"Rhylorin, go get…" Mother walked up to me standing in the doorway. She let out a scream and pulled me back into the library, shutting both doors with a slam. "What was that thing?"
"I don't know Mother," I answered. "But I don't think we are safe here. We need to get the guards."
With a hard thud, the sword smashed through the door and a metallic voice screeched from the mouth of the machine. "Blood into brass… brass into life… life into dominion."
My Mother and I darted away from the robot's attack as it lunged forward. The smell of blood was festering from the metal man as it shifted around to strike once more. I did not know what to do or how to defend against such an abomination as this. My mother went for a chair and attempted to smash out the library windows.
"Help me Rhylorin,' she shouted. "We need to get out to the front gate. Guards have been stationed there all day keeping Braxmond Runners from entering our estate!"
I helped her take a chair and we smashed it on the windows, shattering the pained glass just as the machine spun in a circle—cutting up books and selves in an instant. We both got out of the library and wandered through the gardens just outside.
Blood into brass… brass into life… life into dominion," the metal creature cured behind us. With those words, my mind was splitting, and I could not shake visions coming over me. "Blood into brass… brass into life… life into dominion."
I felt unable to move and turned to see not the red glowing eyes but the worker I spoke with down on the factory floor. Glimpses of his memories flooded my mind as I tried to shake myself awake but was unable to. His daughter had died, and he was broken with hatred and despair. Evil had consumed him and yet—something more sinister was unfolding.
A glimpse of the peculiar figure positioned beneath wavering bronze lanterns, authoritative yet overlooked—platinum hair combed back like captured tempest gusts, giving him the bearing of an academic driven mad by genius. His eyeglass lenses shimmered with otherworldly azure radiance, celestial energies coiling beyond crystal, while his immaculate ivory jacket displayed a collar ornament fashioned like balanced scales surrounding an orb and blaze—a symbol of loyalty to something more ancient and sinister than any organization I recognized.
"Magnificent, isn't it?"
His cultured voice cut through the chaos with disturbing clarity as blood droplets fell like crimson rain, mixing with ashen dust while the metallic scent made my stomach lurch. The worker—moments ago just a man earning his bread—writhed and contorted as his limbs stretched unnaturally, bones cracking as they reformed into something monstrous, steam hissing from his transforming flesh and his eyes becoming molten brass that glowed with terrible light from my nightmares. The creature turned toward us with predatory intent, claws scraping the factory floor like grinding metal, yet I could still see traces of humanity—a wedding ring glinting on one grotesquely elongated finger, work clothes hanging in tatters from his mutated frame. My hands trembled as the beast advanced, mystical sand beginning to swirl around my fingertips in response to my terror and rage.
"RHYLORIN!" Professor Deyric's voice ripped me back to reality. My vision was blurry, but Deyric was ignited with electricity of blue light. "I'm sorry my boy—I was too late…"
I looked over at the edge of the garden where my mother had fallen and the metal monster had slashed her in half. The mechanical gears creaked as all my mother's blood was turning into mist and the robot was absorbing her essence.
"NO!" I shouted, shaking free of Deyric's grip. "Get away from her!"
"Please my boy," he shouted. "Stand back while I deal with the golem!"
My legs carried me forward before my mind could stop them. Mother's golden hair spread across the cobblestones like spilled sunlight, her blue eyes still open but empty. The metal creature—brass limbs twisted into impossible angles, steam hissing from joints—turned toward me with grinding clicks.
"Blood into brass," it spoke with that same metallic voice from the factory. "Brass into life."
Red mist swirled around its chest cavity where Mother's essence gathered. I felt something crack inside me, deeper than bone, deeper than thought.
"You bastard thing!" The words tore from my throat.
Sand exploded from my hands—not the gentle golden dust from my dreams, but black glass that cut the air like razors. The golem staggered as the dark grains struck its torso, but the crimson vapor continued flowing into its core.
Behind me, Deyric's robes billowed with sudden wind. Lightning crackled between his fingers.
"Rhylorin, move!"
I stumbled backward as Deyric stepped past me, his white hair now whipping in an impossible wind. The air itself seemed to bow before him.
"You dare defile natural law with blood magic?" His voice rumbled like distant thunder. The blue-white glow in his eyes intensified until they blazed like twin stars. "I am Deyric, Transcendence Four of the Mystics. You will return what you have stolen."
The golem's brass head swiveled toward him with mechanical precision. "The Covenant meddles where it should not. This vessel serves a greater purpose."
"Your purpose ends here."
Deyric raised both hands skyward. The evening clouds above us darkened and began to spiral, forming a vortex that pulsed with electric light. My skin prickled as the air charged with power that made my teeth ache.
"Spirits of storm and tempest," Deyric commanded, his robes now crackling with static energy. "I bind you to my will. Come forth and answer justice's call."
The wind shrieked as ethereal forms materialized around the golem—translucent beings of pure electricity that danced through the air like living lightning. They circled the mechanical creature, their touch making its brass limbs convulse and spark.
The golem tried to lumber forward, but the storm spirits held it fast. Red mist still leaked from Mother's wounds into its chest cavity, but the flow slowed as the binding tightened.
"Enough!" Deyric's hair ignited with blue flame. He brought his hands together above his head, and the storm clouds compressed into a single point of brilliant white light.
