Exploration is not nearly as exciting as you were expecting it to be. You spend your first few hours scurrying from shadow to shadow, peeking around corners for any hint of danger. You are all too aware that while you may be an immortal witch with the power to reshape reality, your fleshy bits are just as vulnerable as everyone else's. For all your paranoia, however, nothing jumps out at you. The city is empty and quiet, occupied primarily by abandoned barracks, dining halls, and administrative buildings.

  While the furniture and architecture may be intact, the city has been utterly stripped of everything else. The kitchens have no pans or pots, the desks have no quills, the beds have no sheets. It gives you the sense that the city was deliberately abandoned, although it could just as easily be the work of scavengers. Lux is a steady presence by your side. For all his clumsiness, he moves on surprisingly light feet, and sneaking through the ruins with him proves no challenge at all.

  The city seems more and more like a fortress the further you explore. Roads are straight and wide, laid out in a grid. The buildings are all the same unpainted white stone, small and spartan. Traveling down the main road, towards the walls, has revealed nothing but empty ruins and a lone gate that lies open, leading out into snow-covered wastes. It is only when you begin walking in the other direction, towards a massive keep towering over the city, that you find something of interest.

  The building in front of you is noticeably different from the rest of the city. First of all, it is the first building you have seen to actually appear ruined, not simply abandoned - the wall closest to the road has been caved in, and bricks lay scattered across what parts of the interior you can see. Second of all, there's something inside besides furniture and bare walls. You can see racks of tools - hammers, tongs, even a chisel gleam dully in the afternoon light, rusted but not unusable. An anvil occupies the far corner, and you think you can make out a forge hidden behind the room's only occupant - an enormous white bear. You think it's a bear, at least. You've never seen one before, and wouldn't be able to describe what a bear should look like even if someone was there to ask, but the thing before you - some five feet tall lying down, eight feet long, covered in fur and with a black nose - looks bearish enough to you.

  You sigh. Quietly, so as not to wake the sleeping beast. You could do so many things with the tools here, but there's no chance of sneaking past their guardian. You've found your first monster, and it's even worse than you anticipated.

  But...

  You've no choice but forwards. You chose this path, you remind yourself, and now you will walk it. Now, you'll need to kill the biggest bear you've ever seen with nothing but an untested golem and magic you still don't understand. The thought makes your heart beat wildly in your chest, and not just from fear.

  You consider your choices. The smart thing to do would be to head back to base, make a few more copies of Lux, and return with a small army at your back. But that's not what you want to do. You know, somewhere in your heart, that if you back down now, you'll never truly stop running. This is your first real challenge, and there is nothing to do but face it head-on.

  You could likely kill the bear in front of you with a touch. You could turn it to stone or glass, or alter its biology until its brain is meat soup. But somehow, you are sure that changing a being of this size and strength will take significantly more time and power than altering a pile of snow. The bear in front of you won't sit still for you, either.

  Which leaves Lux, your champion, and your own offensive powers. You know that you can summon flame, frost, or any other element with only a thought, but without something to anchor them, they will be fleeting things. Your magic has replenished since you created Lux, and in fact has come back stronger. The pool of power within you is noticeably deeper than when you arrived, even though it has only been a few hours. Despite this, you doubt you can hurt the thing before you.

  You shake your head, dismissing your thoughts. You don't need to hurt it. You aren't alone, after all. The thought brings a smile to your face and calms your racing heart.

  "Lux, kill that bear." You command. "Quietly. Try to sneak up on it."

  Your knight moves to obey. You climb up the half-crumbled wall with him, getting a better view of the bear and preparing yourself to do... something. You aren't quite sure what, but you're very sure that this isn't going to be an easy fight. Lux, once again, proves his stealth as he clambers up to the bear with nary a sound, before, without warning or fanfare, he plunges his blade straight down upon its head.

