Mark of the Fool

Night had fallen when Alex and Claygon emerged from Shale’s golem works. Generasi was now plunged in darkness only broken by the sliver of a new moon above, and an abundance of city lights all aglow.

To Alex, nights like these always held an eerie quality in Generasi, whereas back home in Alric, thousands of stars spread across the sky during each new moon, seeming to awaken the night. During Generasi’s new moon, stars numbered few.

Professor Jules explained the phenomenon as something called ‘light pollution’—a term that had baffled him at the time—where the huge number of city lights stifled the stars’ own. She’d explained that some wizards had long predicted that this ‘light pollution’ would eventually grow to be such a problem, it would interfere with the day and night cycles of people, monsters and beasts.

For now, though, it was only the stars that suffered, but this still left Alex feeling a sense of tension when he watched the sky. He sometimes wondered if the Many-Spheres Theory was true or false; when the sky looked like nothing more than a black void, it was hard to imagine other worlds and other pantheons floating up there among the hidden stars.

He looked at Claygon walking close by his side, their link utterly silent, making him wonder what thoughts were going through his golem’s mind, as hidden as the stars.

Suddenly, Claygon slowed, stopping in the middle of the street, his eyes fixed on their new home. A blip of emotion came through his link with his father, fleeting, gone in an instant.

“Father…” Claygon murmured. “...can we not go home yet? I’d…like to see the aeld tree.”

“In Greymoor or my staff?” Alex asked.

“Both…”

“Okay, that’s fine by me. Whatever you need. I tell you what, I’ll go inside, fetch the staff, tell Selina and Theresa we’ll be out for a while, then we can go to Greymoor. I can even get a couple of our books to take with us. Sound good?”

“Yes…thank you…” Claygon said.

Campus was even darker than the city, and more stars peeked out from above.

Only a few more.

And as they appeared, Claygon began voicing what was on his mind.

The golem turned to his father, the light of the aeld staff reflecting off his polished surface and fire-gems. The staff’s curiosity flowedinto the air. “Father…can I ask you a question?” He asked.

“Any time. Anything,” the Thameish wizard said. “Well, anything within reason. And any time probably doesn’t include after I’m dead. But if I’m asleep, you can wa—Okay, I’m nervous and rambling. Sorry. Sorry. What’s going on, Claygon?”

“Will…the new golem you made with Toraka…will it have a mind?” He asked.

Alex winced, wondering where this might be going.

Was Claygon bothered that the golem couldn’t think?

Did he want to meet more golems like himself?

“No, sorry to disappoint, but uh…” Alex scratched his beard. “...I don’t think so. I’ll be honest, Claygon, I’m not really sure what made you evolve and what made you develop your mind. But one thing I am sure of is that it has something to do with the dungeon core essence burning in your heart. And…”

He looked up at the stars. “Well, like I said, you’re special. I didn’t want to make loads of Claygons for everyone under the sun to buy. The thought of there being a bunch of you out in the world…well, I didn’t like it. So, I decreased the amount of dungeon core essence in Toraka’s golem’s core and changed the design to lessen the chance of mutation. Now, it’ll be less likely to develop a mind and evolve. I know you might not like—”

“Good…I am glad it will not have a mind…” Claygon said.

“—yeah, I’m sorry, I mean—wait, what?” The young wizard looked at his golem sharply.

“Hmmm….were you…surprised?” Claygon cocked his head.

“Uh, yeah, actually. I thought you wanted to have more golems that were like you.”

“I…don’t know about that…But…I was thinking about the story that Toraka told…about the golem that hunted…I was wondering why he did that…”

“Yeah.” Alex pat Claygon’s arm. “I’m sure a lot of people were wondering why that happened.”

“...that…makes sense…but I was thinking…that the golem’s master…his father…did not sound like a good man.You…take care of me…you teach me things…you fight and you fight with me at your side…I learn how to fight. But I learn other things…I like to do other things.”

“What else do you like?”

“...you…our family…reading…music…lots of things,” Claygon said. “...more than just fighting…but I like that too. But if that master only taught the golem how to hunt? Maybe he…could have…learned something new if he had the chance…but it was all he knew…”

“Oh wow,” Alex said. “That’s some really advanced thinking, there.”

“What…do you think…?”

“You mean, about why that golem started killing people?” Alex blew out a breath. “I, shit, I don’t know Claygon. It could be that you’re right. I mean, maybe the wizard also made his golem badly…or maybe the golem just really wanted to kill people.”

“Yes…I do not know…but I think a bad master would make a bad golem.”

“Maybe,” Alex admitted. “That could be true.”

“And…that is why I am glad Toraka Shale’s golem will not get a mind…I do not think she would be a good master.”

Alex flinched. “Really?”

“She only looks at golems…like tools…even me…I think…”

“No, that’s not true. Not about you. She really likes you, and she treats you like a person.”

“I do not know…she is nice to me…but…her golems, she treats them like tools…and she says it is bad if golems have minds…”

“Yeah, she did say that, didn’t she?” Alex glanced at a passing student, hurrying back to the dorms. “I think it’s a complex thing. She honestly cares for her golems, but yeah, a lot of the time I get the impression that she honestly does see you as a person…oh jeez, now you have me wondering. Maybe she looks at you more like a curiosity? I don’t really know.”

