Chapter Text
He doesn’t know if it’s going to work - it hasn’t the other 3 times he’s tried - but he has a pretty good feeling about this one. Honestly, the hardest part was building the sculpture itself.
Min Yoongi is an Ice Witch, and he’s been trying to figure out how to incorporate magic from other Elements into his practice since he earned his magic license. He hasn’t had much luck with anything other than Water up until now - Ice is just frozen water, after all - but he’s only tried a handful of spells that he got from his friends.
Today, he’s trying to mix Earth and Ice magic using a Golem spell that he got from Seokjin, the Earth Witch. The past two times, he’s tried making the snowman with a half and half mix of snow and rocks or dirt, rather than just pure snow like his first try. He had a theory that it would help the spell work better, which was immediately debunked. Since those didn’t work, he’s been working away at creating an ice sculpture of himself, with rocks and dirt frozen right into the ice itself. It’s a little creepy to be staring at a sculpture of himself, especially since it’s semi-transparent.
Shaking the feeling off, he adjusts the positions of his candles, makes sure the paper with the Golem’s orders is still firmly in the sculpture’s mouth and takes a deep breath, with one last glance at the spellsheet, just to make sure.
“Unborn man of Ice and Rock,
I command you to heed my call.
Upon this Earth you shall walk,
Rise up, rise up, once and for all!”
For a second, nothing happens, and Yoongi’s sure he failed a 4th time. But just as he snaps his journal shut in irritation, the flames on the candles flare a brilliant icy blue before snuffing completely. Curious and wary, the young witch steps closer, only to stumble back as his icy duplicate starts to move. He stares, dumbfounded, as he watches it shake out the stiffness and brush off any extra snow, before briefly touching the paper in its mouth, but not removing it. Maybe it doesn’t need to see it to read it?
When he shakes off the surprise - that’s him, those are the same eyes, the same nose, the same pouty little mouth, and the spell worked! - he stumbles forwards and grabs it’s forearm to stop it before it can get too far. It doesn’t speak - he’s not even sure its mouth can open or close - so it just stares at him with unblinking eyes, an unchanging face. A shiver crawls up Yoongi’s spine from more than just the cold.
“Can you understand me? Nod or shake your head,” he asks. The Golem nods once. “Huh, I actually did it,” he breathes, astonished that it actually worked. “You’re about to go off and do what’s written on that paper, aren’t you?” Again, the Golem nods. Yoongi smiles excitedly, gums showing. He’s been waiting months for this! But first, research.
“If I told you to wait a bit before doing that, would you?” he asks, and the golem just stares at him for a few moments before nodding. Was it thinking of its answer? Interesting. “Okay, next question.” But instead of a question, Yoongi gently removes the paper from the golem’s mouth and watches as it freezes in place, a sculpture once more. Fascinated, he puts the paper back and the golem resumes moving as if nothing had happened. He does this a few more times, just to make sure it wasn’t a one-off, and hastily scribbles it down in his journal on a blank page, along with the fact that apparently golems can think.
“Now what happens if I do this,” he says, mostly to himself, before taking the golem’s hand and carefully breaking off a fingertip. The golem brings its hand to its face and inspects the missing tip, seemingly not bothered by it. No longer connected to the golem, the tip soon melts away in the young witch’s hand. He shakes off the water and scribbles his findings in his journal. He also notes that the golem’s body didn’t melt when he touched it, only after it broke off, and that the golem didn’t seem to become aggressive with him.
He does a few more tests - can it jump (yes), is it strong enough to carry him (yes), what happens if it’s near fire (nothing, the magic that’s animating it also seems to be able to stop it from melting naturally), does it see in colour (no) - before writing everything down in his journal along with a big ‘SUCCESS’ scribbled at the top and slamming it shut in satisfaction. Time to move on to the next spell.
But first, one final test.