54th of Ash, 120 AS
The white stone of the lab was stained red. There was a slow, but steady drip as a line of crimson made a small puddle at Lyra's feet, but she ignored it. It had been this way for days now, but Lyra felt that she was getting close. The floors and surface of the lab that were normally so clean were littered with small discarded bodies, the corpses of mice and rats that had been abandoned after each and every failure. Luckily Kalzasi was quite a large city, which meant that the small vermin were many and easy to obtain. Most did not even charge for you to 'take care of' their little problem, which Lyra was happy to oblige.
On the stone table, there were still several slowly cooling bodies, each pinned down with needles that sang into slots on the surface of the table, locking the creatures little limbs in a place where she had vivisected them. A tray of tool sat near Lyra's left hand, each inscribed with pictographs and cleaning silver in the white light of the glowlamps above. Before she was another rat, pinned on its back with its arms and legs outstretched, still very much alive. Its beady eyes were wide and wild, and its little chest rose and fell in rapid suggestion to match its racing heart. Lyra looked down on it with dispassionate eyes, long since being numb to the process.
Lyra was dressed head to toe in white. The hem of her robes fell just short of her ankles and was tied with a sash at her waist. The sleeves were tight-fitting, but Lyra had rolled them up to expose her pare hands and forearms. She had little to fear of infection or disease, being little more than a corpse herself, and the increased tactile function helped her in her work. The robes were stained red, the blood already drying to a dull brown color from the last experiment. With a sigh Lyra walked around the table, moving to one of the pedestals against the wall.
On the pedestal was two objects. One was a small flask filled with a white misty substance. Her ichor. The flask was stoppered, and though she could not see it she knew that a gem rested inside slowly absorbing the contents. This would be her last attempt, as she had used up the last of the gems in previous experiments. The other item was one of her soul totems, a small white gem that gave off an otherworldly chill. Both rested inside of a simple pictograph, merely two circles connected by a line. The circles were also encircled by a serpent with no eyes, her personal symbol, and what tied the entire design together. The pictograph was carved into the pedestal itself, much like the one she used for creating ichor and blood ink. This one served a very specific purpose. When one of her soul totems was placed in one circle, and an item in the other, the energies her totem were slowly siphoned and redirected toward the item, where it steadily absorbed the properties. It was perhaps unnecessary, as a similar effect could have been had if she placed the soul totem in the flask with the gem, but she found this method was more efficient. It would also let her create more intricate designs later on so she could do more than one item at a time. But that was a project for another day.
The flask with the gems had been sitting in position for more than a day now, a sufficient amount of time for what she wished to accomplish. Unstoppering the flask Lyra used a long, thin pair of forceps to reach inside the flask, extracting the gem before corking the flask once more. She let the gem fall into her palm, where she inspected it critically. The gem was simple quarts, cut but with no other quality of the note. Across its surface was a series of pictographs that linked together with swirling designs like smoke. To capture, contain, to hold, and to preserver were worked into several of the surfaces. On two of the surfaces though was a different design. It looked like a small three-fingered hand-drawn with simple lines that reached out beyond the bounds of the circle it contained. These in particular Lyra inspected more critically, ensuring the designs were not damaged or broken in any way. When she was satisfied she brought the gem over to the table, setting it down in the tray next to her other tools.
She took a moment to calm herself and steady her mind. This would make the 14th attempt. All the rest had ended in tragic failure and wasted resources. Once she began the process she would be on a very short time limit, and there was no turning back. The rat was still struggling, and with a sigh, Lyra rolled her shoulders and started.
From the tray she took a small vial with a thin membrane over its opening, as well as a long needle syringe. Drawing up the clear liquid she flicked the needled and pushed the stopper, clearing out any air that remained before carefully sticking the rat on both sides of its neck. Her eyes narrowed in concentration and felted around until she felt the needle scrap against open and pressed a bit harder to puncture into the spine. The effects were nearly instant. The rat's motions slowed and then stilled completely. Its chest began to rise and fall slower and slower, but never quite stopped. This was where Lyra had failed the most in the beginning. Getting the proper dose for a creature of this size was difficult to say the lease.
