Lost Perspective (Jilitse, pls)

by **Malia** on June 19th, 2010, 7:31 pm

While listening to Jilitse’s comment, Azola turned back to the golem. This time she placed each stitch more carefully and made sure that the pattern was in order just like she had envisioned. After having finished the sewing part, she took the doll and the first foot and tried to attach the overlaying piece of wire to the leg. In fact, she did nothing except plaster it with a large amount of the gluey substance hoping that it would somehow harden in time and allow the doll to stand. Additionally, because she was a perfectionist by heart, she wrapped some thread around the leg and added a few stitches where the leather of the foot and the leg met. Then she did the same with the other leg and foot, trying to use less glue and thread. Sahova appeared to possess more than enough material for golem creation, but one never knew.

Then the doll was finished. Azola placed it at the side of the table – it didn’t stand yet, but she supposed that the gluey substance had to dry and harden first.

A short nod was then directed towards Jilitse. Keeping directives short and simple sounded doable. And about the other advice she had given the younger one … Azola wasn’t keen on replying to that one. Experience would tell, so she would wait for the experience to come. Jilitse sure was a weird companion, she thought once more. A person couldn’t simply spoil someone else’s learning process by telling them what’d happen. The informed person would still try it out, pretending to have forgotten the advice. In the end everything a soul knew distilled to experience anyway. That was what Azola had experienced.

The compass Jilitse handed over next looked strangely familiar. Azola felt that she had seen a similar tool a long time ago, but wasn’t entirely sure. Perhaps, now that her history was more or less clear to her, she had seen it around her father’s offices. So when she placed its tip in the middle of the paper and moved the writing tool around it even her movements felt faintly familiar. That, however, didn’t prevent her from letting the angle slip and what should be a circle become a deformed egg with a rather prominent cusp. Brow furrowed, Azola turned the paper around. Before she continued practicing, she cleared away the tools she had used for crafting the golem. Scissors, leftovers of leather, bark, the needle and thread went back into the spacey bag. Then she continued trying to form circles with the compass.

Come to think of it, she had never been good at drawing. Writing, yes, but drawing … Not being able to draw circles would perhaps prove to be a shame though.

At some point she watched Jilitse drawing a large circle at the floor. So that would be the official ritual circle, but another one was required. Azola remembered how the other Nuit had managed to form a pretty round circle and tried the dot method at the paper. She found that connecting the points was easier than working with the compass. The attention she needed to keep the angle of the compass fell away. While practicing that method, she tried to make the lines between the dots look like little arches so that the overall product would be equally round on all sides.

After about ten chimes of silent practice Azola rose from the desk and approached the single circle at the floor. Kneeling down, she used the compass to place the dots with the biggest possible distance between them and then connected them freehand. The spot where both circles should meet she had unfortunately miscalculated. She thickened the line until it touched Jilitse’s circle and hoped that it would suffice. Next the doll was placed in the middle of the smaller circle – this time it stood. Azola couldn’t help but give a quick smile, although Jilitse would only see her back and shoulders straighten a little.

The next step was the ritual … the actual magical part. Somewhat fidgety inside, Azola stood in front of the source circle and recalled her plan from memory. “I will copy my own life principle so that the golem becomes alive and can obey commands. Then I will imbue three basic directives.” She hesitated briefly. “Will it be necessary to make standing one of the directives? The doll is already able to stand on its own … Then the other two directives will be swinging the arms and bowing the head. I will connect these commands with three command words respectively.” Once again there was a short break. “What do ‘stand’, ‘swing arms’ and ‘bow head’ mean in Nader-Canoch? I think I should learn how to cipher my commands so that only I am able to use them.” A clever thought, perhaps. Of course, she could come up with odd words in the common language, but Azola was too serious and focused for that now.

Glyphing? “I don’t know anything about glyphing, but would like to learn in the future. If that helps with the awakening and teaching process.” Jilitse had mentioned a library, so that would most likely be the location where she could find the appropriate information.

