As the Gears Turn

The only story you'll find about Medieval Robots.

Jaxon looked down at his metal hands, and wondered if he could still call himself a man. He had abandoned everything in the name of his king, God, and country. They told him it was noble. He would be a hero. It was for the greater good- he would be a warrior that the world had never seen. They said men would quake and fall, crushed beneath his steel feet.

He wondered if his mother would have been proud. He wondered if she would still love her little boy if his blood was cold, and his skin hard and shiny. He ran his fingers over his metal skin absentmindedly, thinking of home, listening to the faint hum of his synthetic organs. He never would have thought he would miss the incessant gurgling of a real body.  

God in heaven. He thought. What have I done?

He looked around his cell and allowed his depression to consume him. His glass eyes could see only crimson in the walls, the cracks, the corners. Blood seemed to be dripping down the walls as he watched. Laughter leapt up out of the ground, like the chuckles of his enemies as they saw how far they had fallen.

Wait.

The laughing was not the laughs of his departed enemies- far from it. It was the celebrations of King Klundre and his countrymen, reveling over the capture of the land’s most notorious criminal. The nation would no longer be plagued by the sword of Jaxon Sheneau, the metal man.

Anger engulfed Jaxon’s mind like a sudden storm.

“Why would you want to become something like that?” The guard scoffed, walking over to the bars and shaking Jaxon out of his reverie. “Seems foolish. Lire created man in the perfect way- what would be the point of trying to improve upon it?”

“Leave me alone.” Jaxon muttered, revving his inner workings to try to intimidate the man. “Leave me be.”

“Metal brings sadness and death.” The guard replied, ignoring Jaxon’s request. “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. We should’ve stuck to wood and dirt. At least they’re natural.”

“Metal is natural.” Jaxon growled. “It comes from the earth, just as trees and, to some extent, your precious Earthbound tools.”

“You have to break metal to make it.” The guard snapped, slamming the bars. “Heat it till it ain’t nothing like it was and then pound it till it’s how you like it. Ain’t nothing like Earthbound or wood. Earthbound is just mud, you see, mixed with-”

“Earthbound.” Jaxon clacked his glinting teeth, interrupting the man. “Thats all you idiots seem to talk about. Earthbound. Metal isn’t putrid like Earthbound, metal does not defile the dead-”  

Wordlessly the guardsmen aimed a petite crossbow through the bars and fired. A strange and unnatural substance clogged Jaxon’s mouth, restraining his words. “Lire created man perfectly, and she gave us the tools to make use of the dead.” The guard sneered, smiles and jests gone. Jaxon clawed at the mass violating his mouth, glad that he no longer had a tongue.

The guard leaned against the bars, observing the metal man's struggle. “A real man, a pure man would be dead by now. His corpse would already be used to make more Earthbound.” He shook his head. “The fact they used some form of it to make you astounds me.”

Jaxon revved up his inner workings, trying to burn the revolting mass out of his throat. He could faintly hear a squeal inside of him. Thankfully, blessedly, the heat from the friction of his gears melted the disgusting Earthbound out of his mouth. He spat and hacked, clearing every mote of the corpse-infused mud out of his body. He could almost taste the memory of the man who had died to create the crossbow bolt.

Horrid. He thought to himself. Absolute filth. They have no idea how they damn themselves every time they use it.

Something has to be done.

Once upon a time, he might have let them kill him. Once upon a time, he might have felt enough loyalty to the kingdom to allow himself to be executed. Once upon a time he was honorable.

That time was over. He had killed before, for this cause. He could kill again.

He opened his mouth wide, allowing the finely tuned clockwork to slowly compress the springs within. He would have an instant, a single moment to fire correctly.

“You want some more, metal man?” The guard sneered, raising the crossbow again. “Well, you asked for it-”

His words were interrupted by the sound of expanding metal. The springs inside Jaxon’s throat released in a single push, thrusting the sword out of his mouth and into his waiting hand. With a single fluid motion, Jaxon ripped the blade away from himself and stabbed the guard in the heart. He carefully snatched the man’s keys through the bars as he fell, a look of confusion on his face.

“Careful, now.” Jaxon said quietly as he fiddled with the lock. “Die wrong, and you might end up as nothing more than Earthbound.”

He stepped over the guard’s body into the light of the King’s halls.

