Blood and Shadows VI
Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2024 5:54 pm
52nd of Ash, 124 AS
If the Void was a place for the unwanted and forgotten were abandoned, then it was inherently a place that was filled with negative emotions. After all, light did not reach into the void, and Hope had no place here either. The things which spawned from the darkness were in a way amalgamations of the energies of this place, and things born of negative energies were themselves, inherently negative. This in part explained, at least to Lyra, why the shadowspawn behaved as they did. Their outward aggression was simply an expression of wrath and anger from which many were born. It was likely most of the things behaviors could be linked to this phenomena. Perhaps when they emerged from the pit of darkness they were simply formless and without purpose, much like pure aether fresh from the aetherium. Like how aether had the potential to become anything with the right stimulus, the creatures of the Void were able to take on traits of the concepts they consumed. This lead to many grotesque creations, odd combinations of beast and otherworldly horror in some cases. It was not something Lyra could confirmed, but she felt confident in the broad strokes of the idea.
What did that mean for her? In the end, Lyra required more resources. She needed new sources of power, more blood and souls, and anything else that would give her an edge when it came time to free herself from her prison. The first thought that came to mind was whether or not she could manipulate the development of shadow spawn, and thus influence their actions to a degree.
Once again she found herself hovering over the pit of darkness, waiting for the next spawn to appear. When it did she snatched it up, turning it over in her clawed hands before pinning it down inside a cage of shadows she crafted with ateromancy. It struggled to free itself, attempting to slip between the gabs in the cage, but Lyra shaped spikes from the catches to keep it in place. Then Lyra pricked the tip of her finger with one elongated claw, and let a single drop of her blood fall onto the blob. It shivered when the drop landed on it, eagerly absorbing the black liquid and undulating disturbingly as if to say it enjoyed the taste. Like the previous spawn it quickly grew much too big for its cage, and Lyra was forced to enlarge it to compensate. This one did not grow as big as the last, but was still nearly as tall as her waist by the time it stopped inflating. Eyes began to form across its surface like before, followed by limbs twisted at odd angles with its hands gripping at the shadowy bars, paying no mind to the spikes now.
"Your kind seems to enjoy my blood." Lyra mused. Was it simply because of the abundant aether within the blood? Or perhaps something to do with Lyra herself? She partially wondered if, through her coupling with the lord of the Void, she had somehow become a delicacy to these creatures. Perhaps there was still a lingering trace of his essence within her, and through her blood it was passed on to them. Yet who could say?
Then again... hadn't another soul been present during their copulation? Perhaps it was not the traces of darkness, but of light within her they enjoyed... but that was not a useful train of thought.
In any case, her blood seemed to be of great value to the shadow spawn, for whatever reason. Be it virtue of her being the lady of whispers, the vitality that coursed through her because of vitalis, or her own connections to the Void, the spawn that drank of her blood grew more powerful than consuming the blood of other creatures. She needed to test this with the blood of other mages to be certain, but for now this was enough to go with. What was it exactly that energized the spawn? The aether? Maybe... but Lyra suspected it was something else as well.
This spawn, like the one before, had grown in size and developed additional limbs. Purely physical manifestations, or rather manifestations which resonated with the idea of 'flesh' in Lyra's mind. She wondered if she could feed it something else.
She considered for a moment before raising her hand, forming a small blood crystal on her palm no bigger than the nail on her pinky. Thin blades of shadow split off from the darkness covering her body, tracing quick yet accurate lines across the crystal's surface. She carved the shape of an eye, with a spiraling pupil at its center. Then she breathed out a trail of smoke, the whispers of mesmerizing magic filling the air to be sucked into the makeshift container and bringing it to life with a new inner glow.
The magic was simple, a novel level spell that would bring out feelings of anger in those it was used on. The crystal itself was just a container for the magic, but because it was made of her blood Lyra wondered if the the shadow spawn would consume it.
Without much preamble she dropped the crystal on top of the spawn, which snapped it up with one fleshy hand and drew it into itself eagerly. The things eyes widened and it shuddered once more, growing agitated as the hands gripping the bars began to rattle against its cage. The pupils of its eyes took on a slightly golden color, becoming small swirls as streaks of darker gold spread out across the whites of its eyes. She could almost hear it snarling as it struggled to break free, pushing against the bars and clawing at the air with its many fingered hands.