She wanted to ask more questions about the mechanics of teaching commands, but figured that trying it out would probably be best. Experience would teach her, just like Jilitse had said.

Given that the older Nuit didn’t have any more comments, Azola would step into the bigger source circle and start with the ritual. She briefly touched her ears, a silent promise to listen to Jilitse’s voice during the process.

by **Jilitse** on July 9th, 2010, 5:20 am

OOCI haven't got a squat what ‘stand’, ‘swing arms’ and ‘bow head’ would be in Nader-Canoch. Not enough reason for this unforgivable delay, though.

"Correct, correct," Jilitse nodded to Azola, who was doing a great job in keeping up with the Animation lesson. "Standing would not be a directive, but you should imbue that ability while you are creating its soul. You should, at least, prepare to let it know how to keep standing still, or teach it how to stand up after a fall." Jilitse added, "it might take a while for you to shape its soul, and with yourself as your pattern, you will feel a sense of propriety over the golem during and after the ritual. That is normal. Think of it as maternal instinct and do not let it bother you."

She paused for a moment before changing her mind, "I will show you a glyph I usually make for myself, teach you how to draw it." Jilitse took a pencil and paper. Supporting it with a small piece of board, she drew close to Azola and showed the other nuit her favorite glyph. It was an oval lying on its longer side with a curved line underneath. There were five curling incidents below it. She drew a circle in the middle of the oval and shaded it, leaving a smaller circle in between. It looked like an eye with lashes underneath.

"It is a symbol for optimism. For when you are looking forward to something to be accomplished. I call it kasaitlas. Let's hope you get it right." Jilitse straightened and stepped back. "You may draw this glyph within your circle, around it or in the middle. It's your choice."

"Djedat," Jilitse slowly said the word to make sure that Azola would get the proper cadence and intonation, "means to stand. Repeating the word, would be an order to walk. That would be, djedat-djedat. Or it could simply be Abase djedat which means to move upright. Sutlabaset, would mean to spread and move or swing. Abayaqt is sometimes used to mean bending or bowing. It greatly depends on the inflection you use. Pronunciation is the key."

She repeated the words to Azola a few more times in order to check if the student would be able to mimic the right intonation. She made Azola repeat the words back at her, until she was satisfied that the other nuit was able to get it correctly.

"I will be watching."

She turned for a moment and handed out a lit candle to Azola, "For when you prick yourself, you may burn the wound so that it would immediately close." She also handed out a lengthy piece of bandage, "To keep it clean, I have a personal kit I use to clean wounds. I take special care for my body, and if I would teach you anything else, it would be that you should treat your person well and keep it in good condition."

"Anytime you are ready."

Ancient Tongue notes :

by **Malia** on July 18th, 2010, 6:11 pm

OOCI'm the one with the delays here, sorry. x.x If you want to give any additional advice during the ritual, I've given you the chance by stopping after the directives. I hope that I've understood the process!

Azola simply nodded. It sounded reasonable to teach the standing command after all, since the golem could easily get knocked down by something or simply stand up after she had laid it down somewhere. This would be useful, although not necessary. When Jilitse talked about a sense of propriety, Azola didn’t know what she meant, but figured that she would find out soon enough. It sounded strange enough though … maybe it should be taken as a sign that they slowly started to get to the more mysterious part of Animation.

Anyway, obviously the other Nuit planned more drawing lessons. This time it was a glyph – something entirely different from a single circle. But Azola, who wanted to have as much controllable values as possible, came closer and watched the drawing process carefully. The symbol seemed to radiate open-mindedness, so she wasn’t very surprised when she heard about its meaning. Optimism. Just then she understood that picking that glyph probably was an unusual choice. Wouldn’t something along the lines of luck or success be better? Perhaps glyphs only possessed so much influence. Everything had a limit and rules. Well, she hadn’t come here to learn about glyphing, so she just kept quiet, received the paper and pencil from Jilitse and started practicing. The familiar shape that reminded her of an opened eye made it easier to copy the glyph. She drew it several times, always in the same order: the oval, the shaded circle, the curved line and finally the tiny lines underneath. Her experience with drawing circles actually helped her a bit with the learning process.