  The blade sinks a few inches in, its unfortunately dull edge struggling to cut through heavy fat and fur, and is stopped cold by the beast's skull. Lux presses down harder, even as the bear lets out a bone-shaking roar and begins to rise, neck jerking back yet unable to escape Lux's strength. You can hear the vague impression of intent in the thing's howls, not quite language yet not quite meaningless, but it screams only of hate and intruders and food. You are certain there is no bargaining with it. Lux and the bear remain locked in a stalemate, neither able to win the grisly tug of war - before, with a sudden sound like cracking ice, Lux's sword bends and then breaks as if it were dry wood and not the finest steel.

  You stare for a moment, unable to believe your eyes. The bear is not so stunned - in fact, it only seems angrier now, with a shard of bloody metal sticking up from its forehead. It roars again, and bats at Lux, the blow sending your warrior flying with a twisting screech of claws on metal. You gape. How? Lux is solid steel! This thing must be monstrously powerful to lift him off his feet with a single swipe.

  The bear, seemingly satisfied that Lux is no longer a threat, turns to you. The dark red blood pouring down its head glimmers in the fading sunlight, lending it a sinister look. You gulp, sweat beading on your forehead. It charges, and the floor cracks with each step.

  You raise your hand and focus. With a single breath, you draw forth every scrap of magic within your wildly beating heart.

  You breathe in. The world seems to quiet, as if listening, the pounding charge of the beast before you growing distant and muffled. You breathe out, and the world responds. Fire is born before you, spilling into the world as you pull it from the depths of nonexistence. You open your eyes - when had you closed them? - to see the beast thrown back by a torrent of wind and heat and flame that sounds out like thunder across the quiet city. The walls around you are left scorched, coated with ash, and the snow on the floor has turned to steam while puddles of water curl around your feet. The door, or what is left of it, sits merrily ablaze where it has been thrown off its hinges. You sway gently, lungs dragging in desperate gulps of air, drained. Did you... win? Dust obscures everything.

  The bear staggers forward, shaking itself off. Its fur is burning, smoke curling off its head and sides, while its eyes glare at you hatefully. Blood pours down its face, streaking through its fur like war paint. And yet, for all that, it doesn't seem truly injured - only angry. You are struck with the sudden certainty that if you ever meet a demon, it will look something like this. It snarls, and you hear its intent on its breath.

  "Kill the magic-thing. Kill it, kill it, grind its bones and drink its blood. Kill the thing that hurt me."

  You collapse, your legs no longer able to support you, your heart burning in your chest as exertion overwhelms you. The bear lumbers forward, slowly, painfully, assured of its victory. You gasp for breath, crawling backward yet unwilling to turn away from your impending death. It strikes you how pointless this all was. You were offered the opportunity of a thousand lifetimes, and only a few hours later, you're about to return to the abyss.

  And then, suddenly, a silver shape leaps upon the bear's back. Lux is there, three long gashes rending the front of his armor, his sword splintered, yet undaunted. He begins stabbing at the bear's back in a frenzy with the broken end of his blade.

  "The eyes!" You call. "Go for the eyes!"

  The bear begins to roar, thrashing as it attempts to throw Lux off, but he holds on with no issue, all while inching his way towards the beast's head. He thrusts his broken sword into the bear's eye, and it screams in a way you didn't think bears were capable of.

  Pain! Pain-pain-pain-pain!

  "Deeper!" You yell, still gasping for breath as adrenaline pounds through your veins. "Push it deeper!"

  Lux complies, pushing on his sword until he is up to the wrist in blood and mashed eyeball. All at once, the bear falls still, and a terrible quiet descends upon all of you.

  Your eyes dart about. What other monsters could your fighting have attracted? Slowly, unsteadily, you crawl to your feet, brushing yourself off and noting how the sharp stones have ripped a large hole in your dress and left bruises along your back. After a few moments, you steady yourself and turn to face Lux. He has dismounted the beast, shattered sword still fused to his hand. He stands at the ready, unperturbed.

  "Come, Lux. Follow me. It is time to head back."

  You could stay and plunder the shop, but it's obvious you were less prepared for this than you thought, and you don't want to risk some other monster creeping up on you as you loot. Besides, night is falling. It would be best to return in the morning.

