Golems were a curious thing. Pieces of rock given life through magic-infused sculpting. They can, at times, appear more human than most people today. Whether there is life behind their stalwart gaze is unknown to even their sculptors, but many great minds, past and present, will say that life is placed where we give it. That the very essence of magic to impart a fundamental part of ourselves into the world. So, in a way, the Golems are only as human as we make them.
Historical findings of Golems go back centuries to the first Magi landing on Eden, where Natives were documented as "Imbuing magic into the earth to create giant men of stone" (From the exploration notes of Noble Ionell Grelet). Now, whether these Giants of stone exhibited the same cognitive abilities as today's Golems is unknown, but based on historical documentation as well as studies performed at Garden Academy, I believe that our Golems are a different breed altogether from their Native cousins.
These signs of improved cognitive abilities are not only seen in our Golems but also through our Paintings (that can not only escape the confines of their canvases but, as seen by the makings of the Mad painter, can even blend into the masses to the point where speculation of his missing work living among us unknown is not without cause.) and Autotans, metal men that move outside of their preprogrammed directives.
These examples of life given by magic not only show us that there is still much to learn, not only of our own capabilities but also of our creations. But also that recent discussion within the Coven of Lords to name these groups of creation as a new race within Last Haven is not only right and just but also inevitable.
Garden Academy, home to the largest collection of Magical life (given the name Vitas by many scholars) will be the first to offer jobs, wages, as well as housing of their choosing to Vitas made from the many students and faculty over the years, as well as the opportunity to leave their hollowed halls if they so choose.
Golems, known for their love for music, have been the ones to ring the bells at Garden Academy in past years. Beginning this year, Principal Leopal has given creative freedom with their bells to them as a celebration of their newfound autonomy.
Not much is known about what they will decide to do, though rumors say they are commissioning the students to sculpt various instruments for them to use.
Excerpt taken from The Making of Lives by Robert Vinch.
Arms at the ready, Golems on all floors watched as the large clocks hanging from the ceiling ticked along. Waiting, everyone had an instrument ready to go, whether they were bells, chimes, flutes, drums, or even the odd piano, they were ready.
Tick
Tick
Tick
There, nine-o-five. On the count of three, two, one, as soon as the clock's hand changed, every Golem started playing.
A musical symphony of sound exploded from the walls of Garden. Echoing through the halls like a flood and loud enough that people outside could hear it.
At the sound, the doors to the auditorium swung open, letting out the freshmen into a symphony of music. Many of these kids grew up on Earth, so they couldn't help but stop and stare as the walls came alive with music.
First ones out the door, Isaac and Luci hurried along, not wanting to be part of the inevitable pile-up. Smiling Isaac waved to the Golesm as he shoved the shrunken-down student handbook and pamphlet into his satchel, where they were sure to be lost in the coming days, buried between loose papers and books, never seen again until next year.
But that's ok. He never planned on actually ever reading them, and honestly, he hadn't even paid attention to what Mr. Bilal spent the last forty-five minutes going over. He was more interested in the spells that he showed them.
Whenever he waved his hands, lights flashed, and pages in their handbook got highlighted. He made illusions appear of students breaking rules and subsequently getting caught right afterward (weirdly, some of these students in the illusions looked familiar…weird). At one point, he floated pamphlets on the stage to them that he had forgotten to hand out before.
He made the entire lecture on rules and regulations seem like a Las Vegas magic show. Isaac was on the edge of his seat just waiting to see what kind of magic he'd see next.
Was he going to shoot fire from his mouth? Could he make clones to talk to everyone individually? Maybe he'd fly and make bubbles appear above their heads.
And for the first time in a long time, Isaac was actually excited to go to class. If going to class meant that he would be able to learn how to do that, then he'd be the first one through the door. So when the Golems started playing and Mr. Bilal finally let them go, Isaac was already up and out before anyone could grab their bag.
"Where's your second period?" Isaac asked Luci.
"18B3, Living Painting." She said.
Isaac nodded his head. "That's cool. By the way, you never told me. What's your schedule look like? I want to see if we have any classes together."