She had not known what to expect exactly... but this was an interesting outcome. There were some outward changes, certainly, but what Lyra found most intriguing was that the spawn seemed to respond to the magic contained within the crystal. Normally she could not influence the shadow spawn with her mental magics, as they lacked souls or symphonies themselves, but if they consumed her container of blood which held the magic it seemed traces of the spells affects were absorbed into it as well. Lyra watched patiently as the thing struggled, continuing to claw at the air, but as the minutes ticked by its agitation lessoned until, eventually, it stopped thrashing. The golden color in its eyes had vanished as well, and it stared around itself in much the way it had before.
"Mental magics have only temporary affects..." Lyra mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "Is it due to the aether that makes up the spell being consumed?"
Looking at the thing it did not look any bigger, which made her wonder if the crystalized blood had not added to its power at all. Maybe, when the blood was infused with other magics, the purely beneficial affects of it was lessoned or eliminated completely?
Lyra repeated the experiment several more times with different emotions. Each time the spawn would react violently at the beginning, but as time passed it would quickly return to normal once more. She noted that even after a dozen iterations it had not grown in size, or sprouted new limbs, which gave her confidence that it was not gaining any more benefits from consuming the blood crystals. What all of this told Lyra was that these things liked the taste of her blood, and she could utilize her blood crystals to pass along other magical affects (specifically mesmer related ones) to the things. The results were not lasting, however, and there was no obvious use for it beyond mild amusement watching it squirm. Perhaps it would be useful to drive a hoard of the spawn into a frenzy? Would they attack one another? Or could she perhaps make them docile for a short time?
She had tried feeding the spawn several emotional stimuli at once, and each time it had been confusing. It seemed to fluctuate wildly between the two emotional states, but eventually it would reach a state of equilibrium of sorts. Often the most negative of the emotions would overcome the other, and of all the emotions anger and violence won out every single time. Even when she had attempted to overwhelm the anger with stronger emotions of apathy, or melancholy, the spawn still seemed to swing toward anger until the affects wore off. This only firmed Lyra's belief that the negative energies of the Void played a strong role in the spawn's development, and it suggested that, perhaps, if she focused on enhancing or manipulating the negative or darkest traits she could potentially manipulate them further. Shadow spawn were simply not meant to be happy, and in fact when presented with the sensation her caged spawn had almost seemed to wilt.
There was more that she wished to try, but she had run through her reserves of aether for the day and had to return to her prison. She would continue this tomorrow.
If the Void was a place for the unwanted and forgotten were abandoned, then it was inherently a place that was filled with negative emotions. After all, light did not reach into the void, and Hope had no place here either. The things which spawned from the darkness were in a way amalgamations of the energies of this place, and things born of negative energies were themselves, inherently negative. This in part explained, at least to Lyra, why the shadowspawn behaved as they did. Their outward aggression was simply an expression of wrath and anger from which many were born. It was likely most of the things behaviors could be linked to this phenomena. Perhaps when they emerged from the pit of darkness they were simply formless and without purpose, much like pure aether fresh from the aetherium. Like how aether had the potential to become anything with the right stimulus, the creatures of the Void were able to take on traits of the concepts they consumed. This lead to many grotesque creations, odd combinations of beast and otherworldly horror in some cases. It was not something Lyra could confirmed, but she felt confident in the broad strokes of the idea.
What did that mean for her? In the end, Lyra required more resources. She needed new sources of power, more blood and souls, and anything else that would give her an edge when it came time to free herself from her prison. The first thought that came to mind was whether or not she could manipulate the development of shadow spawn, and thus influence their actions to a degree.
Once again she found herself hovering over the pit of darkness, waiting for the next spawn to appear. When it did she snatched it up, turning it over in her clawed hands before pinning it down inside a cage of shadows she crafted with ateromancy. It struggled to free itself, attempting to slip between the gabs in the cage, but Lyra shaped spikes from the catches to keep it in place. Then Lyra pricked the tip of her finger with one elongated claw, and let a single drop of her blood fall onto the blob. It shivered when the drop landed on it, eagerly absorbing the black liquid and undulating disturbingly as if to say it enjoyed the taste. Like the previous spawn it quickly grew much too big for its cage, and Lyra was forced to enlarge it to compensate. This one did not grow as big as the last, but was still nearly as tall as her waist by the time it stopped inflating. Eyes began to form across its surface like before, followed by limbs twisted at odd angles with its hands gripping at the shadowy bars, paying no mind to the spikes now.
"Your kind seems to enjoy my blood." Lyra mused. Was it simply because of the abundant aether within the blood? Or perhaps something to do with Lyra herself? She partially wondered if, through her coupling with the lord of the Void, she had somehow become a delicacy to these creatures. Perhaps there was still a lingering trace of his essence within her, and through her blood it was passed on to them. Yet who could say?
