Most creatures live as though life is a thread that can be rewound. They know instinctively that it cannot, yet they act as if every step can be undone. Life shapes the actions they take, and the memories that form it become justification for every choice that follows. These memories usually follow a single continuous string, easily retraced by pulling in the right direction.
Wendell, however, lived outside that simple structure. His life was not a single thread, but a tangled web of countless others. His potential lay in the strange, innate ability to retrieve and store memories that were not his own. When he polished a glass, he could witness a distant past in vivid detail. The glass became a conduit, revealing events of distant worlds, long dead eras, and experiences that had been lived through only once. He could feel emotions that were not his, understand knowledge that entire species had spent generations refining, and wield abilities that had never belonged to him.
This power was the reason he had been imprisoned. He had once polished a glass containing the memory of someone crucial to the inner workings of Aether technology. A person whose knowledge could destabilize the world if placed in the wrong hands. Wendell had taken in those memories unintentionally, yet their presence made him dangerous. His captors believed his mind carried secrets that no single being was ever meant to possess. And so, he and many others similar to him were captured. Captured and confined to make sure those memories never came to light.
Not only could Wendell relive memories, he could also understand their implications. He could feel joy, sorrow, fear, and triumph exactly as the original owner had experienced them. Their instincts sometimes became his instincts. Their talent became his. It made Wendell powerful, but it also left him fractured, always unsure where his mind ended and another life began.
A sudden flick against his shoulder pulled him back to the present. He looked down at the young woman beside him. Lilian's purple eyes narrowed with curiosity.
"What is it?" he asked quietly.
"What were you thinking about so deeply?" she asked. Her tone was curious rather than accusing, she let her hand fall back to her side after a moment of silence.
"Oh, that." He hesitated, embarrassed. "It is difficult to explain, but I am not entirely sure who I am."
She froze mid-step. Wendell kept walking until he noticed she was no longer beside him, prompting her to hurry and catch up. They marched through loose dirt, toward distant lights shining above a city. Immense walls surrounding the bastion of a fortress. This city was their destination.
"What do you mean you don't know who you are?" she asked, unsure and a little unsettled.
His response came in breaths between steps as he crossed over a large boulder. "You see, when I..."
His shoes tapped against the stone in neat rhythmic bursts. Slowly, the rhythm changed. The taps grew more frequent, even though his stride remained the same.
Something was wrong. He halted his explanation and listened intently.
A vibration below him appeared.
Lilian sensed it first. Wendell noticed a heartbeat later. The ground beneath them stirred, shifting like water. It tore apart as a massive beast erupted from the flowing dirt, releasing a belching growl that carried more surprise than hostility. The creature lunged at Wendell who had jumped into the air with surprising speed. Its rocky limb twisting around him and hoisting him above the churned ground.
Wendell, was now dangling above the beast, awaiting his fate. The golem swung its other arm in a sweeping motion aimed at Wendell's head. The air ripping in its wake, but before the beast could complete the attack, a shower of rocks burst from beneath Wendell. He had landed a massive kick on the golem's arm. The creature did not react to the violent shatter, almost as if it lacked the awareness to notice that its entire arm had been blown off. It had been severed by force comparable to a small explosion. The shrapnel of rock leaving the creatures body in disarray.
With the creature's arm no longer there to support him, Wendell fell directly onto its craggy back. A sound tore through the chaos. Lilian was shouting something, though the panic, the crumbling earth drowned her voice. Wendell did not need to hear the words. Their meaning reached him clearly through her gestures though. She pointed at a glowing patch beneath the creature's layered exterior.
A weak point.
He did not expect her to know of such things.
Wendell pushed off the creature's back just as it attempted another crushing blow with its remaining arm. He narrowly avoided death, saved by the slight gravitational shift he felt within the monster a fraction of a second before it moved. Jumping off of the creature he landed in front of its towering frame and prepared to strike the vulnerable spot.
Before he could act, a whistle cut through the air. A knife streaked forward and buried itself deep within the glowing mass that pulsed between two large plates on the creature's chest.