When feeling confident enough, Azola set the paper and pencil aside and drew the glyph into the middle of her own big circle with charcoal. She hoped that its presence under her body would help her concentrate and keep calm while animating the golem.

One more time she listened to Jilitse’s advice. The words in Nader-Canoch didn’t seem to be hard to speak. She only had to convey the sound to the golem, right? But that meant that she had to know how they sounded in her own voice anyway. Being the perfectionist she was, Azola wanted to make sure she spelled them right. She slowly repeated each command. “Djedat or abase djedat for standing or standing up. Sutlabaset for swinging. Abayaqt for bowing.” A few times she repeated the words that felt so foreign on her tongue and tried to let each of them sound just as Jilitse did. Azola had always liked words, speaking as well as reading, so she got the right intonation fairly quickly. Words were beautiful, after all.

Anyway, there was an unfinished project waiting for her. Stepping into the circle once again, she mentally prepared herself for the upcoming task. There was no way around it.

The last advice did surprise her, though. At a second glance, however, it sounded very reasonable. Corpses were precious to Nuit, so looking after them should be self-explanatory. Azola led a more active and dangerous lifestyle than most Nuit – that was her opinion, anyway –, so her body was quick to wear out. Her ‘Master’ had told her that bodies could last for up to two or three years if one took care, but … she had barely used this one for a year now. Well, she would keep Jilitse’s advice in mind for the future.

“Thank you”, she whispered, fetched her knife and sat down. While her legs were draped right over the drawn glyph, she made sure that she didn’t brush over it and blur parts of the drawing. Hopefully she wouldn’t make subconscious movements during the actual Animation ritual …

Recalling the lessons, Azola knew that the first step was spilling some of her ichor to activate the circles. With the knife she placed a tiny cut at the top of her left index finger and held it over the spot where the two circles met. The first drop of milky white ichor fell all too quickly and was immediately sucked into the line. Having never seen that before, Azola tried to hide her surprise and held the injured finger over the flame of the candle for a while. Of course it hurt a bit, but she told herself that it wasn’t really her flesh that got burned and kept calm. Then she wrapped the piece of bandage around it and made a knot so that the fabric remained in place.

Leaning back, she closed her eyes and started with the actual procedure, the real deal. First she tried to keep calm. Countless times she had blended out her emotions, so it didn’t take long to reach that particular state of mental emptiness she was so used to. This time, however, it felt slightly different. Next, she concentrated on the circles, the one around herself and the other one around the standing doll golem. She could feel their presence in a way she had never experienced before, but went on to the doll itself. First she had to imbue the life principle, a copy of her own soul … Everything that kept her alive, everything that caused her to listen to others and understand their words she wanted to send into the doll. The circles helped her like a riverbed helped water to flow. Slowly, but surely the Nuit registered that the doll sucked up the invisible principle she had sent its way. With the soulcore it wasn’t a mere doll out of wire and fabric anymore, but more. What exactly – that wasn’t clear.

But the work continued. Azola now tried to convey necessary concepts before she could imbue commands. The concept of loyalty. In the endless darkness behind closed eyes she pictured herself, and only herself. Not her appearance, but her ichor. Although all Nuit possessed such, every person’s ichor was different, unique, just like the blood of the mortals. The doll would be loyal to that particular kind of ichor, no matter how the voice sounded or the face looked like. Azola had no idea if it would work that way, but it was everything she was able to come up with.

