Tristain Academy Of Magic.
A few Hours After The Summoning Ritual.
The Tower Of Earth.
The Academy's Girl's Dormitory.
"Thump, thump, thump!"
The heavy metallic footfalls of the Cyberman summoned by the third daughter of the noble and influential Valliere family echoed loudly throughout the magically constructed tower. The cybernetic individual in question was dutifully following his Empress as she calmly ascended the staircase; Louise's destination was her dorm room located at the very top of the tower, named after the noble elements of the earth.
The journey upwards has thus far been none exciting as most of the female nobles who lived within the dormitory had already gone to bed. The servants who attended to the needs of the nobles maintained the tower and kept the rooms clean were also fast asleep for the night as tomorrow promised another day of slaving away for the next generation of Tristain's nobility. The lack of noble and peasant people on the staircase meant that Louise was alone with her newly summoned familiar, who was busy analysing and documenting everything that came into his field of view.
Louise was well aware of her familiar's desire to study everything surrounding it. However, she chose not to say anything as she believed the Cyberman was simply following whatever programming its noble creator had woven into its being via earth magic. The art of embedding specific commands into golems wasn't unheard of; many nobles throughout Tristain used such methods to create artificial guards to protect their family's treasures and mystical artefacts usually sealed within their mansion vaults.
"Although, whoever crafted Theta obviously didn't have any intension of having it simply guard their family vault," Louise had personally seen the golems guarding the Valliere vaults. She could confidently say that those golden golems couldn't hold a candle to her familiar. "Perhaps they intended for Theta be used as a war golem." War golems were highly favoured by noblemen who possessed a strong affinity with the earth element, so it wouldn't surprise the pink-haired mage if her familiar was indeed constructed with the prepose of assisting its creator on the field of battle.
The seemingly high-quality materials of Theta's construction certainly helped reinforce the idea of the Cyberman being a war golem. The nobles of Tristain or any other country for that matter wouldn't waste precious time and resources to build such an advanced golem with the idea of simply having it guard their valuables for the rest of its existence. However, the most important question to Louise was who built the Cyberman and how much would the Valliere family have to pay to avoid a political situation with another noble family.
Louise would have to write back home to her mother to request that an investigation into finding her familiar's maker be launched. Unless a proper payment was given to the Cyberman's creator, the noble, who constructed Theta could easily accuse Valliere's of theft of their property. While such accessions wouldn't usually get very far, thanks to the Valliere's close relationship with the crown, it could still cause trouble for the kingdom, especially if Theta's original owner was from another neighbouring kingdom like Germania.
"I'll write to mother in the morning," the pink-haired mage decided whilst carefully walking past Kirche's room as the third daughter of the Valliere family didn't want to deal with the red-haired Germanian at the moment. "Hopefully, she and father can find my familiar's creator before they start believing that I stole their creation." Louise successfully managed to bypass Kirche's dorm room without incident. A few minutes later, after walking up a couple of more levels of the staircase, Louise and her familiar arrived at her bedroom.
Louise De La Valliere's Dorm Room.
The bedroom designated for the third daughter of the Valliere family's use was typical for Halkeginia nobles. A spacious room, fit to house a small peasant family, with an oversized bed, complete with silk sheets and pillows, is located underneath the room's sole window. The sleeping quarters also possessed a decent-sized wooden desk, a wardrobe, a table with two chairs, a bathroom, and multiple bookshelves. Louise stored her academy books and literature that she'd brought from her family's estate.
Louise smiled upon entering the gorgeously decorated room that had been functioning as her home for the past two years of attending Tristain's magical academy. The metallic echos of her familiar's footfalls followed the pink-haired mage as she stepped towards the bed on the other side of the bedroom. As Louise reached her desired spot, she noticed the large pile of hay resting near the east wall and made a quick mental note to have the servants remove the hay from the room since the Cyberman wouldn't need a place to sleep.
"Hum, I should probably have the servants clean up my familiar after they're done with the hay," mused the pink-haired mage while beginning to undress without care that the Cyberman was watching her every move. "After all, it would reflect badly on the Valliere's if I couldn't take proper care of my familiar." Once Louise was finished removing her school uniform and undergarments, she moved to the wardrobe in order to retrieve tonight's sleepwear. After the pink-haired mage changed into a nightgown and fresh undergarments, she jumped onto the bed.
"Familiar," Louise addressed the Cyberman after taking a moment to get comfortable in the silk-covered bed. "Take my clothes down to the servants quarters and inform the maids that I want them cleaned." The Cyberman's head shifted between Louise and the pile of clothes sitting on the floor for a few seconds before nodding in understanding. A couple of thumping steps later, the metallic entity started to gather the clothes scattered on the bedroom's polished wooden floor.
