An Eventful Day [Mirage]

[Thomas Cosa]

1st of Spring, 512

Thomas mumbled incoherently as he mapped out his latest animation, rough sketches marred a wrinkled paper.

"Can't be drawn to full scale...," he muttered, mindless gnawing on his quill, his mind quickly working as he began to equate the size ratio for the blueprints. "Suppose I do something...three for every four?" Thomas frowned, shaking his head as he crossed out a sketch, only to begin another.

Dipping the quill in ink, Thomas slowly traced a small circle, adding a weird shading to the side, an awkward attempt in making the figure three dimensional. He sighed audibly as again crossed out the sphere, and crushed the paper between his hands as he tossed it aside.

Grabbing another sheet, Thomas began again.

Hopefully, he wouldn't be spending all day doing this.

[Mirage]

At his feet the little Follower golem circled as usual, around and around as if it were restless and simply wanted to go go go somewhere. From time to time it would make little squeeky sounds and scurry off under another table, or through other apprentices' feet, which often earned annoyed looks thrown in Thomas' direction.

Quite suddenly it would stop, turn and bump into Thomas' foot, over and over again saying it usual annoying phrase "Follow Follow!"

Then, as if on a mission, it would turn and head across the lab, through the weaving apprentices and toward... the entrance to the lower caverns.

[Thomas Cosa]

"I didn't say anything, Stranger," Thomas mumbled, lost in thought. The young animator had long since grown accustomed to the constant whirling and whistling of the follower golem, and usually ignored both the small golem and the annoyed glances his newest creation earned him.

The repetitive bumping, however, was not so easily ignored.

"Follow? No, Stranger, --," He tried to stop the follower, a simple command would have been enough, but before Thomas could even form the words, Stranger sped off towards the exit of Lab 15, all the while singing 'follow, follow', as if the little golem was playing some sort of game.

Thomas hesitated, judging eyes finding the golem's creator, and with an awkward start: half run, half walk, Thomas went off to retrieve his little golem.

Exiting the lab, Thomas picked up his pace to a quick jog, only to stop once he realized where Stranger was heading.

The Lower Caverns.

Even the apprentices had heard rumors of what lay below -- failed experiments, guarded treasures and dangers of all kind. It would have been ludicrous to follow the golem, but Stranger had been a gift. Someone had seen something in him that earned the unique follower, and Thomas wasn't about to let that gift get away.

"Avalis, guide me," Thomas prayed, breaking out in a desperate run, knowing as soon as he grabbed the golem he could return to the relative safety of Lab 15.

[Mirage]

Stranger plunged headlong into the dangers of the Caverns below, showing no signs of slowing down as it traveled deeper and deeper into the twisting corridors. In this place no torches lit the way, and the arrows all pointed in one direction, back the way they had come, back toward the relative safety of the upper levels.

It seemed like the Follower moved faster than usual, as if it were hurrying to get somewhere, that incessant phrase "Follow Follow" trailing behind it as the flashing red light on its trail gave a clue as to where it was. Then suddenly it was gone, disappearing around a corner. As Thomas rounds the corner he will notice a stark difference in the path from the one he had been running on before. Suddenly... there were no more arrows to follow. Stranger kept going, down and down into the depths of the darkness, not stopping or slowing.

If Thomas continued after his beloved golem he would be forced to follow for nearly a bell, traveling in pitch black along treacherous ground laden with holes and other obstructions. At one point he would pass what felt like a large opening, there being a soft breeze coming from it as well, and there was that sense that, if he were not careful, he would plunge to his death off of this hidden cliff.

After some time the Follower would slow, rolling in circles calling, "Destination Reached Destination Reached!" in its excited manor. Once more it would be under Thomas' control, yet now they had come so deep into the Caverns there was no telling how to return. The Follower Golem was only programed with the first 20 levels after all.

A bit farther down the path a soft green light could be seen, so dim that it might have been a reflection if there had been any source of light this far underground. If investigated Thomas would find it came from what felt like a tiny gem embedded in a cold metallic surface buried deep in the wall.

[Thomas Cosa]

Thomas chased after the speeding follower golem, noticing that the golem seemed to be going at a much faster pace than usual. Or was he imagining it? The young animator was having a hard enough time keeping up with the racing follower, Sahova having long since stripped the human of any stamina.

