What We Do to Survive

I met Miranda in one of the smaller training rooms typically set aside for medical magic and similar research. It came stocked with some rather intimidating looking ‘medical’ equipment that looked like something Igor would use and three different examination tables complete with adjustable restraints.

She was already there waiting for me, and I could see her shifting uncomfortably as her eyes flickered around the room. She was sitting on a tall stool, a thick notebook clutched in her lap and her other hand fretfully playing with her hair. She was wearing a lovely blue dress today, cut to cover one shoulder and expose a generous bit of cleavage on the other side. It ended well above her knees and the color wonderfully brought out her eyes.

She stood up when she saw me come in, bowing her head and stepping away from the seat. “Hi Orion.”

“And hello to you as well Miranda, you’re looking lovely today!” I smiled cheerfully, “I see you have the information I requested?”

“Ah, yes Orion,” she extended the hand holding the notebook, “I’m pretty sure I understood who you were interested in, but just in case I also made a write up about several other students that fit some of those criteria.”

Grabbing the notebook, I flipped through it quickly, just scanning the neatly written notes and observations. “Very good, thank you Miranda.”

“Um, is that everything then?” She glanced around furtively and bit her lip, clearly uncomfortable. My smile widened and I saw her swallow heavily.

“No, I think there are a few more things I needed you for. I hope you don’t have anything planned, we’re going to be a while.”

“Of course. Sorry sir.”

“Don’t worry about it, you couldn’t have known. Take a seat.”

I summoned another stool from across the room, pulling it towards me with a rope of mana and sat down facing her stool. She sat down, legs crossed and tucked under the seat and hands folded in her lap.

“So to start, how about you give me a brief rundown of what you’ve given me here.” I wiggled the journal, then dropped it onto my bag.

“Ok. Um, where should I start?”

“Whatever you feel is best.”

“Right.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts, her hands fidgeting nervously. “So, the girl you wanted me to look into. I’m pretty sure the person you mentioned is Briella Ongallo. She matches the description you gave, tall and willowy, black hair, grey eyes, and her family rules one of Iveria’s four duchies. I can show you if you’d like?”

At my nod, she raised a hand and conjured a small illusionary image of the woman in question. She was indeed the person I’d been thinking of and I complemented Miranda on her work.

“Right, so she’s a second year like you said, somewhere in the middle of the pack when it comes to academics. From what I found, her family has some amount of non-human ancestry but it is mostly diluted. You can still sort of see it in her eyes, they apparently glow in the dark and have some other magical properties I was unable to find out.”

Interesting, that would be something to watch out for. “Any idea what sort of creature they come from?”

“Not really. I’d guess some sort of summoned creature but it's hard to say beyond that. It's something everyone in her family has from what I can tell, so it might be from an old bloodline ritual and not a natural occurrence.”

It was possible, if rather difficult, to bind some types of enhancement magic to a bloodline. There were some people that theorized that elves were a result of this sort of magical medling, but the elven kingdoms typically suppressed those rumors whenever they cropped up. “Very good. Continue?”

“Uh, I wrote down what classes she’s taken so far and how she did in them. That would take a while to go through and it's all in the notebook. I also took a look at the people she associates with in case you were actually interested in one of them?”

“Maybe.”

“Well she mostly hangs around with three people outside of classes. She has an older cousin who’s actually a first year student this year, his name is Cellin and he seems somewhat promising. He came in with a pretty good foundation and has been doing very well in his classes so far.”

“Who else?”

“Right, the other two are some of her yearmates, Verdan Bluesap and Cayla Spellblade.” I raised an eyebrow at the names. Verdan sounded like an elven name though I wasn’t really familiar with the half dozen elves in the second year. Spellblade on the other hand was a name I knew well. It was a large, military name from my homeland. I’d actually met a couple of Spellblades, it was a commonly awarded last name, given to any lower caste spellcasters that distinguished themselves in battle.

Miranda continued on, “She seems closer to Cayla but shares almost all her classes with Verdan and they study together several times a week.”

