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He made a copy of Baba’s killer Golem spell and stripped it down to its base elements. Some would have to remain as it controlled the movements of the large creatures. The purpose and intent behind them could be removed, so it was. These would not be monsters. They would not kill. They would be helpers like the artificial men.
The spell needed upgrading to be driven by the Wild Magic, so he made new code to support that and feed the energy through the existing pathways.
Next, he reviewed the Fae’s spell for managing the artificial men. All the layers for controlling the physical movements were discarded and replaced with the Golem code. The Fae’s animation code was truly elegant. How it brought life to the inanimate clay was brilliant, and there was no reason to change that. The Golem instantiation ritual was brutal and required blood, pain, and sacrifice. That had to go.
Henry thought about that for a moment. It was no surprise to him that the Golems were creatures of violence when the main ingredient for the magic that forced them into existence was the occurrence of horrific death. He examined the spell further and saw it was keyed to find those responsible for causing the death and acting out vengeance upon them.
That was all replaced by the Fae activation code. The Wild Magic would supply the energy required to power the larger Golems.
He merged all these instructions layers into a new architecture and made his final revisions. Running a simulation, he saw no broken logic streams and instantiated a virtual Golem in his mind. He smiled and added a few tweaks to make them more flexible for the tasks they might be requested to do. He also adjusted their faces to smooth out the distinctively grim expressions Golems had. He didn’t give them smiles, but they’d be less menacing. As he was working on the cosmetics to reduce the scare factor, he also finished the tweaks to their forms.
These final changes looked good as well.
Henry hit a bit of a snag when he looked at the start-up instructions the Golems would be expecting once they were created. Integral to the Golem spell was the concept of a Master, a single being to who the new creations would be loyal and take their instructions. Obviously, the danger of having one of these turn against them was the reason the Master concept was woven into every layer of the spell. He couldn’t remove or change it without recreating the spell from scratch.
The Fae’s artificial men had a much less rigid structure since they couldn’t do harm from the start. While the Golems would be given the Fae’s behavior rules, their underlying nature was based on absolute control.
Henry turned to look at Roy. “Should I make you the Master for the Golems?”
“What?” he exclaimed in surprise. “No! I don’t want the monstrous things following me around!”
Henry gestured to Roy for calm. “That’s not what I meant. Someone has to be the Master. That’s just how the spell works. I can’t change that at the moment. Besides, it’s just temporary. We can recycle the clay when we’re done.”
“You’re making them. You can be their bloody Master!” Roy insisted.
Henry frowned, but he didn’t want to waste more time on this. These were prototypes anyway, so he supposed he could be the Master for these. As he’d said, he’d retire them once this work was done. He reviewed the new spell again and recompiled the code with the latest changes, including his identity as Master.
He opened the aperture over his rift to pass the Wild Magic over the mass of clay, then launched the spell.
The partially melted artificial men sagged completely and merged into one large blob of clay. This spread out and up, forming a wall of clay eight feet tall, one foot deep, and twenty feet wide.
Gaps began forming in the clay wall as the mass tightened into five distinct shapes. The Golems absorbed the clay between them evenly until there was no longer any excess material. Their eyes were primitive bars of glowing yellow light powered by the Wild Magic Henry was pumping into them. He closed the aperture, and the Golem absorbed the last excess energy pooling in the room.
They were eight-foot-tall naked males, minus genitalia, with blemish-free, reddish-brown, completely hairless skin. They looked a little like the Oscar statues from the Academy Awards in Hollywood.
“They certainly don’t look like our artificial men,” Roy said cautiously. “They don’t look like any Golem I’ve ever heard about either.”
Henry smiled. “They’re a friendlier version too.” He faced his creations which were focusing their glowing eyes on him. The expressions he’d designed gave them the appearance of calm confidence too. Their unbreakable focus on him was a little unnerving, but he pushed ahead.