Thomas followed the golem diligently lower into the caverns, deeper than any torches would burn, ignoring the constant blinking of the arrows facing upwards -- ignoring any warning that he should just abandon the waywire golem, and return to the relative safety of Lab 15.

And then, just at the cavern changed, becoming more rough, more stony, the arrows stopped. And Thomas knew then it was too late to try and get up without Stranger.

And so he continued on.

A soft breezed playfully teased at the young animator's face, and he instinctually stopped, knowing full well there shouldn't be any type of wind this deep below ground. Momentarily ignoring the fading calls of the follower, Thomas eyes squinted as they desperately tried to see out into the pitch black of the caverns. Catching what little they could see from the repetitive blinking of Stranger's light, Thomas definitely saw some kind of emptiness, or at least, something darker, like the cavern didn't continue in the hall-like manner he had followed.

Paranoid of whatever stood before him, Thomas clung to the cold, stony wall opposite of the big nothing, sliding as fast as he could to catch up with stranger. There were no arrows now to call him back up, and even if Stranger couldn't take him back up to the surface, the follower golem at least had a light.

Finally, after what seemed like bells, the nothing stopped, and once again the cavern seemed to form some kind of hall. Thomas rushed after the excited golem, the blinking light bobbing along the path.

Suddenly, Stranger halted, "Destination Reached. Destination Reached," it called excitedly, spinning in circles in it's usual position. Thomas sighed, smiling as the golem returned to it's normal behavior, wheeling happily around the young animator's legs. "FInally," Thomas whispered, glancing around the darkened cavern, his momentarily relief becoming overrun by a new set of worries.

They were far too deep into the caverns for Stranger to lead them back up to the safety of the upper caverns, and Thomas had foolishly left without even the slightest precaution -- not like anything would have done the young animator good this far under the Citadel. He slid against the cold stone, hopeless welling up inside.

And then something caught his eye. A soft, green light seem to glow farther at the end of the cavern, and without a second thought, Thomas went to explore. Perhaps had he any way out of the caverns, the young animator would have ignored the light, or better still, thought before going after the unknown.

But he was hopeless, and desperate to get back. All he could hope for was that the light was an exit.

Stranger followed him as made his way further into the caverns, the dim green glow slowly burning brighter as he progressed. Turning a corner, he found the source.

Something glowed beneath the cavern wall, and reaching out to touch it, Thomas frowned. The surface was cold, metallic, but the glow seemed to have some kind of shape to it.

A gem, perhaps?

And then, with a smile, Thomas remembered the note he received with Stranger, detailing the unusual slots that would fit gems, enhancements to the follower's programming. And Thomas already had one, one that would perhaps help him here.

"Is it one of your gems, Stranger," he asked the follower, the infused blue gem allowing it answer 'yes' or 'no' style questions. "Do you know who placed it here?" Thomas asked again, knowing that while he would only get a simple 'yes' or 'no', he would at least know something more about the unusual follower.

And for a moment, Thomas forgot his almost certain doom. Perhaps, if it was a gem, it could help him escape the labyrinth of the deep caverns of Sahova?

[Mirage]

To the question posed Stranger would answer in its normal excited way, "Yes, Yes!" Spinning in circles the little follower seemed eager to have come so close to a piece of its original design. The green gem glowed brighter, and as some of the layers of dirt fell away it was revealed in the light it shown to be embedded in a metallic plate. Dirt and stone encroached on all sides, as if something were buried deep in the wall.

At Thomas' first touch the metal would begin to slowly grow warm, rather unnoticeable at first, but then without warning the surface would become searingly red hot. The wall trembled, and a deep red glow began to appear from deep within the wall through the cracks that were forming across the surface.

"Waker B-96 Activation. Operations normal. Default programming functional. Beginning Awakening Sequence."

Layers or rock began to crack as something moved beneath the surface. A rumbling sound, and suddenly a shower of dirt and stone fell over Thomas and his little golem as something stood up over them. In the darkness nothing could be seen of its shape. Only the glowing green gem in its chest, and the deep red glow higher up which could only be an eye.

