Once the group had finished brainstorming they began to make quick work of the project. Despite their relative demeanours they were all masters in their respective fields, and with Laurence guiding them while working on the base of the project, the fleshly form, their progress was seamless. Laurence began with taking out a variety of precious materials from within his minor plane, some home grown, some collected over his journey throughout the Tower. Monsters harvested for their flesh, rare gems for the bones, ancient plants for the tendons and sinew, and liquid metals for what would eventually become the blood. Each choice was made to promote Ruko’s own capabilities while not cutting any part of her potential life short.
Once the materials were gathered together Laurence released his immensely powerful truesight and began warping the forms of the materials at a molecular level into the shape that his student wanted. Every so often he would look over to Fen, or rather Ruko, who would direct him towards how she wanted to look specifically. With the glyphs that Laurence placed into even the smallest particles of her existence her form would change as she grew older, but only to the extent that she allowed. The young girl would eventually realise that her body was under her complete control, to do with as she wished.
Once the form was complete, Jim began to instruct Laurence on the directions that the mana pathways should take. This entire process was a slow one, but it was done in one pass. Laurence’s mana filled her body, leaving etchings of his own strength as pathways that the mana that spilled from her own reservoir would take in the future. Normally these pathways were fixed from conception, so the chance to completely construct her pathways was not one that Laurence would let Ruko miss. He was only slightly bitter about not being able to give Fen the opportunity to have the same gift given to him.
Once the pathways were complete, Quentin began to set up an odd machine. It used a large chunk of quartz crystal as a case that Laurence put the nearly complete body within, and then by sitting Ruko in possession of Fen’s body on top of the crystal allowed it produced waves of energy that gradually attuned the girl to her new body.
The final part was that which Peter took control of. It was the last piece that needed to be done before the final assembly, and while just as obscure and intricate a process as any of the steps that had gone before, it was shortest by far, happening in a fraction of a second once they had completed their preparations and all the other steps that had gone before it. He simply set up a circle with various totems at key points and a string of twisting and warping symbols connecting them. Once they were set up and the harmonisation had been performed by Quentin’s odd quartz machine, Peter placed the statuette within the circle and began to inject his mana into the ritual he had constructed. He ushered Ruko into the statuette and she separated herself from Fen as the light from the procedure reached almost blinding levels. The moment she was inside the statuette the light from the totems and the markings on the ground dimmed and Peter placed Ruko’s new form in Laurence’s hands. Carefully, he placed Ruko against the chest of her new body, and his mana bloomed. It wrapped both the body and the statuette and as his power rose the statuette seemed to melt inside seamlessly, until all that was left was the form of a young girl with dark brown hair like her brother.
Her eyes flickered open and slowly she tried to sit up. As she managed to prop her arms up, Fen rushed over and wrapped his arms around the girl who had lived within him for so long. As they simply held each other Laurence twisted his hands and formed a smock out of the lamplight within the room, before moving to place it on her, but as he moved over he noticed that there was a soft blue glow radiating off both children.
“This is new,” he said as the intensity of the blue light increased. “Were any of you expecting this?”
“I’ve never heard of anything like what we just did, so all of this is new to me. Are you sure you weren’t expecting this, Law?” Jim tentatively moved his hand towards the two children incase the odd phenomena turned for the worse, but held back momentarily.
As the blank faced group watched the two children the glow faded and Ruko grabbed the smock in Laurence’s hands before pulling it over herself. She smiled bashfully and hugged Laurence’s leg before returning to hugging her brother. “Thank you Master,” she said quietly as she and Fen shared a knowing smile.
“I should right some of my wrongs during this journey, and combining the two of you was one of the most abhorrent things I tried to do in Cleo’s name. I’m glad I could rectify that at least...” Laurence walked over to the window and looked outside, his tea cup raising slowly to his lips. As he took a long draught of the tea he stared at the cloudbank that was closer now. It took up half the sky and was even partially obscuring the moon, the blue lightning flickering across it like angry fireflies flitting through the night sky. Now that Laurence could see it more closely, he could not help but feel how ominous the clouds seemed. It was like they intended to consume the whole realm. After a minute he finally spoke, “Those clouds outside are massive now."
“Clouds?” Quentin said, confusion plain as day on his face. “What are you talking about there aren’t any clouds here.” he walked over to the window and looked outside, only to gasp in horror when he saw the massive cloudbank that now obscured half the night sky. He opened the door and looked outside, only to be buffeted back in by a gust of wind that nearly knocked him off his feet. As he sat up he looked back at Laurence and said “How long have the clouds been there?”
“I saw them just before I came back inside and we made Ruko’s new body. They weren’t small then, but they were much further away. Are they an issue?”
“Yes.” Quentin stood up and began rushing about, setting off a variety of arrays within the cottage. “Nothing grows here, nothing lives here. The only thing that happens here is discarnate wraiths scream and try to feast upon anything that has a sliver of life within it. It does not rain, which means there are no clouds, and whatever that storm is should not be here."
“So what now?”
“Well cousin, I have an obligation to find out whatever is causing that storm and get it to stop, and you need to go that way anyway because the storm is coming from the direction of the crypt your father wanted me to guide you to."
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