The man reached over and plucked my core directly out of my body, the metal around me bent to his fingers as if it were water.

"We'll find you a more... appropriate body." He said it with such disdain I couldn't help but feel embarrassed. Was my body really that bad? I was sort of proud of it, sure it was a little rusty but that mostly just helped with camouflage.

"One's appearance is an important thing, especially when you can choose your body. A badly made golem made with cheap materials and covered in rust is more vile to some races than bathing in the dung of a troll and considering that you stole those materials I don't believe it would be correct to allow you to keep them. I will have them made into track once more and returned to that mine. Please refrain from stealing anything else in future."

Can this guy read my thoughts?

"Yes, whilst we are in contact. It is a blessing from Arya"

Well, this got infinitely more difficult. Saying that it isn't like I have anything to hide from him anymore. The way he said Arya made it clear that she was some form of deity which told me at least that the gods here were a tangible thing, they actually interacted with and influence this world, I'm sure that information will come in handy pretty soon. I was slipped into a pocket and left the shop. I tried very hard not to think anything at all, which is incredibly difficult when you desperately don't want to think.

We casually walked down roads at a pace I didn't even want to try to work out and the houses around us began to grow larger, every building now had gardens which seemed to swell in size with the houses until we reached the very end of the road. There was a small hut, it was made of dirt and wood. It was decrepit, the wood was rotten and the thatch of the roof was in need of replacing, it was a strange sight amongst the houses that surely belong to the most wealthy and powerful people in this town.

The priest-

"Archpriest."

The archpriest made a small gesture with his hand, curving it into a crescent and then into a fist whilst waving it from side to side, before he opened the door. Inside the small room in the hut was a grand statue of a woman. She wore robes of flowing silver and the light of the sun seemed to shine from behind her head, obscuring her face. It did not matter that we were under a roof or from what angle you viewed her it was always as if the sun shone from behind. The archpriest seemed to see her with perfect clarity regardless and fell to one knee.

"Mother Arya I beseech you, grant me your wisdom and your sight. I have with me the soul of a traveller who comes from a world I do not know, is it time for a fourteenth world to be brought into your light and the domain of your pantheon?" He said this to the feet of the statue and I was brought out of his pocket. As he did so my vision was narrowed to her feet also, my senses being lost to me besides a focused cone.

The light of the room began to grow brighter and I could feel the temperature rise, it gave me an uncomfortable feeling despite the fact that I should definitely not feel hot as a magical ball of glass. I felt the weight of divine attention fall upon me, something I was certain had not happened before I was summoned here, and it was heavy. The face of the priest changed subtly and he tilted his head as if to hear something better.

Minutes passed, my vision remained restricted and my bearer continued to listen until with no warning to me whatsoever the divine attention vanished and the archpriest rose to his feet. He walked over to the statue and picked up a small coin that was between her feet that had definitely not been there when I had been looking. He placed my core into a small bowl on the floor. This was when I began to notice that everything in this room blocked my sight, not just the walls but every speck of dirt on the floor was where my vision ended.

As he straightened from his bend he spoke to me again.

"A priest will arrive here within an hour and collect you. They will answer your questions and will register you as an unbound golem. I would not advise making it common knowledge that you are human, there are many that will kill you for such a lie and more who would kill you if they knew it to be true. The priest will know everything they need to know, tell them nothing more for they will not listen. I have urgent business that I must conduct elsewhere. Good luck, world traveller. Perhaps one day we will meet again."

Without giving me the time to reply he vanished in a blur and left me in the small dirt hut at the feet of a statue to a goddess. I continued to school my thoughts, that man could hear them and I was sure that the goddess could too, especially in this temple. She might not care but I certainly didn't want to anger a goddess because I was stupid enough to accidentally blaspheme in her temple.

True to the archpriest's word it was at most half an hour before someone arrived. It was a woman in her late thirties who was wearing robes of a dark red. She was slight and small and I would have found her very attractive if I still had a body. She appeared to be human but the slight point to her ears said that wasn't necessarily correct and after the list of races Ike had gone through I wasn't as confident anymore in assuming that. She made the same gesture with her hand as she entered and her eyes never once lay upon the statue, remaining fixed to the ground as she knelt in a curtsy and plucked me from the bowl.

She did not speak until we had left the hut and when she did it was in a whisper.

"You have been blessed by the attention of mother Arya and the archpriest, few are so lucky and fewer survive it, I welcome you to this world and will endeavour to help you find your place. Let us first head to the guild house and you will be registered, it will at least be safe for you to wander the city if you wish. We will then find you a body. Do you have a name?"

With her voice came a feeling of warmth and security, I was as certain that this woman would cause no harm to me as I was that my own mother would not. I was pleased that fate had lead me to be in the presence of this woman and I quickly replied so as to not keep her waiting, casting my spell with my now somewhat replenished mana.

"My name is Alex, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Who are you?"

She let a small smile grace her lips as she said

"My name is Nym, may the warmth of Arya's light embrace you."