Rats and Snakes VI (Solo)
Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2020 1:10 pm
56th of Ash, 120 AS
Sighing softly Lyra passed the back of her hand against her forehead, rolling her shoulders as she took note of how long it had been. Several hours had passed at this point, but Lyra had hardly noticed. The work, while tedious, was engrossing. As she was nearing the end she felt a tingling in her chest, the excitement that urged her to keep going, press on, and complete the work. The larger glyph was mostly complete. All of the internal lines in place, wards, and safeguards where they should be. Perhaps she had been a bit overcautious, but luck favored the prepared. She could not afford to make minor mistakes at this stage, not for what she was planning in the future. The snake was a goal, for now, to solve an issue. It was, however, the first practical test of a concept she knew she would have to scale up very soon.
She took a bit of time to wash her hands in a bowl of water, the liquid turning red as she wiped her hands off. The greater part of the technical work was done, but now she needed to ensure she made no mistakes while placing the last pieces. From the tray near the tools, Lyra picked up the aetherite shard, applying a thin coating of marrow glue on its surface before carefully placing it onto its prepared circle. She carefully made sure that the connector pictograph that linked it to the soul gem pointed toward the soul gem itself. As the shard was placed the entire glyph shimmered, the soul gem pulsed with power as the connection was set. When it settled Lyra used the needle and sinew thread to bind the gem in place, applying a bit more marrow glue just to be safe. She then repeated this process with the storm gem, as well as the fire gem. As the storm gem was placed sparks flew, racing up the pictographs and creating a static charge that made Lyra's eyes widen and her hair stand on in. She stood there, frozen for a moment as she questioned if she had made a mistake. WHen nothing began to deteriorate, however, she slowly removed her hand, sighing in relief as the glyphs settled once more. Flames coursed across the snake's body as she placed the fire gem, but this time Lyra was prepared. She held her breath as the power swirled, but it too settled and everything became calm once more.
Shaking her head Lyra tied the gems in place, and then set her hands on her hips to admire her work. It was complete, the inside at least. Now there was one last step she needed to do before she closed up the snake and moved on to the final touches. From the pedestal, Lyra took up the flask of infused ichor, which continued to give off the dark mist. Using long needle-like tweezers and a swab Lyra repeatedly dipped and dabbed the ichor on every inch of the snake's insides. At each of the gems, Lyra tipped the flask, pouring a substantial portion onto the pictographs and gems, and used her own fingers to massage the paste-like substance into the tissue until it was fully absorbed. There were no obvious signs as to what this accomplished, but as she worked the ichor into the snake's body more and more of her essence was placed into the creature. It fed into the threads binding the gems in place, into the gems themselves and most importantly helped to suffuse the glyphs themselves. Each layer of ichor added to the amount of 'her' that was present, and thus increased the strength of the soul gem's connection to the body, to the glyph, to the dragonshards, and by extension would increase the amount of control Lyra had over the doll itself. In many respects, Lyra was creating the first, true body for herself. One which she would not need to forcefully control, but would accept her and pass her aether through it without the need of the external glyphs her current body required. This was one of the most crucial steps Lyra would need to take when preparing her final vessel. The technique was called body-essence saturation and was practiced often by the archmages of old who performed odd and powerful body modifications on themselves. A part of Lyra was amused that she would use some of their own techniques herself after they had scoffed at her efforts to better understand the nature of the soul.
When she was finished Lyra capped and set the flask aside and began the slow and arduous process of closing up the snake's body. She had to shift some of the organs due to the added gems, but all of the shards were relatively small and thin and would not cause any difficulty when the body moved and did not cause any weird bumps or outward signs of their presence. As she finished the last stitch Lyra took a bit more of the infused ichor and added it to another salve that aided in tissue regeneration. She applied this substance to the incision liberally, watching as it was drawn into the skin. This would help the would close up, pulling on the power of the soul gem, and using the salve to increase the rate of regeneration. A healing corpse, a thought that made Lyra grin.
Now, at last, Lyra allowed herself to relax. The most difficult part was completed. She took the time to clean herself of blood, wiping hands, and tools off once before coming back to the table. Carefully Lyra flipped the serpent so that it was laying on its stomach, giving Lyra access to its back and sides. She found the marks she had placed earlier, where she had linked the internal pictographs to the snake's outside. The small circles were just barely visible on the snake's black scales, and when she was done it would be difficult to tell any glyphs were present at all. Once more Lyra took up her stylus, preparing to add the final touches on her creation.
From each of the circles, Lyra began to expand the glyph, creating a series of pictographs that linked together. She started with the circles themselves, expanding them using swirling lines that smoke that connected together in twisting patterns. These were the primary pictographs that would expel aether to the outside, but Lyra did not wish for this effect to be uncontrolled. She added containment wards around each pictograph, linking them together with the symbols linking it to the soul gem inside. She then added a series of pictographs up the length of the snake's back and sides. Each was a small circle contained inside of a stylized eye. These were linked together with pathways that lead all the way up and down the snake body, ending at the top of its head where she drew another eye with a slitted pupil.
The power that was diverted outside the body would be collected by the primary pictographs, the energy spread out evenly and contained through the eye wards. The energy could be released all at once or discharged slowly over time as the 6 primary pictographs were designed to be temporary storage places as well. They could not hold the power indefinitely, however, and would eventually have to be discharged or risk the glyph coming undone. Lyra spent a bit of extra time on the pictograph on the snakes head, adding additional lines that linked the slitted pupil to the snake's own eyes. She added several designs that looked like smoke tendrils, smaller eyes, and around the slitted pupil another very stylized version of her own symbol, the snake with no eyes. It was complicated, but it should allow Lyra to use her own magic through the snake, so long as she held a connection to the soul gem itself.
