This realm needed humans. It was as simple as that. Right? Right.
Dusk was casting its grim shades through the windows. The mansion was otherwise plunged in the dark, its lights faded, exhausted by time.
I had finished casting my mask, brought it to the outside rays and observed its smooth surface sparkle. The face of a badger, sculpted to please the eye. I put it on my face and came out of the darkness to observe my new ornaments.
It would have to do.
Out and through the hallways, to the great hall. I stopped before the painting that dominated the stairs. The human family of the Amber pavilion, intact.
Their eyes were looking at no one in particular. Certainly not at me.
"I am sorry, masters." I touched the painting. "You have to understand, without a human the realm is lost."
They said nothing. They were made of paint. I was a clay golem talking to a portrait. We were made to understand each other.
"And what would you have me do?!" I lashed out. "If you wanted me to break down you should have built me frailer! Destroyed us or brought us with you when you left! Now tell them to answer! Tell a human to answer me!"
Because talking to them was as productive as going to the cellar.
The rest of the great hall was equally silent. Still, monsters roamed outside. Greyhounds, meniles, growing bolder with time. For so long the nefarious mushroom that had ensnared this house had kept them at bay but now even its power waned.
Few of its spores still lingered in the air, if any.
I walked through the open door; I did not bother closing it anymore; down the circular stairs, passed the broken golem and into the cellar itself. Back between the familiar circular wall full of illegible engravings. Two magic circles faintly glowing on the ground.
One for the caster, one for the torture.
Normally, magic circles absorbed magic from their caster; and as the realm drained the mansion of everything, so did this ritual. But those ones also brought magic in. Because humans. And so this dark damp cave lacked for nothing.
I kneeled in the smaller circle, breathed as much as a clay golem could, made sure my mask was in place and so, once more, I started.
"Someone, please hear my plea. The realm is dying, mana is gone, you need to come back." My voice was exhausted. "Please, you need to save us."
And after a while, as frustration grew, as usual.
"Won't anyone answer?! Will you let us rot?! This realm needs help, come and save it! Is there no savior among you? No one?!"
That was when the voices started to appear. Human voices piercing from afar, from wherever the humans had settled after they left. One at first, then another, then a few, sometimes as many as five at the same time.
And with the voices, if they bothered, there would be tiny specks of light hovering above the central circle.
"Listen! The realm is in peril, it needs a savior! It needs a human! Anyone, anyone please answer!"
"What's in it for me?" Asked one. "Like I would believe that." Said another. "There is always a catch." Groaned one more.
They were listening, they were attracted, they were so close at that point. It seemed that any of them, at any time, was about to break through.
"Yes it's true, it's dangerous, the realm will try and drain you of your mana! It is perilous but we need you!"
"Called it!" Mocked the flicker before disappearing.
"What a hassle." Sighed another gone as well.
"Please listen! Can't you see we are desperate? You are humans, you are the most powerful beings this realm has ever witnessed! If you can't save us then, who can?!"
And once again, the faint lights would come back, flicker above the circle and listen. "I don't feel like it today..." Detached and indifferent, but present all the same! Talking and reacting and tantalizingly close!
"I will protect you from the mana drain! If you are willing to take the risk, I will do everything to keep you safe!"
"I've heard enough." Another one vanished.
Soon they were all gone and I called again, and again warned them and again the fled. One and once more the same cycle repeated until I could not even comprehend my own screams. I had retreated against the wall, curled up and quivered.
Why did I warn them?! I knew it pushed them away! All I had to do was shut up and they would come! Idiot! Just shut up! Just lie!
They won't come if I don't lie!
So yes. That had become my life. I got to talk to humans for hours and hours and hours on end. Truly the luckiest junk in the realm.
On the shelf carved into the wall were the clothes I had prepared, with sealing wards to preserve the human's mana. I had prepared everything for them. I would protect them. And then they would save the realm and get to enjoy their rightful domain.
It was that simple.
When I was done screaming to the point of madness, I would walk back upstairs to calm down. Try and push back then next attempt for as long as magic would allow. Each time I got to see the decay progress. This time there was a monster in the hall.
So the monsters had finally entered the mansion.
This greyhound looked sick. The rocky crocodile had glassy spikes on the back, looking dim and frail. It heaved, moved a bit then huffed again.
Impale.
And now I had damaged the hall. I approached it, took off my necklace and pressed one of the two beads it had against the monster's metallic head. It flinched, then nothing, then it went to dust.
All I had to do now was break down the spikes I had summoned, replace the bricks, add a coat and clean the ground. And with so little mana around, I could ill afford to do that as many times as monsters would trespass.
Soon the mansion would be a ruin.
"Give me mana..." The parasite asked.