The bolt that came crashing down was not merely a stroke of lightning; it was a tangible embodiment of furious energy, elemental wrath distilled into raw force. It struck the very core of the golem with a deafening crack that resonated through the air, a sound reminiscent of the world shattering in an instant. The impact was staggering, causing the brass of the mechanical creature to instantly liquefy, the molten metal flowing gracefully like water, before culminantly collapsing into ruins. As the vibrant crimson vapor poured forth—hissing angrily into the cool evening air—the binding spell Deyric had cast shattered whatever sinister enchantment had given life to the golem, rending it powerless.
In mere heartbeats, the scene transformed. Only a cooling puddle of metal remained, sizzling gently on the cobblestones, accompanied by the acrid, bitter odor of burnt brass that filled my nostrils and burned in my lungs, a reminder of the chaos unleashed.
The storm spirits flickered like dying embers, their presence fading into the horizon, claimed by the gathering shadows of the night. Meanwhile, Deyric's fiery aura dimmed to nothingness, his powerful form now swaying slightly in the aftermath of the unleashed strength. His expression was marked solemnly by weariness, exhaustion etched deeply into the lines of his face as he turned his gaze toward me.
"The blood magic has been severed," he spoke softly, the weight of his words sinking into the ground between us. "Your mother's essence is free."
Yet, even as he uttered those haunting words, my heart began to twist with dread, for Mother lay motionless upon the cobblestones, her once-lustrous golden hair now matted darkly with blood, the crimson stains stark against the pale stone.
Suddenly, Father's voice thundered across the garden, an anguished roar that seemed to slice through the thick tension in the air: "ELENYA!"
Heavy, determined boots pounded against the cobblestones as Father forced his way through the twisting, labyrinthine hedge maze. Behind him, six guards followed closely, their faces strained with concern and confusion. Upon spotting Mother's still form, his expression drained of color, ashen and pale, morphing into a visage I'd never witnessed before—one of sheer, primal fury that ignited the air with discomforting tension.
"What have you done?" His gray eyes, usually so steely and composed, locked onto me with an intensity that felt like fire, wild and brimming with accusation. "What have you done to her?"
"Father, I—" My voice trembled, barely gaining traction against the tempest of his wrath, the words catching in my throat like shards of broken glass. The accusation in his eyes burned worse than any physical blow, searing through my soul with the weight of his unspoken judgment.
"The golem killed her," Deyric interrupted, stepping forward with an air of protective authority, his robes billowing as he positioned himself defiantly in front of me like a living shield. His voice carried the resonance of distant thunder, calm yet commanding. "Your son tried to save—"
"Lies!" Father's voice cracked like a whip through the garden air, raw with grief and fury. He drew his service pistol with practiced efficiency, the brass barrel gleaming ominously in the dying light that filtered through the smoke-stained sky. "Guards, arrest the boy and professor immediately. The Mortal Instruments were right all along—he's cursed, he's a killer! A monster wearing my son's face!"
The guards hesitated, their leather boots shifting nervously on the cobblestones as they glanced between Father's trembling weapon and Deyric's imposing presence. Uncertainty flickered across their weathered faces, torn between duty and the supernatural tension crackling in the air around us.
"Gregor, listen to reason," Deyric said carefully, his voice measured and deliberate as steam began to rise faintly from his robes. "The blood magic that possessed the construct—"
"Magic!" Father spat the word like poison, his gun now aimed directly at my chest, the barrel unwavering despite the tremor in his voice. "There's your proof! First Oliver in the factory, now my beloved wife. How many more innocent souls will die because of this monster I raised under my own roof?"
Tears streamed down his soot-stained face, carving clean tracks through the grime, but his hand remained terrifyingly steady. The grief in his eyes had transformed into something darker, more dangerous. "You killed her, Rhylorin. You brought this cursed gift into our house, and now she's dead because of your unnatural power."
"Father, please—" I reached out desperately, but he recoiled as if my very touch might corrupt him.
He collapsed heavily over Mother's still form, his knees striking the bloodstained cobblestones as he gripped the blue fabric of her dress with shaking fingers. "Guards! Seize him for murder! Chain him like the beast he's become!"
The soldiers moved forward with reluctant steps, but Deyric's eyes began to glow with an otherworldly blue light, crackling with barely contained elemental power.
"I'm sorry, Rhylorin, but we must go," Deyric murmured, raising his hands as the air around him shimmered with heat. "I cannot allow this travesty to continue."
Fog erupted from nowhere—thick, impenetrable mist that swallowed the garden whole like a living thing. The vapor tasted of distant oceans and ancient storms, choking the air until I couldn't see my own trembling hands, couldn't breathe without tasting the heavy water vapor that clung to my lungs. Deyric's voice spoke directly into my ear, cutting through the supernatural haze.
"Run. Now. Trust me."
His iron grip closed around my arm, pulling me through the blinding maze of mist as the world dissolved into gray nothingness around us. Behind us, Father's voice roared through the supernatural fog, echoing off the garden walls with desperate fury.
"FIND HIM! I want every Runner in Braxmond searching the streets! Every alley, every basement, every rooftop! Dead or alive!"
"You're a murderer, Rhylorin!" Father's anguished cry followed us like a curse as we stumbled toward the estate's edge, his words tearing through my heart with each syllable. "I'll see you hang for what you've done! I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth and beyond!"
The fog began to thin as we reached the towering garden wall, revealing the moonlight that painted everything in silver shadows. Deyric helped me scramble over the ancient stones, his face grim and resolute in the pale light, his hair still crackling faintly with residual elemental energy.
"Your old life is over," he said quietly, his words falling like a funeral shroud over everything I had once known. "From this moment forward, you belong to the Covenant."