55th of Ash, 120 AS
What Lyra had in mind would require several layers of scripts. Sitting at her workbench Lyra looked over her designs, making a few marks here and there to update the schema. She needed the doll to have access to the power of the shards she gave it. The thought drew Lyra's eyes up to the three glowing shards on her table. They would require a few modifications as well, though they were already shaped and prepared. One was an aeitherite shard, which hummed with familiar power. The other two were a Lytirisyte shard (storm gem), and a pyrolyte shard. Each of these shards was no bigger than her pinky, their shapes roughly oval having been worked on by a runeforger before she had purchased them. They would require stabilizing scripts, and links to the schema as a whole.
Once the soul gem was in place Lyra would have time to do the largest work. Thus that was step one. The next step was to place the aetherite dragon shard as the primary power source, connecting it to the soul gem so that it could feed the doll instead of it being reliant on food to recover lost aether. The scripts on the aetherite shard would need to be adjusted so that the draw only happened when the doll was in motion or doing other activities, and a failsafe put in place to prevent the aetherite from being drained by other function. For this doll Lyra would take a bit of extra time and ensure the connection was spread throughout the entire body, and not just link it to two pictographs inside the chest cavity. This, combined with a soul totem embedded inside the schema would ensure the greatest amount of control possible. The other two dragonshards would be placed outside the central schema, as they were not necessary for the vessel to function directly. Instead, the ancillary schema will overlay the primary, with the soul gem being directly connected to points of control within the ancillary schema. This would allow the greatest amount of control over all functions from the soul gem, and if something were to go wrong with an ancillary system it will not affect the primary. There would need to be additional failsafe and stopgaps to prevent venting of excess aether inside of the body, but that was was Lyra had placed connections to the external body in the ancillary schema as well as the primary.
Both the fire shard and the storm shard would be linked to output pictographs on the fangs as well as the back of the throat of the doll, however, the two lines of inputs would not cross, but would instead the lines of scripts could be switched between using the control connection from the soul gem. The soul gem, in this case, was key as it was the primary method by which Lyra herself would have control of the vessel, and all processes would be controlled from the centralized pictographs located there and on the soul totem.
Nodding slowly Lyra looked over the rough design one last time before standing, taking the three dragonshards and moving to the wall of pedestals. There was a 4th pedestal now, this one covered in so many scripts it stood out from the rest. Lyra had taken the idea from Talon when she had seen his own dragonshard workbench, and she had carved glyphs to contain and aid in stabilizing dragonshards while she worked. Unlike Talon Lyra was not directly affecting the stability of any dragonshards she worked with, but rather was cutting into them to enable her to connect the shards to a larger schema. Some would argue these precautions were overdone, but Lyra had long since learned there was wisdom in adding a few extra layers of protection. Over this pedestal were several small tools hanging on hooks, each of which were covered in pictographs specifically to aid in cutting gems without destabilizing them. Taking one of the curved hooks from where it rested Lyra started with the Aetherite shard.
The Aetherite shard was the simplest one, as it only required a small handful of modifications. She wrapped the gem in thin lines, three in total that connected in a weave. This was a stabilizing diagram and containment that would help prevent excess aether from leaking when she did not wish it. Moving to the bottom of the gem Lyra carved the symbol of a flame with a vortex at its center, the opposite connection glyph that was found on the Soul gem. After a moment of thought, Lyra added small tendrils like lines that lead out from the flame to two eye-shaped pictographs. Fail safes that would activate to prevent draw whenever Lyra was not present in the vessel itself. That would ensure excess aether was not drawn necessarily and would help preserve the life of the shard.
With that tone complete Lyra picked up the next shard, the storm gem. This one was slightly larger, and as she moved it Lyra was amused to see that it gave off faint sparks as she moved it about. She repeated the same containment pictograph on this gem, though added horizontal bands that cut through each of the bands to reinforce the containment further. She would need to add glyphs to insulate the doll from the inside as well, not just from discharges but from heat. She made a mental note to do just that later. She then created three pictographs. One shaped like the side of a serpent head, another a triangular scale with an arrow pointing left, and the 2nd scale with an arrow pointing right. Around these Lyra added triple bands that connected back to the containment pictograph, with lines of power connecting them to ensure energy that crossed did not escape into the body. Nearly identical glyphs were added onto the pyrolite shard as well, though on the scales she added a slight waver to the outline like there were heatwaves.
Referring to her diagram again Lyra traced the lines with her eyes, nodding as she did. When she was sure everything was in its proper place she sighed, leaving the gems there and stretching her arms over her head. The rest would need to be done when she opened the serpent up, though this would go a long way to ensuring everything went smoothly. Now there was one last stone that needed to be prepared.
Her eyes wandered to another pedestal where her flask of grey ichor sat with the soul totem. For a time Lyra had thought to create a 3rd soul totem, but in her weakened state, she was not sure if she would be able to manage such a feat. For now, she would have to make do with what she had. Picking up the soul totem the glyphs of the pedestal faded slightly, but it mattered little. When she finished she would return the gem to its resting place. Bringing the totem over to the gem working pedestal she carefully began to work.
Modifying a soul totem was very different from modifying a dragonshard. For one there was no major issue of stability to be concerned with, however, when she began to carve she felt slightly... uncomfortable, like she could feel a slight prickle in her chest with each scrape. it was nonsense of course, but it did not make the feeling go away.
She began with what had become normal for her. The shape of a serpent with no eyes, representing herself. As she worked she was careful not to disturb the pictographs that were already there, and instead made to have them incorporated into the larger design. She needed the soul totem to maintain its properties, and let her better control living and dead flesh. In this case, though it was the flesh of the doll she was about to embed it in. By having it become even more attuned to her touch she planned to make the vessel like a second skin, as natural to manipulate as her true form. As she worked Lyra whispered soft words, a mixture of common and the ancient language. She spoke of herself, of the soul, mastery, and control. She fed the pictographs her will and intent as streams of smoke began to curl out and around. Without meaning to the smoke began to trail along the rest of the gems that still sat on the pedestal, and their pictographs glowed in response.
Lyra was unsure what exactly was happening, however, she did not stop her work. She added several more pictographs to the totem. The flame with a vortex inside of it, the side few of a snakes head. She connected these together to the no-eyed serpent pictograph and wrapped everything in bands that connected at the flame with the vortex. As she finished the smoke faded, and the pictographs on all the gems began to fade. A flicker of memory seemed to come to Lyra as she looked at the stones, brow furrowing in thought. Resonance? Could dragonshards be linked through the scripts in such a fashion? It seemed possible, but what effect did resonance between stones and their pictographs do for the schema as a whole.
Try as she might Lyra could not grasp it, that memory already dying inside of her as it was consumed by the void. With a sigh Lyra shook her head, setting down her tools and inspecting the totem. All of the pictographs were in place. She replaced it in its resting place on the other pedestal, the lines of the glyph there flickering to life once more as she turned. The next steps would have to wait until tomorrow when the soul gem was ready.