The monster convulsed. Stone fragments fell away in heavy chunks. The glow dimmed to nothing. A simple Ether core rolled free of the collapsing body, catching the light from the distant city. It was dead.
Wendell turned his gaze toward Lilian. She walked calmly toward the remains, her small frame steady and composed. Despite her size, her back once again seemed larger than life considering what she had just done. She plucked her blade free from the core with a single pull. A blue shimmer flying off as she did.
"Too bad the core was damaged," she murmured with a hollow sigh.
She studied her knife a moment, then spun it once and sheathed it on her belt. She stepped away from the pile of rubble that had once been a towering creature. Once again heading towards the city. Her expression softened into a quiet smile as she walked past Wendell, expecting him to follow.
Continuing toward the city, she turned back and saw Wendell crouched near the remnants of the monster. 'What is he doing?' she thought curiously. Looking closer, she spotted the spent core resting in his palm, drained of its energy. He stared at it as though the origin of Ether itself lay hidden in its dull surface.
Lilian paused. Something in Wendell's posture made her return to the corpse. A faint trickle of Ether leaked from the core, barely visible. It was not enough to sell or use, but it was evidence that the creature had died only moments ago.
A strange feeling tugged at Wendell's mind. An image surfaced. A memory that was not his, at least he didn't recognize it was his. A man extracted Ether from a damaged core in a manner almost identical to the one in his hand. The memory settled into place with the clarity of lived experience.
Wendell felt his hand guided by an unseen force. He knelt and followed the motions of the memory overlay. He retrieved the glass Lilian had given him. It still carried faint stains from earlier, though the color now appeared muted in the darkness.
The core's weak Ether dripped slowly into the cup. The liquid shimmered a pale blue at first, but as it passed through the air it shifted. The shade darkened. Within seconds the entire glass turned pitch black, the liquid inside swallowing the surrounding light.
Wendell felt the memory pull him further. He looked to Lilian.
"May I borrow your knife?" he asked.
Lilian hesitated but eventually unsheathed it again. She flipped it once and offered him the handle.
Wendell held the blade in one hand and placed his other hand over the glass. He began to chant. The words were meaningless by themselves, yet together they resonated with power. He continued the chant as he dragged the blade across his open palm. Drops of blood fell into the glass.
For a moment, nothing changed. The overlay vanished and Wendell exhaled with visible relief. The memory imprint had strained him beyond reason. Thinking became difficult and his breath staggered. Recalling an imprinted memory was still too much for his current self.
"I will not be doing that again for a while," he muttered quietly to himself. He repeated it once more to ensure he would remember, though he did not need to, the experience was enough of a reminder in itself.
Then something unexpected happened.
The black liquid began to glow. Slowly at first, then brighter. Lilian stepped closer, eyes wide. The pale blue hue of ether reappeared, painting the interior of the glass with a brilliance that seemed almost alive.
"What is happening?" she asked.
Wendell did not answer. His focus remained locked on the luminous liquid. He could feel a memory stirring just beneath the surface of his mind, one that spoke of renewal and creation. He lifted the glass toward the cracked Ether core and poured the shimmering liquid back inside.
When the final drop had fallen, he set the core on the ground beside the monster's remains, careful not to spill any of the precious solution. The core glowed slightly. A humming sound danced through the air. The earth beneath them rumbled. Pebbles began to rise as if pulled upward by unseen strings. Larger rocks followed, drifting through the air and forming around the core in a slow spiral.
Lilian stepped back. Wendell joined her.
The stones gathered, compacting into a single rising shape. Within moments a new creature stood before them. Its form was simple, much smaller than the original, but unmistakably alive. Blood and remaining Ether had fused together inside the core, granting the creature purpose and connection.
This one had a master. The blood woven into its soul made that fact undeniable.
Wendell stared at the newly formed golem with quiet awe. Lilian watched him carefully, her expression caught between amazement and unease.
Wendell smiled. "A golem, huh?"