“I think…if I belonged to her…she might not see me as a person…I think she would…look at me only for how useful I could be.”

“Well, I’m not sure. Honestly, unless she had a sapient golem of her own, I couldn’t tell.”

“You treat me…very well…you…friends…family…all treat me like I am made of flesh and have a heart…blood…like you. I do not think she would go that far. You would never say…golems should not have minds…”

Alex’s face flushed. “Yeah, I guess not. I don’t know what to say.”

“I am just glad I have the best father…” Claygon said.

“Yeah, well, I’m glad my golem’s the best too.”

The young man and the golem strolled along campus, toward the portal to Greymoor.

Claygon sang to both aeld tree and aeld staff, his music drifting through the dark night of the new moon. The Research Castle was still, save for his song and the quiet clink of guards’ armour as they patrolled along the outer walls.

Above, Greymoor’s skies were a sea of shining stars, unpolluted by the artificial magical light of a sleepless city. It was a comforting sight and a familiar one.

One that gave Alex a measure of peace as he practised a spell.

While his golem was serenading both aeld tree and staff—which was giving off waves of happy feelings—he was focused on learning a new spell.

Mass Darksight.

It was a spell that transformed the eye, allowing it to see in complete and utter darkness: a tricky third-tier spell, with a complex spell array.

With a growl, he aborted the spell for the thirtieth time, letting the magic dissipate while recording the spell array that had defeated him again.

“This is tough,” he muttered to himself, sitting cross-legged in mid-air, hovering above the snow. A forceball served as his light source and a pair of forcedisks carried his spell-guide and notebook.

His eyes flicked toward the staff set in a snowbank between the tree and Claygon. The same emotions drifted from staff and tree, prompting a question in Alex’s mind.

“Does the staff have a different consciousness?” He murmured softly. “Or does the tree’s emotions spread into a new ‘body’? Jeez, doing a lot of thinking about what consciousness in magical items means lately, like when I was talking with Claygon.”

His eyes narrowed, scrutinising the staff. “There’s plenty of room in its inner core for new, more powerful magics. I could create an alchemical infusion of Mass Darksight and simply place it in the staff. Hells, I’m already doing that with a lot of spells. I could just put any magic I want in the staff, stop learning spells aside from summoning ones then I wouldn’t lose all that time fighting the Mark.”

Alex considered what to do. “I could just focus on summoning, and make up for all the other magics I wouldn’t be casting by using the staff’s powers and other magic items. The disadvantage of that is that if I ever lost my staff, I’d be pretty screwed. Summoning magic’s very powerful. but what happens if I can’t use it?”

He rocked his head from side to side, deep in thought. “No, I’ve come this far. I’m just going to keep going with my plans.”

Turning away from the staff, he returned his focus to the spell once more, guiding his mind through the Mark’s interference, and the spell array.

For much of the night, he kept going, his single-minded focus honed from hundreds of hours of practise. In some ways, the process had become easier, like the moves of a dance practised to perfection.

He was so used to contending with the Mark’s interference, it had become second nature, familiar. At times, his mind would even wander…

…which is why he didn’t notice that something had changed.

“Did somebody light a torch?” He murmured, glancing up at the walls. “It’s a lot brighter out here all of a sudden.”

He squinted at a dark corner of the courtyard, realising that he could suddenly see every single stone that made up the walls.

“Oh shit, it worked!”

He had cast Mass Darksight and made the breakthrough, casting a third-tier spell—not a third-tier summoning spell—without the help of that strange power.

“Thank the Traveller,” Alex sighed. “I did it.”

He waited for that surge of excitement that always came when he broke through to a new tier, but…nothing came.

“Huh. I guess, it’s not as thrilling as when I learned third-tier summoning. But still, this is good. This is very good.” He made a note bolding 100% under the words Mass Darksight, in his notebook.

Closing it, he turned to Claygon, ready to tell him of his success, but the words died on his lips.

The golem, and the aeld tree were gently swaying back and forth with the wind, moving in time with the melody of Claygon’s song.

“I’ll leave them be,” the young wizard said, pulling out another notebook from his bag, where he tracked each spell he’d learned. Now that he’d reached third-tier spells without the help of that strange power, it was time to decide where to go next.

A couple of choices lay ahead of him.

“On the one hand, I could learn as many third-tier spells as I can, and really solidify my foundation. But, I have my staff for a lot of the third-tier magic I’d want to cast.”

He tapped his pen on the page.

“Maybe it’s better to start learning fourth-tier summoning spells…that could be a good idea…I have the mana capacity for i—No wait!” Alex’s eyes went wide, he began running through the ‘wishlist’ of spells he wanted to learn. “If we’re talking about fourth-tier spells that make use of that ability of mine…then there’s one I need to grab right away.”

He stopped on a particular page with a single spell bolded and underlined.

Alex drew a circle around it.

Planar Doorway.

That spell would be the first true teleportation spell—which transferred someone from one place to another—that he could learn.

Mastering it would open up all kinds of possibilities.

Now he was excited.