Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Adeya looked back.
Gennen still smiled down from his perch.
She frowned and turned on her heel with a huff. Giving the golem’s pile a wide berth, she crossed the entrance circle and entered a side street. The hush descended again as she walked into the bottom tier of the city. Narrow towers rose on either side, their tops broken off, their white edges jagged against a gray sky. The bright afternoon arclight cast pools of shadow at their feet and magnified the contrast of every detail: every blot of turquoise lichen, every vine spreading emerald curls, every black fissure and hole. All of it stood out against the background of white stone, sharp and vivid.
The hush grew so heavy that the smallest noise resounded everywhere. Adeya’s footsteps, though soft and hesitant, seemed to announce her presence up and down the street. A blue bird hopped along a hole in a ruined dome, the click of its tiny claws on the stone catching her attention. She stopped to watch it. A single cheep from its beak echoed through the ruins before it fluttered away. A bit of rock dislodged by its flight crackled to the ground.
She watched the bird until it winged out of sight before returning her attention to the hole in the ruin. She stepped back, taking in how the broad, tall dome dominated the surrounding towers. The jagged hole in its side opened like a black mouth in the seamless white masonry. She approached it, clambering over the pile of rubble at its base and peered inside. The back half of the dome had been smashed out allowing the arclight to stream in and touch on a cluster of glass pillars.
With wide eyes, she stepped inside. She stared at the pillars, each cold and clear as crystal. A myriad of cracks ran up and down their depths yet left the surface smooth. Adeya passed between them, running her hand along the surface of the nearest one.
A stone clattered behind her.
“Kyen?” She looked towards the sound.
A shape moved in the shadows.
Her breath froze as a feline figure slinked into the light—a cougar fiend. Its grin grew wider, and its pointed teeth gleamed.
Adeya bolted.
With a chortle, the fiend bound after her. She dashed back out the hole and sprinted onto the street. The fiend loped out after her, skidding on the cobblestone as it tried to turn, then chased after her.
Cutting across the entrance circle, Adeya ran hard.
“Gennen!” she yelled. “Gennen! Fiend!” Hitting the base of the stairs, she looked up. The block where Gennen had been was empty. She glanced back.
The fiend ran into the entrance circle and slid to a halt, glancing around. The golem shifted to life behind it, but the fiend spotted Adeya first. She bolted up the stairs as it charged her.
Gasping, she climbed the ascent, pushing herself up the stairs with her hands as well as her feet. She passed the block, sprinted the middle landing, and mounted the steps towards the common hall.
Behind her, the fiend chortled. It bound onto the middle platform behind her, closing in rapidly.
Half sobbing for breath, Adeya stumbled the last few steps into the city circle and fell to the ground.
“Help! Fiend!” She cried.
Oda, Wynne, and several warriors in the training area looked over.
“Fiend!” Adeya yelled at them.
Wynne drew her blade and dashed forward; Oda and the other warriors followed suit.
The fiend reached the top of the stairs at Adeya’s heels but balked when it saw Wynne charging. Screaming, she slashed its front leg off at the shoulder, bringing it to the ground. Oda and three of the other warriors struck alongside her. The fiend shrieked and went down under their flashing blades.
Whimpering and gasping, Adeya dragged herself away.
Dark smoke rose as they slashed the fiend’s body into pieces. Its screaming cut off.
One warrior backed away, then another, and another. Finally, Oda stepped back.
The fiend had been reduced to a black, fist-sized lump on the ground. This Wynne kept stabbing, her teeth bared in a fierce scowl.
Oda grinned at Adeya and propped his blade against his shoulder.
“You ran screaming from one little fiend?” He laughed. “Chitling!”
He and the others turned to leave.
“Leave off, Wynne! You’re blunting your blade,” said the last warrior as they walked past Adeya.
Wynne stabbed the now marble-sized lump left of the fiend. Sliding her blade underneath it, she flung it with a yell. The tiny bit of black went flying, arcing down to disappear into the ruins.
