80th of Spring, 514 AV
Anna blinked as she looked over the notes before her, tapping her brush lightly and pondering exactly what the process before her was telling her. So far the tests had been semi-successful and she had found at least some purpose to spend some of her funds on. Still, it was not ready to present to her superiors by a long shot. After all, the success ratio was anything but perfect and some test subjects ended up simply imploding in upon themselves. She had also yet to discover a reversal to the state the subjects found themselves in, so at the moment compared to her other research it was still just a trifling fancy.
The tall sorceress was dressed rather commonly; a tunic, trousers, and boots adorned her body as she sat in a small side room set aside for this bit of research. Beyond the far door was her personal quarters, a large a lavish affair that was really. In the center of the side room upon the floor, restrained and within a chalk circle, was a naked human male that was groaning slight to indicate the drugs were still in effect. Anna rather disliked shrieking test subjects; they tended to ruin her concentration in matters of magic. Thus she had found that gags or drugs tended to be the most effective method to dealing with that.
Sighing, the sorceress closed her journal and shrugged her shoulders, figuring that this one would surely fair better than the last six subjects. It was getting to the point where she was pondering just scrapping the whole little side project and terminating the subjects still living, or at the least sell them off to get some amount of her Miza back. The sorceress stood from the chair and moved to start pacing around the test subject as she examined the Glyphs. Those Morphers certainly knew their stuff, though it still was still unreliable. In all likelihood this one would simply leave another mess to clean up.
“Starting trial number 57, Test Subject 38F is the subject this time.” The sorceress said, stooping towards the Trigger Glyph and touching it with her index finger.
The Trigger then activated and the Glyph that contained the magic within the circle released it, effecting change upon the man’s body almost immediately. This whole mad idea had stemmed from her encounters with Pycon, which were easy to store and conceal and took up little space. So she figured why not try the same results on other people instead, it seemed a nice side project to keep her mind sharp when she hit a standstill in other pursuits. Instead it was a headache really, rather irritating at that and a waste of her time.
The man’s form shifted and twisted in upon itself, condensing and the sound of bones grinding together filled the air as the process continued. It was an ugly thing to look upon but it was not painful from what she had observed, that at least was true if it worked correctly. Amazingly it appeared to work correctly this time and the sorceress could not help but smile. So trial number 57 was a success at the very least and now in the center of the circle was a tiny three inch tall human male, still drugged to groggy incoherence.
The dark haired woman reached down carefully and plucked the test subject up, moving back over to the desk. He looked just as he had previously as she handled him between her fingers none to gentle, which might very well be part of the problem. Perhaps instead of focusing upon maintaining their physical identity she should instead focus upon turning them into other creatures? Newts were small and easily contained after all; the same was true for most insect species. Though that still left the matter of reversal up in the air.
After recording her results she took up an empty jar from the corner of the desk and placed the test subject into it, marking the test subject’s designation upon the front of it and putting a lid over it. The lid possessed a small hole in the top to filter air in, a necessity she had discovered after her first subject had suffocated. That had been rather unfortunate, but trial and error went that way and this little side project was more error than trial.
The sorceress took up the jar and moved to a small closet, opening the door and bathing the room in light. Eleven other jars lined the wall opposite her, each one holding a living test subject that showed varied responses to her entrance. Some started striking the glass futilely, others shrank away as far as they could and others simply stared forlornly. Anna gave them no more regard or attention than she would any other test subject, simply placing the new jar down on the far right and staring at the now twelve subjects. Twelve out of 57, that was rather abysmal and only further cemented the idea of just shutting down the drain on resources one way or another.
The sorceress crossed her arms under her breasts as she pondered it, today’s trial had been a success but that did not mean the next time would be the same. It seemed to be a random thing and Anna hated random occurrences. Perhaps they had something medically wrong or right with them, so an examination might clear some things up. If she recalled correctly, the woman she shared this place with was a medical practitioner so perhaps she might have an opinion on the matter. It seemed worth a shot.
“Nilika! Do come here my dear; I want to ask your opinion on something!” Anna called out of the room, attempting to summon the Konti.
