"It's sort of like topiary." Tallis gestured with her hands, as she tried to explain.

Barely looking up from the enormous tome he was reading, Borissean raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "Gardening. Not magecraft. Pointless, really."

Behind him, Gaspar stood silent, his expression one of suppressed mirth as he listened to his companion's complaints about the mention of anything not directly related to magical research. Tallis knew he wouldn't actually say anything encouraging, but she also knew he enjoyed it when someone actually stood up to his cynical partner in research.

"Efficient." Countered Tallis. "Shaping a small part of the growth of something means that I don't have to negotiate with a craftsman, and I don't have to argue about exactly what I want. I catch a lobster or a small mudcrab, and I enchant it's growth, and then a few days later I have the vial I want, not as breakable as glass, and just the way I want it."

"That's-" Borissean paused, frowning thoughtfully as he visualized the potential.

"Unconventional." Put in Gaspar.

"I like it. Well-conceived, Ward Tallis." Decided Borissean.

"Admittedly it could be dangerous, unless I catch a fairly tame mud crab." Tallis admitted.

Typically, having decided in favor of the idea, Borissean waved aside any consideration of potential difficulties. "That's what unimaginative apprentices are for. We'll just assign someone to stun and catch a mud crab. Put it in a tub or something to restrain it while you experiment."

Tallis clasped her hands. "So I can research it?"

The two mages looked at each other for a long moment. Apparently they had a kind of non-verbal shorthand, because once they started talking again, Tallis had the feeling she'd missed a fairly detailed conversation.

Gaspar nodded to his partner. "I'll have Viernis put a couple of the apprentices on it as punishment detail. They'll whine a bit, but that's all to the good."

Borrissean made an approving noise and turned to Tallis. "You'd better get started then. I'd estimate that it will take a day and a half for them to get your experimental creature ready for you."

"Assuming nobody gets killed in the process." Gaspar muttered. His voice was more amused than worried.

Tallis blanched. "You think that could happen? Maybe I should do it then. I don't want anyone to get hurt."

Borrissean put his hands to her shoulders and steered her in the direction of the research area. "It would take an idiot to get himself killed by a mud crab."

Tallis didn't protest further, because surely he meant that all the apprentices were smarter than that, and would be careful, and work together, and it would be okay. Or at least she hoped it would be okay. She put one hand in a pocket and crossed her fingers.

The older mage massaged her shoulders as he walked her through the corridor. "Don't worry. If they're going to get killed so easily, they were poor battle mage candidates anyway. That so many apprentices have such aspirations only demonstrates their appalling lack of creativity." The tone of voice told Tallis he was rolling his eyes at the thought. "Why the Arch mage feels we need to keep supplying the legion with magical support I will never understand."

Tallis knew from her history classes that it was the dual strength of both magic and might that kept the Imperium strong. Emperor Uriel Septim VII himself was said to be skilled both as a warrior and as a mage. However she knew better than to bring that up again. So instead she said. "Well, I doubt that shaping things will be seen as having much in the way of direct combat application."

"That is why none of them would have thought of it." Borrissean chuckled dryly. "There is more to power than simple destruction."

~~

Renald Viernes, Mage and Proctor of the Arcane University of the Imperial City, crossed his arms and glared at the unwelcome intrusion into his beloved practice halls. Granted, despite his usually slightly disheveled appearance, Gaspar Stegine was a renowned researcher, and a higher ranking member of the University, but he had this habit of showing up with the most unorthodox of requests. "You want me to send out my apprentices to ... what, exactly?" His tone was equal parts disbelief and disdain.

"To capture a mud crab."

It was taking Gaspar considerable effort to keep a straight face. Anything out of the ordinary grated on Renald, which was why he tended to be rather horrified at the idea of any sort of change or research.

Gaspar continued. "Not kill, not even wound it if possible. There's a pool in the alchemy garden that should work well enough for a pen, once it's fenced and warded."

Face flushing, Renald opened his mouth, clearly wanting to decline the request. His eyes tracked to the badge of rank; he closed his mouth, and eventually said. "Very well, Sorcerer Stegine. You shall have your mudcrab within the week; I will inform you when the preparations are complete.

"Oh you don't need to inform me." Gaspar made a waving motion, as if unconcerned with further details. "The mud crab is for an experiment being done by Ward Tallis. Just let her know when everything's ready."

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Out of the corner of his vision, Gaspar watched Renald's face deepen from slightly flushed, to furiously angry. Really, the poor man must be having a bad week to be this on edge. At the point where Renald was on the edge of an outburst or an apoplectic fit, or possibly both, Gaspar casually added.

"Borissean is most curious to see what she can do with her latest magical project."

At mention of the Redguard sorcerer's name, the Proctor seemed to deflate like a netted puffer-fish. He even closed his eyes for a moment.

"This would be the same Ward Tallis that accidentally covered the entire podium in an overgrowth of green stain cup fungi last month?"

"Why, yes." Gaspar did smile at that point; she'd been arguing that a simple enhancement of plant growth could be a valuable supplement to alchemical preparations. Master Alchemist Julienne Fanis, without actually saying that she supported the practice had quietly acquired the entire crop for her potions.