"Cyber unit Theta shall obey the commands of the Cyber Empress!" Louise's eyebrow twitched at the title the Cyberman currently gathering her clothes seemed hellbent on addressing her with. After the summoning ritual, the pink-haired mage tried to get the metallic golem to not call Louise an empress. However, the pink-haired mage's protests were met with only indifference from the metallic entity. After a while, Louise gave up trying to change Theta's mind, at least for today, as the summoning ritual incident had left Louise feeling tired and mentally drained.
Withholding the urge to groan at her familiar's stubbornness, Louise simply nodded while pulling the silk sheets over her petite form. "Good, and make sure to also inform the servants that I desire your outer casing to be polished until you're in a satisfactory condition." The hot-tempered mage's head hit the soft pillow whilst the Cyberman finished collecting the discarded clothes.
"I obey!" The Cyberman bowed its head slightly before marching towards the sole bedroom exit. After the Cyberman left the room searching for the servants quarters, Louise closed her pinkish eyes and drifted off to the land of dreams where she saw visions of Halkeginia. However, instead of the peaceful world, she'd always known since childhood, the dream showed her world being covered in metallic structures that birthed more of Theta's kind by the thousands. Of colossal vessel soaring up into the sky, destination unknown, yet the dreaming mage somehow knew it wasn't anywhere on Halkeginia.
The most unsettling part of these dreams was the gunmetal grey metallic throne resting within the heart of a ruined castle which was once upon a time the Tristain royal family's seat of power. The slumbering Louise saw a shadowy figure seating upon the throne, whose only visible feature was their light pink metallic hands that eerily resembled those of the Cybermen. The Tristain noble watched from the throne room as the hordes of Cybermen marched into the castle carrying countless people, who were crying and begging for their lives to be spared from the metallic entities wrath only to be ignored as they're carried off somewhere within the ruined castle.
Louise swallowed at the dreams, no nightmares appearing before her eyes. Yet, the pink-haired mage didn't have time to fully comprehend the horrors of the nightmare. The sound of something metallic moving caused Louise to turn her gaze back to the throne, where the mysterious metallic creature seated upon it moved slightly forward. Allowing the third daughter of the Valliere family to see darkish pink eyes glaring with disdain at the screaming people of Tristain. Louise had never seen such contempt exist within another person, and before she could even voice anything, those eyes filled with disdain shifted towards Louise.
The eyes softened as they landed upon the pink-haired mage, who was frozen in fear upon gaining the shadowy figures attention. The sounds of metal moving against metal screeched throughout the ruined throne room, causing Louise to grimace at the sound. Within moments the shadowy creature got up from the throne. It marched towards Louise while making the same thumping noise that always accompanied her familiar no matter how softly she ordered it to move around the academy's grounds.
When the unknown creature came into the light, Louise felt her blood freeze and all colour was drained from her features. The shadowy figure was revealed to be Louise, only far different from how she looked at this very moment. The creature whom Louise internally dubbed as Nightmare Louise appeared to have had her arms and legs replaced with cybernetics smaller to the Cyberman, albeit with light pink colouration.
Her nightmare version was wearing clothes that fit Tristain royalty with colours primarily focusing on silver and black. A cape covered the nightmare's shoulders, complete with white fur lining that ended with a puffy collar that helped provide some form of warmth. However, the most eye-catching was the steel crown lying upon nightmare Louise's head, which was pure black and constructed to be a more stylised version of the cyber helmets that were built into the cybermen's heads. As scared as she was at the moment, Louise couldn't help but wonder how her counterpart could move so fluidly with such a heavy crown resting upon her head.
Nightmare Louise smiled warmly at her frightened counterpart; once the distance was closed between them, she placed a metallic hand upon Louise's shoulder, who felt surprised at how warm the metallic flesh felt through the nightgown. The frightened Louise stared into the darkish pink eyes of her counterpart. She could just make out hints of tiny metal cybernetics hidden within the optical flesh, revealing that whatever events happened to her nightmare self had caused Nightmare Louise to undergo extensive cybernetic surgery in order to survive.
"We are inevitable!" Louise yelped as her nightmare counterpart spoke, sounding so mechanical yet at the same time still holding onto what remnants of her humanity she had left. Nightmare Louise released her hold on the real Louise and stepped backwards, causing the pink-haired mage to notice the Cybermen surrounding them both in a semicircle. Hundreds of soulless, white glowing eyes stared at the lookalikes. Before Louise had the chance to collect her thoughts, the Cybermen all spoke as one unsettling emotionless collective.
"Do not fear; we shall remove fear from you!"
"Do not grieve, for we shall ascend you to a higher prepose!"
"Do not resist, for resistance leads down the path of suffering!"
"Do not cry for the lost, for they shall join us in ascension!"
