Laurence stayed outside for another hour, simply watching the moon and the dark sky. Thick clouds bubbled up on the horizon, lit by the sickly yellow glow of the moon. Sparks of blue light could occasionally be seen skittering along the cloud surface, giving the already foreboding clouds an even more ominous feeling. The screeches and cries of the wisps continued in earnest, desperately searching for some kind of release. There was no method to the madness. There was only death.
Slowly Laurence stood up and wiped his face carefully, before placing his crystalline pendant back under his shirt. Patting it gently, he smiled like a man watching a loved one sleep, then strode back into the cottage. Not much had changed in the time he was outside, but Fen was sitting at a table and playing about with the statuette that had the capability to host Ruko’s essence. It was currently a simple statuette, but that did not stop the boy looking at it curiously and experimenting with his truesight, poking and prodding to make it work.
“Master,” he called out as he spotted Laurence. “I’m stuck."
“What seems to be the issue?” Laurence pulled a chair out and sat next to his student before enveloping the statuette in his own truesense.
“I wanted to make it more... real. The statuette as it stands is a wooden doll, but I want to make it a real body for Ruko. She shouldn’t have to live in wood if she doesn’t live in me."
“Huh...” Laurence muttered as he contemplated what Fen was suggesting. Raising his hand to his chin, he began to tap his nose gently. “You want to transmute this to flesh, giving her all the capabilities of a real body with all the bonuses that the statuette gives, correct?”
Fen blushed slightly. “Yessir... I’d really like to make one for her. How do I?”
Hearing the chatter from Laurence and Fen, the other three men walked over and sat down at the table. “What’s this?” Jim asked curiously.
“The challenge is to make a new human body for a spirit of a young girl. The key points are it has to be a real body, it must be able to cultivate, it has to be able to accommodate Ruko perfectly, and finally, the statuette before you is the base."
“That shouldn’t be too hard, should it?” Peter said. “I mean the most important thing there is making sure the body accommodates her spirit, and that requires her body to carry her spiritual frequency, but that is a simple fix."
“Spiritual frequency?”
“Do you not know much about the practices of life and death, Jim?” Asked Quentin. “I would have thought that after being around Law and a Mephisto for some time that you would know at least a few things about the soul."
“Honestly, I spent more time learning the Book of Chaos from my former partner than I did learning about the Book of Life from Law.” Jim paused, before smirking and glancing at his friend. “Plus, I always thought that Law was an awful teacher."
“Rude,” Laurence replied. “A person’s spiritual frequency is the main thing that keeps your spirit from just leaving your body at random. It’s effectively a lock on your spirit. The issue is that when someone dies that lock is shattered beyond repair, the frequency of the flesh changes and cannot be repaired."
“It’s the first stumbling block for anyone when they try to start resurrecting the dead. I’ve hit it, Laurence has hit it, probably even Quentin has hit it. It’s an unsolvable issue and something that my family have put a bounty of an entire fully formed lesser plane up for. It’s a big deal.” Peter sighed before picking up the statuette and turning it over in his hands. “But if you’re making a body from scratch, then there is no spiritual frequency for the spirit to have to avoid, like in necromancy, or equalise to, like in possession."
“I remember reading about a member of the Absolution family who spent a decade on conceptualising a universal wavelength, one that transforms into whichever is needed over the time that the body is possessed. The only issue was it could only be used by children with complete mana reservoirs,” Quentin said. As he was talking he moved over to a small cabinet and pulled out several mugs and a teapot, setting one in front of each person sitting at the table. Casually he began brewing a pot of herbal tea, only sitting back down when he finished speaking.
“The complete mana reservoir goes without thinking Quentin,” said Peter, sneering slightly at the blond man. “If you lose your mana reservoir your soul scatters or you become a discarnate wraith, much like the spirits that are flitting through the sky outside."
“Those are all discarnate wraiths?” Jim said as he glanced outside, unsettled at the sight of the spirits still battering at the defenses of the building.
“They are,” Peter replied. “Discarnate wraiths have a spiritual frequency that is an anathema to life. Luckily they normally don't occur often."
“Are you kidding me?” Jim's voice went up an octave. “There are hundreds of thousands of them out there! How is that uncommon?”
“This floor of the Tower is special. It's so wholly devoted to death that if something dies here it will automatically discarnate rather than scatter."
“The big issue is that the spiritual wavelength of a discarnate wraith drains life from anything that contains it. The action is instinctual, and allows them to slowly form a natal reservoir, something similar to a second life. The issue is they come back as a greater undead monster with forms made flesh known as a wight,” Laurence said bitterly, cutting Peter off. “It was one of my attempted solutions for Cleo. It did not pan out."
“Ah,” Quentin replied. “Well either way, given a body and a mana reservoir I can assure a nigh perfect body match for the girl. Our ancestor was nothing if not thorough."
“So the next issue is the body,” Peter said. “Where in the name of the fallen morning are we going to get enough flesh and bone to make the body of a child?”
“That part is easy for me,” Laurence said. “I have enough material I can transmute into flesh. That will just take a little time and planning."
“So what about allowing the girl to cultivate?” Peter asked. “As it stands she's a glorified flesh puppet with a soul inside. If what you've said is true and she can currently cultivate inside Fen; we remove her from that environment she will lose that capability."
“I think... I might be able to help with this,” Jim said.
“You?” Peter asked incredulously.
“Look, each of us has different abilities and I defy any one of you to prove yourselves as capable with the Book of Order as I am. I may think most of life is a prank and we are the victims, but I am capable of taking things seriously once in a while."
Peter snorted, but Laurence smiled and nodded. “Go ahead Jim, I know you wouldn't mess around with anything to-do with Ruko."
“Look, the Book of Order specialises in the mind and the process of things, including fine application of mana within the body. We’ve studied all paths within the body, so we have a detailed map of the way that mana pathways are supposed to flow within our Book. Naturally this pattern of pathways doesn't exist, but the closer a person is to this perfect form the stronger their fine control of mana will inherently be."
“So you're saying if we stick to this pattern then she will become physically more talented,” Peter asked incredulously. “That seems pretty unlikely to me."
“No, Jim is right,” Laurence interjected. “I’ve seen the map of pathways he’s talking about but I never thought about it like that. I just glossed over it though, as my own pathways were close enough to it that it seemed like just an amusement to me."
“Honestly it’s a shame that none of us are from a Chaos clan, because then we could turn Ruko into a true talent. They have mana pathway widening and reinforcement techniques that we could have applied, but generally they keep them to themselves. No matter what I tried I couldn’t get Winoa to teach me the Zephyr clan’s technique, even after living with her for as long as I did. If only...” Jim glanced at Laurence and sighed.
“Yeah... I think that often,” Laurence sighed, “Either way, We have an answer for the form, the soul and the mana pathways, but what should we do about the statuette?”
“I actually have an idea for that, Laurence,” Peter said, “It’s not one that has been used in a long time because of the difficulty of application, but this might be the perfect chance to try.” he paused, putting the statuette back in the middle of the table. “Why don’t we make the statuette into a shell for the girl’s mana reservoir?”
“Can that work?” Quentin frowned, and began pouring out the tea into each of the mugs.
“There’s no harm in trying. The only reason the Mephisto clan don’t do it often is because of the rarity of situations that allow for the procedure, namely being a soul and mana reservoir without a body."
Laurence glanced at Fen momentarily. He was nervous, but excited. It was clear to him that the young boy was avidly taking in all the information he could from the adults discussing around him. Even now, Fen was trying to learn as much as he could. Laurence smiled and looked back at the rest of his group. “Let’s do it. Let’s make Ruko a body."
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