Next were the directives. She recalled the three commands she wanted the golem to obey. Abase djedat was the first one. Abase djedat, she repeated in her mind as if she was explaining it to the golem, meant stand up. She repeated that fact a couple of times in her mind, trying to imbue its meaning into the doll’s soulcore. At the same time she imagined it lying on the ground, then rising from it until it stood straight. That was what she wanted it to do when it heard the words abase djedat. Then Azola did the same with the second command. Sutlabaset should mean swing your arms. The image of the doll standing and swinging its arms about was burned into its soulcore. At that point, Azola felt a strange kind of satisfaction. Pushing it aside as needless, she moved on to the last directive: Abayaqt which meant bow your head. In Azola’s mind, the doll moved its head up and down. She hoped that the doll understood she only wanted it to perform the action once per command. To be sure that her creation got the directives right she went through every single directive in detail again. She made sure to remind it of the previously imbued directives though and not shape three new ones. This time she pictured the mechanisms she had crafted herself working. During sutlabaset she remembered the piece of wire forming the neck and imagined how it would move in a nod. The same she did with the two others.

After that, she tried to feel her way through what she had transferred to the golem so far. It seemed like everything was clear and precise enough. She hesitated for a brief moment, going through Jilitse’s lessons and trying to remember anything she might have forgotten ...

by **Jilitse** on July 26th, 2010, 7:23 am

"Azola," Jilitse softly called out. "Try to relax, and control the djed of the doll's materials to bind into its soul. Meld it together, as you would mix water with water. Or, envision breathing into it." She hoped she did not break Azola's concentration. It was easy to make mistakes when one was multi-tasking.

"And, I suggest you speak out the commands." She was observing the other nuit at a distance, "If you're using Nader Canoch, make sure you got the intonations right. It would be easier for you to control the golem once you're molding its Astral Body, its Persona. If you taught the concept right, it should respond."

"Rein in the djed around the circle. Control it within your space. Volley your thoughts, manipulate the djed from your circle to the other circle, like pouring information from one basket to another." She calmly suggested, hoping that her intermittent advices would not have any adverse effect, in general.

"I also suggest that you try to inject the concept of Loyalty. Own the Object, Azola. Own the Golem." Her voice was ringing in the air, "You're doing a great job so far."

by **Malia** on July 30th, 2010, 11:27 am

Will the rain
ever stop, I wonder?
For a pretty long time now
it’s been cold
Why does the rain
choose me?
Why does it choose me
who has nowhere to escape to?
CreditsSID - "Rain"

Indeed, Azola nearly got kicked out of the connection when hearing Jilitse’s voice. She gritted her teeth and concentrated on the doll though. Her mental grip was firm and so she was able to hold on. The other Nuit’s words reached her ears blurred and distorted; nevertheless she tried to understand their meaning.

It made sense. Once again Azola came across the term ‘Djed’ – the one invisible substance that was a part of every organism and object. She sensed that her djed was flowing through the circle and controlling it. Then her sense reached the doll, allowed her to feel the djed pulsing in its metal, wooden and fabric body. Once again she tried to imprint the life principle onto the doll by molding its physical djed with the astral djed that was already filled with bits of information. Like Jilitse had suggested, she tried to will both types of djed to mix and mingle. For a while she envisioned pouring water into water. The end result was more water, something that was more than a mere object, but not yet a sentient being.

Azola didn’t notice the sizzling djed sparkles that escaped the circle. Energy was lost, but at least Jilitse knew that Azola had altered the process and utilized her advice this time.

The difficult part she tried to take on once more: imbuing directives. First she had difficulties with sending controlled djed flows through the circle and at the same time planting new principles and commands into the doll’s ‘mind’, but she simply told herself to focus harder. For the third time she went through the three directives. Keeping her concentration on so many different mechanisms at the same time put immense pressure on her mind though. Spitting the words out, she hoped that she got the pronunciation right. “Abase djedat!” This time she waited until the doll had understood the meaning behind the words and moved. The smaller circle sizzled once again when the artificial creature moved. She had been successful! But Azola felt that the circles absorbed her djed with quick and sweet greed. So she went on. “Sutlabaset!” The doll moved, quicker than before. It started to get the principle of attaching the right movement to the sounds. Azola could feel the mechanism triggered when the wire limbs cut through the air. A breathtaking feeling that wasn’t like anything she had experienced before. “Abayaqt!” she eventually breathed and her djed spread over the circles and the space in between reported that the doll obeyed the last command as well.

