Back when humans ruled the realm and magic was plentiful, the humans had kingdoms; and of those kingdoms Wekel was the weakest. Maybe it had the least magic of all, maybe that spurred the tale that the magic drain came from there.
Its southern entrance was the town of Bayankam where merchants would pass. Not that merchants were needed but humans did whatever they wanted. Like build a triumphal arch at the town's entrance to welcome the visitors.
That arch's remains now blocked the antique road.
The town had boasted luxurious hanging gardens with aqueducts from which, it was said, mana flowed down into the streets themselves. Mana or wine, it depended on the version.
All that remained were heavy pillars, large as a castle tower, with ghosts of the beams that once protruded from them. The central fountain, described as a tall and narrow mountain covered in basins and waterfalls, was all but gone, leaving only a pile of dry rubbles.
Everywhere the ruins of house walls were practically indistinct from stone hills and debris.
Monsters hid in the sewers, only attracted outside to be the red beak's prey. Flyers were among the first to fall to the mana drought, but those crow beasts still managed, simply because their several wings could actually still find lift.
They were attacking a menilis and, of course, my mistress felt compelled to go save the cat-like creature.
The young lady surged from the rubbles, a stone hammer in hands, too slow to prevent the flock from spreading out. They could not fly high, nor really fly at all, only hover, and so they landed all around.
The caparace had rushed after her: the insect jumped on her back, offering its shell as protection. She let it do and slammed the first beak that tried to get her.
Red beaks, where they survived, would only attack the weak. But not here. Here they were desperate. Here they would fight even their own to last a few more hours.
They fell on her from all sides, but the human met them with a vengeance. Few only got close enough to scratch her. And when the hammer fractured against another skull, she called: "Kaele!"
I had already thrown her a new weapon.
As if realizing the odds, the flock only enraged. It didn't stop until the last one hit the ground.
The menilis had fought all along, to survive and to take its own preys. Once things calmed down, it seized one bird to drag it away. My mistress crouched and offered a hand.
"Eh little guy! It's okay now."
The monster only hissed. Teeth of a rat in that cat's maw. The tail likewise. It arched and readied an attack.
"Alright alright!" My mistress backed down. "I'll leave you to it, geez!"
She had turned away when the menilis leapt.
On her back the caparace reacted, rushed on her shoulder to present its triangular chitin to the beast. Claws ripped on it pointlessly, leaving shallow marks. But it climbed past it as she tried to push it away.
"Calm down!" She shouted.
It plunged its teeth into her arm.
And when she tried to get it off her it only bit harder, deeper.
I hit it in turn with a spear, two or three times until it pierced. The monster finally fell on the ground, reeled then got up. Stone held one of its legs just long enough for the weapon to finish it.
"Let it go!" My mistress protested. She was holding her arm in pain. "I'm trying to save him!"
"I'm sorry, it would not have stopped." I explained.
The menilis too, was desperate. Driven to folly by starvation.
I crouched, took out my necklace and put the bead on that creature's head. The body spasmed, almost thrashed then calmed down and slowly, then quickly, disintegrated. Nothing. The bead of amber still looked empty.
"Are you happy?!" The human accused me.
"We should keep going."
We had no business in this town. The sooner we crossed it the better. One by one the red beaks fell to dust. Still not even the slightest spark in the bead. Like those monsters were thin air.
She winced and followed me through the next piles of rubbles. Red eyes on every height, looking at us. Waiting for us to approach. I was trying to find the best path to avoid them and any sewer entrance.
But to say the truth I felt blind. I could only feel vibrations up to a few meters.
What good was a blind clay golem to a human?
We walked a bit further until she stopped. Her arm was throbbing. Purple veins spreading. I had no magic to heal that. There were not even ingredients to treat it.
"We have to move." I pressed. "If we stop, they will attack again."
"Let them come." My mistress sobbed. "I'll kill them all to the last!"
There was one thing to do and I could not resolve to it, even to save a human. She was too important. She was sacred.
She would save the realm.
She was wavering now, staggering against the rubbles. No choice but to find a shelter. No choice but for now, to carry her.
Not a single building had survived the realm's collapse. But not all buildings had collapsed the same. I put her down in the small cave formed at the base of a pillar, where stabs and stones had formed enough of a cavity to rest.
The caparace left her and rushed to cover the entrance.
I had started to chisel a stone into a knife.
"What are you doing?" She called. Her rugged face looked ill.
"Cutting your arm."
"Stop it." She tried to order. And when she saw me stop, she offered a meek smile. "This is the moment you abandon me and move on."
"Never! Don't even joke about it!"
"Face it, I'm useless." No! "Just deadbeat you have to drag around." The opposite! "Killed by a random rodent."
