From this bedroom, it didn't look like the realm had ended.
A young woman brushed her short, chopped hair in front of her mirrors, then walked to get some fresh air from the windows. Outside beasts long gone flew around in an endless memory. Outside a whole souvenir of a dungeon brimmed with power and life.
Then, a monstrous bird would come and pray me to follow it to the dining room. I would follow it through decrepit hallways, sit and eat what new food the beasts had come up with to satisfy the taste of a human.
But I was not human.
I was at the same time this clay golem forging iron in a ship lost in the desert. The connection to the human had become good enough to move both bodies at once.
Well, more like in sequence, but since the human body was delayed, it worked out well enough.
"When will the master be home?" The human would ask in the middle of her meal.
And the monster to apologize, to promise he could not be far, to find a thousand excuses for his absence. Because that master was long, long gone.
"I wished I could see him again." She would slip in before letting me make her eat whatever was served on her plate.
She was wasting her time.
Back in the bedroom, I as a human would sit at the table and work on a necklace. Had it really taken days to chisel that trinklet? It stilled lacked a gem but otherwise looked finished.
"I am ready to get you out." I made her say.
"Almost." She added.
And then she stopped her work. She just looked at it without a word, absorbed in thoughts. The synch between us would not allow me to see a trace of that.
"Have you found what's happening here?" She finally asked. "Not that it matters but, the rituals, the sacrifices... her...?"
Back on the ship, I was pouring more iron in the furnace, turning it bright white.
"It's just monsters. It might be the structures built to retain the mana here that render them crazy."
Humans seemed to have adapted the dungeon for the mana drought. Not that it mattered, the place still ran out like the rest, but it could still have an effect. A kind of illness maybe. All the more reason for the human to leave.
"I can see it, you know." She kept going. "My mana. My system is showing me a number."
Wait, what?
The human's mythical system showed her what?!
She had put a hand on her face: "It's like watching your life evaporate. I can't help but think of what will happen when..."
"It wont!" She had trailed off and gave me control to speak. "I know you have a plan, I don't know what it is but you would not be wasting your time here if you didn't so it won't! You are going to make it!"
At that time I realized I did not even know the human's name.
"Thanks, Kaele." She had calmed down. "Sorry for putting you through this. You'll have to bear me quite a while longer."
That was the spirit! An undefeated human against... an uncaring realm.
She got up and walked to the door, knocked and called.
"Nadjal!"
Who was that? I could not tell and she didn't let me control her to ask. Already the mist on the other side of the door had started to accumulate, growing in size and density until the presence of the bird monster came to bear.
And I was alone on the ship.
The synch broken.
That young woman did that, quite often, so I did not worry. There was a lot she kept from me but as long as she prevailed in the end I didn't mind in the slightest.
The plate was taking shape before me. I was almost done with the chest. In truth it would never be ready for her escape but what little I had done would be more than enough to handle the entire dungeon already.
After the mold I carved the wards in the metal still red, then plunged it into the water. Now to warm it again. It was lengthy. With magic, that was what made such arts most potent.
Outside, on the deck, the portal had started to crackle.
I took it as a signal. Whatever caused it, it meant it was time to get the human out of there. I came out through the hatch, closed it behind me and approached the tiny speck that had already calmed down.
Time to turn this little hole into a large door.
The mist poured out on the deck. The speck turned to a whirlwind, then into a cloudy frame. Behind it I could see the bedroom and the human waiting on the other side, in her heavy dress.
So I walked through.
This looked like nothing but the mansion had been heavily protected, hidden behind a barrier the kind of which still defied me. Now I could cross it like it was nothing.
"Ready to leave?" I asked.
"Nearly."
She had put her craft around her neck and was holding the slot with one hand. I knew she was hiding it from me but didn't care. We could just walk out, or we could destroy the place. She had poured quite an amount of mana in it that felt wasted.
Or I could watch myself trace new patterns on my body. Mirror. Why was I doing that again? Was I even the one doing it?
Oh. It was the human.
Her mastery of control was such now that she could control me like a doll. Move me around at a whim, make me do anything and I would be powerless to stop her. I had been turned into an insignificant tool at her disposal.
This was... perfect! If not for the inconvenience of her having to order every move, this was a golem's fantasy! No way to fail and an obedience taken to the extreme!
Yes!
She made me finish the pattern, then cast it. I watched my clay body cover itself in garnments. I now looked like a human. A woman in a dress. The exact replica of my mistress.
I wanted to speak but didn't even have the control for that.
