Penitent Effigy
Penitent Effigies are Constructs which contain the soul of a Haimarchist who commited an existential crime. The shape and the function of the construct varies from janitorial to militant, though those who do not accept their punishment find themselves as immobile statues watching the years go by.
Those whose service reconciles their crimes may be exonerated of their sentence, though are responsible for restoring their body.
The stone sphynx lifted her head and her body followed. The construct loomed, water pouring from the copper and gold of her eyes like tears as she watched them. She wandered to the edge of the marsh, long limbs skewering into the earth, but could not wander off the perimeter of the Lord's lands—if she crossed out into dry earth, the water siphoned up through her legs and out from her eyes would stop, and her crying would cease, and she would die.
This was her punishment.
The Lost Effigy
The below was written as part of the Jan 2022 VSS collab. Each entry had to be submitted as a tweet which made use of both of the day's 1-word prompts. Those prompts are bolded.
The sentence was complete. Nothing remained of crime or criminal after years of penitence as a weeping stone sentinel.
Vigor renewed by newfound freedom, the Penitent Effigy stepped down from its plinth, and resolved to find its home.
Never had the Effigy the wandered the estate. It could only ever wonder the dimensions. It felt infinite after an eternity unmoving, a liminal labyrinth with more routes and doorways than rests and destinations.
Company soon found the Effigy.
The Other was another Effigy — a floating Bust of indeterminable purpose. A mantle of ivy clung to its shoulders, basking in blue solar glow and growing up over its smoothly-hewn suggestion of a face.
Though neither spoke, they traveled together.
The two cut a ponderous path through the estate. Other Effigies, some stuck, some poised, watched them with detached curiosity.
The journey was tranquil, though the distance between them and the tower at the estate's heart made the two uneasy.
The night came, though it was short lived. A red sun dawned, inviting curly wisps of mist to play amid the junctions and halls of the labyrinth.
No warmth penetrated the Sentinel's numb stone, but joy blossomed all the same — the tower was closer.
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