  You turn, back straight and eyes ahead, even as your hands tremble slightly.

  ~~~

  The problem with Lux, upon inspection back at what you are tentatively calling "home base", is rather obvious. When you made him, it was from compacted snow turned to steel - but snow, even compacted, is not a solid in the way you would normally think of one. Rather, it's a powder: a series of snowflakes piled on top of one another, with pockets of air in between. It's no issue to transmute it all at once, so long as you conceptualize it as a unified whole, but the result is imperfect. You realize this upon closer examination of Lux, where you discover he is, essentially, full of holes. He was being thrown around so easily despite being solid steel because he was never solid to begin with - by your count, he is something like 1 part metal, 10 parts air.

  You drop his arm from where you are holding it next to your face and sigh, rubbing your forehead. This only makes the retrieval of those tools all the more important. With a hammer and chisel, you might have formed Lux from a block of stone instead of sculpted snow, giving him the weight to go toe to toe with enormous monsters like that bear. With a full blacksmith's forge, you might have animated a real suit of armor instead, with fully functioning joints and carefully tempered metal.

  But there is no use dwelling on the past. If Lux is imperfect, you will just have to make him better.

  The rest of the night is occupied with repairs. First, you do your best to fix Lux's sword, using more transmuted snow as a sealant to hold the two halves of the blade together. The result is flimsy, and frankly, ugly in a way that offends your sensibilities. But the problem with fusing his sword to his hand is that you can't exactly make him a new one. Next, you do the same for the gashes in his armor - or his body, you suppose. Finally, you mold him a shield. Upon hefting the mass of snow-turned-steel to present it to your knight, you realize just how light it truly is. You'll need to replace all of this as soon as you can. You end with quickly stitching up the holes torn in your dress, and then sit with Lux, warming yourself by the fire as you gaze out the small windows cut into the top of your home.

  It is... peaceful. The night is somehow even quieter than the day, and for all the energy you spent and stress you endured, you feel perfectly well-rested and well-fed. Through the window, you can see auroras gently dancing in the night sky, bathing the world in a serene glow, breaking through the blackness of night. Soon, you find yourself leaning gently upon Lux, your hood pulled down, and you allow yourself to drift through that liminal space between sleep and consciousness. His pauldron is not comfortable, but his presence anchors you.

  You do not dream, but rather reflect upon the day and all that has happened. You wonder why you, specifically, were chosen for this role. Was it something about your soul that made you special, or were you just in the right place at the right time? You wonder what this "role" even means. What is a Morrigan, other than a powerful witch? Do you have responsibilities? Do you have enemies, foes who will hunt you down just because of what you are? The idea sounds ridiculous, but the universe - or multiverse, you suppose - is clearly a larger place than you understand. You wonder, finally, at your goal. What do you want out of this life, unbound as you are by mortal concerns? What do you want to do? In the end, the answer eludes you, but somehow you aren't troubled by this. You are, in the grand scheme of things, still a child. There will come a time when your purpose appears before you, but it will not be now, less than a day after you first manifested into this world. For the moment, you are content with this.

  Soon, the night gives way to the dawn, and light begins to break through the window. Calm and refreshed, you get up off the floor, dust yourself off, and roll your shoulders to stretch. It's a new day, and you've got a workshop to claim as your own.

  Before you leave, however, you make your first portal. Your six arms reach out, stretching a glimmering pane of light into existence, as tall and wide as you. It hangs there like a mirror, reflecting the room in front of it with a distorted, silvery gleam, as if the image within were lit by the moon and not the sun. The creation is easy and instinctual, as all your magic is. For the moment, it leads nowhere, but you should be able to make a second portal to link to it without too much trouble. You could use it to escape a monster, find your way back if lost, or connect your home base to the workshop.