Flipping the snake on it's back once more Lyra moved it so that its head was toward her. Using a set of metal claps Lyra fixed the mouth open, examining the inside. The next part would be a bit tricky, but she had to get it just right. She used her stylus to create very simple lines that lead from the back of the throat up to the roof of the snake's mouth. The tissue here was very delicate, so she had to make slow, repeated strokes until the blood ink took and sank into place. Luckily once the magic reached this point it was to be expelled, so she did not need as many complex wards. The snake's fangs were folded up in the roof of its mouth naturally, so she had to be creative to make them extend using the blunt end of another instrument and pressing down on the snake's head until the fangs were visible. Here Lyra switched from her stylus to the carving hook, cutting away at the flesh to real the cartilage beneath. She created two pictographs, each linking back to the glyph network farther up the gum. One was the fang with a jagged line, the other a fang with the flame. She did not link these two pictographs together, and in fact, made great strides toward them away from one another and connected them back to the glyph wards at the roof of the mouth using separate pathways. She then created a winding series of pathways from each, moving all the way down each fang. She did this on both sides, only satisfied when she had insured the pictographs were unbroken. She also extended the glyph back along the rest of the gums, adding links up each of the snake's other serrated teeth, which thankfully it only had a few.
Letting the fangs retract once more Lyra opened the mouth wider still, revealing the back of the snake's throat. Snakes, being creatures that swallowed their prey whole, had a unique feature. Their trachea actually extended up to a small tube that one could see at the bottom of their mouth. This allowed them when they ate something bigger than they were, to swallow the thing whole without fear of being unable to breathe. Lyra had in mind another use for this particular feature. She had already made the trachea into a part of the glyph. The lines that lead up to the roof of the mouth even came from a small glyph she had placed at the back of the throat on top of the trachea. This particular pictograph was very important, as it was a point of division in the glyph that linked directly back to the soul gem. Through this pictograph, which was the image of a snakehead, mouth open and fangs extended, encircled by wards, through this pictograph Lyra would be able to choose where the final output of her magic would be. She could either direct the power to the fangs and jaw or toward this trachea tube. She smiled as she thought about the potential applications as she added additional scripts along this trachea tube, essentially turning it into the tip of a wand that would let her expel magic as one might from the tip of a magical wand. How surprised one might be to think that the snake, so far away from you, was harmless only to have it hurl a fireball at you like it was spitting venom.
She put the last line in place and sighed as she removed all of the equipment and let the mouth close. Lyra began to clean up her work when a thought struck her. Glancing down at the snake Lyra realized she had placed her soul totem inside of the snake, which would let her better control the doll. However, she had provided it a connector glyph. That meant...
A few thoughts crossed Lyra's mind as she picked up her stylus once more, running a hand over the snake's belly until she felt the place where the soul totem should be. She had used pictographs to increase the totem's connection, not just with the soul gem but with the dragonshards inside as well. She had also added additional scripts focused around mastery of soul and flesh. She had done this to make the snake's body more adaptable to her control, but there were other applications as well. She drew on it's belly the symbol of the no-eyed serpent, wrapping it in flames and electricity as bands of smoke extended out from the design and wrapped up to connect with the warding pictographs on the serpents back. She wanted to have access to the soul totem inside of this serpent, to use its properties as a part of the doll itself. To do that... She continued to add tendrils of smoke, lines of power that, as she worked, began to glow and give off a faint dark mist. Without questioning the instinct Lyra breathed out, letting her own essence mix with the mist there, calling and pulling on the intent of the pictographs as she worked as everything began to link together. A flicker of electricity was replaced with heat as she extended the glyph upward, tendrils of smoke filling the snake's mouth as Lyra felt the soul gem pulse. She connected the soul totem to the glyph inside of the mouth, bypassing the control pictograph on the bottom of its mouth and simply let the power wrap around all of the glyphs already present. The power would mix, adding the power of the soul totem with the magic already present. It sunk in, flowing through and settling with a wave of heat that fell to cold air as quickly as it came.
As she finished Lyra felt a sudden drain on her aether, and wavered slightly, grabbing the edge of the table with a trembling hand as the stylus dropped from her fingers. She touched a hand to her head, unsure of the full effects of what she had done. As she looked at the body, however, she felt an instant connection. Even without adding her essence to the body, she could... feel it, like it was another hand that was just beyond her mind's awareness. Shaking her head Lyra slowly stood, putting away the last of the tools before returning to the table. She took the last of the infused ichor and bathed the entire length of the snake's body in the substance. She used small, gently strokes to work the substance into the pictographs which pushed in response as it was absorbed. Then, at last, she was done.
With a breath, Lyra slipped a small tendril of herself into the snake, and her senses expanded suddenly. She pulled in a breath as she closed her eyes, suddenly able to see from the doll's perspective. She shifted experimentally, feeling her long body move. As she worked she... felt the soul in the soul gem, the snake press against her own control. Lyra latched onto that soul like one did the reins of a horse, and she could the body suddenly felt almost natural to her. She slowly slithered over the table, not far as she did not wish to damage the stitching, and curled in on herself. With a mental flick she felt the connection with the glyphs inside, and there was a crackle of energy as electricity arched over the snake's scales.
Smiling Lyra released her hold on the snake, it's body growing limp as she left. It would take some time, but she would master this doll.
"Artur." Lyra said, leaning forward and petting its unmoving head, "I will name him Artur."