For a while there was nothing except sizzling. Had she been a human, Azola would have breathed heavily by then, but as a Nuit she only felt sweat dripping from her brow and wetting her palms. Still she sat in the middle of the bigger circle, but at the same time she felt alienated from her own body. Something was missing too.

As one last command she mentally put a cap over the doll’s soulcore. Nothing new would be taught. The djed of its body had been molded with its soul and the directives had been burned into its simple memory. Hopefully Azola had done everything right, but even if she hadn’t – there wasn’t much djed left to correct possible mistakes.

The circles spat out a last golden sizzle of leftover energy, and then silence covered the room like a thick blanket. After a while a voice cut through the silence, Azola trying to sound like she had during the ritual. “Abayaqt” she whispered towards the golem standing in the middle of the dead circle.

And then she wondered if she had actually done it … if she had come one step closer to the dream that still seemed so far away. Nameless emotions invaded her mind and she closed her eyes.

by **Jilitse** on August 6th, 2010, 2:03 am

Jilitse watched closely as the ritual came to an end, Azola seem to have manipulated her magic the best she could. She stepped closer, cloak flowing, and observed the little upright doll in the middle of the ritual circle. Jil thought Azola had done well, had followed through the steps properly, only she may have done a mistake or two. No need to mind, for they did not seem to matter at the moment.

She observed the little doll, waiting with Malia for it to respond with the first command that will spring it to life. A chime, another, nothing. But then slowly, very, very slowly, the doll bent forward. And backward, forward, and backward. It looked like a waving hand more than a dancing doll.

When Malia tested its other commands, the doll obliged. But, the errors started to manifest. The doll could acknowledge the commands, but do not know when to stop. Thus, it repeats its movements erratically, never stopping, performing one after another. It almost looked like it was performing a primitive dance ritual.

Jilitse stated the obvious, "Hm. I think you may have overlooked a few things, but perhaps it is my fault as your teacher." She scooped the doll with a hand and held it with two hands, where it looked like it was trashing about. She led Malia back to the work table and said, "When you give a directive to your golem, you have to teach it when to start and when to stop." She placed the doll on the table, where it continued to bow, sway and nod about. "What probably went wrong here is that you have constantly repeated the commands too much, which is not bad, especially if you want to instill the directive. But, in doing so you have forgotten to mark the end of the action, hence this." She opened her palm towards the dancing doll. "It is fortunate that you have chosen something that was less wild. Had it been, say, something aggressive like a knife or dangerous like a Protector or a Guard, we'd both be flat on the floor."

"I also notice you had a bit of difficulty in relaying the soul transfer. That, however, is a skill that you will learn over time." Jilitse knocked the golem down, and watched as it tried, desperately, to stand up. "Hmm. Djed control is something that you will have to practice. Animation is world magic, and that means you have to study the fabric of life in order to properly imbue it. It is easier when you use yourself as the model." A vague nod, "I can see you have done that properly." She graded her,"Passable. But perhaps, it is not just your lack of experience, but also the inherent difference between your anatomy and the doll's."

"You should congratulate yourself for your first ritual." She smiled and motioned Azola to take a seat, pulling a chair for herself. "I'd like to hear your thoughts, though. Tell me about the experience. What felt easy, which ones did you find yourself having difficulty with?" Jil found a pencil and some paper. "Let's write it down so it will help you better understand what you need to train for."

by **Malia** on August 8th, 2010, 7:19 pm

For some moments Azola merely stared at the doll, noticing the constant movement. Perhaps she should have laughed … but her mental exhaustion didn’t allow her to do anything but stare.

