden
and saw a rough stone plaque leaning haphazardly against one of the intricately
carved pillars. She instantly knew this
was not originally intended as a piece of the architecture.
“We were so proud of our creations.” She read,
“King Molinar asked us to bind demons into runecraft vessels, and we all too
quickly abandoned the reason to please him.
Now Regulos has come, and the demons are escaping their prisons. I will soon be possessed. When the time comes, please slay us so we might
atone for our sins!”
As she finished reading there was a rustle
in one of the nearby bushes. She watched
as a dwarf entered the open space of the garden. It was his clothes that immediately signalled
to Gwenllian that something was not right.
They were not only old fashioned, but very dirty, very tattered, and very
baggy. She knew at once that the man who
wore these clothes had once filled out the proportions, but that time and weariness
had robbed him of this. This was one of
the dwarves who had been possessed by the released demons. She backed away, not wanting to startle it,
but it followed her in the same way the golem did.
“This then,” she thought, “is the
voidspawns final attempt at my life.”
She took aim and shot her most powerful
spell directly into the heart of the dwarf.
Perhaps it had assumed she would not kill one of her own, or that
hesitation would give it enough time to act, but after hearing the stories, and
reading the plea, she had no reason to delay.
The dwarf dropped to the ground and the voidspawn released from its
current vessel. Rather than disappear into
another puff, it shattered into pieces that drifted off into the darkening
sky. Gwenllian was so focused on this
that she failed to notice the spirit of the dwarf until it too rose into the
air and disappeared.
Pleased with her work, she returned to
Reclaimer’s hold and handed the pieces of the vessel to Hagen.
He studied them for a few minutes and then beckoned
to Borrin.
“I owe you an apology.” Hagen said to the Guardian leader, as if
forgetting Gwenllian was there. “These
fragments were not ruptured naturally – there is water magic emanating from the
shards. I could have sworn that Gorvaht
was the cause of the corruption here, but perhaps I was wrong. It seems the Abyssal cult is more powerful
than we thought.”
No comments:
Post a Comment