The ground shook as the thing took a step toward them, and suddenly the fragile footing on which they stood gave way and all three fell backwards, sliding down the rocky slope to land with a sudden splash in a pool of water that would be no more than waist high on Thomas.

Without losing a beat thing would stand once more in a slosh of water, wading free upon land once more. Then suddenly the pitch black was no more and dim blue lights were lit, though their source could not be seen. Thomas would find himself in a small pool of water no more than a few feet across right at the bottom of the rocky cliff he had fallen from, and beyond the pool was something that was almost too unbelievable to be seen.

Golems... Golems as far as the eye could see. Thousands of them, perhaps millions, all stretching far into the deep underground Cavern in which he found himself. The ceiling stretched high above, and even there he would see other strange golems hanging from lines nearly too high to be made out. Strangest of all, though, was that none of these golems were of a type he had ever seen before.

The rows closest to him all consisted of humanoid golems that looked much like Overseers in build, but for hands they had large barrels instead, reminiscent of cannons found on a ship. Their heads were sharp and angular, and red eyes glittered beneath metal visors. Farther back other strange shaped golems could be made out, but their exact designs could not be seen from this distance. Though the farthest back, if he strained, Thomas might see golems, Cylindrical like Peacekeepers, so immense that that they easily stood the height of the TAR, if not more.

The golem that had fallen with Thomas was now clearly seen. It stood almost 7 feet in height, and look very humanoid, like an overseer in a way. This golem though had thin, almost fragile looking limbs and clumsy hands and feet. Arms and legs looked as if they had difficulty holding up the squarish body that it operated with, and the head was nothing more than a flat strip of metal with a large red lens for an eye. Perhaps it was an old predecessor of the common day Overseer?

Whatever it was, it slowly made its way over to one of the other humanoid golems, and laying one of its three fingered hands on a shoulder it hummed for a moment, the green gem glowing. After a couple of ticks it moved back, going to the next in line to continue the proceedings. Each golem that it touched, a few ticks after it had moved on, began to twitch, slowly becoming activated.

OOCUh oh! Even Thomas must know this can't be good! Don't worry Stranger is fine, he rolled up on land before Thomas even noticed him. So then, what will Thomas do! What does he think? What secrets will be revealed in the next exciting episode!

[Thomas Cosa]

"Waker Activation?" Thomas wondered aloud, confused, stumbling as the floor trembled and broke before him. Lines littered across the stone floor, separating from the metal coat containing the ornate gem.

"Awakening sequence?" he asked to Stranger, looking to the little golem for any consolation, the caverns shaking around them. The ground ahead morphed, the sound of cracking stone echoing through the cavern. A loud cruch rang before the animator and animated, and Thomas cried out as a shower of dirt and stone fell upon them.

Wiping the debree away from his person, a low gasp escaped the young human as he noticed the glowing green orb -- seemingly floating on its own.

And then he noticed the disturbingly bright red, and realized he had disturbed some kind of golem.

Before he could stumbled backwards, before he could even consider any way to escape, the ground shooked violently, and gave in to the golem's weight.

And then he was falling. Pained grunts and groans could be heard as the young mage skidded down the rocky slope, hitting various rocks on the seemingly endless slope, and then he hit the water.

With a loud splash, Thomas hit the shallow bottom, quickly surfacing with a gasp. Breaking the water's surface, Thomas found the cavern dimly lit in blue. Coughing and sputtering, Thomas slowly waded towards the ground, only to stop mid way as the young animator got a better look at the cavern around him.

"Golems," he said stupidly, his jaw dropped. Thousands upon thousands of golems could be seen, many of them Thomas couldn't even name. The most humanoid seemed to be at the front, the build almost reminiscent of the Overseers of the port, only these models seemed more agressive. The build was more angular and sharp then anything Thomas had seen functional in the Citadel, and instead of hands, cannons, like ones Thomas had seen on pictures of ships, were attached to the vicious looking golems.

Then, before he could notice any of the more stranger golems, Thomas noticed the strange one that had pushed him down the cliff.

And that it was waking the others.

"Awakening sequence," he hissed, hitting himself on the head. "Of course," Thomas said, quickly wading out of the water, looking for anywhere to hide. He was beginning to panic as the golems slowly sturred, the one with the green gem slowly waking the others.

