Emily frowned to herself as she leaned over the examination table where everyone had gathered.

The introductions had been short and sweet and the next thing she knew Ariandel had thrust them in front of a corpse and told them to figure out how he died.

Emily frowned as she glanced over at her now ‘colleges’.

The older woman who had taken to leaning on a cane was Zila and seemed to be their Tonic Master. She spoke in seemingly irritable grunts and withering glares but Emily was more than fluent in this language.

Connor had introduced himself already but Emily found out he was an Aetheric Anatomist, whatever that was.

The red-skinned giantess held herself with a sort of savage grace that was hard to ignore. Emily had noticed a few of her kind out in the streets of Lorthil. When she inquired, the woman had proudly revealed her species to be an Ogre, specializing in crafting as a Forge Master. Her name was Genevieve, and out of everyone here, she caused the least alarm for Emily. When Genevieve's eyes fell on the scepter at Emily’s side, a look of genuine excitement appeared—free from any trace of greed.

The last person was the complete opposite. The human male was named Neal, and from the moment he opened his mouth, Emily had gotten the most disturbing unease trailing down her spine.

He was cold and calculating, but more than that he watched Emily like a scientist would an animal. Studying her every moment with this hollow gaze. He had minute runes tattooed onto the whites of his eyes making them look almost entirely black.

Ariandel called him a Ruinic observer but Emily called him a creep, his vacant stare lingering on her, unblinking like a predator. His gaunt skin was never quite able to fill his sunken cheeks.

Emily had decided to let him do as he pleased, but if he stepped out of line she would happily use that chance to make him regret it.

“Now, what you all have in front of you is one of my failed specimens. I have already conducted my own investigation but I want to see what you all come up with.” Ariandel said as he came around and pulled the sheet from one of the tables.

The corpse of the man was dried and looked like he passed decades ago, but Emily was not fooled. The way his coagulated blood responded to her meant he could not have died more than a couple of weeks ago.

‘You may all begin your examinations.” Ariandel said as he sat back down in his seat.

After that, they all examined the body under Ariandel’s watchful gaze.

Emily was the last to go and she made a couple of surface-level observations while they were busy but she noticed that none of them seemed to touch the body.

The first thing Emily did was to go to the top of the table and lay both hands on the sides of the corpse's head, delving into the dried blood.

Her abilities were heavily restricted when dealing with a corpse this old, but Emily managed to gather the faintest shreds of life force—just enough to uncover fragments of its past. From the wear on the muscles and joints, she could tell the individual had likely been elderly before the experiment. The cause of death, however, was elusive, with no external wounds or internal damage to offer clues. Instead, strange, cancerous pustules riddled the body, clustering ominously along the spine. This caused Emily to produce a low humming sound and open her eyes.

She removed her hands from his head and unceremoniously flipped the body over, exposing its bridge.

Emily noted that none of the Mages looked away but Genevieve’s face twitched with a look of worry.

The corpse's single bridge was a hazy green, marred by a web of hairline cracks.

Emily let out a heavy breath as she stared at it, she wasn’t even aware a bridge could crack, let alone what could have caused this.

She had looked over the cheat sheet on the way over here and as far as Emily was aware the relic Ariandel was trying to manufacture would act as a literal shield covering the bridge. Had he removed the relic?

There was a faint ring of bruising around the area like a cup or circular object had been pressed into the skin.

Still not done Emily placed her hand against the cadaver's neck and allowed some of of her source out into the body.

This time, Emily got a couple more visceral reactions from the Mages around her, as Zila directly turned away in disgust while the others furrowed their brows.

Emily had come to learn that what she was currently doing was the equivalent of having her arm elbow-deep in the corpse's chest cavity. Sharing source between two people was already seen as an intimate act, but to Emily who had no concept of decency, it was just another method to get what she needed.

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As her source flooded into the corpse’s bridge, it ran along the man's bones leaking out and immediately being absorbed by the growths.

Seeing a change begin to take place, Emily cut off the flow and watched as the cancerous pustules bloomed with hardened crystals. If Emily could equate it to anything, it was like watching gallstones gather in real time.

Everyone took a step back as the corpse began to bloat with hundreds of golfball-sized chunks of quarts, and the desiccated skin rapidly hardened over, turning to stone.

Connor swore under his breath while the rest of them remained quiet.

By this time, the corpse looked more like a swollen statue than a person, and Ariandel glanced at Emily.

“Well seeing as you destroyed my specimen, perhaps you can be the first to offer your insights”

They were all staring at Emily now, and it was at this moment that she realized this had all been a test.

Emily shrugged and thought over what she knew of source before speaking.

