RavensDagger

  Chapter One - A Choice

  47th Day of Spring - Year 1758 of the Goldehe Sapphire O

  "It's active," a voice said. Soft, calm. It was... bored, perhaps, as if saying something that it had oft repeated.

  "I see," another said. This voice was deeper, more somber. "Check its vitals."

  There was movement, a limb being pressed, then pulled out, then moved again. Then others. Arms, legs, then the head was turhis way and that. "Seems nominal. Its core is reading normally. This is... a strange choice you've made, Magus."

  "It's a choice that I made with all due sideration, Adeptus," the man said. "Sit her up."

  "Her?" the Adeptus asked.

  "We offer them some sideration, we not? The donor was a woman, and so we will be respectful. It costs nothing."

  "But the rest of this project costs much."

  "Hmm, indeed," the Magus replied with a hum.

  There was movement once more, the impression of being sat upright for a moment. More noises, and the voices came and receded. Then a long period of nothing.

  Finally, it snapped.

  Vision. Initially painful as though the dimly lit room was akin to staring into the bzing noon-day sun, but soon the brightness receded and the vision adjusted itself.

  It... she, looked around. Just moving her eyes. They didn't shift smoothly, but instead so the right, then to the left, before snapping back to the tre. In that moment, she mao make out a few importaails.

  She was in a room. Ohat felt like it erhaps swaying ever so gently. Wooden walls and floors and a ceiling crossed by a few thick beams. The room was lit by several small mps, glowing stones within iron cages.

  She wasn't alohe room was occupied by two others. A tall man, lithe and wearing a white apron over bck robes, and a smaller woman, with pinched features and a pair of thick spectacles on the end of her nose.

  The woman leaned in, obsg a view of a table covered in torturous implements. "Hello there, Unit Two."

  "Unit Two?" the man asked.

  "We o hem something," the woman replied tersely. "Or would you rather an alphabetized naming system? Alpha Two? Unit Beta? It would limit us to twenty-six units if we don't ge the urive system at a ter date."

  "I'll think of something," the man said. "It feels wrong to name something with a number. It makes it more of a tool."

  "Are they not?" the woman asked. She turned her attention back to Unit Two. "Run diagnostics," she ordered.

  There were several ks within Unit Two, small motions that were felt rather than heard, then a warmth that started in the chest and raced down the arms and legs. A small, yellowish glow suffused the room for a moment.

  And then Unit Two started to blink. Her eyes opened and shut like shuttered, g in time to an unheard beat. There recision iions. They were unig something that the woman with the gsses clearly uood. She took notes.

  "Seems like this one is successful," she said. "Fewer issues than the first unit. And this one seems to have an affinity as well. gratutions, Magus Maldrak. Two for two. Do we expect the third to do likewise?"

  "That would be charming, but I won't push my luck so far," the man replied. So his name was Magus Maldrak. She made note of that, though... it felt like it was going to be hard to remember. Her memories were straws grasped on a windy day. Fleeting and quick to slip away.

  The two tio move about her, and she tried to follow them with her gaze, eyes snapping towards any rge motions they made. her seemed to mind, or even notice at first. The womaually looked up a her gaze. "This one seems aware. As did the st. Is that a byproduct of their affinities?"

  "To some degree. It's more likely that the quality of their stru lends itself to faster, smarter growth," the Magus replied. "The smartest people are often those raised in the most desirable ditions. Likewise for a puppet. Better quality meaer results."

  "And greater cost, and fewer models," the woman tinued. "The Wyrms have apparently sent thousands to the mainnd."

  "And we will send three," Magus Maldrak replied. "And three will suffice. I believe we're doh this one. Have one of the men bring it, her, to the ste room with the other. We'll start ohird."

  The woma, and soon the room was filled with two young men who came clrabbed her, and moved her bodily out of the room. She was brought into another, oh only a tiny round window on a far wall for illumination. The world outside was dark, a starlit sky above and little else fht.

  The room itself, however, wasn't unoccupied. There were chests and tainers strewn about, but what caught her eyes was anure right o her. She could only barely see it from the er of her eye.

