Chapter 36: Covenant

Sophia sputters, “How...that was so smart.”

I lean toward my left hand saying, “It was rather clever, but.” I lean over to my other hand. “Mr. Monocle was an idiot.”

She giggles before I say, “I walked into that room seeing you rip a soul out, and I assumed you a demonic spawn of hell. I would never have guessed such atrocious acts hid such noble intentions.”

She mumbles, “I just know what they go through. The souls I mean.”

I nod my head saying, “I do as well. In fact, I have a proposition for you if you have the time.”

She scratches her head saying, “Well uh. I just do stuff here, so all I really have is time.”

“Excellent.” I walk over towards her saying, “I will be journeying across the continent next year. I will be harvesting The Remnants of Gaia.”

Her jaw gapes as I continue, “Doing so alone will prove grueling, so I wish for companions on my journey. Would you like to be one of those companions?”

She shakes her head before saying, “What? The Remnants of Gaia? That's...That’s impossible...”

Her claim fizzles before she finishes as she stares at the holes in the wall and what I assume is a look of confidence on my face. She continues, “Uh. I guess I could, but why?”

I open a palm to her saying, “The Remnants of Gaia proliferate legions of abominations that curse humanity. They spawn both behemoths on land and leviathans at sea. They distort the nature of this world. Gemchaining spawns from this chaos as the only means for mere men to fight such foes.”

I reach out a hand saying, “You offer salvation for the souls here, but elsewhere, they quake in fear. I hear their screams racking the air, and I tremble. As those who understand their plight, let us be the harbingers for their plight. Let us shepard the weak. Let us deliver the lost and alone from their suffering.”

As I finish, a tear falls from her cheek, and my boldness shatters. I stammer, “Uh. Uhm. What’s wrong? Did I say something to hurt you?”

She shakes her head holding back her tears with a small chuckle as she says, “No...It just feels good to no longer be by myself...”

Her frail and shaking form evokes my empathy. Her weak frame reminds me of a scrawny, twelve year old boy crying beside his dead mother. She reminds me of someone truly alone.

I gait up to her placing a hand on her shoulder saying the words I so wished I could have heard as I laid surrounded by death and calamity,

“It’s ok. It’s alright. You don’t always have to be strong. You can be sad. You can hurt.”

As I speak, my words maul her composure as she leans her head against my chest. I lay my hand on her back as she wails between hacking breaths. After several minutes, she lifts her head saying,

“Thank you.”

I nod saying, “I know what it's like to carry sadness. It’s like trying to swim upstream. You end up spending more time trying to keep up rather than actually moving forward.”

She lifts her head saying, “You sound like you know from experience.”

The indications of a grin develop on my face before I say, “Well, you could say that. So I assume you're willing to journey with me?”

She nods smiling, “Of course.”

My expression sobers as I say, “I doubt the journey will be simple and painless. Be ready for it.”

She looks down saying, “Okay.”

I say while removing my arms from her, “What can we do about the missing golem? I may have stalled the process, but they’ll notice a missing earthen thrall.”

She shrugs, “The rock isn’t really valuable. The real value of a golem resides.” She flips a ruby from her pocket saying, “Right here.”

I place my chin in my hand saying, “When did you get that?”

She grins saying, “When you were squeezing through the doorway. You seemed like you were on a roll, so I didn’t want to interrupt your flow.”

I redden as I laugh at her words before saying, “I guess I was holding my facade rather well then.”

Her grin lessens as she says, “Uhm. What?”

I raise my left hand saying, “I didn’t know whether or not my plan would work, but I knew that worrying about it would accomplish nothing. Besides, fake confidence quickly becomes real confidence from my experience.”

After I finish speaking, I grab the glowing gem in her hand so that Deluge can consolidate the soul within. As I do so, Sophia says, “What are you doing?”

I close my eyes as I say, “Saving its soul.”

The jewel glows with cracks lacing its frame. The damaged gem leaks dark red radiance as the soul barely maintains its existence . Deluge usually rips the soul from the gem absorbing the soul into consolidation, but he veers from this usual process exposing the dark flame of the spirit coating the room in a sinister shade of crimson.

The soul warps shifting in random directions until Deluge wills the creature’s shambling pieces together. I help with my own visualization, and the room brightens as the cherry colored light transmutes over several seconds to a rosy pink while the soul’s constant shifting gains a calming regularity.

As the soul gains a form, the specter’s desperate struggle for existence becomes weeping as its capacity for sorrow explodes. Deluge shifts the pink flame into my arm flowing the light through my body. As it enters consolidation, the light glows from under my skin lessening over time until I return to normal.