  It is the work of a few moments to move it over to the corner of the room, where it hangs in the air unsupported.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The trek back to the workshop is surprisingly short. The many hours you spent exploring yesterday gave the impression of a massive, sprawling ruin, but the truth is, most of that was in the direction of the gate. It's actually only a fifteen minute walk to get to the shop. This time, you and Lux go straight down the middle of the road, traveling openly - you've already ensured this area was free of monsters.

  When you find the workshop again, it's in an even worse state than your first encounter. The walls are still covered in soot, and the door is now little more than a pile of ash long scattered to the wind. More worryingly, the corpse of the bear is gone, a trail of blood and scuff marks leading down the road and deeper into the city. Combined with the still ruined wall, you decide to transport the tools back to base before you use them.

  Opening up a second portal and connecting it to your first is more difficult than you expected - your first portal exhausted you more than you realized. Once it's done, however, it is a simple matter to gather up all the tools you can and throw them through, with Lux stepping in to help you carry the anvil. The portal ripples each time you interact with it, briefly showing your home base before returning to its reflective, mirror-like shine. Once you've finished, you and Lux step through yourselves, before you close the portal on the other side with a snap of your fingers. The action is instinctive - you didn't know you could close portals remotely; you simply willed it closed, and it obliged.

  Unfortunately, you are presented with two new issues.

  Firstly, there is now a big pile of tools in the middle of your room. Secondly, you have nowhere to put them.

  It takes nearly an hour to sort everything out, and you and Lux end up having to go back to the workshop to pry some of the scorched shelves off aging brickwork, which you bond to the walls of your home base with the same snow-turned-metal technique that you used to create and later repair Lux. You also take the opportunity to have Lux carry a few of the larger stone bricks back with you - they'll make a much better crafting material than the snow you've been using so far. In the end, you are forced to let your impromptu workshop spill out into the streets; your single room not enough to contain the anvil, tool sets, and everything else you need.

  It is this process that solidifies your next real goal - a construction golem. Something similar to Lux, but bigger, heavier, capable of expanding your shelter into something more luxurious. With some trepidation, you send Lux away to collect the rest of the fallen bricks by the workshop, while you sit inside with the hammer, chisel, and one of the stone blocks, ready to begin your work.

  You breathe in, then out, staring at the block of white stone before you. You can envision what you want to make clearly. A foot, not of a man, but blocky, angular - the foot of a golem, a working creature, not intended to mime the sentience or dignity of organic life. You can see the steps you need to take, the path laid out clearly before you with an understanding and vision that would shame any mortal stonemason. A smile touches your lips. You angle your chisel, raise your hammer, and - clink.

  The problem quickly becomes apparent.

  For all your skill, for all that you were born fully grown and in a lean, healthy body, you are still a woman with absolutely no training. You simply lack the strength to break the stone. You could have Lux do it, but he lacks the skill and grace to cut the stone properly. You shudder slightly, imagining the mess he would make of your vision.

  Thankfully, all is not lost. You have some slight control over your biology - presumably a byproduct of your control over organic life. It is not enough to make yourself stronger directly - not yet, at least - but it is enough to accelerate any natural gains you might make and ensure your body heals easily from the stresses you put it under. Gaining the required musculature to craft your next golem will be the process of days, not months.

  You let out a frustrated sigh regardless. Of all the problems to have...

  This is how, when Lux returns from the workshop with stone in hand, he finds you on the ground doing push-ups. You could swear he stares at you, and your cheeks flush purple as you squawk in indignation at him.

  "What? Get back to work, Lux! This is necessary!"

