Spool

"Spool" is a short story first published in Quoth the Raven, Issue #33. The story was written by Rock.

The story is told from the perspective of a flesh golem, who was created by a man obsessed primarily with discovering the true nature of the soul, and secondarily with truly mastering magic. The flesh golem consistently refers to its creator as "father", rather than mentioning his name or referring to him as "master".

At its "father"'s command, the flesh golem recounts his past to him. It tells the tale of how "father" lied, committed grave robbery, performed hideous and unwise experiments through torture and murder of others, intimately consorted with an untrustworthy elemental spirit, and finally devolved to devouring souls to sustain his own mutating body.

Through it all, in spite of repeated mistreatment by its creator and his contempt for it as an "early experiment", the golem remains "father"'s mostly-silent companion and loyal servant, obeying each order as spoken - though not always as intended. Even when "father"'s own crimes cause him to flee into the Mists, the golem follows after.

At the end of the story, "father" has clearly become the darklord of a domain that reflects a ruined future of his home world, its sun red with age, its people fearful and primitive. The newly-minted darklord's curse is that his own soul has somehow become lost, and nothing he can do will allow him to find or replace it. Forever starving for souls and fearful of oblivion should be ever be slain, "father" struggles to stay fed without endangering either himself or the sustainability of his food supply of ensouled beings in the domain. Fear of the final end dogs his every step.

In the end, the golem notes it has not just been watching and listening all this time, but actively learning and deducing. The flesh golem has its own thoughts and opinions (not to mention greater powers than a typical example of its kind), and in all likelihood had developed these before it ever entered the Demiplane of Dread due to "father"'s incessant tinkering. The golem implies it has solved the questions its creator spent a lifetime of horrors on, and is well-aware where his soul is. At this point, the flesh golem is cruelly amused by its creator's suffering and mad scramble to solve his curse - but it plans to do much worse to him once his current amusement value has ended.