Sighing, she begrudgingly pulled out a folded sheet of paper out of her back pocket. Holding it in front of her face, she started reading out her schedule. "Hah, let's see. First Period was Runes, then Living painting, Writing, Alchemy, Lunch, followed by Magic Circles, Music History, and then I end with Dancing."
Mentally comparing his schedule with hers, Isaac noticed some similarities. "Ok, so we share Runes, Lunch, and Magic Circles."
"Great." Luci muttered, rolling her eyes. Folding her schedule back up, she stuffed it back into her pocket.
Isaac smiled. She acts like that now, but wait until she gets bored to death by the monotonous routine of everyday life. He knew how she was, she was just like him. They're two peas in a pod, the two of them, both needing that extra spice in their lives to give them that little kick. Give it a month, and she'll be dying for something to happen.
It's a magical school, but at the end of the day, it's still a school. They're bound to get bored at some point.
Oh, just wait until she learned about all the fun stuff that he's planned for this year. Sure, it'll be hard, they won't have as much time to set everything up, what with being in different classes and all, but they'd make it work. And the added element of having magic was sure to make this year the funnest ever.
Ha, Isaac made himself laugh. Funnest, it's not a real word, but it makes him laugh, especially when he sees people's faces whenever he adds it to conversations.
"Is that your Focus?" Luci asked, her voice snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Hm?" Isaac looked down. He hadn't even noticed that he was touching it.
Wrapped around his wrist on a silver chain was a piece of blueish-purplish crystal. His Focus, according to his mom.
"Yeah." He said.
Lifting it up so Luci could get a better look at it, Isaac twirled it around between his fingers, letting the light reflect off of it. He'll never forget the day he found it, pretty hard to considering how he found it.
It was just after their annual family Fourth of July party outside of town. Due to their large family and general rambunctious vibe, their family was forced to take their family gatherings outside of Lubbock, out in the middle of nowhere, where no one could get hurt… Well, no one besides them, that is.
That day, they headed out to Lake Kemp at around four to set up for the Family Barbecue. His family had a plot of land that they had bought years ago, just by the water and right near the woods, far enough away that the woods wouldn't bother anyone.
The barbecue was great. Had all the usual food, Brisket, hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos, burritos, homemade salsa, some spaghetti, his mother's famous stuffed garlic bread, his great-grandma's chili.
Enough to feed all one hundred sixty-four and even some left over for people to take home. Squeezed between ten tables and forty-one tents, the family was ready to have some fun.
After the Family Barbecue, they got started on their annual War Games.
Split into two teams, the family would divide the campgrounds into two camps, the objective? Take out as many people as possible. They change what weapons they use for each holiday/special occasion. Christmas, they use snowballs and snowplows, Thanksgiving was usually a food fight with utensils, though last year it was indians vs. settlers, though with blunted arrows instead of real ones and exploding paintballs for the muskets.
For the Fourth of July, they got to use their military-sized arsenal of fireworks that they collected over the past year. In the dark with their fireworks as their only source of lighting, it sometimes got pretty intense.
Tio Chapi got blasted into a tent a couple of years back when his six-year-old granddaughter used one of the larger fireworks like a bazooka. Man, that was fun.
Of course, any spouses like his dad could opt out and watch from the observers' deck, along with any boyfriends or girlfriends that came along that day, but usually the war games were a great way to introduce new people into their crazy family fun.
This year, Isaac got a little unlucky with the draw of weapons and got cornered behind a boulder with only one roman candle as cousins on all sides were shooting at him with boxes of fireworks like ballistic missiles. They knew that this was going to be his first year going to Garden, so they wanted to give him a welcoming party of sorts.
He was just about to run out and take them all down when a sharp pain emanating from his foot sent him down. Lifting his leg, he saw that there was a piece of crystal sticking straight out of his shoe, stabbed directly into his foot.
Apparently, it had been sticking out of the ground, sharp side up, and he had just missed it due to the low lighting.
When the cousins noticed just what was sticking out of Isaac's foot, they stopped for a second, shocked that Isaac had gotten his Focus. Giving him just enough time to fire his roman candle straight into his cousin Mikeal's face.