So she had made some mistakes. It was so obvious and yet it wasn’t, but that was the common excuse. She would’ve liked her first golem to be perfect, but of course that was why it was called the first try. The mistakes had been made without a doubt. Azola knew that she had to focus on them to improve her later works, but at the moment she just couldn’t muster enough energy or drive to think about the problem. Jilitse’s words reached her ears, but not her mind.

The danger they would have been in, had the doll been a more advanced golem, didn’t escape her comprehension though. The picture was frightening. So that was what golems did and most likely the greatest risk of Animation. If the directives weren’t conveyed correctly, in the worst case the golem wreaked havoc and threatened to destroy the surroundings. If the doll had been a little bigger, sturdier and the commands a little more elaborate, the outcome would have been largely different. That was what seeped in from the lesson anyway.

Passable. That was indeed the best word to describe the finished work with. Not perfect, not disastrous. Passable. In the future, however, Azola wouldn’t be satisfied with that word anymore, though. She had learned what magic could do. A glance at the doll still in motion at the table affirmed her desire to learn more about Animation, to master the art of imbuing lifeless automatons with the soul to move on their own. It was beautiful, in a way – giving life to objects that were lifeless by nature. Wasn’t that interfering with the simplest laws? Rocks didn’t move. Grass didn’t walk. A doll made of fabric and wire didn’t come to life like that. But Animators had done what sounded impossible, Jilitse had done it probably countless times and Azola had just done it as well.

Wasn’t that some kind of wonder?

Well, her reasonable side kicked in, wonder or not, there was still a long way to go until she could create something that actually resembled life and featured remote intelligence. She would learn though – for the feeling she had just experienced.

Letting herself fall into the offered chair, Azola closed her eyes for a second. It seemed so ridiculous, longing for a feeling when everything she did was ignoring her human, her emotional side. But that was something she could think about later.

For now she focused on Jilitse. With some effort she understood that the witch just announced a lesson of self-criticism. That was something she could appreciate. “Congratulations”, she mumbled, still a bit absentminded. This Azola possibly was even stranger in the head than Jilitse … at least in the exhausted state. “What you’ve called emotional attachment … It’s amazing”, was the first full sentence she managed to utter, and still it sounded more like a random thought than a response to anything Jilitse had said.

Then, however, she shook her head and slowly regained her composure. “Well, obviously I had difficulty with the directives. What you already said.” The repetition further sharpened her mind. “It was hard to both concentrate on the connection through the circles and work with the doll at the same time. I also wasn’t sure how to transfer the life principle or soulcore, but you’ve already mentioned that as well.” There she paused, letting the memory of the ritual pass her inner eye once again.

To be honest, she couldn’t forget the attachment issue. Not even for a while. Eventually she decided to let the words pour out, despite the impression they might cause in the other Nuit. “Of course, mine is only a doll that doesn’t look human, but it moves. It’s kind of alive. What would happen if it looked and acted like a human? Could you even tell the difference?” Falling silent, she was again consumed by a storm of thoughts.

How did an Animator cope with that problem? How did Jilitse, the one who had apparently lived twice Azola’s lifespan, see it?

by **Jilitse** on August 9th, 2010, 1:48 am

At the last inquiry Jilitse threw a menacing look towards Azola. There were few things that could rile this Nuit, and Drainira was one. It would be a good lesson for Azola, Jil thought. An anecdote to illustrate what's the worse that could happen. She corrected herself, the worst that had happened... so far.

"There used to be a Supervisor in the Citadel. A kind of advanced golem that can only be made by the masters, that is embedded into an entire area, having complete control of a facility, and all the encompassing abilities you can think of." She fingered a pencil and gave one to Azola. She took one of her own, grabbed some papers.

After handing Azola her own set of papers, Jilitse began to sketch. She started to lift the pencil lightly and drew a circle, and then crossed it with two perpendicular lines. "One thing you should know about drawing," Jilitse suddenly changed topics, "Is that you must start with a sketch, test and plan, trial and error." She gave Azola an approving nod, as if goading her to draw. No rest for the student!