  When she looked, she discovered that the figure was gazing back at her. It was masked in the darkness. A shapeless form with only the gzed, reflective surface of a blue eye to show that there was someohere.

  They were made of wood. A face carved from a single piece, mouth very slightly opeures that hi a vaguely feminine form without being too deep or careful.

  The body was a metal cage. Almost a small keg, with wooden tes across it and rge metal joints for shoulders.

  The figure's eye snapped away and towards the window after a moment.

  They sat there in almost absolute quiet, though there was the distant sound of soft waves pping against woods, and the occasional shift iars as the room moved ever so slightly.

  It took several hours before the door opened.

  Anure was brought in, carried by the same two young men, with hands around its armpits and knees.

  A doll. Or perhaps a rge puppet. It ced on the floor beh the window, fag the two already present.

  It had the same barrel chest and carved face, though its eyes were a deep red.

  They stared at one ahrough the night. There was little else to do.

  In the m, as the sun started thten the sky, the door into the room opened once more and one-by-ohe puppets were moved. They were returo the boratory and carefully set upon a table, sitting with their backs to the slightly curved wall so that they could face the interior of the room.

  One of the young men carrying them left aurned with a high-backed chair which he pced before them. And then the room was cleared once more.

  Now the only sound was the clig of their eyes as they sed the area, looking for anything of i.

  It took some time, but a familiar maered the room. The Magus.

  The man was dressed in fine bck robes over a well-tailored suit. A cravat was ched around his neck, pure white in the darkly lit room, and he moved with the simple grace of a man in his prime. He sat across from the three puppets, then regarded them each carefully for some time.

  "My name is Magus Montgomery Maldrak," he began, his voice a low baritohat echoed slightly in the room. It was a nice voice, she decided. "I am a mage and schor of some repute. A member of a noble family of Oraya Lyscara and a student of the Avaris Myra Academy iion of Draya Calyrex. None of this will mean anything to you."

  He sat bad regarded them all for a moment more.

  "I believe in quality above all else. I believe in opportunity. I reward the oh the other whenever possible, and that approach to life has led me well so far. I would like to extend an offer to you."

  The Magus reached into his robes, then removed a trio of small gss bottles with cork stoppers. They held a milky white liquid. "This is an elixir only given to automata. It ensures blind loyalty and obedience. I do not enjoy employing it. Blind loyalty is foolhardy, and there are better ways of obtaining obedience."

  He took one of the bottles in his off hand and stared at it for a moment.

  "I am getting ahead of myself," he said before looking up once more aing each of their unblinking gazes. "You three were corpses very retly. Washed up and quite dead. I turned you into what you are now. Automata of some quality. Puppets, some would say. You have bodies that were crafted with little care, ed around cores and systems made by some of the best magical artisans in the world. You were given potential in the form of w bodies, and then drive in the form of amnesiac souls. You are not yet bnk, however. You could be." He shook the bottle. "But I'd rather give you the choice."

  The Magus gestured past them, as if to the world outside.

  "There is aire ti gone mad, a pce where the living lose their minds, where magic has run wild, where one of the most powerful and prestigious civilisations known to history fell some short months ago. As a Magus and former resident of that nd, I ot allow myself to sit bad watch. I must know what happened and why. Others are sging the nd already, like carrion birds on a fresh corpse. I do not care for the riches of the nd. I care to know why it fell in the first pce."

  He narrowed his eyes, though it wasn't a threatening look.

  "All three of you were dead. Serve me, willingly and with loyalty, and I will give you a sed ce, the likes of which most only dream of having. I will give you a path to power, to redemption, to growth. I will reward your work and efforts on my behalf with more preater abilities, and strength enough to carry out my will across these blighted nds."

  He smiled, fident and sure of himself.

  "So, what say you, nameless ones? Dead who yet live? Will you join me?"

  She go the side, to the other two. Did she want to join? She wasn't sure. There was a lot she didn't yet know, so much that she felt she should but couldn't grasp. This man, the magus, seemed hoo her. She wasn't sure if she wanted power, but-- the doll o her nodded, and the other did the same a moment ter.

  And so she nodded as well, accepting, for better or worse.

  ***