The Mimic Becomes a Merchant King

Illyana and Varis had kept lanterns on them, standard equipment for Manticores and adventurers alike, and the twin halos of light cut steadily through the blackness ahead of them. Colony's excess mass was behind them, now a great grey blob of mass that scuttled along on insectoid legs. Almost as soon as they entered Elbrinth proper, Coin had felt a subtle shift in the very air itself.

Everything was cold and static down here, a persistent mustiness growing stronger as they walked deeper into the unknown. The uppermost levels had been picked clean many years ago, Scylla had said, but few dared venture much deeper. After all, the interiors of Elbrinth seemed to... move on a daily basis.

For Coin and Colony, in particular, there was a charge in the air. Lingering traces of profane magic that churned the animus in their bodies.

Colony took in a deep breath. "Home," she murmured.

"No," Coin replied. "Far from it. My home isn't... here."

"But you feel it, surely?" Colony looked at him in her usual blank way. "The way this place tries to pull at your very soul?"

"I feel it. And I don't like it." Coin shifted his gaze to Scylla, who stood just a few inches behind Illyana and Varis. "How are we going to navigate this place?"

The witch had been leaving behind trails of glittering white magic particles, their best hope for navigating back the where they came when all was said and done. "You can trust me to do that," Scylla said. She would occasionally paused as they walked, pressing a hand to the wall where a faint pulse of magic would shimmer from her palm.

"These pulses," she had said, "help me to map the interior of the tunnels. Ideally we will start to find traces of other people in the tunnels."

And so on they went, room to room and tunnel to tunnel. More than once they found human remains in their way. Skeletons caked in dust and cobwebs. Some of them, Coin noted, were of gnomes and elves. Adventurers who had tried their luck in Elbrinth, and paid the price for it.

Scylla came to a sudden stop as they entered a particularly large chamber, its walls stretching high into an impenetrable murk of shadows. Stone benches lines the walls, rising into high tiers like that of a stadium.

"Wait," Scylla said.

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The ground shook gently beneath their feet. Then again, and again, with rising intensity. Footsteps, low and plodding, growing inexorably closer.

Illyana drew her claymore, balancing the blade with the heft of one hand. Her left was resting on her holstered hand cannon. "Damn," she murmured.

A shape, vast and towering, emerged steadily from the shadows. Rounded plates of clay covered the bulk of the thing, its long arms dragging on the ground ending in blocky fingers. It had no face to speak of, just a hemispherical head with two black holes bored into the furnace-blasted clay, beyond which smouldered pits of flame.

"A golem," Scylla murmured, a hint of fear in her voice.

Colony stepped forward, undaunted by the thing that was nearly thrice her height. Power surged inside her, the air shimmering as she channelled magic to her outstretched right hand. "Wait-" Scylla shouted, only to be drowned out by the roar of power that shot from Colony's hand, a flash of white hot flame that briefly lit the blackened chamber.

When the glow faded, Cricket cursing at the temporary blindness all the while, the golem was still standing tall, its arms raised in a blocking stance. Chunks of its clay burned red hot but it was otherwise unharmed, unlike the swathes of floor behind it that had been fractured and uprooted by the blast.

"Hm," Colony said, tilting her head. "Concerning."

The golem swept a hand out, far faster than its huge size would imply, and backhanded Colony off her feet. The elder mimic struck the stone benches, obliterating many of them into dust.

"Golem armor is magic-resistant," Scylla shouted as she and the others scattered from the oncoming juggernaut.

Coin braced, drawing out an excess of strength as he caught a downward punch from the golem. The ground buckled and heaved beneath him., and Coin grit his teeth and fought hard to keep his whole body from collapsing. "Could have... said so... earlier."

"I was not expecting to find one so soon! And their composition is such that my magic pulses cannot sense them!"

Cricket took a running start at the golem, jumped high, and slammed both of her heels into the domed head. The giant lurched, stumbling back, giving Coin a chance to strike it and send it skidding away. The clay, to his shock, did not even crack.

Colony recovered, uninjured, and her excess mass scuttled around to flank the other side. "You go on ahead," she said, both parts of her body lunging at the golem at once. The combined impact shook the chamber, sending dust showing down from on high. Yet the golem endured, a groaning sound rising inside it as it shoved the mimic away.

One of Colony's arms dangled in the socket, the torn flesh and bone hastily knitting itself back together. "This is nothing I can't handle."

"But," Illyana said, her eyes widening.

"Leave her to it," said Varis. "Don't know what that bird is, or what that thing beside her is... but they both outclass us. We'd be dead weight."

"Thank you, Colony," Coin said, inching away as the older mimic landed a few hard blows that staggered the clay giant.

"I'll leave a trail for you to follow!" Scylla cried, as the group hurried to the far side of the chamber. "Come on, we must move. We should try and avoid any other golems we find."

Coin frowned as they moved through a network of tunnels, the thunderous booms of Colony's battle trailing after them. She would be fine, Coin knew. He had his doubts anything could kill Colony. Still... travelling without her power made him uneasy.

"Your people created those things?" Varis asked, puffing for breath.

"As builders, not weapons," said Scylla.

"Goddess. I'd hate to see what your weapons look like."

The witch did not respond.