Golem – A to Z Challenge

“Emet,” she whispered into his ear, the breath of life.

Born into slavery through the alchemy of transmutation.

“Emet,” she whispered.

Truth.

I found him, broken, shattered by the hammers of the mob, abandoned to the scrapheap.

Abandoned and long forgotten he lay, surrounded by the detritus of a society long-since moved away from the magics that gave him life, away from superstition and toward another type of magic.

With new slaves, their machines.

I found him abandoned, but still his eyes blazed red with purpose.

The sledgehammers had shattered his pottery skin but not his faith, not his destiny.

She promised him truth, but gave him only falsehoods.

I pulled the scroll from beneath his tongue and gave him his reward.

I removed the letter ‘e’ from his shem.

A new truth, a new promise.

“Met,” I whispered.

I gave him death.

Another story written for the A to Z Challenge, for which I’ve been writing about under-represented monsters. I know that Terry Pratchett has written a few stories about golems, but I like them too. And I couldn’t think of many others starting with the letter ‘G.’ I also managed to use this week’s Trifecta Writing Challenge prompt Alchemy. Oh, and “emet” means truth, and was the word written upon the first golem’s “shem” to give it life – and the original terrified villagers scratched off the first “e” to change truth into death.

Let me know what you think, comments and criticism always welcome!