"The same Ward Tallis whose so-called mock duel with Fithragaer's oldest apprentice left the young man so completely tangled in watermelon vines that it took two hours to cut him out of them?"

"That would indeed be her." Gaspar had to admit that she had shown a remarkable ability to adapt seemingly innocuous spells to get indirect and sometimes powerful effects; but he also thought that any apprentice that could be entwined in magical growth up to his codpiece before noticing it had some problems with his alertness.

Finally the Proctor opened his eyes again, his expression schooled to careful blandness. "And you, and of course sorcerer Borrisean want me to arrange for her to have access to a mud crab, so that she can ... experiment."

"Exactly." Gaspar made to look slightly concerned. "Do you think that your apprentices are incapable of arranging this?"

Renald thought carefully before phrasing his answer. "I don't anticipate any problems with arranging for a pen, and for a live mud crab. However once in the pen, the creature naturally becomes the responsibility of Ward Tallis."

Gaspar nodded. "Naturally." After all, even Tallis couldn't get into too much trouble around a mud crab.

Borrisean spent the rest of the afternoon in the Praxographical Center mostly feigning supervision of Tallis' magical research, but in reality actually re-reading a text on the metaphysics of summoning. Unlike the battlemage-in-training that was the average apprentice, Ward Tallis had a habit of designing very subtle spells, so the risks of inadvertent damage were few. But as there was always the chance something could go wrong, one of the master researchers had to be present.

Tallis had gathered the books she thought would be most relevant, and had them open, stacked one atop the other, on the desk. She alternated between the desk, and the spellmaking altar, although for most of the morning she called up only the most minimal of energies. Not even really whole spells. Instead of making formal notes, most of her preparation was scrawled depictions of hand positions for directing the magicka.

Looking over the edge of his book, Borrisean found himself nodding in approval as she used sequentially increasing amounts of magika. He narrowed his eyes, and let his vision go slightly out of focus as he watched carefully. She had clearly adopted much of her technique from Gaspar, and it was effective. It was late afternoon when she finally appeared satisfied with her efforts, and retrieving a pot of loam, brought it to the altar, poking a few seeds into the soil as she did so.

She wove magicka into the seeds and Borrisean watched unsurprised as slender green shoots appeared about the rim of the pot. They widened into multi-spiked leaves, and slowly buds appeared and then opened into small yellow-orange blossoms.

"Mugwort." He said approvingly.

She turned to smile in his direction. "I know the seeds are kind of hard to come by, so I thought it would be useful."

"Well chosen." It was really a pity that she wasn't more drawn to summoning.

It was the following evening when she showed him the modification she'd induced into the growth of the plant. A fist-sized was pod growing at the base of one of the stems. "There's so much of the plant that's fuzzy, I wanted to try and see if it I could make it as tangly as lamb's wool, maybe to make thread or yarn out of it."

Borrisean made a snort of disapproval. "Clothier's work, not mages."

Tallis shook her head. "Just think how much more powerful the magics that could be woven into mages' robes if enchantment was layered into the thread the cloth was woven from."

They might have gotten into more of a discussion, but Gaspar poked his head around the door into the Praxographical Center. "Ward Tallis, I believe you were expecting a mud crab?" His hair and pale blue robes were slightly disheveled as usual, and he waved her to precede him to the gardens.

She had initially expected that he would lead her to somewhere in the Alchemical Gardens, but instead they went through the lobby and out into the public gardens. Until recently, the only alchemically useful ingredient to be found there was more of the Fly Amanitas that seemed to proliferate all over the Imperial City. After Tallis' rather overly successful attempt to expand the amount of green stain cup in the Alchemical gardens proper, there were a few specimens out here as well.

Julienne Fanis had been all in favor of expanding the potential of the outer gardens, but one of her first concerns was to make sure that the most interesting and visible newer plants would not be appealing to the curious; so she had gone to considerable trouble to cultivate stinkhorn there. Despite some initial failures, there were many specimens now grown to a significant size. There had been an incident with a down on his luck Imperial named Lurio Maenius, who had presumed that the newer plants would be valuable, so he'd started ripping tendrils off of the one of the prominent stinkhorns.

The stench had literally overwhelmed him, and he'd been found semiconscious in a pool of his own vomit. He'd been an object of ridicule since then, and rumors started circulating that the plants in the "outer mages' garden" could defend themselves. Few had disturbed any of Julienne's newer plantings since then.

The area in the northwest outer gardens had been cordoned off with wooden fencing. In the far end of it, stone that had once been a few boulders presumably left over from construction had been reshaped to form a kind of low pool, about twelve feet wide and maybe two or three feet tall. The mudcrab was roaming around outside of the pool, clacking it's pinchers in an irritated way.

It wasn't until Tallis was very close to the pen, that she realized a serious downside to her plan. The mudcrab was at least double the size of her torso. The top of the mud crab's shell came almost to her chest. The pinchers were longer than her forearms. It was skittering back and forth in the confined area, snapping agitatedly, clearly not happy to be trapped.

She was going to have to touch it, and for more than just a moment, in order to cast her spell. She stood still, watching it's angry blue eyes as it reared up and snapped it's pinchers at her. How do you make friends with a mud crab?

She spoke in a very small voice. "I thought it would be smaller."