Returning the needle to the tray Lyra picked up a thin-bladed scalpel, moving swiftly as the timer had already started. She made a single long incision from just beneath the rat's chin, all the way down to just below its naval. She held her breath as she slid the blade, creating as shallow a cut as possible but enough to cut through the first few layers of fat and tissue. Using two pairs of forceps she latched onto the skin on either side of the incision, pulling it back before using a small glass rod to run underneath to loosen the connection of the skin to the muscles beneath. Using a series of pins she a-fixed the flaps of skin back, fully revealing the creature's insides which quivered slightly.
Lyra could almost hear a timer in her head as she moved mechanically. Collecting a few drops of blood she let the drops fall into a small vial of blood ink she had prepared before. Wiping her hands with a cloth she picked up her bone stylus, the soul totem at its end pulsing slightly at her touch and dipped it into the ink, the stylus drawing up some of the mixed ink in its tip. Quickly Lyra began to trace a practiced pattern along with her left hand, weaving around the pictographs that were there in an intricate pattern that wound up and connected at her palm.
"Pull the spirit, rip it free, and grasp it in hand. Capture, hold, but do not injure." Lyra whispered as she wrote, binding the intent to the glyphs as she worked. The ink shimmered and sunk into her skin, bypassing the need for more ichor due to its unique properties. Next came the tricky part.
Setting the stylus aside Lyra plunged her fingers forward, reaching inside the mass of organs and up to the ribcage near the heart. It was warm, sticky, but that was not what she was searching for. At last, she felt it, a thrill of electricity as the pictographs on her hand glowed a vibrant blue. With a sharp wrenching motion Lyra ripped her fingers free, pulling with it a tendril of pulsing blue and silver light that wiggled and squirmed to be set free. Without hesitation Lyra grabbed the gem from its place on the tray, holding the moving soul over the glyphs on the surface of the stone until it began to be drawn in. In an instant the soul was gone, the gem now glowing with a faint purple light.
The old elf almost sighed in relief but restrained herself. There was still just a bit more to go, and her time was running short. For a short time after a soul was pulled from the body, it would continue to function, and you added a bit of leeway by keeping them gem in close proximity to the body it originated from. Eventually, though, life would fade and you would be left with a corpse. This was where time was of the greatest importance.
The gem place placed near the rat's head, where it pulsed rhythmically with the slow heartbeat of the only barely living rat. Wiping her hands once more Lyra picked up the scalpel once more, as well as another pair of forceps, and began steadily cutting the tissue over the chest, exposing the ribs. Then using a small pair of pointed scissors she worked the tip between two of the lower ribs, carefully shipping up the sternum to the collar bone so that she could expose the heart and lungs beneath. At this point, Lyra made sure not to damage the ribs more than necessary, as she would need to repair them shortly. A little bit of bone salve along the more fragile parts allowed her to be a bit rougher, but she avoided any cracks.
Taking a small hook Lyra slowly and carefully carved a pictograph on the underneath side of each rib cage, reaching claws extending from a circle. It was jagged, a bit rough, but it would do. With a breath, she awakened the pictographs and flooded it with the purpose to search for its counterpart. To connect, to link. The beating of the heart was slowly fading, as was the rhythm of the soul gem. Moving quickly Lyra took the gem and pressed it into space with the heart and lungs, pushing down on some of the organs to make a bit of extra room. Then, using a bit more bone salve she carefully molded the ribcage ever so slightly so that it could enclose the gem, heart, and lungs entirely. It was not perfect, but everything closed.
Now Lyra really did sigh as she wiped her hands once more on the now brown cloth. From the tray, she took a new container, this one short and circular, and unscrewed the cap. Using a small cotton swab she took a bit of the paste, Marrow Glue, and rubbed it along the edges of the ribcage before pressing them firmly together. She held them there for a minute, giving them just enough time to set enough to release her hold and begin closing up the Rat.
All the organs were back in place, the skin folded once more and the blood mopped up with more cotton swabs. Using needle and sinew thread Lyra stitched the creature back together, closing up the wound before binding its entire middle in thick bandages. Carefully Lyra moved the rat and placed it on the pedestal with her soul totem, stepping back and resting her sullied hands on her hips. Now she had to wait, and see if it took.
