(originally from 2008, edited 2021)

The sorceress stepped back, dusting her hands and examining the evening’s effort with a critical eye. Her assistant, nearly ready to be examined for admission to the Order, continued to chip at the rock from her perch.

“That’s enough, Celia,” said the elder of the pair. “They’re just golems; they don’t need to be shaped perfectly. Though I dare say you’ve done an excellent job with this one’s facial features. Your stone sculpting is improving.”

“Thank you, Sister.” Celia leaned back and mopped her brow with her sleeve, resting on the floating disc she had conjured. Making nine-foot-tall golems involved a lot more stone than usual, but also meant that working on the head was tougher. Unless you could levitate.

They had carved three golems that month out of an ebony-colored stone that Celia’s teacher had come into possession of. It had the look and feel of polished marble, but there was a softness to the material that made it devilishly hard to work with; just a touch too much force behind the hammer, and bang! There went the arm you’d spent all morning carving. By this point, they had carved enough material for four or five golems, but it took the first week or so for Celia to really get the hang of working with the stone.

“Shall I carve the runes, while I’m up here?”

“No, I’ll do it magically. It’s critical that they be shaped correctly, since the golem’s purpose is contained within the runes. If you slipped up with that chisel of yours, at best we’d have a useless statue on our hands, and at worst ... well, the Queen would not be very happy, let’s just leave it at that. Go clean yourself up and start working on your lessons. I need you to be ready tomorrow to assist me in casting the animation spell.”

“Yes, Sister.”

Later that evening, Celia sat in her tiny closet of a chamber and tried to read the animation spell’s incantation for a third time. It’s no use, she thought, I can’t concentrate in here. I’m going down to the lab to try and focus. Packing up her spellbook and grabbing the tiny winged creature she had carved to practice animating, Celia walked down the long spiral staircase towards the magical workshop.

She was surprised to find the workshop dark and cold, half-expecting to see her teacher there finishing up the golems. “Light,” she said, waving her hand and causing dozens of candles to spring to life all around the workshop. Crossing to the center of the room, she threw a pile of kindling into the fire pit, and with another word, lit it on fire. Several minutes later a roaring fire cut the chill of the basement and began to warm the stone floor.

The three black stone golems stood silently where they had been left, arranged in a loose semi-circle. Celia walked over to them, running a hand over the amazingly smooth stone and appraising her own work. Her carving had improved; she winced at the ‘scar’ that the first golem bore across his cheek. Celia noticed the runes carved into the foreheads of each of the three golems, obviously her teacher’s handiwork. She made a mental note to look up what ΣΕΞ signified in the magical dictionary; the Sister had been oddly cagey about their purpose, saying only that they were “a present” for the Queen.

It was a strange time for her teacher to have called it a night. Celia had put away the carving tools and swept the floor of stone dust before she left. Since then, her teacher had apparently drawn the two concentric circles around the golems that would form a magic circle to contain them, but didn’t inscribe the protective runes to activate the circle. No matter; no one else had access to the workshop and Celia was fairly certain that the golems were not meant to be deadly or even particularly dangerous.

Celia laid her spellbook down on one of the large wooden tables. She flipped it open to the page with the summoning invocation and laid it flat, setting the winged figurine on the table just behind the book so she could read the invocation and focus on the figurine at the same time. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she calmed herself internally and began to draw energy into her hands. Her eyes fluttered open and fell upon the magical recipe, and as she read the words aloud she reached forward with her hands and gestured towards the bird-like statue. A faint blue glow appeared around the figure, then disappeared.

The statue failed to move, remaining frustratingly stone-like on the desk.

“Damn!” exclaimed Celia. She snatched the bird off the desk and ran her fingers over the runes. Despite her teacher’s criticism, ΦΛΥ matched the drawing in her spellbook exactly; she was sure she’d carved it correctly. Her teacher had drilled the pronunciation of the spell’s verbal components into her over and over again. Maybe it was just a lack of power? Maybe she should start a new figure, something simpler like a snake.

Celia evoked a chair and threw herself backwards into the cushion of energy. She didn’t have time to carve a new figurine; she’d be up half the night just polishing it, and then there wouldn’t be enough time to practice invoking before the sun rose and her teacher would want to start the ritual. She had to try raising more energy, and the only thing that came to mind was ... no, that was a bad idea.

Once, in a fit of frustration at Celia’s inability to channel enough power into her spells, Celia’s teacher had taught her that sexual activity was one of the most direct ways to tap into a whole lot of power all at once. Celia blushed just thinking about that lesson, but it might be worth a shot. No one was going to come down here except maybe the Sister, and what would she have to complain about?

Celia leaned back and opened her legs slightly, the magical chair accommodating her new position. A snap of her fingers made her clothes disappear, and with wave of her other hand the fire pit roared a little stronger. The warmth of the fire seemed to spread through her body as she slipped one finger down between her legs and lightly played at the folds. The leftover magical energy on her hands gave her an extra tingle as her fingers brushed lightly over one nipple, and her other hand dipped inside as Celia began to warm up and play with herself more earnestly.