  ~~~

  The next few days are difficult, to say the least.

  Each morning, you take up your hammer, take up your chisel, and try once more to shape the stone Lux brought you. Each morning, you fail, and spend the rest of the day and night doing whatever training exercises you can think of - whether that be push-ups, using bricks as improvised weights, or even mock wrestling with Lux - who, despite his light weight and relative fragility, still overpowers you with contemptuous ease.

  That's what you intend to do, at least. The reality of the situation is that you do not have the mental fortitude to train all day, every day. Usually, you only spend a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening doing your actual training. The rest of your time is split between using your magic to repair and reinforce your body, a sort of meditative, reflective trance that has come to replace your sleep, and recreation.

  There isn't much to do for fun in the cold and lonely city you've come to call home, but that's not to say you can't find ways to entertain yourself. Sewing, stitching, and otherwise tailoring clothes quickly becomes your favorite pastime, as you gather old rugs and curtains from nearby buildings. At first, you only indulge because your dress is drenched in sweat, and you realize you need dedicated fitness wear. But soon, it becomes a hobby, a passion.

  It isn't long before you realize that your powers of transmutation can change the color of an object far more easily than they can its composition, and you use that to great effect. Under your touch, drab, time-worn textiles blossom into silvers, blues, greens and purples. The pseudo-metal you used to create Lux, while mostly useless for actual tools, proves perfectly adequate for buttons and clasps. Combined with a mostly intact closet pilfered from a nearby building, you soon begin assembling quite the collection of outfits. The material you have to work with is still less than ideal, cotton and linen so threadbare that your outfits inevitably appear ragged and worn, but you make do regardless. The only thing that eludes you is proper shoes - to make them, you would need access to leather or something similar, but you can't find any. Your few attempts at transmuting snow only give you a crumbly, powdery substance that falls to pieces in your hands, and while you do have more success with fabric, the resulting ropes of leather aren't in the right shape to use for a shoe. Stone is even worse. The resulting block of material resembles metal more than it does leather, and lacks any of the suppleness or flexibility you need for footwear.

  Perhaps most amazing to you is your quickly blossoming skill with needle and thread. From the moment you first assembled your dress from an old carpet with nothing but your six hands, you knew your skill with fabric was equal to the most experienced of mortal craftsmen. Somehow, you had assumed that was the extent of your blessing. But oh, how wrong you were - in a matter of days, you have ascended from mere mastery to a realm reserved for gods, spirits, and other immortals. Assembling an entire outfit is the work of hours, and you have no trouble producing the most complex embroideries with no plan or forethought. As it is, your clothes could easily see you mistaken for a noble, if one in a particularly old, ratty outfit. But in time, and with proper tools and materials, you doubt there will be anyone in this world who could match you.

  In addition to your dress and shawl, you have made several new outfits. Your first creation is a set of tight, sporty clothes, which, uniquely among your apparel, do not contain any imbued warmth. You consider imbuing them with the opposite - a constant, frigid cold - to reduce how much you sweat, but your surroundings are cold enough as it is, and the outfit leaves you plenty exposed to the elements already.

  Your next idea is a proper winter dress to keep you warm on long exploration missions. In short order, you scavenge a fur rug from a nearby building and set about creating a set of warm, thick clothes. The result is luxurious - a great fur pelt drapes around your shoulders, while the body of the dress is dark blue embroidered with silver, flowing down to your feet. The addition of buttons means it's even easy to take on and off! You complete the outfit with an enormous, floppy, pointed witch's hat. It should look ridiculous on you, but somehow, it feels right. Finally, you decide to create something lighter, to wear around the house while your eternal fire crackles merrily in its hearth. This time, you opt for men's clothing, creating a green tunic and blue trousers, unembroidered. The coloring is ever so slightly garish to your tastes, but somehow, the vivid green chases off a bit of the chill that permeates the city.

  It is on the fourth day that you finally, finally, manage to chip away at the stone block without having to put your entire body into every swing of your hammer. You are so excited by this development that you spend the entire day locked in a haze of work, and only re-emerge when the sun begins to dip below the horizon once again and your golem is nearly complete.

  Which leads you to your current problem. Your golem is, at the moment, a mass of completely separate stone blocks, carved into angular, sharp shapes that you know will fit perfectly together to form a rough humanoid. But right now? They are all laid out on the street before you, distinctly separate.

  You pause, considering. You could use the same snow-turned-metal-turned-adhesive that you used to repair Lux. It would work perfectly fine. This isn't a combat golem, after all, its joints don't need to be able to withstand rampaging bears.

  But the thought feels sour on your tongue. For how long are you going to rely on that little trick? Are you really willing to mar your golem, which you spent so long carving, with a bunch of ugly metal welds?

  You are a witch of creation, and you will be damned if your creations aren't as beautiful and elegant as you can make them.

  "Lux, lift that block, and put it on top of this one."

  You point to the stone that will soon make up the lower leg and knee portion of your golem, and your knight dutifully obeys, laying it atop the stone that will be the foot of your creation.

