6 The puppet

*** Far south- unknown location

The day had bled to night, as the moon had risen in full, and the sounds of distant bats filled the air as if trying to compete with the isolating silence of the night.

The sound of water bashing stone as it fell from the waterfall could be heard all over, placed in the presence of trees and beneath a stream of water, the 34 feet tall waterfall stood constantly pouring out water onto the stream below it, suddenly and without warning, a shadowy figure quickly ran into the waterfall, so fast you could doubt you ever saw it.

On the other side of the waterfall was a cavern, with it's only light source the reflection of the moon on the falling water, giving the cavern a cool blue hue and contrasting with the warm fire of the candles on the desk riddled with paper and books.

Sited by the desk was a man no older than 60 in all black, his hair grew long and white as it fell recklessly on his shoulders, with a full white beard to match, contrasting his face full with vigor and life.

Seeing the figure of a young man pass through the waterfall, the man rose from his seat, his face anxious and impatient, he walked over to the young man revealing his well aged and muscular body that were hard to hide beneath his black garment.

The figure soaked with water came to a halt before the man, in his hands were dual blades stained with dried blood.

"I assume it is done?" the old man asked, receiving a slight nod as confirmation from the young man.

The reply caused a sinister grin to appear on the old mans face at the realization of what he had just accomplished.

"Okay then, your work here is done" the old man said smiling at the puppet as he reached for its arms, a few seconds later the old man could be heard chanting in gibberish, as his pupils rolled back revealing only the white of his eyes as the whole cavern was surrounded by a suffocating force.

"Or wait" suddenly the old man stopped as his eyes returned to normal and the pressure in the room decreased.

"Why don't you help me clean up the cavern, it is so hard to find good help that don't mind dying afterwards" the old man said to the young man with a warm smile.

Immediately after, the young man began to move almost as though he was possessed.

You puppets are far more useful than you are given credit for, if not for the cost that is." The old man said as he traced his hand over his shirt were a huge scar laid were his heart once was, staring at the supposed puppet as it picked up a broom and began to dust the shelves, wishing he could keep it forever as he needed someone to look after the old carven.

But doing so was impossible, puppets were unliving objects made of the most vile of magic, they were rarely used due to their obnoxious requirements, but were highly sort after due to their efficiency. A puppet will not stop till it's killed its target, neither can it die from any injury except a punctured heart. Till either of that happens it will continue to attempt to kill its target.

When a puppet is sent, its success is almost as guaranteed as the rising of the sun with some minor exceptions, despite this, only the richest and most powerful could use one, and it can only be used once in a life time as one of the requirements is a piece of the contractee's soul and mortality.

The puppet is made from the remains of a fallen assassin belonging to the ancient cult, 'The Grimm', thousands of years old and a blend of dying oak. The remains aren't hard to find, the wealthy tend to have odd hobbies, the truly hard one to find was the dying oak found next to a portal to the Nether realm, which even after 3 lifetimes can barley be spotted.

But once these conditions are met, the perfect killing machine is born with the skills of both the contractee and the dead assassin.

Looking at the puppet work, he proceeded to his quarters to slumber. The old man couldn't be happier, he had no regrets as giving his mortality was worth the death of the person he had killed a million times over.

The puppet dusted the shelves as the old man retired to his bed to slumber, it then began to clean the books one by one till it stumbled upon a book with no openings to open the book with, the book was covered with black leather and purple trimmings along the edge, the book was covered with deep cuts and burn marks, all signs of attempts to open the book; none successful.

Written boldly on the cover of the book were gibberish characters and words that made no sense yet was perfectly clear, 'THOU SHALT NOT READ'.

Since its creation, the puppet had never had a sense of free will, not in action or in thought. It was bound to its task and that alone, but staring at the book before it, it could clearly understand that it had the decision to either read the book or not.

The book had given the puppet a limited sense of self and free will, making it consider the possibility of opening it or not.

Having never experienced such a feeling, the puppet gave into its urges as it wished to read the book that was more like a brick than a book.

Immediately, the book began to turn and bend as it realised a horrifying aura, with a burst of wind the book's pages began to flip so fast it was almost invisible to the naked eyes.

Ths eyes of the puppet followed the books pages as it flipped quickly, a flood of information began to rush into its head as its brain that had never existed before spun, never since it's creation had it felt like this, it was processing and absorbing the world around it, it was now able to think, something it had never done before and soon after it began to make conscious decisions.

Its eyes still following the pages on the book as its brain craved for more, its eyes began to sting as a faint purple glow emanated from its eyes and soon after its eyes began to burn an ominous purple, hell fire burnt it's eyes the more it looked at the book but it was unable to look away, it couldn't look away as its head was flooding with information.

