“Wait, wait…”

  It didn’t take a master wizard to pick up what she was suggesting, and Raelin was at a loss as to how, let alone why, this was how this was going to go.

  “You want me to wake this thing up!” It felt like a shout, the scream that Raelin felt echoing through them should have made their voice echo through the otherwise empty room. Yet, it was barely a whisper. A voice always so loud now so quiet that with a sense of fear could want the unknown thing up.

  “You are crazy, to think that I could wake this thing up.”

  There was a chuckle, and so focused on the thoughts flying through their mind, Raelin did not pick up who it was that let it out. It did not matter, the perplexity of the very idea of waking up stone.. no, clay and “magic” seemed like a feat of a lifetime. As in it would take a lifetime to do.

  “This may seem like a stupid question. Or questions. Why do you think I can wake it up? How do I wake it up, and how long?” The invitation was until the ‘dawning of first light’. It gave them a bare few hours, perhaps less, to figure this puzzle out. That is if that was the same limitation until…

  “… M’Lady.” The name, did she have a name? There was a name, but the profound wait of the idea gave fear to failure, unknown and yet another lure of questions Raelin wasn’t sure if they wanted answered. “What happens when the sun comes up? Where… does the Manor go for the next 10 years? Will I be stuck here if I fail? Or, if I wake it up, what happens then? And the guests…” Question after question flew from Raelin’s mouth as their filter be damned trying to work through what could possibly be not realizing they were giving no time for the Lady to answer.

  Usually, someone stopped them by now.

  Byne.

  “And… Byne.” The thought immobilized them. Silence returned to the room, save the slight crackle of fire on the torch still held by Master J.

  Gods, what was going to happen to Byne? She was waiting for them to return with the light of day. They never told Byne where their were going and even the rest of their party wasn’t about to share the details until they were sure that Raelin wasn’t going to return. Or couldn’t. That would be… Weeks. Months. It’s not like it had not happened before, but Raelin had made Byne a promise. A promise they did not share with anyone. Would Byne forgive them if they never returned? Would the rest of them forgive them, knowing that this had been a selfish mission?

  “If I knew how to wake it, I would.”

  Her voice was soft this time and had a youthful vulnerability to it. There was no comparison between the Lady to Byne, but that very painful tone felt far too close to home.

  “Why?” Raelin pushed. “Why all this? What do you want? And what makes you think that any of this could help me? Help B…” Byne’s name stuck at the time of their tongue.

  Raelin turned to see the Lady staring at the Golem with a look of lost and seek. That it held something of value but the answer was so far beyond her memory and now lost. Looking at Master J, Raelin could not read him, but his entire attention was on the Lady.

  Clearing their throat, Raelin spoke. “Perhaps, tell me a story.” The simplest and more honest thing Raelin could think of. Stories held nothing and everything and was by far the most powerful of tools. “There is no Wish here, you said as much. But there is something important and it can help me and you. Stories, I understand stories.” There was a flash of a smile, a roguish smile that could only reflect ego, and as Raelin hoped it broke the Lady’s attention from the Golem back to themselves. The room, and away from whichever memory she had been lost to.

  She regarded them with an impenetrable thought before glancing back to the golem with a soft sigh. “Let us return. We have a moment, but not long. And I will tell you a story.”

  The Lady turned to the doorway where they entered the chambers and with a hesitant look, Raelin looked to the golem as well before following behind Master J.

  It was a time long past when the world was young and wild.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Raelin stood before the Golem with a feeling of utter desperation and loss. A life for a life would have been a far easier pill to swallow, and then Byne would have been alive no matter what Raelin did. And, may in time Byne would have forgiven them for the sacrifice. After all, it was all for Byne. All of this was.

  The world was a new evolving and limitless potential of what could and what would be.

  It was thought that Raelin often told themselves because it made some of the choices easier. So long as Byne lived, did it matter what they did? What was one life to the cost of their sister’s? It was supposed to be simple. After all, what value did they put in their own life when another held more value to them? Isn’t that how it was supposed to work?

  Never had survivor's guilt been part of the equation, ...until now.

