Walking down the hall with Dr. Doe and holding hands with Sky, she leads us down towards another section of the research facility. After the last time with having to deal with Nathanial’s waking up, Sky had insisted on coming with me today. Not that I particularly mind much, I enjoy having her here and knowing that she is nearby is calming.

As we walk, Dr. Doe turns and asks me a question. “Earlier, we got a bit sidetracked by talking about the //World Tree and the Sleeping Sickness, so I neglected to ask. How is it that you see me?”

“Hmm?”

“Earlier, you mentioned that the mana in the air reacts differently around some people. How does it react around me?”

“Oh…” I focus on my senses and bring my awareness into focus. Like a filter getting slid into place, the world takes on a new life. The corners start to glow with a black light. Greens, blues, and greys flow through the air, the lights on the ceiling glowing with yellow, white, and hints of red, while the walls and floors take on an assortment of hues in browns and greys. Hmm, lots of brown down here. But we are underground, so that makes sense. Doesn’t take much to guess that brown means earth…

Shifting my attention back to Dr. Doe, I watch as she walks down the hall, the mana in the air simply flowing over and around her as she moves. A strange thing to watch, as I can see as some of the little particles flow over her face and her open eyes without her even noticing. I hate seeing stuff touching eyes -especially mine - so I quickly return my sight to normal. I much prefer to keep my vision normal anyways. Seeing all these lights float around can be a bit distracting and I keep finding myself wanting to wave them away like flies in front of my face.

“You're normal.” I tell her. “Just like most people, they just flow right over you.”

“Interesting… And how often do you find people that are different?”

I shrug, “Occasionally. But honestly, I don’t spend too much time looking at mana unless I have to. So, it is just something that I noticed by chance. I’m only really operating off of the assumption that those that repel mana can use magic, because I can. But I could be wrong. After all, there is only one of me…”

“A correct way of thinking. We will certainly have to see if it is possible for others to learn as well, or if this is something that is restricted solely to you due to your mutation. Another thing to add to our list of research topics…”

Sky pipes in happily, “Well, Lain is helping to see if I can learn how. I would love to able to do some of what she can do.” She says happily, hugging me from behind as we walk.

“Well, I’m certainly hopeful that I can help you learn how. Though honestly, I have no idea how to do so…” I tell Sky. Turning my words back to Dr. Doe, I continue, “Right now, I’m just having her try meditating while feeling what it's like when I manipulate mana around her. I’m hoping that maybe she will catch something; maybe get a feeling for it. No luck so far, but that isn’t saying much considering that we have only tried for a couple of hour total now…”

“Well that explains why it that Sky didn’t seem particularly bothered by your Field earlier. Hm, I would be very interested if you manage to make any breakthroughs. If you do, please come to see me. As an aside, I am thinking that it would be good if we conducted some tests where we monitor your brain activity while you manipulate your shadows. We might be able to get some valuable information that could help with identifying the functions necessary for mana manipulation… Would that be alright?”

“Of course, just get the tests ready and I will be more than happy to help. I have all winter after all.” I say with a shrug.

She nods happily and jots down some stuff on her notepad. “I’ll get everything arranged in due order. In the meantime, it looks like we have arrived. Please be aware of the smell when you enter. We have had to go pretty heavy on our use of disinfectants due to some of the tests having rather… disgusting results... So, I hope that the smell of bleach doesn’t bother you too much.” Saying that, she opens the way into a large lab, the reinforced door opening on a set of massive heavy hinges. Instantly the smell of disinfectant becomes blaringly prominent, practically feeling as if someone was trying to clean the inside of my sinuses with bleach. Sky is quick to cover her nose, clearly not happy about the weird smell. Past the scent of bleach, I can smell something else. A pungent and rotten scent of death and decay. It lingers softly under the layers of the smell of forced clean, refusing to dissipate even after an assault of chemical bases and acids. It smells pungently familiar and is tickling a memory in the back of my head. Something I prefer not to remember…

I cover my face and ask, horrified of the answer I might get. “Dr. Doe, what is this other smell just under the disinfectant. Please don’t tell me it is what I think it is…”

She seems a bit surprised and turns to me. “You can smell it? I admit that the substance has quite the horrendous smell to it. It even leaves stains and is impossible to get out of clothes. Well, some of the tests resulted in the creation of a black sludge like substance. It consists of decayed material, but even then, it smells much worse than it should. Especially considering that the slurry is devoid of bacteria or any other living matter that would be responsible for producing the smell of decomposition.”

“Black sludge… lovely…” I say, grimacing.

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“You’ve seen it before?”

“Probably. You’ll have to show it to me to be sure, but probably…”

“Well, it was part of the plan. In the meantime, could I ask the two of you to put these on?”

She pushes a couple of bins our way while dressing into her own garments. In the bins, we have a set of disposable medical gowns, gloves, facemasks, and some safety goggles. It takes a little bit to get everything on, and she help us with the gloves. I have to wear a set of extra larges to help accommodate my claws, while Sky’s claws are small enough that they are basically just sharp fingernails. The gloves are uncomfortable, but I can put up with them.

I of course don’t fail to notice Sky getting excited at being dressed up just like the doctors. Her tail is happily wagging behind her as she looks around at everything and the other researchers doing their work. I grab her hand to keep her from wandering off.

