65th of Ash, 121 AS
The rat's furry legs kicked frantically as it tried to bite at the fingers that held it in place on the cold stone of the table. With quick motions born of hours of past practice, Lyra pinned its limbs in place with straps of leather and then secured its head with a small leather cap that blocked the creature's vision while she worked. The table was inlaid with several engravings that came to live as Lyra pressed one of her soul totems into one small indention in the corner.
When she felt the beast was secure Lyra reached to a small tray on which lay 3 long syringes, filled with a thick black substance. There were also blades of various sizes, cloth and bandages, an assortment of other metal and bone instruments that would come into play later. Taking the first syringe she angled it over the creature's heart, steadying her hand with the table before thrusting down and piercing through flesh and the soft cartilage between the needle and the internal organ. She then compressed the plunger, the black liquid steadily flowing into the rat who began to struggle less and less. Pressing her hand on another glyph the runes beneath the rat glowed with power as alchemical sigils came to life.
Lyra had come to realize that her initial methods would not be sufficient. It had cost her dozens of test subjects, but she was drawing closer to an understanding of the methodology. Like Naila had suggested, ultimately Lyra would have to alter the marrow of a body so that it would produce the black blood, but there was another problem. The bodies immediately rejected the infusion. It was a bloody mess the first few times with the rats clawing out their own stomachs, but ultimately Lyra had come to a solution.
From the tray Lyra took up a thin metallic rod, an agitation rod that she now used to trace across the rat's body, making it renew its squirming as the black liquid inside began to react. That was the first step. The bodies treated the foreign liquid as an invading substance that needed to be destroyed, and that is ultimately what lead to the violent initial relations. What she needed was for her concentrated essence to become fully infused with the blood inside of a living host, and prepare the body for the future procedure. The agitation rode began that process.
Her hand passed over another glyph, causing the glowing light of the stabilization sigil to fade and another, darker colored glow to awaken and spread across the table's surface. It was a blending of alchemical techniques, something that was not overly desirable, but it was necessary. She would have preferred a more traditional approach to increase the half-life, but for this, she first needed the body to not reject the blood outright.
With a smile, Lyra touched a blue-colored dragonshard embedded in the table, arches of electricity coursing through her veins as she hummed softly with the magic that now began to flow into the rat. The power of the dragonshard was drawn into the table, a thing of necromancy to aid in operations, but which Lyra now repurposed for her own desires. Through a series of interwoven glyphs and runes Lyra had overlayed multiple sigils into the table, and with concentration and careful precision, she could move between them. It was unlikely that any other necromancer or alchemist would be so foolhardy to do such a thing, but then most were not masters of the scripts. They could not see the connections, how the pictographs and the sigils could overlay and entwine without interfering with one another. Lyra, however, could. It was an old way. It was the basis of archmagic.
Sigils of Dissolution and Preemption awoke with firey light that raced with power across the entire table. The rat shrieked its high-pitched wail as the magic seared its body, its blood boiling as Lyra directed the black essence inside to invade deeper and deeper into its veins. She took up another syringe and thrust it into the creature's heart, adding another dose that spread the essence further into every capillary, every muscle, and every organ of the creature's body. More aether swirled in electrified flashes across the table as Lyra switched the sigil's once again, brows knitted together as she returned to a sigil of stabilization for several long minutes before switching to the Sigil of Evolution.
Perhaps she could have taken a similar approach to produce blood liqueur, however, the amount she would need would be enough to kill any vessel she drew it from, and it would take far too long to slowly replace the blood over time. No, what she needed was to conduct the infusion INSIDE of a living host. It would be a mercy that the vessel's soul would be sealed before the procedure began.
Her eyes flicked to the soul totem where it rested in its spot in the schema, the icy chill it gave off flowing steadily through the lines that connected back to the rat. The rat itself acted as the container in this case, and the glyphs she wove into the overall design pulled the power of the soul totem through every sigil, adding the cleansing effect despite the blood never leaving the rat's body.
More squeaks drew Lyra's attention back to the rat that had begun to convulse. This was where all the rest had failed. Just she began to make headway the body's natural immune system took hold, and the cells began to eat one another from the inside out. The rat's organs were failing one by one. This time though would be different.
Taking the third and final syringe Lyra injected the slightly lighter liquid into the creature's heart, which pumped furiously to spread the new concoction throughout the body. The sigil was changed to Dissolution once more and with a few strokes of her finger, Lyra activated additional pathways that focused the changes on the newest mixture as it spread. The agitation rod once more wove around the Rat's body, focusing on the areas of the body where Lymph nodes were known to be, as well as the spleen. She guided the essence to those locations, and as she did the agitation rod made it writhe. This mixture was a bit different from the first two. It suppressed the immune response, invading deep into the pathways that those cells permeated and dampened them.