Perhaps a desperate move, Thomas pushed himself against the cliff, slowly moving across, moving himself farther from the army of golems.

Maybe, if he was lucky, they wouldn't notice him.

[Mirage]

Five of the humanoid golems were now active, moving and twisting their bodies experimentally before slowly breaking out of line to form a long line, marching toward what looked like a platform of some kind. The platform stood in front of a large set of double doors, three times the size of the gates that lead into the Citadel itself. For now it seemed that Thomas was completely ignored, and the Activator Golem continued on down the line, getting closer and closer to the larger, and most dangerous looking golems of all.

"Activation complete. Battle Preparations commencing." The Golems on the platform all echoed one another, and suddenly hidden glyphs on the platform began to glow, resonating with symbols carved into the golems bodies as well. A line of glyphs slowly lit along each of their cannon arms, and when the light of the platform faded this line of glyphs still burned a bright red, as if they had been charged. As one the golems stepped off the platform, making way for another set of five to accumulate.

The golems, the War Golems, were preparing for battle, but there was only one thing to attack... the Citadel itself. The Activator continued on down the line, slowly activating each golem one by one, a couple chimes between each activation. It was a slow process, but if it continued on at this steady place soon an entire army would be assembled, ready to be released on the Citadel above.

[Thomas Cosa]

The young animator counted five golems activated, the waker slowly marching the the seemingly never ending lines of golems, the awaken golems seemingly stretching, and moving their bodies experimentally. Thomas smiled at the almost human behavior, considering the reasons behind the strange programming.

"They are humanoid," he whispered to Stranger, watching one in particular as it's arms elongated and spun around clockwise once, and then to repeat the same action counter cloickwise. "Perhaps they were made to imitate," he wondered, before shaking his head, "No, even from here they couldn't be mistaken as such," Thomas paused, frowning, as the group slowly marched towards a large set a doors, much larger than any the novice mage saw in the Citadel.

And then, in unison, the five golems announced their purpose.

"Battle?" he swallowed, his throat dry. It was obvious beyond a doubt the golems were meant for war, but what would they attack?

And then it hit him, "The Citadel," he whispered, emotions overwhelming the young human. Excitement, Joy, Panic. No one, Nuit or pulser, would survive this onslaught, at least not without warning -- and even then, Thomas could just as easily let them all parish. "No," he hissed, shaking his head. Should any Nuit besides the masters parish, the animator would hardly bat an eye -- however, the masters were the living knowledge and reason he had traveled to the undead isle, and he would be damned if he let them die before he could snatch any and all secret they held in their pretty dead heads.

And then there was the library. Thomas had no way of knowing the programming of these golems, and Avalis knew whether these battle golems would spare the library.

He breathed deeply as he pushed himself against the wall, hoping to reach a small group of pebbles. Quickly he grasped three, hoping he remained unnoticed.

Now, he would need to test if he would be able to leave the area unnoticed as well, and what kind of targets the golems were after. Thomas threw one pebble to the other side of the cavern, and it clacked as it hit a stone wall. Another he threw towards the waker, hoping it would land amidst the still frozen golems. Finally, he threw the last one towards the five activeated, wondering if they would be able to trace him.

And then there was the gem to be concerned about -- Thomas knew he wouldn't let himself leave the cavern without it, but how could he hope to grab it from an activated golem?

[Mirage]

The Five newly activated golems did not seem to respond to the sounds, and those that were being freshly awakened continued on to the platform as if nothing had happened. The Waker, though, paused as each pebble landed, the sound of stone hitting stone resonating through the cavern. Perhaps it was a fault in its programing, but it seemed to respond to sounds, turning toward them and pausing in its movements. When it turned toward the pebble that landed amid the humanoid golems its back would be fully toward Thomas. There, only just visible, there seemed to be a dent in a panel that revealed turning gears inside. The panel itself looked worn, eroded because of the golems long stay buried in earth and rock. It could probably, with a little force, be broken open without much effort.

Once the sounds stopped it would take a few ticks, and then go right back to its work. Now 10 of the war golems were activated, standing at attention close to the door as more were beginning to file onto the platform. The Waker was now only 2 golems away from one of the large Juggernauts near the back, and if such a creation were to be allowed to activate and let loose in the Citadel there was no limit to the amount of destruction that would follow.