"There have only been four Supervisors made in the history of our world, one of them lost forever." Jilitse was filling in her sketch with thicker, darker lines, outlining what seems to be the portrait of a face, although it cannot be determined if it was a woman or not. She drew a diagonal line over the head, and traced a hood over it. Jilitse started to fill in the features of the face, her wrists twisting as she curved the lines of the nose and the mouth. "One of them, the one who used to be the overseer of this place, who watched every Nuit in the Citadel, knew their projects, their plans, their secrets - the one who, in her perfection, has in her flawless memory, more than five centuries of Alahean knowledge and magic... was called Drainira." Jilitse started to softly shape the lips into a menacing smile, lips a little bit apart. "She had full command of the Citadel, and was the greatest warden one could have ever imagined. She knew reason, she had consciousness, and great intellect. That's how far you can go as an Animator." Jilitse's eyes gave her a hard cold stare, as if the idea she mentioned was absurd. "Could you imagine a machine that could gather information like a sponge? The greatest animators, those like the Archwizard Zarik Mashaen, are able to create these monstrous golems, powerful golems, dangerous golems." She paused drawing, and stared at her sketch's menacing smile. She proceeded to draw lines downward along the sides of the face, long straight hair, line after line after line. Her face smoothed, "And very expensive, too. Drainira is also known as the Million Miza Golem. You just know she's the only one in this world." She shaded the hair, black against dark black, careful not to smudge any part of the sketch.

"Imagine," Jilitse was thickening the outline of the hood now, drawing in the folds, shading it all over. She slowly drew the neck where it would be, and then lined up the cloak against the portrait's shoulders. It was almost done, the sketch of a smiling female hidden underneath the cowl of her cloak. The image elicited a feeling of dread and danger, the enigmatic smile not quite natural.

"Imagine if Drainira were to get a human body." The narration was grim, with the hint of reality that was hard to deny, "What if she made Mashaen create the first golem in this world that looked like a human, conniving with malevolent forces in order to betray Sahova? What happens if she decides to supervise the rest of Mizahar, instead?"

Her eyes narrowed, searching for Azola's reaction. What did Jilitse had to gain, for teaching animation to this random stranger? "Drainira has a new body now," affirming that her hypothetical questions were, indeed, a branch of reality. "A golem of her caliber may act like a human, but she will never be one." She turned her attention back to her sketch, shading in the last lines.

"But yes, you can say, she is kind of alive."

She showed Malia what she remembered of how Drainira looked like after her escape, humming her ghastly lullabye.

by **Malia** on August 9th, 2010, 1:42 pm

Although her brain still felt like a dry sponge, Azola managed to follow Jilitse’s words more attentively now. Perhaps she had read something about the supervisor golems back in Syliras when researching Mashaen, but she wasn’t sure. Getting the information first-hand certainly was different.

Refraining from any protest, she received pencil and paper and started following Jilitse’s lines with her eyes. It looked so easy when her mentor threw the lines onto the surface, but Azola had difficulties with producing something equally pleasing or even discernable. Nevertheless she started copying Jilitse’s drawing upon the approving nod. There was still so much to learn and the idea of practicing her drawing while listening to the story Jilitse was obviously starting to tell was more than fine with her.

The circle she had no problem with drawing and lines were easy enough. Reminding herself that it was little more than a sketch, Azola tried to apply only light pressure and not be too focused on a particular outcome. Four supervisors and one lost made three left … Where were the other two? Were they still of use for skilled animators? Slightly curved lines shaped what should be a face but looked more like a potato on her paper. While Jilitse continued with the diagonal line marking the hood, Azola refused to start anew and merely added thicker lines here and there to correct the shape a bit.

She tried to imagine how Sahova had been, overseen and controlled by a single golem that learned and improved every single day, for five centuries. It was hard to imagine, but Jilitse had the experience and would know. Of course Azola believed her. Then Zarik Mashaen was mentioned and the name Drainira, the Million Miza Golem. It sounded like the top of Animation, the most successful creation a wizard could hope for.