The sigil was switched once more to Evolution as she focused the process back on the rest of the blood which was now mixed throughout the body. A sigil of Preemption was worked into the last portion of the process as the dragonshard began to dim. The last of the energies coursing through the body like a tidal wave that overtook everything it touched. The red of the creature's blood steadily turned to grey, and then black as the essence was forcefully infused into the plasma and cells of every vein and artery.
Straightening her back Lyra switched the sigils to Stabilization once final time before carefully checking over the creature's life signs. A cursoring glance showed it was breathing, but it did not move. Its heart still beat furious, and foam was dripping from the corners of its mouth. Still, it was alive, and not just a red smear on her table like Lyra had feared would happen once again.
You didn't kill this one. Naila said dryly, I was really getting tired of getting covered in rat parts."
"I as well." Lyra replied with a sigh. Undoing the tie in her hair Lyra sat down on one of the chairs next to the table, still watching the rat as it breathed, "It is a good sign."
Closing her eyes Lyra reached out to the creature, unconsciously extending one hand as she did so. It was faint, barely an echo, but if she focused she could just barely sense her essence in the rat's body. She could feel its blood moving through its organs, could sense its motions like she did her current vessel'.
"A very good sign."
Whats next? The mercenary seemed genuinely curious, which Lyra found amusing.
"Before the rat's bodies rejected the infusion, killing them one cell at a time until the entire creature died out. If I wished to have a vessel that could produce that blood, I would first need to ensure the body would accept it. This was the first step in that." Lyra motioned at the rat, "By suppressing its immune response it allowed me just enough time to... commandeer its system. AS it is now though over time my essence will be filtered out."
Standing once more Lyra put her hands on her hips, "It will take several treatments such as this. The body will need to be exposed over and over with its immune system suppressed until it accepts the change as normal. Then I will replace its marrow with an infusion of my own design, and it will produce the black blood for me."
Her eyes moved to look at the far wall where several large glass tanks stood empty, "I will need to expedite the development of my other project soon enough."
The rat's furry legs kicked frantically as it tried to bite at the fingers that held it in place on the cold stone of the table. With quick motions born of hours of past practice, Lyra pinned its limbs in place with straps of leather and then secured its head with a small leather cap that blocked the creature's vision while she worked. The table was inlaid with several engravings that came to live as Lyra pressed one of her soul totems into one small indention in the corner.
When she felt the beast was secure Lyra reached to a small tray on which lay 3 long syringes, filled with a thick black substance. There were also blades of various sizes, cloth and bandages, an assortment of other metal and bone instruments that would come into play later. Taking the first syringe she angled it over the creature's heart, steadying her hand with the table before thrusting down and piercing through flesh and the soft cartilage between the needle and the internal organ. She then compressed the plunger, the black liquid steadily flowing into the rat who began to struggle less and less. Pressing her hand on another glyph the runes beneath the rat glowed with power as alchemical sigils came to life.
Lyra had come to realize that her initial methods would not be sufficient. It had cost her dozens of test subjects, but she was drawing closer to an understanding of the methodology. Like Naila had suggested, ultimately Lyra would have to alter the marrow of a body so that it would produce the black blood, but there was another problem. The bodies immediately rejected the infusion. It was a bloody mess the first few times with the rats clawing out their own stomachs, but ultimately Lyra had come to a solution.
From the tray Lyra took up a thin metallic rod, an agitation rod that she now used to trace across the rat's body, making it renew its squirming as the black liquid inside began to react. That was the first step. The bodies treated the foreign liquid as an invading substance that needed to be destroyed, and that is ultimately what lead to the violent initial relations. What she needed was for her concentrated essence to become fully infused with the blood inside of a living host, and prepare the body for the future procedure. The agitation rode began that process.
Her hand passed over another glyph, causing the glowing light of the stabilization sigil to fade and another, darker colored glow to awaken and spread across the table's surface. It was a blending of alchemical techniques, something that was not overly desirable, but it was necessary. She would have preferred a more traditional approach to increase the half-life, but for this, she first needed the body to not reject the blood outright.