Then again... hadn't another soul been present during their copulation? Perhaps it was not the traces of darkness, but of light within her they enjoyed... but that was not a useful train of thought.
In any case, her blood seemed to be of great value to the shadow spawn, for whatever reason. Be it virtue of her being the lady of whispers, the vitality that coursed through her because of vitalis, or her own connections to the Void, the spawn that drank of her blood grew more powerful than consuming the blood of other creatures. She needed to test this with the blood of other mages to be certain, but for now this was enough to go with. What was it exactly that energized the spawn? The aether? Maybe... but Lyra suspected it was something else as well.
This spawn, like the one before, had grown in size and developed additional limbs. Purely physical manifestations, or rather manifestations which resonated with the idea of 'flesh' in Lyra's mind. She wondered if she could feed it something else.
She considered for a moment before raising her hand, forming a small blood crystal on her palm no bigger than the nail on her pinky. Thin blades of shadow split off from the darkness covering her body, tracing quick yet accurate lines across the crystal's surface. She carved the shape of an eye, with a spiraling pupil at its center. Then she breathed out a trail of smoke, the whispers of mesmerizing magic filling the air to be sucked into the makeshift container and bringing it to life with a new inner glow.
The magic was simple, a novel level spell that would bring out feelings of anger in those it was used on. The crystal itself was just a container for the magic, but because it was made of her blood Lyra wondered if the the shadow spawn would consume it.
Without much preamble she dropped the crystal on top of the spawn, which snapped it up with one fleshy hand and drew it into itself eagerly. The things eyes widened and it shuddered once more, growing agitated as the hands gripping the bars began to rattle against its cage. The pupils of its eyes took on a slightly golden color, becoming small swirls as streaks of darker gold spread out across the whites of its eyes. She could almost hear it snarling as it struggled to break free, pushing against the bars and clawing at the air with its many fingered hands.
She had not known what to expect exactly... but this was an interesting outcome. There were some outward changes, certainly, but what Lyra found most intriguing was that the spawn seemed to respond to the magic contained within the crystal. Normally she could not influence the shadow spawn with her mental magics, as they lacked souls or symphonies themselves, but if they consumed her container of blood which held the magic it seemed traces of the spells affects were absorbed into it as well. Lyra watched patiently as the thing struggled, continuing to claw at the air, but as the minutes ticked by its agitation lessoned until, eventually, it stopped thrashing. The golden color in its eyes had vanished as well, and it stared around itself in much the way it had before.
"Mental magics have only temporary affects..." Lyra mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully, "Is it due to the aether that makes up the spell being consumed?"
Looking at the thing it did not look any bigger, which made her wonder if the crystalized blood had not added to its power at all. Maybe, when the blood was infused with other magics, the purely beneficial affects of it was lessoned or eliminated completely?
Lyra repeated the experiment several more times with different emotions. Each time the spawn would react violently at the beginning, but as time passed it would quickly return to normal once more. She noted that even after a dozen iterations it had not grown in size, or sprouted new limbs, which gave her confidence that it was not gaining any more benefits from consuming the blood crystals. What all of this told Lyra was that these things liked the taste of her blood, and she could utilize her blood crystals to pass along other magical affects (specifically mesmer related ones) to the things. The results were not lasting, however, and there was no obvious use for it beyond mild amusement watching it squirm. Perhaps it would be useful to drive a hoard of the spawn into a frenzy? Would they attack one another? Or could she perhaps make them docile for a short time?
She had tried feeding the spawn several emotional stimuli at once, and each time it had been confusing. It seemed to fluctuate wildly between the two emotional states, but eventually it would reach a state of equilibrium of sorts. Often the most negative of the emotions would overcome the other, and of all the emotions anger and violence won out every single time. Even when she had attempted to overwhelm the anger with stronger emotions of apathy, or melancholy, the spawn still seemed to swing toward anger until the affects wore off. This only firmed Lyra's belief that the negative energies of the Void played a strong role in the spawn's development, and it suggested that, perhaps, if she focused on enhancing or manipulating the negative or darkest traits she could potentially manipulate them further. Shadow spawn were simply not meant to be happy, and in fact when presented with the sensation her caged spawn had almost seemed to wilt.
There was more that she wished to try, but she had run through her reserves of aether for the day and had to return to her prison. She would continue this tomorrow.