The Artificer's Daughter
or The Tale of the Toy House
Round about fifty or sixty years or so ago, in a small village at the base of the Blue Mountains, there lived a tinkerer named Gan. Now old Gan, back when he was younger, had served as an artificer for the Grand Academy of Magic, helping to make and maintain their vehicles and golems and such. But one day he just got too tired of all that noise and bustle and decided it was high time to move off some place quite to settle down. He kept himself busy though, what with fixing clocks and making little mechanical toys for the young ones.
Yet time ticks on as it always does and the other folk living about began to notice that something wasn’t quite right with old Gan. His gait was getting slower, his smile was getting dimmer, and every time he spoke there was a hint of melancholy in his voice. Some just attributed it to old age, but the wiser of them knew that age can bring many things, including the sorrow for having spent that time with not a soul to share it with.
He had been living in that there little shack with it full to bursting with all kinds of knick-knacks, what-nots, odds-and-ends, and all those little toys for many years, helping out others and bringing a smile to their faces. Yet, he never once in all that time sought out someone he could truly bond with, someone more that just a smiling face. No matter what anyone told him, he would just sit at his bench and tinker and build and fix what broken things got brought to him.
One day the local folk found a note pinned to his front door. It read, “Artificer at work! Do not disturb,” scrawled in big, red letters. None knew what to think of it. Some wanted to find a way inside to check up on him, make sure he was okay. They all thought better of it though. You never know what trouble you might cause bothering an artificer at his work after all.
First days past, then weeks, then months without a show nor sign of old Gan. Some thought he was working on some sort of top secret project for the Academy. Others thought that he had ended himself out of loneliness. There were even a few who thought he had gone mad and was building some kind of impossible machine. But no one knew anything for sure.
After some time, enough had been enough. He had locked himself away for far too long. So they marched right up to the door of that little, wooden shack pounding on it hard and demanding an answer. None knew what to expect on the other side, but not in their wildest dreams would they have given thought to what happened next.
As the door swung slowly open, creaking on its worn hinges, the slender and supple figure of a lovely, young woman came into view before them. Her wispy, auburn hair framed a fair, round face with smiling lips colored a soft red and bright, amber eyes shinning out from beneath a gentle brow. Her long, dark dress with its high collar almost up to her chin, flowed loosely about her seemingly long legs as she stepped toward them.
“Hello. Are you looking for my father? I will go and fetch him for you,” she had said in a voice so sweet and tender, yet made all the more off putting by the fact that her mouth never once moved.
The people stood there confused and unable to speak as the strange girl dissappeared among the various devices and such littering the shack. Eventually, the tinkerer himself came striding out from the mess, his ward in tow and a great, beaming smile on his face. He seemed to stand a bit taller and his eyes shone just a bit brighter as he looked out on the gathered crowd.
“Well,” he had said, “You have all met her then, so what do you think?”
They all just stood there, still dumbstruck for a time, until one worked up the courage to ask, “Who is she?”
Old Gan lifted his head high as he wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders, “She’s my daughter,” he told them.
“Where did she come from?” had asked another.
“Why I made her, of course.” he had answered.
The folk there had question after question for the old tinkerer and he answered each in turn. He told how he had felt so alone for so long and had even given thought to just ending it out right when a sudden idea had jumped into his mind. If he couldn’t find someone to spend his life with, then he would make one.
“I had always wanted a child,” he had said, “A lovely young daughter that I could pass down my trade to and watch as she grew and built and made things more marvolous and magnificent than I ever had,” he had explained.
They had all thought this quite an odd way to go about it. But they had also never once seen old Gan so happy in all his time among them. So they just let it be and went back to their own lives as such, leaving the tinkerer and his mechanical daughter to theirs.
As time past, the folk around there became much more acquainted with the girl. She’d often be helping her, so called, father at his work, making them toys and fixing things. She would also go out from time to time to collect the groceries and run errands about the village. When she wasn’t doing all that, she’d sit out in the front of the house or in near the middle of town and play games with the young ones. She had become such a fixture among the community there that it was almost all but forgotten that she was a collection of gears and wires. Everyone seemed all the better for her being there.
Then one day, as was bound to happen, old Gan had grown ill and the local doctor could do nothing more than make him comfortable as he awaited his final hours. The young girl, whom everyone had taken to calling Gena, had sat by his bedside and cared for him till the time of his passing. At his interment, all who had seen the girl, even though knowing her mechanical nature and the immovability of her face, had sworn that she somehow had borne a look of grief. It was something in her eyes, they’d say. They seemed just a a little less bright. She shut herself away in the old shack after that. Not even a notice posted on the door or a sound from the inside to let folks know she was okay.
For days, weeks, and even months after, all the children from around about there had gone knocking and crying out at her door to no avail. Some had brought some of their little toys with them hoping to play or to get them fixed and many left them there knowing nothing else to do. One day though, as they had gone to plead with her one last time, they found that all the toys that had been left about were lined up in nice neat rows by the door, fixed, shined, and painted up right. There were even a few new ones there among them.
That old shack is said to still be standing there to this very day, with all kinds of little dolls, trains, tops of all shapes and sizes, and all other kinds of wonderful toys just sitting about for the enjoyment of the little ones. Even more are said to seemingly just appear there every day, each more fantastical than the last. Now, wheather it be out of respect for old Gan or for simply not wanting prove this here tale false, the village will not allow any to enter into that house, keeping it safe from all on the outside. Sometimes, should you go out that way, you may even hear the children go to up the door and begin to sing, “Gena, Gena, won’t you come out to play? The sun is high and we’ve no school today.”
Historical Basis
There are many villages along the base of the Blue Mountains and, since no telling of the story ever mentions one by name, it is uncertain as to which may be getting referred to. It is not helped by the fact that many have what is known as "Toy Houses" where the children are sent to play. There is however a record that a man by the name of Gan Maltus did serve as an artificer for the Academy and had retired around the time the story is said to have taken place. Where he ended up after his retirement is still unknown due to a loss of records and many of the gravestones during that time had gone unmarked making it difficult to identify who may be buried there.
Variations & Mutation
One variation of the story has the people of the village being upset by the presence of the mechanical girl, believing it to be unnatural and unhealthy for Gan to claim her as his daughter. In this telling they set out to destroy the girl only to end up killing Gan instead. Out of regret, they then buried him in the local graveyard and left the girl to herself.
Another variation claims the Academy had found out about the girl and went to capture her for study, but she had ran off into the colds of the north. She was said to have made a little workshop for herself there and would send small golems out to deliver the toys she made to all the children.
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments