38 loop 1 part 18

But before we actually got started, the Keeper forced me to meditate for two hours. Even though I realistically could have stopped at an hour and a half. I wasn’t sure if she hated me. But I had a theory.

[Ambient Draw] had done some of the work while I focused on not dying of boredom. My pool sat at 390 usable, which was as full as it got with the tether holding its portion. I had stopped being annoyed about it. Mostly because being annoyed required mental energy I didn’t want to spend. And it seemed like my uncle was doing slightly better, given that the pulsing was nowhere near as frantic as it’d been last night.

Despite the Keeper expanding the room, it hadn’t gotten any less cramped or chaotic. Benches were pushed against benches. Batteries were in columns at odd angles. Fifteen golem frames in various states of put together stood between the mess in uneven lines. The parts to make even more were in front of each one.

The Keeper was staring at me when I opened my eyes.

“Ready?” I asked.

“I have been ready for considerably longer than you have,” she said.

I pointed at the nearest frame. “Which one do I start with?”

“None of them. Not yet.” She crossed the room with her little golem steps, gold boots striking against the floor. She stopped beside the nearest frame and rested one stony hand against it. “The beginner’s manual that you read is accurate, as far as things go. It will take you through the four steps of putting together a golem. [Align], [Slot], [Bind], and [Wake]. But the problem with the manual is, it seems to suggest that the best way to create a golem is one at a time. This is quite the mana-heavy expenditure. These spells combine for upwards of 500 mana. But as I have mentioned, there is a more efficient way to do this.”

I waited for her to continue. The nice thing about the Keeper was that waiting was always more productive than asking leading questions, which meant there was less work for me to do in the conversation.

“[Mana Tether] is the foundational spell of Golem-craft. Somewhere along the line, it was lost to history, and most enchanters moved on to other more expensive means.” She crossed to the nearest frame and rested one stone hand against its chest cavity, where the battery sat dormant in its cradle. “When Queen Therumia first discovered the Lost Library, she led her golem army down into the lower levels. It was there she found a spell book devoted to tether magic.”

I didn’t ask what happened to the golem army. I had a feeling that answer was also somewhere in the lower levels.

“[Mana Tether] and [Soul Tether] were the obvious finds. The alteration spell [Tether Link] was more obscure. [Tether Bomb] was also present, though I don’t suppose I need to explain why that is not one I will be teaching you how to use.” She moved her golem mouth in a crude attempt at a smile. I did not ask her to explain [Tether Bomb]. I was reasonably sure I already knew. “What [Mana Tether] gives you is the ability to link up to sixteen golems into a single unit. [Wake] activates all the mana cores at once. [Mana Tether] is what ties them together so that [Wake] has something to activate.”

That left me with one question. “I only have 390 mana I can cast from. How the hell am I supposed to cast all of this, and [Wake], if all of the spells together cost 500 mana?”

“Normally, your rather inadequate mana pool would be a problem. However, there is no need to be alarmed.”

“Why wouldn’t I need to worry?”

“Because you, unlike most mages, have a teacher that is willing to be patient and allow you to rest between casts.” She moved back from the nearest frame, the one she’d been standing beside since I walked in. “Golems work on enchantment, and as you well know, enchantments seldom decay. This is true of golems as well. A finished golem does not need to be held together by ongoing mana investment. You build it once. The enchantments hold. Which means there is no rule requiring you to activate all four in a single session.” She paused. “You will build the frames first. Prepare them. That work costs very little. When your pool is full again, you will handle what remains.”

I looked at the row of golem supplies with slightly more attention than I’d given it when hauling it all in alongside everything else. During my hauling, I hadn’t been making individual assessments. I’d been more concerned with grabbing everything I could and playing with my new passives.

There were more than a dozen unbuilt golem frames to choose from. I walked the back line slowly, as if considering. But once I had looked at them, I had made my choice. The longer I spent on this, the longer it would be before I meditated again. I involuntarily shuddered.

The three smallest frames were out almost immediately. They weren’t even to my knees. I had no idea what kind of work such tiny things could be used for. Except maybe for propelling a bed. Well. There was an idea. I could line the golems up at the corners of a bed, and the bed could take me around. I put that away for later.

The large frame at the end gave me pause. It was twice as big as I was, and half again as wide. I was pretty sure the added mana cost of enchanting something that size would end up biting me in the ass if I went with it.

That left me with four midsized frames and one rather large frame. Within moments of looking at the line, I said, “I choose these four.”

The Keeper moved down the line, one golem hand brushing each frame in turn before shoving the others aside. When the four I had chosen were the only ones left standing, she spoke.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Good. The battery cavities are compatible. None of them have warped enough to cause problems during alignment.” She paused. “I’m curious, though, as to why you chose these specific four.”

“I chose these four because they looked right.”

I could tell she didn’t like my answer, because she tutted. But then she continued.

“[Mana Tether], as best as we can tell from our research, was built by early practitioners of the craft. They needed to activate more golems than a single mana pool could individually support. During a violent, brutal war.”

“Practical people,” I said.

“Desperate more than practical, I’m afraid. They lost their war. It’s a miracle any records of this civilization survived. We aren’t quite sure what took them out, but it is believed they are the civilization that built this library.”

She did not explain further. Instead, she raised one stone hand, wand produced from somewhere in the golem’s chest cavity, and cast.

“[Mana Tether].”

[Mana Tether — Enchantment]

Cost: Variable mana. 20 mana per link.

Links the mana reserves of target batteries or mages into a shared network. Duration: Until dispelled or network exhausted.

Four lines of pale blue light threaded out from the tip of her wand, connecting to each battery in sequence—one after another, quick and precise. The lines held for a moment and then faded, leaving something that wasn’t visible but was nonetheless present. There was a faint pressure across all four frames at once, like a room where the temperature had shifted without warning. She let the link sit for a moment, then dispelled it.

“Now you,” she said.

I looked at the four open chest cavities and the batteries sitting dormant in their cradles, then raised my wand.

“[Mana Tether].”

Four blue lines congealed around the mana batteries and then ran directly to my manacore.

She moved down the row, checking each frame briefly. “Your link is stable. You cast that faster than I expected.”

“I’m motivated,” I said.

She looked at me. “Apparently.”

She spent a minute studying the tether, walking around and waving a golem hand through it.

“Now. Before the activation sequence, the frames need to be prepared, and you need to refill your mana. So back to meditating you go.”