“Welcome. I have a task that requires your assistance. Alice Shaw,” he gestured to the lovely white-haired woman next to him, “is a friend of mine who needs help moving the contents of her cavern to a new location. You will move her items from where they are now to where she wants them. She will let you know where to put the items you collect from the cavern for her. Is this understood?” he asked.
They all nodded.
“You will note that you have the ability to reshape your hands and feet to any configuration that you require to complete the task with greater efficiency while protecting the integrity of the items you move. Is that understood?” he asked again, and they looked at their hands, which they passed through various shapes before reverting them to their regular state. Heads nodded.
Henry looked at Alice. “This should allow them to carry more each trip between the two locations.”
The woman just stared at Henry in shock. When she found her voice, she spoke. “Here you go again, showing off master-level spell crafting! I can’t get a handle on you!”
Roy snorted. “Aye, the lad keeps us on our toes as well.” Henry sent him an annoyed expression, so Roy continued. “I think you’d better get to it. If the site draws too much attention because of your little stunt, the cavern below it may be discovered sooner than you’d like.”
Alice looked very nervous, so Henry nodded. “Can we use this door for a moment? Just to get us to the cavern.” He pointed to the door to the room.
Roy nodded. “Let me leave first. I have things to do today as well.”
“Thanks, Roy!” Henry agreed as Roy nodded to Alice and stepped through the door. Henry gestured for Alice to touch the door. “Think of the vestibule door.”
Henry activated the spell, and they opened the door to the tunnel leading into the cave. This time there was silence. He looked back at the Golems. “Come with us.”
Henry tossed some Will-o’-the-Wisp lights at the tunnel ceiling, and they had light. He caught Alice’s expression of shock. “Don’t worry, they’ve been defanged as well. These are just pretty and useful. They’ll fade to nothing in about a day.”
She just shook her head in wonder.
Henry released the door spell. “Now, I need you to link this door to the destination.”
Alice looked uncomfortable. Obviously, she wanted to keep her stash’s new location a secret. “I promise I won’t tell anyone or go there without your explicit permission. There’s just no other way to help you get your stuff there.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. She reached out, and he touched her arm to send the spell to the door. When she opened it again, all he could see was darkness. She made a gesture, and fairy lights suddenly glowed to life, illuminating the interior of a vast, steel-walled chamber. There were no windows, just tall, reinforced metal walls. A bank vault? An enormous one if that was the case.
Henry smiled at Alice. “That looks like it will suffice, space-wise. My job here is done, and I have to get back to work too. I’ll let you and the boys get to it.”
Her tense expression dissolved into relief. “What do I do with them when they are done?”
“Ah, yes.” He faced the gang of Golems, who waited patiently. “When you’ve completed the task of moving her items into the new chamber, return to this cavern, Alice will call me, and I’ll retrieve you. Do you understand?” They nodded.
Henry touched the open door and fed instructions into the spell. Then he looked at Alice. “After they’re done and back in the cavern, close the door and knock on it firmly three times.” He pantomimed the motion. “This will disable the link between the doors. Then call me to let me know. I’ll give you the number of my friend then.”Exclusive content from NôvelDrama.Org.
Alice’s smile was wide and happy then she looked at him curiously. “How will you get home if the only door is linked between chambers.” She gasped as she thought of the sewers. “You aren’t-”
“No! I’m not going through the stinky tunnel,” he exclaimed. “I have other means of traveling.” He gave her a cheeky smile, bouncing his eyebrows, and pulled up his translocation spell. He targeted Sandy, who was off work today. He thought he’d impress her by just popping in to say hello. Then he’d use her door to return to work. He triggered the spell.
He disappeared from the cave tunnel, causing a gust of wind from the vacuum left behind, and missed Alice’s squeak of surprise.
He flashed into place in a… small room? Towels blew off the rack.
“HENRY!” Sandy yelled at him from her sudsy bathtub, bubbles scattering in the burst of displaced air.
“Oops!”
Kesini was delighted by Henry’s sudden arrival and quickly pulled him into the tub with them.
Clothes and all.
So much for impressing Sandy.