  We all, the beings of my time, created others. The Elves, High and Dark, The dwarves, the Humans, the Goblins, and the demons. Imps and everything in between. Few things now didn’t derive from what we created then, and there was contention among all of us. From the power that we held to the power we wanted to wield. Few were immune, and fewer still were strong enough to maintain that strength.

  How had Raelin not considered this, and guilt of that realization weighing this heavy? Maybe they were not meant to be forgiven for what they had intended, and Byne would one day understand. Yet what the Lady now promised…

  Unfortunately, I was not one of them. We were reduced to so few and as each generation became smaller and smaller, so did our influence and my power. We all hold power, some of us from the power of those who worship us, and others simply through will. I am the last Witch, and Master Jjkry is the last of his race. What magic that has sustained us has allowed what little good I can put into the world, but it has limits. And those limits are anchored in this one place.

  Life. That is what the Lady promised. Life is not just for Byne but for many others. For a Goddess whose power was failing, and no known weight to where that could lead in the world or among the Pantheon. Raelin did not plan to make waves. Soundwaves, but not with a promise to a self-professed Goddess. When in the end Raelin expected would be full, and complete, sacrifice for the sake of their sister’s life, somehow they felt guilt weigh even heavier because they had been so willing to let their own life go.

  “How many, before me, have tried.” Raelin had asked the Lady.

  “None.” She had said bluntly. “Though many have been close and life had flared within it, in the end, it never moved and no life remained.”

  “And those that tried?”

  “Walked away, with no memory and no answer to what they had sought.”

  “No one died?” Raelin had asked, curious but also suspicious. There was more to her, to this, and the promise of what this place held.

  The Lady tilted her head a moment, and there was a sad smile curving on her lips. Like a mother to a child about the share the worst news in the kindest way.

  “I heal what is most important. This can be in many different forms.”

  The smile had disappeared from features, and a hard look replaced it. The tone she had exhibited sent a chill.

  “Consider it a warning.”

  Raelin did. And because of that warning, Raelin wondered if it was the answer on how to heal Byne was more important or was Byne simply being better. Or was it to be the hero? The Martyr? It was too complex, and Raelin did not have the time to follow this puzzle to only find it missing too many pieces. Not in a single night.

  What had she said? What ‘she’ healed was most important, but it had no reflection specifically on what the golem could do. That life was seen within, but somehow it did not connect. Did they try to attune? Was that how they tried to wake it up?

  Raelin regarded the large stone balls and considered them carefully. Some part of it was missing something, purpose was too lost along its runes that Raelin could only guess at without knowing the language. She said nothing about finding something to turn it on, which meant the arcane focus of the golem was not in another thing, but entirely internal.

  A step up, and Raelin placed a hand on the center of what they guessed was the chest. It seemed silly since Raelin had no clue how this thing was even going to walk. “Curious,” the stone was warm to the touch, with a low hum within, as id listening through layers and layers of earth to hear the rushing of water leagues away.

  It… had a heartbeat!

  It didn’t show life? How could it not show life when it had the one thing that could prove that it did?

  “You’re just sleeping, huh?” Raelin couldn’t help the smile, maybe this wasn’t impossible. Maybe, just maybe this thing was going to answer what Raelin needed without having to resort to what promise of ‘important healing’ they would have to leave with from the Lady. If that was even possible.

  It was confusing. Why did she even need this thing awake?

  ‘Question?’

  Their hand pulled away from the stone the moment the word echoed within their mind. It came from nowhere and everywhere, yet Raelin had enough experience with the sentient to know that it could only truly come from one place.

  “Question. The question is, are you worth waking up?” Raelin muttered. Torn for only a moment before putting their hand back. Curiosity, Raelin liked a good puzzle, but maybe this time instead of questions, they could finally get some real answers.

  “Can you answer a question?”

  A moment went by in silence, Raelin worried for a moment that they only imagined the voice. It had been a deep, rumbly, and tired sound, though a voice may not have been the most apt description. That it was even in a common tongue was curious enough.

  Another moment went by, and Raelin felt infinitely stupid before the same donation rumbled again in their mind.

  “Ask.”

  Raelin could not help the smirk along their lips, leaning into the stone creature so long asleep beneath the magical manor. Ready to relay a few questions with only so much time to gain the answer.