  Tentatively, you lay your hands on both, and without any real understanding of what you are doing, you try to... will them together.

  At first, nothing happens. You almost withdraw, resigned to the uglier, cruder method, but after a few seconds, you can feel a kind of... pressure. A resistance, to what, you could not say. In your heart, you know this is not one of the boons granted to you. You know this is not a power you "should" have. But you are a witch - more than that, you are one of the penultimate witches, an origin point for magic itself. You decide what the limitations of your magic are, and no one else.

  You push harder. Power flows out of you, like a river crashing against a dam, but your reserves have grown vastly in the last few days. After a few moments, the stone beneath your hands begins to bend - as if it were cotton, not stone, and soon, it is running like liquid beneath your fingers. You yelp, and withdraw your hands before too much damage can be done. The process stops the second you withdraw.

  You sigh, heart pounding in your ears, as you contemplate the half-melted hand-print you have left in the stone. There is nothing for it, however - there is no good way to carve out your mistake without reducing the dimensions of the entire golem or leaving a hole in the stone. You shall simply have to do better next time.

  Once more, you put your hands to the stone, and once more, you concentrate, although this time you focus the power away from your hands and into the flat surface where one stone meets the next. Your power flows once more, but it is easier this time, as if a channel had been carved out. You feel like you've barely even begun when the process finishes, and the two stones meld together as if they had always been one.

  You exhale giddily and call Lux to bring the next stone. You can't wait to see the fruits of your labor.

  ~

  It is almost night in truth when you fuse the last stone into place. It was not long before you realized you needed to lay the behemoth you were constructing on its back to reach the higher parts, but now it is done, and it is something to behold. The white stone gleams dully as you survey your work, walking around the hulking, mostly featureless thing. It is hunchbacked, but despite this, will stand 10 feet tall when awoken, with four enormous arms sprouting from its sides and cloven hooves like that of a goat. You have kept the stone mostly free of decoration, but it is still an intricate thing, a complex web of geometries and angles made to give the impression of strength without menace, of power, slaved to a greater will. Its face is the only part you have left truly featureless, a smooth, polished ball of stone that took you entirely too long to carve.

  You find yourself still hale and energetic despite your exertions. Some of this, you know, is due to your rapidly growing reserves of power - but some of it is due to how, with every use of your new ability, it becomes easier and easier. You know that you could now fuse any two solids as easily as you can transmute snow into metal. It is a new piece of magic that you have created, grasped, and then brought into yourself in but a single hour of practice. You are sure it is by no means unique, and probably counts as barely a parlor trick to what even the mortal mages of this world can accomplish, but still - the feeling is heady.

  And so, with a smile and a heart nearly full of magic, you place your hands upon your newest creation and bring it to life.

  There is no chant, this time, and certainly no name. This is not a creature that requires a name. You sense that, despite the size of your creation and the proportionately bigger investment of magic it requires, it is somehow lesser than Lux. A candle before a bonfire, not physically, but spiritually.

  Still, the effort of its creation nearly brings you to your knees, and you are grateful as Lux steps in to steady you. With a quiet rumble, the construction golem rolls itself onto its feet and stands patiently awaiting your orders.

  You eye the city around you warily. Night has fallen now, and for all that you haven't encountered a single monster since the bear, you still aren't keen on exploring the city in the darkness. You know they are out there - you just haven't seen them yet.

  "Come, Lux. Let us retire for the night. For on the morrow..."

  You clasp your six hands together, a smile blooming onto your face.

  "We expand."

  This is the last chapter I wrote before beginning to plan out the first arc of the story, and as such, is probably the least well-thought-out chapter in this story - at least so far. Despite that, I think it turned out ok. One of my main goals with this story is that I don't want to let things be bogged down, I want to keep the plot moving and make sure at least something important happens in every chapter, and I think I accomplished that here.

  I am curious, if anyone is willing to give me some feedback - do you guys prefer the crafting scenes or the fighting ones? Reading the chapter back, I found myself incredibly bored by the one fight scene - but then again, I wrote that scene. I know exactly how it ends and where it goes, so of course I'd be bored.