"Cybermen shall remove the people of Halkeginia's fear, sex, social class, colour and creed. They shall become identical. They will become us!"
"Yet as they become us, you shall be so much more than us, a pillar and guiding force for us!"
"You shall become Empress Of The Cybermen!"
Louise trembled as the thousands of identical voices thundered throughout the entire ruined throne room. It didn't help when she saw her nightmare counterpart's eyes shining with delight as if this was only a formality and that Louise was already one of them. The terror those eyes conjured within her heart caused Louise to shut her eyes and cover her ears, hoping to block out the Cybermen as they continued to chant about ascension and her inevitable rise as the Cyber Empress. The action proved to be fruitless as she could still hear them, and without any other way to drown out the chanting, Louise did the only thing she could think of at the moment.
She screamed!
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the Tower Of Earth.
Theta exited the structure that its internal computers designated as the recharging quarters for the Cyber Empress. The Cyberman had already flagged every female human who also lived within the tower as a neutral threat since Theta didn't have enough data to confirm whether or not they were a danger to the Empress's wellbeing. However, if such evidence were to appear then, Theta will delete the threat, whether it be human or some other form of danger like the Daleks.
During the time it took to reach the tower, Theta used advanced sensors to draw a crude map of the academy's school grounds, so it shouldn't take the sole Cyberman on Halkeginia to find a servant and complete the Empress's commands. The previous sensor readings told the Cyberman that the servants had, during the daytime, assembled near the Tower of Fire, so that's where Theta shall check first before moving onto the next likely place the servants might be located. As Theta marched through the school grounds, the Cyberman took this chance to think about its next move.
"Primary objective is the protection of the Cyber Empress," Theta's head shifted randomly as it tried to locate a servant. "Unknown human organisms capable of unknown abilities are a threat to the Empress and the Cybermen!" Cybermen had invaded and upgraded countless worlds throughout the millennia. Yet, these humans could perform feats that Theta's seniors couldn't understand, and such lack of knowledge was considered unacceptable to the lone Cyberman.
"Research into humans unknown abilities must be conducted," Theta entered the courtyard next to the Tower of Fire, where none of the servant staff could be seen. "Counter strategies must be written if the Empress's safety is to be secured!" The lone Cyberman detected no humans within the immediate area, so it turned around and headed for the Tower of Water. The tower in question was where most of the students' practical coursework was conducted, so it stood to reason that there were still servants hanging around the tower to clean up the mess the nobles created with their magic.
"Third objective is upgrading the local population to increase cyber forces!" Theta knew upgrading the locals wasn't going to be easy as the technology level of this planet was laughably low by galactic standards. The lone Cyberman couldn't risk cannibalising itself for parts as that would lower its already poor combat ability and put the Empress at risk of injury at the hands of the humans. The sole solution was to build the technology needed for conversion by hand. Luckily, Theta was an engineering class and was thus made for such situations.
A workshop would need to be built, preferably far away from the eyes of the nobles. Theta hadn't been around long enough to know the political situation. Yet, data stored within its database showed that nobility would do just about anything to keep a hold of their power. The Cyberman wasn't interested in getting involved with Tristain's politics unless the cyber race somehow benefited from it. The Empress seemed to come from a wealthy family, so perhaps Theta could request some of her personal funds be used to construct a workshop.
Theta flagged the inquiry as priority alpha as it walked into the Tower of Water. The external cyber sensors found and identified a human individual located within the supply storage room behind the staircase leading to the upper classrooms. Target found Theta marched towards the storage area. After entering the small space, the Cyberman saw a raven-haired maid who would be considered highly attractive by the academy populace. However, Theta cared little for the woman's beauty and walked with surprising stealth across the room in order to stand behind her.
Theta tapped the maid on the shoulder, causing the woman to yelp in fright. "Confirm, are you a servant of this institution?!" The maid hurriedly turned around and then gazed upwards with awe and fear at the tall metallic creature. She'd never seen anything like it before in her entire life. Its cold dead eyes seemed to pierce directly into her soul and make the maid feel a sensation of dread as if some primal instinct was screaming that this golem forged from steel was highly dangerous and should be avoided no matter the cost.
"You are a servant of Tristain academy, confirm!" The Cyberman asked again, only this time it managed to sound impatient, which snapped the maid out of her current emotional state.
"Hum, yes, I'm a maid under the employment of the academy," the maid confirmed while putting the duster she'd been using to clean the storage room next to an old unused table. "And I'm known as Siesta." Siesta introduced herself, unaware that the Cyberman had filed away her name underneath usual assets and potential upgraders. Theta also noticed Siesta didn't have a last name, meaning that only nobles had them, making identifying and eliminating future threats much easier.
