56th of Ash, 120 AS
Everything was prepared. On the stone table were jars and vials of several substances. Sinew threads, bone salve, marrow glue, and other items that might be useful through the process. On a tray at the very end of the table were several tools. Forceps, sectors of various sizes, blades of different sizes and links, pointed hooks, clamps, pins, and a number of absorbent cloths and swabs. The tools were all inscribed with pictographs specific to the art of necromancy. Preservation of flesh, sealing of lesions, clean cuts, blood resistance. The list went on and on but each was optimized for the work of the flesh, and Lyra had seen to their inscription herself.
Lyra made soft shushing moments to the snake that coiled around her forearm and shoulders. It was long, nearly as long as she was tall and half as thick as her wrist. Its scales were black as ink. It flicked a tongue out experimentally, tasting the air in Lyra's direction as she smiled and cooed at it like a small child. She quite liked the creature. She had found it in one of the open markets in the Lower Commons. The man who sold him to her had seemed glad to be rid of it. He did not seem to care for snakes overly much. For Lyra though? She loved them. Scales that were smooth to the touch, keen eyes that did not try to deceive others in their predatory intent. Their senses were far superior to the average human. Not in the sight and sound processing areas, but rather in the other senses. They could taste the air for sents that even some tongues could not pick up, and their ability to detect the heat of a body was to be admired. Most of all, however, was the way they were regarded by others. Cold, soulless beings are connected with the undesirable or unpleasant simply for their existence. Lyra herself could relate to such a fate.
Unlike with the raths Lyra was gentle with the snake, petting its scaled head softly as she whispered soft words of comfort. She had kept him well fed over the last few weeks, making him as comfortable as possible in preparation. Still shushing Lyra's hand flashed forward, snatching the snake by the head and pinning it down. In seconds the needle flashed, piercing into the wiggling thing's spine at the base of the skull, injecting a dose of paralytic just as she had done with the rat. It took longer, but eventually, the motions of the creature stilled and Lyra was able to lay him out to his full length on the table.
She did not hesitate, snatching a pair of pointed scissors and making a quick cut from the base of the tail, moving up its belly and ending just under the snake's head. There she tilted the scissors, lifting the skin as she did all of this so as not to puncture any organs necessarily. She made two more incisions that wrapped under the snake's jaw, as well as near the base of the tail so that she could fold back the skin to reveal the snake's internal organs. Using several of the pins on the tray Lyra pinned the skin back, wiping her hands off with a cloth afterward.
Using the bone stylus and her blood ink Lyra quickly drew the pictographs on her left hand, winding through the glyphs already present. Rip, tear, bind, hold. A series of pictographs spelled out the design for forcefully pulling a soul from a physical form. As she worked the blood ink shimmered with power, being absorbed into her skin and becoming active. Leaning forward Lyra smiled at the snake, shushing him as she reached forward and pressed her hand into his chest, piercing the thin facia and willing between the thin connections that kept the snake's esophagus and trachea pinned together. She briefly touched the snakes still slowly beating heart before pressing deeper still, searching for something. It took several seconds, but then Lyra felt the telltale electric sensation as she touched the snakes very soul. In one fluid motion, she ripped the soul free in a spray of red and stringy flesh. Long and dark forest green, the snake's soul was quite unlike the rats. It did not struggle to be free, it lashed about, trying to wrap Lyra's hand and a head like a portion of it passed harmlessly through Lyra's face.
"Hush, my darling." Lyra crooned. From another small tray next to the instruments Lyra picked up a thin emerald, a soul gem she had prepared for the occasion. Bringing the gem close she breathed out, black smoke wrapping and twisting around the snake's emerald soul and bending it down, forcefully pulling it into the soul gem. As it was taken in the snake's soul lashed more furiously, fighting, whipping, and fighting, but the black smoke coiled around it, forcing its motions to still as the gem greedily ate the soul as a whole.
The soul gem glowed a dull green, and Lyra set it down close to the snake's heart that was still slowly beating. Wiping her hands once more Lyra took up two new instruments, a set of forceps and a metal stick with a thin hook at its end. She began a steady and methodical motion of clearing away the thin, weblike tissue that covered the entirety of the snake's internal organs. Her focus was on the upper portion of the snake, where its heart and lungs were. Clearing the trachea and esophagus she worked the blunt end of the hook between the long organs until they could be stretched and shifted out of way to fully expose the inner cavity of the snake. Several times she had to reach for the swabs to clear the blood away, letting her better see what she was doing. Finally, she learned a small intention just beneath the heart, down near the lungs. Taking up the bone stylus Lyra once more dipped into the ink, drawing the first of a long series of pictographs. A serpent with no eyes, coiled in on itself, with a flame surrounding it. The symbol she used to connect to the soul gem. This was drawn into the muscle on the inside of the ribcage. A series of lines were drawn up and down from this point, pathways that would be used to connect the glyph through the rest of the snake later. For now, she needed to keep it alive.
With the first pictograph in place, Lyra took up the soul gem, applying a small amount of marrow glue on its back surface as she did. Using the hook she scraped at the muscle on the underside of the ribcage, as close to the vertebrae as she could get it to expose the bone. She then pressed the gem into space, ensuring the marrow glue contacted the bone. There was a faint shimmer as the soul gem was placed, but it quickly faded. With that, the soul gem was linked to the body and would continue to supply it aether to keep it alive just as it had with the rat. As this part was important Lyra took the time to lightly stitch the gem in place using a bone needle and sinew thread. The thread would help bind the gem in place while the glue set, and overtime as the pictographs were active the flesh would grow over the gem, using the threads as a base to secure it in place permanently. The only way to receive her gems after this would be to completely destroy her creation, which Lyra was loath to do unless she had to.
Nodding to herself Lyra picked up the white soul totem from the tray next. One of the lines that connected to the soul gem she extended along the underside of the snake's ribs, crossing the vertebra and forming a circle with the same symbol at its center. Lyra repeated the same process of attaching the soul gem in place here. It flashed slightly as it came in contact with the pictograph, and the soul gem pulsed in response before growing still.
"Two down..." Lyra said, wiping her hands and looking at the tray of gems, "Three more to go."
The snake's heart was still beating but was very steadily fading. As it did, however, the pictograph and the soul gem activated, beginning to supply energy to the body to keep it functioning for a time longer. It would not die now, not if she worked quickly. The schema was not fully prepared, or stable, but it was by far the best she had done so far. Now, she just needed to trim the fat as it were.
Moving down the length of the snake Lyra once more started pulling away the facia, slowly pulling out the organs one at a time and arranging them so that they hung outside the body in an easily identifiable way. As the snake was to be a doll, sustained by the soul and aetherite, it did not need all of its organs to function. It's heart, lungs and upper digestive tract Lyra would leave in tack for now, as she could not easily remove those at this stage. From the stomach down, though, there was no issue. She started one at a time, pulling the organs up into her hands and carefully cutting them free. Using needle and sinew thread Lyra closed up arteries and vessels as they were severed, and she was careful to leave the major nerves intact and only cut away the ones that directly innervated the organs she was removing. She removed everything from the stomach down, including the intestines and sexual organs. This left her with plenty of room to work with for the next several steps.