Still something inside Azola was ambitious enough to question the message behind Jilitse’s – undoubtedly true – story. Perhaps it was the meeting with Tanroa, perhaps the memories she had only recently gotten back and that were burning inside her rotten heart. Azola knew that she would at least try to surpass Mashaen and his apprentices and reach for the stars … one day.

For the time being, however, she was interested Drainira. A golem, who looked human, acted like a human, and followed the goal to subordinate Mizahar’s entire population. And killed those who were too unpredictable, Azola supposed. All information she got, however, she graded regarding their usefulness for her own quest. She was to fight against a creature of Rhysol. Tanroa had told her to gather allies. Jilitse certainly was someone she could try to get closer to in due time, but the million miza golem offered a whole different lot of opportunities. Perhaps Azola should gather more information about it, learn from its example and probably even seek it out. There was absolutely nothing, after all, that spoke against getting a supervisor golem as ally. Quite on the contrary.

That part of the plan needed careful planning and preparation though. If Jilitse spoke the truth, Drainira wasn’t easily fooled into doing favors for others. Azola had to learn first, about Animation, golems and specifically the supervisors to understand how Drainira’s artificial mind worked.

While she sketched the hood of her crude pencil portrait, she listened to the tale’s end and thought about the message. Jilitse certainly wanted to tell her that the best golems were not simple servants anymore, but dangerous to their creators and everyone else. By trying to craft the perfect golem, Mashaen had instead created an unpredictable, manipulative … thing that was far more dangerous than any human could even hope to become. God-like? Perhaps. It was frightening, certainly, but Azola was prepared to take risks on her way.

Now, she was just sitting in a laboratory and drawing faces. After Jilitse had ended, she further detailed the face, eyes, a nose and a mouth curling into a menacing smile, just like the other Nuit had done before. Of course, the mouth more looked like a crooked piece of gum and the eyes were shapeless balls, but at least she got the idea across. The shading she left out and instead turned back to Jilitse.

“This Drainira … What is it … she up to now?” The female form hardly rolled over her tongue. A golem was artificial, after all, no matter how it looked like or behaved. “Did she really leave to subordinate the whole world? Is she able to control sentient beings?” Still she didn’t quite understand the concept the supervisor was based on. But she wished to get every single useful bit of information out of Jilitse.

by **Jilitse** on September 15th, 2010, 5:41 am

"Quite frankly, I don't know what she's up to." Jilitse laid down her pencil and laced her fingers together. "I have not thought too much about Drainira's abilities, and how she may be able to use it in order to subjugate the rest of the world. One thing for sure, she works with the perfect logic of a golem, knows the perfect odds and probability, and has, either as a gift or by manner of acquisition, her own reasoning." Jilitse had ideas, Mashaen had given her clues and assumptions of his own.

"Was that not your question?" She smiled, "What would happen if a golem looked and acted like a human?" Jil paused and hummed, "Ah, I believe, in order to better understand, you must rephrase the question. What is the likelihood for a golem to look and act like a human?" The answer, "Highly unlikely, for a golem of that caliber would be too powerful to be compared to mere mortals. Only a master could work on something like it. Somebody who is probably as great as the Archwizard. He created Drainira, after all. " And so she continued, "Which further brings us into the hypothetical situation which is not quite hypothetical... You have a most fearsome golem unleashed, nobody knows where she is, and we here at Sahova could only guess at what she's up to."

"You have to ask her your questions to get the right answers." Azola seemed interested, too interested, that Jilitse decided to leave the conversation at a cliffhanger. "If you find her, tell her I said hello." A laugh, and then in a more serious tone, "To my calculations however, whatever she's up to, it's probably the end of the world as we know it."

She stared at Azola's sketch and compared it with hers. "Needs improvement."

Jilitse then pushed herself up her chair and straightened up. Glancing back at Malia, "Let's go. I believe you are fit to meet the Archwizard."