"Greetings, this cyber unit is designated as Theta," Theta returned the introduction while showing the maid the dirty clothes it was carrying. "The Cyber Empress has tasked this unit with finding a servant to clean these garments!" Siesta blinked at the Cyberman's odd choice of words yet figured that it must be a familiar that was simply following its master's orders. The knowledge that this metallic entity was under the control of a noble helped relieve some of Siesta's concerns with its presence since the headmaster had rules that prevented nobles from harming servants with their familiars.
The last noble that tied had gotten expelled for their troubles, so everyone within the school knew the headmaster was serious and disregarding the academy rules would have consequences. Not that consequences ever stopped the nobles from finding loopholes in those rules to torment the servant staff without getting into trouble with the teachers. Of course, it didn't help that most teachers were biased towards their students and would generally take their fellow nobles side than actually protect a commoner.
Siesta pushed those depressing thoughts to the back of her mind for now as she needed to focus on the situation at hand. "Oh, I can take care of those for you, Mr Familiar." Siesta smiled pleasantly as she took the clothes from the Cyberman's arms. The dirty garments could be cleaned with relative ease since the nearby Tower of Wind held the academy's laundry supplies. Plus, the need to walk over there gave Siesta an excuse to leave the Cyberman's presence without appearing rude as the maid didn't want Theta to report anything terrible back to their master.
Terrible fates befell to those unlucky enough to earn the nobles displeasure.
"Acknowledged!" Theta stepped backwards to give Siesta some much-needed space. "An additional request Empress desires Cyber unit Theta's outer casing be cleaned before the sun rises!" Louise actually never specified when Theta needed to be cleaned. Yet, Cyberman believed that it should get the task over and done as quickly as possible to get more essential objectives done. Siesta bit her lower lip as she tried to come up with an idea to satisfy the familiar whilst not getting more involved.
"The servants within the Tower of Void can assist with cleaning your outer casing." Siesta felt horrible for throwing her fellow servants underneath the metaphorical carriage, yet she reasoned that it was far better that they took care of the Cyberman's needs whilst she washed the clothes. Directions were given to Thetas on reaching the Void Tower, and with a few more sort conversations, the Cyberman left the Water Tower, leaving Siesta alone within the storage room.
Time Skip, A Few Seconds Later.
"Huh, that was so nerve-wracking." Siesta sighed with relief to no longer being within the Cyberman's presence. "Mr familiar sure was intimidating." The academy maid exited the storage room while carrying the dirty clothes. A trip to the laundry room was indeed in order, and Siesta could honestly take a few minutes out of her time to get the job done before the intimidating Cyberman came back for its master's possessions.
Siesta walked carefully outside the tower as the twin moons shined their rays from the heavens above. "Although, something about that familiar seemed familiar somehow." The maid hummed in thought as the silver familiar did remind her of something that her grandfather had said a long time ago during a bedtime story. Soulless silver golems would invade lands and turn people into them using strange magics that none on Halkeginia could ever possibly understand. However, it was just a story, so Siesta dismissed the idea of the Cyberman being one of those golems from her grandfather's tales.
"I mean, it's only tale grandfather told to keep us from misbehaving," Siesta giggled at the very idea that a soulless golem was here at the academy. "If they really did exist, then the nobles wouldn't have allowed the Cyberman to stay at the academy." She entered the laundry room and set the clothes down to one side to set up the washbasin without having to worry about damaging the clothes. After the washbasin was filled with hot water, Siesta rolled up her uniform sleeves and removed an item from her pocket given to her by her grandfather when she had turned four.
The item was a brass pocket watch with odd circle markings engraved onto the outer casing. The watch was broken and had been ever since receiving it from grandfather. However, the long-departed family member insisted that the watch worked perfectly and that Siesta must carry the watch wherever she went and only try to open it when her life was in great danger. She hadn't the heart to refuse her grandfather, so even years after his death, Siesta still held onto the broken and strangely designed pocket watch.
"This watch was always so strange to me," Siesta whispered while brushing her thumb gently across the watch's surface. "Especially since grandfather gave similar watches to the rest of the family." Even her beloved uncle and his daughter living within the capital had watches of their own. The unique watches were kind of the family's symbol. They often used to help identify relatives from far away lands who would sometimes come to Tristain to visit Siesta's hometown, where the prominent family kept a secrete hidden within the hill next to their house.
"I should probably stop thinking about home and get back to work before Mr familiar gets back from its cleaning." Siesta placed the watch next to the washbasin and hurriedly got to work. The sounds of water splashing, clothes getting cleaned and soft singing filled the laundry room. However, unbeknownst to Siesta, the brass pocket watch lying innocently on the floor was glowing faintly whilst golden dust was released from the gaps. The watch sensed the presence of an old enemy yet knew that it wasn't time to be opened, so within a moment of activity, the watch returned to a dormant state.
Its time would come, and Siesta's fate shall chance with its opening.