"You are going to live!" I yelled, my clay hands on her shoulders. "You will rest and get better, I will find enough magic to heal you and we will keep going! I will find a way so stay with me! You are human, you will save the realm, you can't talk like that!"
"You'll find another."
"There is no other!" My crafted voice got strangled. "You are the only one who answered! The only one, you understand?! The only one who bothered! When I cried in the dark only you showed up! There won't be another! Forget mana, forget strength, forget everything, all I need is you! I will play, I will fight, I will lie, I will steal but please! Please stay with me!"
She put her hand on the badger mask covering my face. My entire body adorned with those marble and silver ornaments. She could feel me tremble.
I let her remove the mask.
She saw the faceless head of a clay golem, with those two drilled holes for eyes. Maybe she had wondered if a golem could cry. The answer was no.
"Don't leave..." I stammered. "I will do anything you ask so... don't leave..."
"How long have you been alone?"
I could not remember. "Thirteen years." After that my memory waned. "Please... Don't leave..."
She put the mask aside. I mechanically picked it up to place it back on my face.
"You don't need that mask..." She muttered.
"That's a lie." I was shaking. "If I didn't... look pleasing, not even you..."
I got up, pushed the caparace aside, stepped out of the cavity.
"Where are you going?" She pleaded.
"To find magic. I will protect you, I promise... I promise."
The monster covered the passage behind me. Time to hunt. Time to engineer a miracle. The realm would give one for that human, it had to.
Even with just rocks and the flimsiest of magic.
I walked all the way to the next pillar, as close as the red beaks would let me. I could feel the fatigue gripping my limbs but nothing to fret about. Time to draw a circle on the ground. Big enough to even activate. For however pitiful that spell was, it still required more magic than this forsaken place had to offer.
And when I finished, I walked to the pillar's side, dangerously close to those nested above. They opened their wings to fall on me.
Give me a miracle.
I snapped my fingers. The magic circle crackled and burst with fake magic. In older days, faking magic was to look stronger than one was. In these days, faking magic was begging to get attacked. The spell was pathetic but for empty stomachs it was enough.
The buzzards turned away to fall on it, try and devour the illusion. A dozen, two dozen packing there and fighting each other for a piece of nothing. I had already put my hand on the pillar.
I was a clay golem. Earthworks were my specialty.
Few of them escaped when bricks shattered and the entire mass collapsed. Fewer among the rest could survive the pillar falling on them. A few more seconds and a relative quiet ensued, with broken bodies buried all over.
I fought with the survivors. Just one among the desperate. This was a feast I had created but too frail to take full advantage of it, all I could do was pick what I could without joining the victims. Just a confused melee.
But my bead kept touching the bodies. And when a read beak attacked I threatened it with the bead as well. Not a second of contact and it would fly away, frightened even beyond its madness.
This feast had attracted a worst crowd. Scrawny monsters, starved, ravenous, emerged from the underground. I had to leave now.
Stopping for nothing.
A lizard hit me in my escape, had me crash on rubbles. I let go of the necklace. Before I could recover it the beast was on me, claws on my torso, biting my arm. Then two red beaks assailed it and it was forced to let go. I found my necklace and ran.
Back to the cavity where the caparace let me hide.
The human was squirming. Her pale, rugged face gasping for air. I brought the bead to the knife I had been chiseling. All I needed was enough mana to heal her. Just enough.
Nothing. Not a speck. The bead as good as empty.
"Why..." I was losing it. "It should work. It should work!"
Outside the town was falling into a frenzy. Beasts pacing around, fighting each other briefly then pacing some more. Feeding before being attacked again. I could only perceive what sounds emanated from the entrance.
I could not do anything. I had failed so hard this time.
And now a red beak was ripping the insect's shell. The monster didn't seem to react even as screeching sounds weakened its chitin. I picked the knife and tried to hit the bird through the gap. It tore my arm apart.
I fell back, held the arm, the broken clay plates through which soft matter oozed.
"Kaele." My mistress was getting up. She was not in a state to fight. "Do something for me."
She staggered toward the entrance.
"Follow our little friend here. See what they wanted to show us."
I didn't need to see their stupid lair trap thing!
"Go see what it was for me. And then come back to tell me. I'll go make a diversion for you."
I slammed her against the wall, yelled: "Stop talking nonsense!"
She pushed me back, offered that meek smile of her I hated so much. "See you around."
"Ji-Ah!"
I could not tell what happened next. I had lunged on her again. Struggled to hold her. Pressed the bead on the back of her neck.
The human had tried to push me back but, weak and sick, could not resist me. She fell before me. I kept pressing the bead on her. The little monster covering the entrance panicked. I watched the human thrash and struggle, I watched her stand still. I watched her still body turn into dust.
I kept looking where she had disappeared.
There were two beads on my necklace.