Lyra nodded with satisfaction at Florian's response. The arm had not been easy to obtain and was quite expensive. Though she would be performing the operation herself, she required the base materials and schematics to be in place. The drawings alone took more time than she cared to think about. Its body was a type of porcelain, reforged to be strong as iron but flexible enough to allow the parts to bend without issue. There was a single greater aetherite shard at its core, powering some of the inner workings and which would act as a base for the schema that Lyra herself would use to link the arm to Florian himself. Finally, the wiring inside was a mixture of golds and silvers, delicate but essential for linking the arm to its new host.
"Yes. With time you will forget that you ever had another arm." She waved to Naila who once more closed up the box and took it away, "When I am able to secure the proper tools we shall perform the installation."
Date: 60th of Glade, 120 AS
There was little choice. As confined as she was, Lyra could not find a better location for the task at hand. So here she stood in the center of the rooms provided by Brenner himself, old sheets draping the furniture and floor beneath the long dining table that Lyra had converted to a rough operating table. She dared not carve into the wood itself, so instead the sheets had been covered with the required markings needed for the necromancy about to take place. Florian was already unconscious on the table, and Lyra slowly washed her hands in a basin set on one of the end tables near a cloth-covered sofa.
The task at hand was simple. The arm needed to be connected to the deadened nerves in Florian's shoulder, and then his soul, or astral body, needed to be stretched to connect with the arm like it had with his flesh and blood appendage. Two goals, two simple steps, yet the environment was less than ideal and Lyra found her annoyance flare as she extended a hand to Naila. The mercenary placed a long thin dagger hilt first into Lyra's open palm. It had a slight curve to it, and the edge was sharp as a razor.
The first step required her to reopen the stump, and she did this with two careful strokes that split the skin and caused a cascade of red on the white sheets below. She cut through muscle and fit, digging until she felt bone and further still until she felt the slight springy sensation of vessels and nerves. Setting the dagger aside she took up her bone stylus, and a bottle of red ink to which she added a drop of Florians blood. The ink churned for a moment before darkening, giving off a faint hiss as she dipped her stylus in and began to draw a series of pictographs around Florian's arm. The boy's blood ate away at magic, even world magic such as scrivening and necromancy, but she had time. So long as she was quick and decisive, the deed would get done.
Lyra peeled back the skin and muscle-like peels of banana, exposing the rounded end of the bone that Florian was left with after his loss. Bringing the prosthetic closer she unfurled the golden threads from within its casing. She then used the knife and a small metallic hook to isolate and separate the individual nerves that still remained in the Lysanrin's arm. She then took the golden thread and wrapped them around the nerves, each winding pulling the prosthetic closer. She made sure to align the nerves with the golden wires that mimicked nerves in an actual arm so that they connected to similar places within the prosthetic as they would in an actual arm. She then used sinew thread to wrap and tie off the connects. As she worked she breathed out a steady stream of smoke which curled and mixed with the blood there, condensing to black liquid to code the wires and feel for any flaws before she moved on to the next.
With the basic links done Lyra stepped back and examined her work, satisfied before glancing down at the snake that lay curled on Florian's chest. Artur raised his head, looking up at Lyra before slithering up near Florian's head. He paused to look at the man before striking, his fangs sinking deep into exposed flesh before releasing and returning to where he was perched before.
His venom worked similar to ghostwine, though not as powerful. It loosened the hold of the soul on the physical body, causing confusion and disassociation in the conscious, and for Lyra's purposes, it made Florian's soul suddenly much more malleable. While the venom took effect Lyra undid the remainder of Florian's tunic, with a shrug simply cut the rest of the cloth off to expose his bare chest to the air. With the bone stylus, she began to craft careful lines that sank into Florian's skin like a tattoo. She had never attempted something like this before, however, experiments had shown it was possible. She started with a large central ring with a series of lines that looked similar to trees and mountain peaks. She spiraled the lines downward toward Florian's sternum before extending lines out past the outer ring and up toward his shoulder. She created another similar series of circles down his arm to the stump, pausing while her black essence seeped up and began to coat the nearest circle with her influence. Her whispers began to flow, growing louder as she completed the pictograph, the design for her soul space.
She then placed her hands on Florian's chest, closing her eyes and breathing in. The pictographs activated, flaring to life with golden yellows and blues as Lyra linked the schema with the aetherite shard in the prosthetic. She then felt a sensation as if she were falling, and then darkness.
Location: Florian's Temporary Soul Space
The world snapped into focus as Lyra floated in her true form, far more solid than she could ever be in the real world. She glanced around, noting the replica of the Aetherite shard a short distance away. Around it was a faint outline that almost looked like an arm, but it was made of colorful lines which were likely representative of the wiring inside the prosthetic. She did not focus on the arm for long, instead looking around the space, eyes searching for Florian who should be somewhere close by.
[/googlefont][/size]