Sophia says, “Wow...You can manipulate souls without a chamber.”

I ask squeezing and loosening my hand as I open my eyes, “A chamber?”

She says, “That’s what we call gems in soul forging.” She raises her hands. “Regardless, this is amazing. You can even store them!”

I raise a hand ceasing her words as I say, “We've more pressing concerns at the moment. Is there anything else we can do to lessen the impact of destroying the golem?”

She shrugs, “Not really.”

I clap my hands saying, “Then I need to study. This was a rather eventful meeting, and I hope you stay safe Sophia. May we meet again soon.”

She reddens as she says, “Uh, would you like to study with me?”

“What are you studying?”

“Well, I really need to brush up on my history.”

I pop a finger saying, “As do I. I’d rather we study at the library if you don’t mind.”

She murmurs, “Of course not.”

We pace across campus as other nearby students pace by us whispering rumors,

“Did you see him earlier? He carried a golem shirtless across campus. Like how the hell?”

“Oh, so now he's carried a tarantula slime AND carried a golem across campus? Sureeeee.”

I grin. People may believe a single insane fact, but they are far less likely to accept an abundance of them. The rumors may fuse into a single legend, but I doubt many will swallow such a ridiculous mixture of accomplishments.

We pace across campus reaching the library having spoken little, but the silence exists without creating discomfort. Some people generate an awkward atmosphere when met with quiet. Sophia is no such person.

She stared at the ground throughout our entire trip absorbed in her thoughts. At one point, I grabbed her shoulder pulling her onto the walkway before she crashed into a metal pole. Instead of trying to disguise her awkwardness, she embraces it easing the sharpness her clumsiness produces. This allows for those near her to acclimate to her aura. I enjoy the atmosphere. It's soothing.

As we pace towards another area blocked off by bookshelves, Sophia's aura melds with the library's. The seamless transition prevents the ambiance from shifting even the slightest amount, so we gather books and proceed to read for several hours without interrupting the stillness.

Her unending examination of the material inspires my own efforts. As I read, I learn of the wars with Tirele over the Remnants of Gaia. Countries invest far more resources guarding these relics than I believed possible.

These nations know the fragments spawn creatures, yet they scramble for the pieces like ravenous piranhas tearing a piece of meat apart. A kingdom known as Barcil even formed around one of the remnants since legions of worshippers stalked to the holy ground.

These religious reasons fail to explain these happenings. The kingdoms that gather these slabs of alexandrite should wither as monstrous abominations eat at their villages and lands. They don’t. They prosper.

Nations without the jewels crumble to ash while nations such as Bichen last entire millenia. The conundrum bewilders me, so I alter my focus learning the histories of gemchaining instead.

The history proves dark and disturbing yet irresistible at the same time. Each event that advances the field forward surpasses the previous events evil. Tales of mad scientists lauded as heroes pass by my eyes as I soak myself in the knowledge before me.

Wicked witches and manic men sacrifice their humanity for the sake of the sick science. After researching soul forging, the complementary work shows the same disgusting history.

A perfect example is the first instance of gemchaining. The story begins as many often do, with a husband and wife. They loved each other with compassion defying their fields as they both forged souls for Bichen’s capital Nelastra.

They reared three daughters as they lived out their happy lives until tragedy struck. A serial thief snuck into their house, and as he rummaged through their possessions, he met the youngest daughter.

From his greed spawned loathsome lust, so he forced the daughter down on her back as he tore away her innocence. Before he fulfilled his carnal instincts, the other daughters found them writhing on the floor.

They assaulted the thief in their justified rage, yet he escaped after slitting the throat of the youngest daughter. The parents brimmed with bane as they garnished their grief. The father grabbed their shops greatest diamond before he and his wife forced the fading soul of their daughter into the gigantic jewel.

They placed the gem within a golem reviving their daughter spurring weeks of joy, but all was not as it seemed. The daughter grew angry at her body until she lashed out at the mother splattering her across the kitchen with her overwhelming strength.

The sadistic squelch of smashing meat informed her father, and as he gazed upon his wife, he lost all reason. He ran towards his duaghter grasping the diamond at her center screaming,

“May all that exists end as each day paints a different shade of sadness. I give us to Gaia.”

As he belted his last word, the entire building engulfed in a blinding white light leaving only null in its wake. The single object left after the detonation shimmered in the sun with unreal brilliance, yet it contained a soul no longer.