"Can't you hide your necklace?" She got upset.
No way to tell her yes or no. I could not even look at my neck, not move to touch the beads.
I had already somewhat understood what she intended to do and was starting to panic.
She made me approach her and draw the same pattern on her. Of course. I was mirroring her but for her plan to last, she needed more than that. She was planning to mirror me.
And when my body was done, and both mirrors activated at the same time, we switched places.
I was now in the human body, and she was the clay golem.
Mirror was not the most elegant way to switch bodies, but it had one perk: it was far harder to counter. Even with full control of myself she still planned for any resistance on my part. And boy would I have resisted!
She had crouched and, as far as a clay golem could, was wincing.
More like agonizing.
It was disturbing enough for a living being to trap itself in a lifeless clay mass but of all things she had shosen my broken self. My body was hurting day and night. She would get used to it.
She squirmed on the ground, curled up with her teeth clenched.
"Why..." She let out from the clay head. "How can you even function..."
I could still answer nothing.
My eyes were fixed on her neck. Instead of a beads necklace she had the one she had crafted this whole time. And the slot was filled. With an amber diamond.
Amber.
What in hell did she have in mind?! It was bad enough that she had put herself in a broken body but that was her solution to the mana drain? To try and copy my necklace? Was she insane?!
The clay golem got back up, stumbled a bit to find her balance.
"Listen..." She said before holding back the dizziness. "Listen. Do not hurt Nadjal. Do you hear? Work with her. Play dolls. Whatever."
Who even was... oh. Nadjal was the bird monster. Question mark?
"I don't have time to get to Hashal, so I'll let someone else do it for me. I have synched with that monster, she will look for that master and there is only place to find him."
Oh.
Oh it suddenly made sense. A lot clicked. Rather than spend her lifetime breaking in a temple, she gave a monster just enough mana and control to do the job. Then she could come back once that job was finished.
Okay, good plan, slight problem: she was still going to run out of mana long before that happened!
Also, that bird had no idea how to enter Hashal! It was a bird! And a deluded one at that!
"Make sure she keeps at it. I am going to meet Veleter."
I truly, sincerely wanted to strangle her. Sure, go waste mana in a trap while I stay here looking pretty!
"Now, show me your necklace."
I watched myself take it out from my neck - it was way, way easier with a human head - and stretch one amber bead toward the golem. She approached and my entire being wanted simultaneously to punch her and flee.
Don't! Don't you dare! Don't make me do this!
She approached her clay finger to the bead. Made contact and immediately screamed. The moment she had touched it, the bead had sizzled and sparked, shaken under the stress. It nearly cracked!
The golem got back up, still holding her finger as if it was actually hurt.
"Still too much..." She muttered for herself. "I will have to try again."
She looked at the door and in my human body I could not perceive it, only deduce that that Nadjal of hers was coming back. Someone had screaming in the mistress' bedroom, I would come rushing too.
The young woman in my golem body walked back toward the portal, stayed near it then took an aggressive pose and waited for the door to open. She made me take an equally frightened pose in a perfect theater scene.
The humanoid bird burst in, mist rolling in.
"Nadjal!" I found myself calling. "Help!"
The clay golem turned its hand and fired stone spikes at it. Bells chimed, breaking down those projectiles before they ever missed it.
"You again!" It shrieked. "Get away from my mistress!"
Her bells kept ringing in a calm and charming way, an almost cheerful gait. Golden chains took shape and held onto the clay body. It tried to break free but could not.
Was she for real? Summon the armor already!
She probably read my thoughts, focused and the iron plates materialized her to lodge on her arm and shoulder, breaking the hold on this side. With that free hand she grasped another chain and shattered it.
The next moment her clay body had been torn by a sharp gust of wind and sent flying back into the portal. The monster rushed after her, stopped at the entrance to turn to me.
"I won't be long, mistress!"
I was free again, rushed to hug that beast and beg: "Don't leave me!"
It got troubled, looked at the portal then back at me with that snappy head it had. On the other side, the golem was getting back up, the whole ship's deck visible. Then it all disappeared.
With one last chime the bird had closed the portal.
"Mistress, I would never leave you!" It hugged me in turn, then fell back ashamed to have touched me. "Oh, I was so scared! So scared! But she is safe! She is healthy! Mistress, oh mistress, don't ever leave me!"
Before I could say anything to comfort it the beast fell on its knees and came clutching the dress.
"You won't leave me! Why would you, you won't! You would never leave me behind!"
Just the memory of a bird long past.