“This man was in his late seventies and fairly good health. The cause of death was respiratory failure brought on by multiple accelerated growths. The interesting thing is I’m certain his body had already undergone source exposure, and yet none of the usual signs were there. It was only when introducing my source that it acted like a catalyst, which was what caused the transformation to fully take hold.”

Ariandel nodded and smiled to himself.

“And what are your thoughts on fixing this problem?” Zila asked impatiently.

Emily raised a brow at the woman before falling quiet again.

“Respiratory failure was just the first thing to kill him. His other organs showed a good deal of wear and tear. My guess would be that even if we fixed this problem his heart would have given out next, and the rest shortly after that. If we wanted to make sure the subject survived we would need to dose him with a potent restorative while I maintained their lives. The problem is the growths, the moment we stop applying aid the patient would probably die shortly after that.”

At this point, they were all glancing at one another. Ariandel had a keen light in his eyes as he rubbed his chin.

“So your conclusion?”

Emily nodded at him.

“We need more information. A live test is necessary to see how we can mitigate the downsides. As for the exact cause of the growths, I will leave that to one of you. Safe extraction in real time might be possible but that is not my area of expertise.”

Ariandel looked as excited as he had on the first day they'd met, and Emily took that to mean she had passed his little test.

The others then began going through their own findings and Emily listened with interest. She quickly found herself in a debate with everyone as they put their findings forward. She didn’t quite understand some of the more complex ideas but she could fake it until she could ask Ashe tonight.

Connor was adamant that the body could not handle this level of stress while Zila proposed pain-dampening tonics. Neal barely spoke but when he did it was creepy yet insightful. He thought the growths were a concentration of source that had nowhere to rest while in the body when the bones became full.

At some point, Citta came in with a tray of night brew, fruit, and along with some pastries filled with a savory mince.

The room buzzed with lively discussion, and surprisingly, Emily found herself engaged. When her gaze drifted to the room's lone window, she noticed dusk had already fallen, and the night skies swiftly enveloped the horizon, giving way to a blanket of stars.

They had lost the entire afternoon to discussion. Emily was just about to point this out when Ariandel finally revealed the prototype of his design.

Genevieve, who had been badgering him since they finished their assessments, let out a sharp exhale of relief. She had repeatedly insisted she couldn’t provide meaningful input without examining the item itself. From what Emily had observed, Genevieve's interest revolved entirely around relics. If she couldn’t study them firsthand, her enthusiasm quickly waned.

Emily had encountered many tech supers in her old world who shared Genevieve's single-minded focus, and for the first time, she felt her guard drop just slightly around the woman. People like her were only interested in studying the next biggest piece of tech, which left them very little time to double-cross people.

The prototype came in the form of a simple-looking disk that reminded her of a metal cap or concave shield. It was ovular and fit neatly over a person bridge with several dozen wards running along the surface of the design.

When Genevieve saw it she had a field day trying to break down the intricacies, most of which went over Emily's head. She also looked miffed at the design layout, noting several areas for improvement.

This took the discussion on for another couple hours and eventually, they broke to head back to their towers for the night.

Emily was just heading out the door when Genevieve caught up with her on the walk down.

“My friend Emily, your insight into the body is incredible. I hope you won’t find me rude, but thought I would catch up with you to ask where you had found that artifact. It looks old but it is a good piece of equipment, and I want to study it.”

Emily smirked at the older woman. People like Genevieve were the easiest to deal with. They were clear with their intentions and were usually fair. It did make Emily wonder how she had survived in a city as poisonous as this one, but that was not her problem.

“And as your college, I’m happy to let you have a look at it, but what do I get out of it?”

Genevieve mouth was left agape.

“I’ll be honest, nowadays most people pay me to look at their relic’s so it's quite rare to hear that. I feel like I'm back to my Adept days” Genevieve said with a fond look in her eyes.

Emily could see there were no hidden meanings behind Genevieve words, she was just genuinely surprised by this turn of events.

“I completely understand, however, acquiring this artifact was a great personal risk. I extracted it from a layline, so as you can imagine I’m hesitant to let it out of my sight, even if it's just for an inspection.”

Genevieve’s eyes widened with childish-like wonder her demeanor and words shifting gears.

“So you’ve returned from a layline? What is the source like down there? Or did you go up, I hear inversed leylines are twice as rare.”

Emily nodded to Genevieve.

“I’m happy to include that information in the price of studying the scepter.”

Genevieve bit the inside of her lip and grinned.

“Okay, how about you come with me to my brother’s tower? I’ll pay you coin and offer up my findings on the artifact.”

Emily shrugged triumphantly as they got to the bottom steppes. Three carriages were waiting around the front, each with slight differences.

As they approached Genevieve’s carriage, Emily spotted Neal climbing onto his own carriage. His eyes were still watching Emily with that strange fascination.

Blood points: 310