* * *

Klundre absentmindedly twirled his wine as he watched the Kyllian dancers. Though their movements were graceful, intense, intriguing, he felt no interest. His thoughts were entirely focused on Jaxon.

God in heaven. He thought. What have I done?

Jaxon was more than his friend- Jaxon was like his brother. Klundre had raised him from the dirt to become a god among men. And Jaxon had taken it and thrown it in Klundre’s face, massacring his people.

What could drive him to such madness? Klundre thought. What would make him fight against the very principles that created him?

“Sire, are you alright?” Elynore asked quietly, laying her hand on his arm. “You seem concerned.”

“I feel… wrong, dearest.” Klundre sighed, rubbing his forehead before draining his goblet. “Why would Jaxon do this?”

“I don’t know, my lord.” Elynore replied, with a certain smugness. “Who knows the mind of the insane?”

Klundre growled. He had almost forgotten Elynore’s prejudice against Jaxon. Earthbound, she said, is the only natural way for man and earth to meet. Metal had no place in Lire’s world.

“Elynore, perhaps you would like to execute Jaxon yourself.” The King said with a simmering and curt anger. “It would be much easier than having me kill a man I’ve known since birth.”

The king’s favorite concubine cast her eyes to ground, not wishing to stir her king’s anger. Klundre sighed, anger dissipating, and turned to her. “Elynore-”

A shrill scream erupted across the room. It was one of the dancers desperately trying to tug her dress out from the window- it seemed it was caught by the wind. A nobleman stood by the side, laughing uproariously. The king watched the spectacle with confusion. An accident?

A silvery arm erupted through the window and yanked the man out, his screams fading away as he fell. The king stood immediately, his heart hammering in his chest. He reached for his dagger, but thought better. Only one man had silver hands in this kingdom, and Klundre’s small poniard would do nothing against him. Words were his only friends now.

“Stand down, Jaxon!” Klundre yelled. “Don’t make things worse for yourself!” The metal man dropped from the window sill, his long clockwork blade against the dancer’s throat.

“Done nothing to me?” Jaxon snarled, shaking the dancer. “You all have tortured me! Killed me! Gave me life and taken it away just as quickly!”

“What in Lire’s name are you talking about?” Klundre spluttered. “We made you perfect! Made you clean!”

“Even if I was,” Jaxon screamed, “what good is it to be pure in a world of putrescence?”  His blade pressed into the dancer’s neck, and a thin line of red opened up on her skin. “You take the dead and enslave them, Klundre! How will they reach the Salted Expanse if their bodies are Earthbound? What of their lives? They cannot serve Lire in death if they cannot obtain their second life!”

“Your beliefs are outdated, Jaxon.” Klundre said forcefully. “We have learned since then. Lire gave us our intellect, and we will use it to better people’s lives. Earthbound allows people to serve us in death, not Lire.”

“Better people’s lives, oh yes.” Jaxon spat. “By taking them and wrapping them in the earth? Using their bones for the lowest occupations?” He shook his head fanatically. “There is no honor in that. Only metal, like I, provides that sort of perfection. Death does not come easily to the Metalbound.”

“And what do you propose, Jaxon?” Klundre roared. “Earthbound is used in nearly every industry, every trade! To take it away would be to destroy the nation!” He pointed a shaking finger at the metal man, hoping he would see sense. “Even you were created through its influence.”

“And I wish I were dead!” Jaxon screamed, the metal in his throat heightening his pitch to a shattering degree. He shook his head. “And I will indeed be dead.” He looked menacingly at Klundre. “You have killed me.”

Without a word, he slit the girl’s throat. She fell to the ground even as Jaxon soaked his hands in her blood. He began to chant in Divinespeak, Lire’s words, the music falling from his metal mouth in short bursts. His body began to glow with a silver light. Guards rushed for him, hoping to incapacitate him, but they were not quick enough. As they watched, Jaxon Sheneau shattered into a thousand pieces.

And throughout the kingdom, hundreds of thousands of Earthbound tools, machines, and structures shattered with him.

God in heaven. Klundre thought as the Earthbound roof began to fall onto the crowd. What has he done?

Reviews

[prymore]

nice job very unique are you going to continue this?

[CodyB]

Maybe. It was meant to be a short story, and I have a couple of other projects beforehand (see my work "Hym Teaser"), but maybe.