Time had passed and where the eyes of the puppet had once been, was now a gaping hole that looked like an endless abyss with faint lingering strings of glowing dark purple which soon began to weave itself turning into a thread, it then pierced the topmost corner of the eyelid and then the lower eyelid as it sewed the eyes of the puppet shut, the puppet had never felt pain since its existence since it was never alive in the first place yet it could feel every agonising moment of the sewing process releasing gut wrenching screams after every pierce.

After some time the puppets eyes had been completely sealed with every trace of it being sewed had banished it opened it's to finding only and endless abyss, pure and eternal darkness, the puppet had gone blind.

The sound of the flipping pages of the book responded in the ears of the puppet making it to face the book in hand it could not see the pages of the book yet it could still feel the information from the book entering its head till the very last page of the book was absorbed.

Hours had passed, and the warm light of the sun reflecting on the water threatened to over shadow the darkness in the cavern, the old man could be spotted in the distance speaking into what seemed to be a piece of broken glass.

"Yes it has been done I bet you will recieve word of his passing soon." The old man said onto the piece of glass with a victorious grin in his aged face.

"What of the puppet?" A cold voice spoke from the glass.

The contract ends in a few hours, I intend to unbind it after this call." The old man said.

"Very well then, I shall take no more of your time." The voice said before disconnecting.

The old man then turned to look at the puppet who was standing still in a corner unmoving, over the night it had cleaned every nuke and cranny of the cavern, dusting every shelf and removing every cobweb.

The old man then proceeded to grab the puppet by its arm as he lead it to the middle of the cavern.

Now in the middle of the cavern, the old man had begun to speak gibberish, his pupils rolled back making only the white of his eyes visible as his voice rose.

He reached for the arms of the puppet as he attempted to unbind himself from it, severing the contract, the spell wasn't long but it took a huge amount of demonic energy to attempt, and by the end of it, he was completely tapped out, the old man reached for a nearby chair whilst the puppet fell to the ground like a rag doll.

After a quick rest, the old man grabbed the puppet by its hair and dragged its now limp body through a narrow passage in the cavern, the sound of the old man steps echoed through the walls as he descended up a flight of stairs the puppet in hand dragging its body against the ground like a sack of filth with seamlessly no effort.

After a couple minutes of walking, rays of light could be seen tearing into the dark passage as the old man ascended the last steps, the sound of rushing water could be heard, beating itself as it fell of the cliff, the old man walked by the side of the waterfall the puppet still in hand as he proceeded to the edge of the waterfall.

"Quite the fall isn't it?" the old man said, staring down at the waterfall, his eyes suddenly lit up an ominous purple, as dark purple fumes escaped the sides of his eyes as he chanted in gibberish, most likely a spell.

"Your deed is done, his soul is far gone, and now as our meetings end draws near, I unbind you with the blood of the one I hold dear." The old man chanted as he took blood in a veil and poured on the head of the puppet before throwing it over the waterfall.

"Goodbye puppet." The old man said with a wave, as the puppet lifeless body fell into the water, once the contract with a puppet was over, it is to be thrown into water were it will melt and dissolve upon contract.

The body of the puppet hit the water causing a huge splash, seeing as the puppet had entered the water, the old man walked away with a smile etched on his ageing face.

"Once again, goodbye puppet" his voice could be heard fading as he hummed back to the passage he had came from, silence filled the air as even the birds had stopped singing and the wind was nowhere to be found. The silence was so long and unnatural, almost as though threatening to remain like that permanently when suddenly.

"It's Ezran Sol" the puppet said as he emerged from the water, his silver eyes brimmed with new found intelligence unlike his previous dull eyes that lacked any sign of life, his jet black hair now soaked with water, fell just below his eyes as the weight of the water pulled the hair downwards with his pale white skin reflecting the sun rays that hit the water, he seemed to have aged in reverse as he now looked like a 16 year old without a single body hair on his bear body.

He walked out of the water in his birthday suit as the clothes he once had on had dissolved in the water, he slowly turned his head from left to right as he took in the world around him with the exception of his sight.

He took a deep breath taking in the air in the surrounding, revealing to him the marvellous abundance of life and nature as he appreciated and accepted the world before him, and the the world accepted him in return.

Suddenly,

"That dumb old cunt scrubbing me on the ground like some piece of bloody shit, I'll fucking skin his wrinkle filled ass the next time I see his ancient face" Ezran said rubbing the back of his head that had a massive red bump.