Afterwards, when the crystal and been taken out and cleaned of his blood, Sophia had gotten it attached to a necklace just like hers. Of course, since he didn't like things around his neck, Isaac opted to just wrap it around his wrist, where it could hang in reach at a moment's notice.
"What is it?" Luci asked, getting closer.
"Mom said it's Alexandrite, a good stone for magic and one not easily broken."
Yeah, cause apparently that was a problem with most Focus. Wands were just wood after all and could be snapped like a pencil, but stones were more varied, as some of them could be as hard as diamonds, while others had to be treated like glass, otherwise you'd find it cracked at the worst moments.
Holding his Stone in his hand, Isaac had an idea.
"Hey, watch this."
Holding his Stone like a pen, Isaac started waving his hand in the air, leaving a trail of bluish-purplish light as he went. Drawing a few squiggles, Isaac ended it by singing his name.
Turning around, he held his arms out, presenting it to Luci. "Isn't that cool? I figured out I could do this a couple of weeks ago."
"Mhm." Luci walked past it, barely sparing it a glance. Isaac pouted. How could she not think that was cool?
" Hey! Come on, that was cool, right?"
Ignoring him, Luci kept on walking.
"Ok then, what'd you get?" Let's see if her's was any better.
Pausing for a second, Luci huffed. Blowing a strand of hair out of her face, Luci reached into her backpack and pulled out a light tan piece of wood, maybe like ten inches long, with grooves for grip and a sanded-down point on the end.
Isaac knew immediately what it was. And he had to admit…He was a little bit jealous.
"Oooo, a wand. How'd you get it? What's it made of?" A Wand, she got a Wand.
Man, he kind of wished he had a Wand now. Wands were the first thing that people imagined when they thought of magic, well, that and Staves, but that wasn't the point.
Whenever a kid picked up a stick, he imagined himself as a powerful wizard or warlock firing blasts of fire and lightning from that thin piece of wood. He should know, cause he was that kid. Wands just looked cooler. All he had was a rock that you could barely see when it was in his hand.
Luci gave him a side eye. "...Spanish Olive."
"Ooo Fancy, how'd you get that?"
Disintreasly, Luci sighed. "From my family's orchard. It just sprouted itself straight from a branch in front of me as we were walking the grounds."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot that you went to go visit your family over the summer. How was that?"
Luci's family, the Maderas, were an old family of farmers down in Spain. They grew Olives in their orchard down on the Balearic Islands. He doesn't know a lot about them, partially cause he never cared to ask, but Luci did show him a picture of their family farmhouse one time when they were younger. It was an old house, with vines growing up the faded bricks, but it overlooked a massive plot of land by the Mediterranean with hundreds of Olive trees.
Her and her parents moved to Lubbock when she was little. Wanting to get away from the taste of Olives, she said, but they still go back every summer to visit.
Now, why they chose to move to Lubbock…he didn't know. Like he said, never asked, never cared.
"Great." She said sarcastically. Luci jammed her Wand back into her backpack. "Turns out you're not the only one with magic in your veins."
Isaac looked at her confusedly. "What?"
"Yep, apparently the Maderas used to have Magi in the family. Grandpa said that they hadn't had Magic for centuries. When the rest of the family learned that I was going to Garden, they were so happy that they threw a five-day celebration. They even moved the tree that my Wand came out of to the front of the farm so everyone could see it. "
"Well, that's cool." Isaac tried to be positive. He could see that Luci wasn't all that thrilled about her family history. It seemed like a lot of expectation to put on her.
"Hhm." She grunted.
The conversation died there. Isaac didn't know what else to say. He wasn't good at this sort of thing. What was he supposed to do, tell a joke, say not to worry about it…punch her? Thankful he didn't have to do anything.
"Hey, this is my class, guess I'll see you later."
Luci looked at him with tired eyes."Don't cause a mess on the first day, please."
" Haha, can't promise."
Dipping into the open door before she could say anything else, Isaac looked around, wondering what kind of stuff he'd learn in Alchemy.