“Show me,” I ordered, interrupting her. She quickly obliged and I spent a moment studying the two illusions. Verdan looked like a pretty typical elf, tall and slim but with very generous curves and a bust that looked somewhat out of place on her lithe frame. It was hard to tell with elves, but I estimated she was probably slightly older than Mistletoe was. That didn’t really mean much though, she could be anywhere from fifty to five hundred years in age and look no different. Cayla also looked about how I’d expected, with the typical olive skin and dark eyes that were rather typical on our island.

“Very good, continue.”

She let the image drop and dove back into her report. “Verdan is a very good mage, though she hasn’t displayed any particular skill above that of her yearmates. She seems to have a very solid foundation however, and could already cast first circle spells when she began her education. Cayla is the weakest of the three, and I’ve heard from other students that it's unlikely that she will last much longer. She seems to have come to Avalon with Briella, I gather that they knew each other for several years at the very least before deciding to enroll together.”

She paused for a moment, then bit her lip. “I think that's basically everything. I put a lot more details in the notebook, stuff like past classes, current schedules, other people they associate with, what spells they’ve shown they know, but all that is hard to summarize off the top of my head. I could try if you’d like?”

“That won’t be necessary, I can take a look on my own. Very well done Miranda.”

“Thank you sir.”

“I want you to continue to watch them, figure out their regular schedules, where they study, when they are alone. I’ll want another report next week, understood?”

“Yes sir.” She swallowed heavily and weakly asked, “Um, can I ask you a question sir?”

“Oh?”

She looked away, gnawing on her bottom lip in the way she tended to do when nervous. Finally she blurted out, “Am I getting replaced? I promise I’m doing my best! I can help you with anything you need!”

Oh. Yes, I could see where she was coming from. Trying to use my most comforting tone I laughed and said, “Oh don’t worry about that dear. You’re still plenty useful to me. This is just me… expanding my reach a little, let's call it. You told me yourself, social situations are not exactly my strong suit, and I like to take steps to manage my weaknesses.”

She did not seem particularly reassured by that, but I didn’t really care much. This next part was definitely not going to help reassure her in any way, but that certainly wasn’t going to stop me.

“In any case, I think it's time to move onto the other reason I asked you to meet with me.”

I hopped off the stool and checked that the door was closed and locked. Rooms like this were not considered safe rooms, likely for this very reason. It would be unfortunate if anyone wandered in while I was busy.

“Strip, then hop onto the table.”

Miranda froze, her eyes going to the racks of ‘medical equipment’ scattered throughout the room. There was a very impressive collection, with everything ranging from a selection of bone saws, to what I was pretty sure was a selection of dental tools, and all sorts of other nasty looking probes and blades.

“Miranda.” I said warningly, and she jumped to obey.

It took only a moment for her to step out of her dress, revealing that, as usual, she wasn’t wearing any undergarments under the dress. It had been nearly two years since the last time I’d seen her like this, the day I’d forced her to swear her loyalty and obedience and released her back into the school. I took a moment to appreciate the fine work of art that was her magically sculpted body. Even without her supernatural allure, she was a stunning young woman, as befitting of her heritage as a predator of men.

Elves, both men and women, were gorgeous creatures, but I often felt they seemed almost too artificial. They somewhat reminded me of Igor’s ‘art’, pieces of expertly crafted flesh woven into a whole that just didn’t look quite right. Miranda on the other hand was less perfect but somehow prettier because of it. Her looks, though similarly magical in nature, felt more natural then the eerie perfection that elven women tended towards.

I shook my head, clearing out the cobwebs of Miranda’s allure that had crept up on me while I’d been staring. “Did I tell you to just stand there and look pretty? Get on the table.”

She scurried over, ditching her heels beside her dress and clambering up onto the padded surface. She shivered, goosebumps trailing across her arms as her warm body came into contact with the cold padding.

I spent a moment fiddling with the controls, then lowered the table by several inches so it stood at roughly waist level. Then I began to strap her down, pulling her limbs out spread-eagle and fastening them one by one with the padded manacles at each corner.

Her shivering got worse, and by the time I was binding her last limb, she had begun to shake. I patted her gently on the cheek, but the reassuring only seemed to make things worse. I put the gag I was holding down beside her head and sat down on the edge of the table beside her.

“Don’t worry dear, this is simply for your safety. I don’t want you thrashing around while I’m working or biting your tongue off.”