All dressed up, we follow Dr. Doe as she leads us across the lab, giving the occasional wave or nod to a researcher that we recognize. Sky and I do everything medically related through Dr. Doe. But, we have had plenty of opportunities to meet with many of the other researchers on staff here. Thankfully, we haven’t ran into any that I would peg as the ‘evil scientist type’ that is always so popular in monster and apocalypse stories. So, I feel relatively safe around them, not really concerned that they are going to try and strap us to a table or anything. If anything, they fall more into the nerdy researcher cliché rather than mad scientists.

Disregarding my rambling thoughts, we stop in front of a refrigerator and wait as Dr. Doe pulls out a vial of black sludge. I immediately real back at the sight of it, and Dr. Doe doesn’t fail to notice.

“You’ve seen this material before, yes?”

“Ehh, ya. Please don’t open it. I’ll probably vomit if you do…”

“Mhh, I recall you mentioning a black sludge like substance in the report you turned in regarding your own mutation. Though you didn’t provide much detail about that in particular. Could you tell me more?”

I grimace, “Ehhh… I really prefer not to think about it…” I say, looking at the vial of disgustingness. Despite being in a sealed container, I swear that I can still smell it, the scent somehow escaping the glass. Horrifyingly, some part of my memory even surfaces, and for a short moment, I can even taste it. I have to turn away and fight to stop myself from throwing up a little bit…

“Lain, are you alright?” Asks Dr. Doe, clearly concerned. Sky seems worried and is rubbing my back.

I raise up a hand and wave them back, “I’ll be fine, just remembering some stuff. Can you please just put that away?”

“Ahh, of course. Apologies, I’ll put it away now.”

“Thanks…”

She is quick to put it back and close the door. While she is doing so, I don’t fail to catch sight of the assortment of vials in the fridge. They have a lot of samples in there.

After she finishes storing it back away, she asks me, “Still, I must ask. Could you tell me more about it? It would help us better understand our research.”

“Mmmm….” I itch at one of my horns, which ends up being awkward considering the medical gloves on my hands. “Fine… Uhm, when I woke up in bed. As I am now… I was covered in that stuff. Head to toes. It was in my hair, soaked into my clothes, my bed, everything… It was inside of me too. I vomited after I woke up, had to clear it out of my throat. Washing myself clean was really hard, though most of it was a blur at the time. I just really wanted to get that stuff off and… out, of me. It wasn’t fun…”

She looks contemplative for a short while before nodding. “I see. Thank you Lain for telling me. I won't ask you anything further on that subject. Apologize for having you remember something unpleasant… Now the question is, why did Private Smith not end up with any of this material on his person from his change?”

“I’m not sure if I am right, but I did have an idea for that…”

“What might that be?”

“His body used it all. Unlike me, he got bigger. Same with Sky. Plus, they had monster meat to help fuel their growth. While I was passed out in a basement, the only fuel for my changes probably being magic or whatever and, well, my old body…”

Which means that I am not actually an Imp like I always thought I was. I probably would have been taller, like Nathanial, if I had monster meat fed to me, it’s also why I have been growing stronger. I didn’t start eating monster meat until after meeting Sky, and since then, I have definitely grown stronger. Haven’t gotten any taller though, not that I mind much… A Devil. That’s what he called me. Not as an insult, but as simply what I am…

I leave my thoughts unspoken and wait for Dr. Doe to pick up the conversation.

She nods, “We came to a similar hypothesis, though we hadn’t factored in the possibility of ‘magic’ being a fuel for change. Though, considering resent developments, that possibility seems to be growing more and more likely…”

I watch her as she thinks and I have to ask her, “What has you saying that? Recent developments? I don’t feel like you are referring to Nathaniel.”

“No, follow me. There were other things I wanted to show you first, but we can skip ahead to this. Please, follow me.”

She turns to walk away further into the lab, and we follow behind her curiously. Leading us across the room, I spot a table where a researcher is looking over what looks like a blood-red crystalized rat, but we keep walking until we reach a set of large doors.

That was pretty looking… Something in me wants me to go over and grab the crystal, and I can tell that Sky is the same, but we keep following Dr. Doe as she leads us into the next room, past a bunch of rats in cages, and then further still. Eventually leading us into a walk-in cold storage, with a number of roller tables and other stuff lying about.

Our attention is immediately drawn to one table in particular. A large form rests on top of it with a white sheet cast over it.

Dr. Doe walks over and pulls the sheet off, and Sky and I are both caught by surprise. Lying on the table is a massive, bloated, cancerous, corpse of a giant rat. Far too many limbs, eyes, ears, and tails. A mess of horns growing from its head and large bones spearing out from its body at awkward angles, piercing from its flesh in violent gashes of torn meat. Many of the exposed bones have been sawed off, probably to make the thing safe to move and able to be fit through doors. The cut off ends of the bones can be found in a clear bin on a rack just below the rat's table.

I look to Dr. Doe, not taking my eyes off the rat. “Please tell me you guys found this thing outside and brought it back for study…”

She shakes her head, also watching the dead thing. “No. We made it here. Out of a current total of one hundred and forty-seven test rats so far, this is the only one that has managed to exhibit any form of mutation after ingesting your blood. All others have died in one way or another mere moments after ingestion. This one survived for a short while after its violent changes and then expired due to extreme total organ failure… We’ve yet to determine why it is that this one mutated, but yet none of the others did.

Sky and I simply stand in shock as we look at the monster that was made using my blood.