These tales omen the tortures of this world, and they reinforce my own actions. I fight a noble cause. I shall suppress this cataclysm. I will become a force so dominant that calamity and catastrophe decimates at my glance.

My fury ignites. The pain of a broken family lashes at my sides, and the tragedy of such innocent people scathes my skin.

My grip tears the pages of the book in my hand while the desk I lean on creaks from my weight. After I squint my eyes for a second, the edge of the desk snaps flinging my arms beneath the desk. As my face follows, I engrave a crater in the wood while Sophia leaps yelping,

“Gaia protect me!”

After two seconds, I lift my face from the crater saying, “I’m rather heavy unfortunately. You saw the perks of my physique earlier with the golem, but now you're seeing the drawbacks.”

Her pearly white skin sprinkled in freckles contorts as she whimpers, “Their rather loud drawbacks.”

I lean back in my chair saying, “Yeah they ar-”

SNAP. The legs of my chair collapse under my heft as I land on planks of wood. My weight crushes the logs while Sophia snorts trumpeting laughter. I close my eyes stretching my limbs while staring at the roof. What a bother.

After several minutes, her laughter dies down while a library employee garbed in robes walks up saying, “What happened?”

He stares at me for a moment of utter confusion before he says, “Are you alright?”

After lifting myself from the ground, I pop my back by bending backwards while pushing against my lower torso saying, “I’m fine. How much does the furniture cost?”

The librarian says, “I don’t care about a wooden chair and table. Are you alright?”

I grin saying, “Besides for a few splinters in my backside, I think I’ll live.”

“You sure?”

I lift the snapped lumps of wood underneath me saying, “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

“We can handle that. I’m sorry about this.”

I push the wood under my right arm as I hold the other one out to him saying, “Don’t be. I should be more careful.”

He asks a few more questions before he leaves searching for a maintenance worker. As I dispose of the wood outside, I say to Deluge, “Now I understand how Morne felt.”

Deluge spouts in his humor, “He only broke a chair. You broke a table and a chair. You've set a new standard. I'm proud.”

I frown saying, “I remember why I don’t talk to you at times like these.”

Deluge replies, “I only spoke the truth.”

“And sometimes it's better left untold.”

“Explain.”

I reason, “Imagine you're handling a fragile glass statue, and partial lies are a pillow while a hammer is the truth. You want to move this statue, but you don’t want to break it.”

I shrug as I say, “While the hammer may give you more power, it's far more difficult to use in the long run then the pillow. Of course the truth is useful at times, but you have to know when to use it.”

Deluge says, “Hah, I believe I’d rather snap the statue with the hammer.”

I grin as I say, “Be careful. The broken glass may cut your hands.”

“Hmmm. Well worded.”

I finish disposing the wood outside before I enter the library where I meet Sophia saying, “I believe that’s enough studying for me today.”

She smiles saying, “This was a lot of fun. Thanks for the laugh.”

I brush off my clothes saying, “It’s gratifying to know that at least someone's humor spawned from the spectacle.”

She murmurs while grabbing her elbow, “So uh. Would you like to study more some other time?”

I place a hand on my chin as I say, “Hmmm. I’m rather busy, but I should be able to study with you each weekend if you’d like.”

She crosses her arms saying, “Sure. That sounds cool. Would you mind uh...Doing some soul forging stuff sometimes to?”

I smile saying, “Why not.”

She grins while uncrossing her arms, “Yeah, awesome. Uh, About the whole...golem thing. I won’t tell anyone.”

I place a finger against my lips as I say, “Our secrets are sealed.” I lower my finger. “Then until we meet again.”

She nods saying, “Likewise.”

I pace out of the library as darkness shines on campus. The customary aurora of lights shifts with ethereal beauty, so I slow my pace saturating in the sights before I reach my dorm. I always find myself dashing forwards. I should relax sometimes.

As I reach the dorm, I pass several students picnicking outdoors with bread and butter in hand. Deluge’s hunts during the night erase my hunger, so I experience a slight yearning before I pass into my room where Luke lays covered in my fassar cloak reading a book titled, The Forgery of Jehovah. It looks amazing. I'll read it later.

As I prepare myself for sleep, we chat about our days. After we finish speaking I lay on my bed wading into slumber, but before I submerge into a sea of sleep, I say to Luke.

“Before you ask tomorrow, yes, I did carry a golem across campus.”

Luke says while staring at his book, “Cool...”

A minute later he spits, “Wait, WHAT?”