Sahova on the outside, was a big looming fortress that looked like it grew out of the mountains. Nested between barren landscapes, it was its own sight to behold. Many people see the Citadel as the gothic haunted castle that nobody dared to enter. To those who knew even less, they see it as a magical training facility where you can drop by, take a course in a chosen magic, select your mentor, try the place out for a couple of days, give up after finding out that Sahova was not what they expected to be, just before finding out that Sahova was everything they should not expect it to be.
There it stood in its own little island, littered by malfunctioning golems and restless undead. It was headed by the evermore unpopular Archwizard Zarik Mashaen, ran by the one-breath-away-from-being-an-usurper Lector Qiao and his so-called Council of Five. They accepted visitors with apathy, greeting them with golems and, occasionally, death. They bought slaves, human corpses, and animal carcasses; and sold magical items, golems and poison.
Madeline must not be sure if she was returning to home or to hell, had she an ounce of logic within her she would have surmised that home is actually synonymous to hell, especially if you considered the Citadel a place where you belong.
The reactivation of the cylindrical golem in the great hall, a vestibule of sorts for Sahova, was not one that Qiao took kindly to. But it had successfully barred the entrance of wandering souls who mistook the Citadel for an Alahean museum that could be visited anytime or an ancient ruin to explore and dig around in. It looked non-threatening, sitting in the middle of the three-story hall like a misplaced furniture: a rustic iron table without a receptionist - without an alive one. Somebody must have found it funny, or logical, to tie a skeleton upon a chair and sit it behind the golem to make the hall look a little bit welcoming.
Madeline would probably remember the Greeter, and must acknowledge its authority on letting people in and out of the Citadel. After all, if memory serves her right, the apparently non-threatening communicator golem had an uncanny knack for calling out the Guards on anybody or anything that attempted to pass by without making a record.
Sensing her approach, "State your name, reason and purpose for visit."