“Come back from that!” Wynne yelled after it. She turned her glare on Adeya, chest heaving, while Adeya stared back with wide eyes. Wynne flung her spiked braid over her shoulder and stalked past to rejoin the others in the training area. “Keh!”
Rising on shaking legs, Adeya hobbled towards the common hall. She held back a sob by pressing a hand to her mouth.
* * *
As the Arc disappeared behind the mountains, the final sliver of light departed from the cliff-tops above the ruined city. The mountain loomed in orange and black, still holding the Arc’s failing rays, but a deepening dimness veiled the valley beneath its slopes. The shadows hung thickest around the canyon and the mound of boulders blocking it when Kyen poked his head out of the ruins.
After surveying the entrance circle, he climbed a nearby wall and looked at the canyon. His eyes sized-up the boulder mound—a jumbled heap of rocks, some the size of Kyen’s fist, some larger than he stood tall, and every size in between.
Walking the length of the wall, he approached the pile. His gaze traveled to its pinnacle and beyond, the dark canyon. He hopped from the wall to the nearest boulder of the pile and waited. When nothing moved, he set his foot in a chink, gripped a handhold, and started to pull himself up.
The boulders shifted.
Kyen staggered backwards. Wobbling, he spread his arms to keep his balance as the pile began to rise, including the boulder underneath his feet. It was rising quickly, and he leapt to the ground, landing hard on all fours.
Stone grated on stone while the boulders levitated as if pulled by invisible strings. A gleam shone out as the pile organized itself into a body—a massive, lopsided man-shape with a squat stone atop that housed the diamond-like gem.
Dust rained down as the shifting stilled.
Kyen backed away to look up at the glinting gem.
The two regarded one another for a long moment.
He bolted, running hard for the crevasse opening between the golem’s legs.
The golem slammed its foot down in his way. A deep thud shook the ground, and the impact sprayed Kyen with dust and stones. He stumbled backwards, covering his face.
Shaking off the dust, Kyen sprang forward, a different direction this time. He sprinted around the golem, heading for the space that’d opened up when it moved its leg.
The golem swung down with its boulder-fist. Kyen veered. The fist whooshed through the air beside him, forcing him to leap out of the way.
The canyon waited ahead, clear and open, and Kyen ran for it.
The golem, having twisted at the waist with its swipe, kept rotating. Its body spun in a full circle as the golem’s other arm came swinging down on Kyen from above.
He skidded to a halt and scrambled backwards.
The golem’s fist pummeled the ground in front of him. The awkward line of boulders forming its arm sagged.
Kyen’s eyes widened. He turned and fled.
The arm-boulders crashed down on his tail, one after another. Clouds of dust and rock enveloped him.
Coughing, he sprinted free and kept running until he reached the opposite end of the circle. There he stopped, panting, and looked back.
The golem, its arm now laying on the ground, straightened up. The gem winked at Kyen like an eye. The armless half of the golem’s body began shifting upwards. The boulders rolled on the ground towards its leg and crowded up into its figure. It formed a bulge which, with much cracking and grinding, crowded up its thigh, traveled through its torso and pushed its chest boulders out to form a new arm. The dust around it settled as the shifting stilled.
Kyen huffed out a sigh as he watched the golem.
Behind it, in the shadows of the canyon, dark shapes moved. Three fiends stalked forward.
The golem’s head swiveled, and the gem glinted at the fiends. With thunderous footsteps, it stomped towards them.
The fiends balked.
Dropping to its knees at the canyon’s mouth, the golem toppled forward, and the shape of its body collapsed into a crashing landslide. The fiends turned and fled as the boulders sealed the canyon up again.
A muscle worked in Kyen’s jaw as he watched.
Behind him, Inen stood from where he’d been keeping watch in the shadows.
Kyen glanced over when he walked up.
“No one leaves without Gennen’s permission,” he said, crossing his arms. “You want out, you’ve got to ask him.”
Kyen, turning his back on Inen and the golem, mounted the central staircase.