The mushroom's voice sounded weak and distant. Even though part of its body remained outside, holding to tall towers and stretching its stems partly around the mansion, it had likely retreated underground.
Magic. That was all that monster ever cared about.
"You are not guarding much these days are you? I bet even I could present a threat to you now. You better hide, parasite. If a human comes, the first thing I'll advise them is your death."
It did not answer.
I was done absorbing the earth spikes. There was a gash in the wound now that I felt could wait. Repairs could wait.
This time, I would lie.
Was I really going to go back downstairs? Yes I was. The place I would normally avoid, ignore, forget was now the only thing in my mind. A dam had broken in me that I did not know existed.
Back to the circle, my feet on the smaller one that immediately brightened. Was I giving it too much mana? What did it matter.
"Can you hear me, humans?! Whoever is still there, show yourselves! Where are the brave souls that forged the realm? Where are the invincible masters that crafted me?! Don't tell me you shirk the task! You, the undefeated!"
"So loud..." The humans complained. "Keep talking." And: "Grow up." And: "Are you mocking me?" On and on and on and I paid them no mind. Okay I was actually taking it very badly but you know what? It was fine!
"Yes the realm is deadly! Yes it will drain you and make you whither, steal everything you have and turn all of your feats into dust! It is a merciless place and unrelenting!"
"Sounds familiar." - "I got to wake up tomorrow." - "Got enough of that."
"If none of you can stand it then piss off! I would rather call in the dark than face your uncaring voices!"
I soon got what I asked for. Another three or four screams and only the faint glow of magic circles was listening.
"I'll stand here and keep calling until someone has the courage to defy death! I will keep looking for one of you human enough to help! I am not going anywhere until..."
"Someone! Help!" The new voice chimed in.
I froze. And then, almost immediately realizing that the voice could be gone I spoke, not even thinking of my words.
"I am here! I will help you, tell me what you need!"
"Help me!" The voice pleaded. A faint glimmer piercing above the central circle.
"I am here! I am here, can you hear me, here!" My hands were incapable of grabbing it. "Talk to me, what can I do, I'm here!"
"I need help..." It seemed to recede.
"I'm here! Come here! I will help! You can come here!"
There were no words but what had been a glimmer turned into a flame between my hands, so strong it could have melted them. I endured and kept calling and then, fatally, added:
"I am in a dangerous place, the realm will try to kill you! But I will protect you, I swear I will! Can you hear me?!"
"Yes!" It desperately screamed.
I had been forced to fall back almost to the wall. The wave of magic, the tsunami was intoxicating. Blinding, destructively overwhelming. I could feel my body lift up, cease to exist, then fall down again as it barely receded.
A human... had come?
Yes! Yes, the silhouette of a human stood before me! Someone had answered my plea! A human was here to save the realm!
What had I done?!
Tousled brown hair and blue eyes, he had growth left in him, a teenager in the true sense. His chin gave him the face of a kid, his height said otherwise. He was busy looking around while holding his arms against the chest, frightened.
I had fallen to my knees. "Master..." Was all I could mutter.
"Wait!" The teenager stammered. "I didn't mean to intrude, I didn't..."
He stopped and looked at me, now curious, then rubbed his eyes.
"You... you aren't a statue, right?" He let a nervous laugh.
"I am a clay golem." That came out of me so naturally it spooked him. "I am at your service, master."
He had fallen back, more curious now than frightened. "Master? You... called me... master?"
"Yes. But there is no time, master!" I had finally snapped out of it.
He watched me get up, rush to the shelves, pick up the clothes and turn back while talking.
"The realm is draining your mana! I have prepared those clothes for you to wear, with seals that will keep you safe."
The human stepped back again at my approach and I froze. Should I place the clothes on the ground? He needed to put them as soon as possible!
Something had caught his eye. "Can you hold on a moment?" He asked before fiddling with empty air. The human system. That contraption from an era when magic was abundant. He kept poking at nothing, then warmed up.
Then his eyes widened and turned on me.
"Please put those clothes, master." I pleaded. "They will protect you from the mana drain."
He gave me an uneasy smile: "Okay? If I put those clothes, will you let me out?"
"Of course! I will wait outside."
I gave him the tunic, then turned away and fled the dizzying flood of magic that filled the cellar and more. Up and past the wooden door, to wait in the hall. I was brimming with mana.
He came out soon after, the clothes on him, saw me and got passed me first before turning again.
"I haven't introduced myself," he bowed to me - he really, really didn't need to, "I am Makoto. And you are?"
"I am a clay golem."
He got a bit excited: "Does that mean I get to name you? I can?" I needed and he stamped his feet, all excited. "Alright! How about..."
He thought of it for a good moment before pointing his finger at me.
"Kaele! How about that?"