With a smile, Lyra touched a blue-colored dragonshard embedded in the table, arches of electricity coursing through her veins as she hummed softly with the magic that now began to flow into the rat. The power of the dragonshard was drawn into the table, a thing of necromancy to aid in operations, but which Lyra now repurposed for her own desires. Through a series of interwoven glyphs and runes Lyra had overlayed multiple sigils into the table, and with concentration and careful precision, she could move between them. It was unlikely that any other necromancer or alchemist would be so foolhardy to do such a thing, but then most were not masters of the scripts. They could not see the connections, how the pictographs and the sigils could overlay and entwine without interfering with one another. Lyra, however, could. It was an old way. It was the basis of archmagic.
Sigils of Dissolution and Preemption awoke with firey light that raced with power across the entire table. The rat shrieked its high-pitched wail as the magic seared its body, its blood boiling as Lyra directed the black essence inside to invade deeper and deeper into its veins. She took up another syringe and thrust it into the creature's heart, adding another dose that spread the essence further into every capillary, every muscle, and every organ of the creature's body. More aether swirled in electrified flashes across the table as Lyra switched the sigil's once again, brows knitted together as she returned to a sigil of stabilization for several long minutes before switching to the Sigil of Evolution.
Perhaps she could have taken a similar approach to produce blood liqueur, however, the amount she would need would be enough to kill any vessel she drew it from, and it would take far too long to slowly replace the blood over time. No, what she needed was to conduct the infusion INSIDE of a living host. It would be a mercy that the vessel's soul would be sealed before the procedure began.
Her eyes flicked to the soul totem where it rested in its spot in the schema, the icy chill it gave off flowing steadily through the lines that connected back to the rat. The rat itself acted as the container in this case, and the glyphs she wove into the overall design pulled the power of the soul totem through every sigil, adding the cleansing effect despite the blood never leaving the rat's body.
More squeaks drew Lyra's attention back to the rat that had begun to convulse. This was where all the rest had failed. Just she began to make headway the body's natural immune system took hold, and the cells began to eat one another from the inside out. The rat's organs were failing one by one. This time though would be different.
Taking the third and final syringe Lyra injected the slightly lighter liquid into the creature's heart, which pumped furiously to spread the new concoction throughout the body. The sigil was changed to Dissolution once more and with a few strokes of her finger, Lyra activated additional pathways that focused the changes on the newest mixture as it spread. The agitation rod once more wove around the Rat's body, focusing on the areas of the body where Lymph nodes were known to be, as well as the spleen. She guided the essence to those locations, and as she did the agitation rod made it writhe. This mixture was a bit different from the first two. It suppressed the immune response, invading deep into the pathways that those cells permeated and dampened them.
The sigil was switched once more to Evolution as she focused the process back on the rest of the blood which was now mixed throughout the body. A sigil of Preemption was worked into the last portion of the process as the dragonshard began to dim. The last of the energies coursing through the body like a tidal wave that overtook everything it touched. The red of the creature's blood steadily turned to grey, and then black as the essence was forcefully infused into the plasma and cells of every vein and artery.
Straightening her back Lyra switched the sigils to Stabilization once final time before carefully checking over the creature's life signs. A cursoring glance showed it was breathing, but it did not move. Its heart still beat furious, and foam was dripping from the corners of its mouth. Still, it was alive, and not just a red smear on her table like Lyra had feared would happen once again.
You didn't kill this one. Naila said dryly, I was really getting tired of getting covered in rat parts."
"I as well." Lyra replied with a sigh. Undoing the tie in her hair Lyra sat down on one of the chairs next to the table, still watching the rat as it breathed, "It is a good sign."
Closing her eyes Lyra reached out to the creature, unconsciously extending one hand as she did so. It was faint, barely an echo, but if she focused she could just barely sense her essence in the rat's body. She could feel its blood moving through its organs, could sense its motions like she did her current vessel'.
"A very good sign."
Whats next? The mercenary seemed genuinely curious, which Lyra found amusing.
"Before the rat's bodies rejected the infusion, killing them one cell at a time until the entire creature died out. If I wished to have a vessel that could produce that blood, I would first need to ensure the body would accept it. This was the first step in that." Lyra motioned at the rat, "By suppressing its immune response it allowed me just enough time to... commandeer its system. AS it is now though over time my essence will be filtered out."
Standing once more Lyra put her hands on her hips, "It will take several treatments such as this. The body will need to be exposed over and over with its immune system suppressed until it accepts the change as normal. Then I will replace its marrow with an infusion of my own design, and it will produce the black blood for me."
Her eyes moved to look at the far wall where several large glass tanks stood empty, "I will need to expedite the development of my other project soon enough."