Once again, that didn’t seem to reassure her in the least, but she didn’t say anything. She looked pale, well paler than her usual skin tone, and her teeth were clenched tightly shut.

“Calm down Miranda,” I commanded this time, pulling on the oaths that bound her to me, “This is just a temporary measure. Just for an hour or two and then we’ll be done.”

That seemed to help slightly and she quietly asked, “Orion, what are you doing? What do you need me for?” There were tears in the corners of her eyes and she continued to tremble despite my orders.

“It's nothing to be concerned about. I just need to… examine you a little for my research. It might hurt a little, but that's it.”

I wiped away a tear and then pushed her unresisting mouth open, carefully inserting the tongue depressor and making sure the gag fit snugly between her teeth. “Very good. One last bit now.”

Digging into my bag, I withdrew one of the magic suppressing collars I’d prepared back when I was getting ready to take care of Mistletoe. It was not as powerful as the one my pet elf was wearing, but Miranda was a much less magical creature than she was.

Letting my magic pour outwards, I pressed down on Miranda’s soul and snapped the two halves of the collar shut around her neck. With my magic restraining her, she didn’t even have a chance to resist the effect, only letting out a sharp gasp as the restraint kicked in.

I patted her cheek again. “Very nice. Now, you can lie back and relax for a few hours and then you’ll be on your way. Well, probably.” I stood up and walked around the table, examining her with both my magical and physical senses. I quickly noticed two magical items that I didn’t recognize and leaned in to take a closer look.

She’d replaced her nipple piercings, the two heart-shaped barbells she’d used to wear replaced by small golden rings each with a glimmering blue crystal. Each held a different enchantment and they felt impressively powerful for something so small. I took a moment to examine the enchantments, wondering what she felt was important enough to use on something so atypical instead of the normal necklaces or rings that most people favored for the increased size and surface area.

It didn’t take long to figure it out, and when I did I almost felt bad about what I was doing to her. The left ring was enchanted to help prevent asphyxiation, it could provide the user with oxygen directly transmuted inside her lungs, bypassing her throat entirely. The second was an anti-poison enchantment, one specifically designed to resist knockout drugs of various kinds.

It felt pretty clear that she’d gotten them as a direct result of what I’d done when I’d turned the tables on her during our first year. I’d choked her out, then drugged her while she was disabled so I could properly restrain her. If she’d had these then, maybe things would have gone differently.

Well, unfortunately these might interfere with my examination so they were coming out. What would have been the point of using a restraining collar if I then went and left two magic items that directly affected her body on her person?

Leaning over, I carefully removed the rings one at a time. She was trying to say something, or maybe just screaming, but the silencing enchantment on the gag ensured that no sound came out. I gave her another pat on the cheek and adjusted her hair so it ran down over the back of the table.

“Ok, now I think we’re ready to get started. This might hurt a little.”

Holding her head steady with one hand, I placed the other over her heart and looked down into her wide, fearful eyes. My mana flowed out around her, engulfing her tightly restrained form, and then I dove in.

It was much easier than it had been with Mistletoe. I was correct in thinking that eye contact would be helpful, it made the entire process much easier, and when combined with her much lower magic resistance and my increased experience, it was almost trivial compared to what I’d done with my little elf.

As I’d predicted, the magic pathways that made up her natural gifts were much simpler than those of an elf. It was like comparing a masterwork tapestry to a roughly mended pant seam. Of course in that comparison, my own circulation was like a bundle of unwashed and unprocessed wool, but I hadn’t been born lucky.

Unfortunately, after an hour of detailed analysis, I concluded that this brought me no closer to my goal of copying the circulations of non-magical creatures. Miranda’s patterns were too tightly woven into her body and soul, making them almost useless to me unless I decided to turn myself into a busty blonde.

That was actually something to consider if my shape changing practice went well. There was a strong possibility I could derive something that would assist with that sort of transformation from what I’d seen inside her body, but I shelved that idea for now. That was a long way off, I hadn’t even finished forming my shifter’s body yet.

Still, the experience had certainly not been useless. I’d learned a lot about how someone’s circulation could be interwoven with their body to modify and amplify the effect. I could in theory copy over her entire network, though it would be rather difficult to do. It would do me no good however, in the best case it would simply go inert, but more likely it would tear me apart from the inside out as the circulation tried to override my body’s natural state.

Additionally, it was a good cautionary lesson about what not to do when I eventually attempted to do trait-stealing rituals. As I’d seen in Erna, the circulation could change the body around it, and if I was not prepared or did not account for it properly, that could prove incredibly lethal. With a circulation, I could at least hope to disable it before it killed me. If I’d just gone and stole a trait like hers wholesale, there would have been no such option. After all, natural traits typically had no off switch.

Pulling back, I let my attention recede from her internals though I did not cut it off entirely yet. There was one more thing I wanted to try. I left the hand over her heart and used the other to reach into my bag and dig out a small vial of pink-tinged fluid. I’d done some minor processing to it, just to make sure it was uncontaminated and at least marginally safe.

“Now then Miranda, you’ve been very good so far. I’m going to pour this into your mouth, and you’re going to swallow it. Ok?”

She whimpered something into her gag, then tried to nod her head, but I’d already unscrewed the opening in the front of her gag and tipped the entire vial down her throat. She choked and spluttered, but I pinched her nose shut and made sure she swallowed all of it.

Without waiting to see her reaction, I shoved the stopper back into her gag and refocused on her internal magic. Watching it work was fascinating, tendrils carefully reaching out and absorbing the magically charged fluid she’d just drunk. Then it began to distribute the energy throughout her body in a way I couldn’t quite understand. It was making improvements, slight modifications to her spirit and body based on some sort of signature the magic was reading in the liquid.

I looked closer, following the trails of mana as they seeped throughout her bones and muscles. They were, as I’d noticed earlier, primarily clustered around her breasts and reproductive organs, but bits of the network stretched throughout her body and, surprisingly, even into her hair and nails. That was actually very interesting, as most of the books I’d referenced told me that ‘dead’ parts of the body like those could not sustain portions of a circulation.

Unfortunately, the mana in the fluid eventually ran dry, and I had only brought the one vial with me. I would definitely have to repeat the experiment soon, perhaps with a few more specialized tools on hand. I was very happy I’d thought to continue watching her after giving her the dose, instead of just sending her on her way.

I pulled away again, but this time disconnected entirely, withdrawing my mana back into my core. I had spent a fair bit of it, about a third of my total reserves, leaving me with about a third left when accounting for what I’d used during the practical lesson. I would likely have to skip some of the practice I’d planned for this evening, but the progress I’d made was well worth that cost.

Stepping away from the table, I took a look at my poor little test subject. She was soaked in sweat and shivering, eyes rolled back in her head and red marks on her palms from where her nails had cut into skin. I would need to remember that for next time, something to protect her palms.

For the sake of expediting the cleanup, I summoned a large sphere of cold water directly above her and, after forming a basic mana shield to protect me from splash damage, let it drop. She jolted like she’d been struck, head jerking up and limbs tensing against their restraints. She glanced around frantically, sending soaked hair whipping around her face.

I suppressed a laugh and stepped forward, giving her wet hair a gentle pat. “Glad to see you awake. Hopefully that wasn’t too bad, I got a lot of valuable data out of it. I think we’re done for now, though we might need to schedule a couple of follow up sessions.”

I ignored her reaction as I slowly went about undoing her restraints. Last to come off was the gag and collar, at which point she weakly clambered off the table and collapsed shivering onto her knees. I gave her a concerned look, I didn’t think it should have hurt that bad, but let her get herself together without interfering. Miranda was a strong and private woman, she wouldn’t appreciate my meddling.

According to the clock on the wall, it had only been a little over two and a half hours including our discussion and the time needed to get her prepared. That left just about half an hour before my reserved time ran out. I would give her fifteen minutes and then have a little talk with her before we went our separate ways. Maybe I would offer to walk her back to her room, she looked a little fragile right now and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to my favorite subordinate. Some unsavory characters might try to take advantage of her.

For now however, I wanted to take some notes on what I’d seen while it was still fresh in my mind. What a fascinating way of studying magic, I was really glad I’d stumbled on something so convenient. There was no way I would have been able to get anywhere near that level of detail with a structured spell. Well, maybe someday, but not in any circle I could cast.