53rd Summer, 511 AV
The effects of the alchemical exposure to Homunculus 1-A seem to be wearing thin. The scales seem to slowly be returning to the once fuzzy lizard and its entire mental and physical state seem to be at jeopardy. Each day I watch the creature it seems not have the energy it has had before and its slowing down. Perhaps with times toll on the creature, the half-lives of alchemy, the creatures life is slowly being drained with the transmutation? As if when the two creatures were combined together they both share a life, share an essence, share the same Dejd, and when one fades away so does the other…
Rayage stopped writing and looked down at the paper in frustration. It irritated him that something that took so much work is fading so fast, and he knew, oh yes, he knew that it was not Alchemy fault that he cannot hold H1-A for much longer but his own. It was his own lack of skill, his own lack of power that brought such a short existence to H1-A. It was his fault, and this was the price he would pay.
Sighing and letting the quill drop into the vile of ink again he continued on with his writings:
The progression of this death seemed to have come sooner than I expected, and it came to me rather as a surprise.
He thought of that wolf and how it had survived being transmuted with the stone, and how it was only a hindrance to its being as long as it was there. He thought of why the wolf could survive it, and then to why H1-A was fading so fast, soon death will claim it. That he knew for a fact. Could it be that since the rock was not living that the wolf survived the transmutation and even the half-lives until it was gone? Yes that had to be it, creatures being fused together with Alchemy was much different than a creature being transmuted with an object. That was why, that had to be why Homunculi are so hard to make, to create, because of life. What a bothersome thing.
Dropping the quill on the paper he let it sit there. He could no longer write about this. It made him feel sick to think of his failure, that being the passing of H1-A or the soon to be passing of. He had to focus on the here and now. Ink now lightly running on the paper from the quill, it played with his written words somewhat before halting, sitting there waiting to dry. Ray did not care; he had more important things to deal with.
Smiling he turned to the cages that were present in one corner of his lab, the golems have delivered to him some new creatures to test on. Today, he thought to himself, was the day that H2-A will be born. Rubbing his hands together he approached the cages looking over the multitude of lizards that the golems had collected for him. He had informed them that it would be a lengthy experiment and that he would need all the lizards that they could capture. The creatures seemed to shift and squirm in the confinement of 3 or 4 lizards a cage, which the cages being small was rather cramped for them. Again, Ray didn’t care, they will either be dead soon or with H2-A shortly.
His gaze shifted over to a slightly larger cage, one that held a medium sized dog, one that was so skillfully acquired from a ship captain. Or so he was informed. The golems did well. He rather liked having them around to do what he asked and collect what he might want. Useful to say the least, but where this dog came from he didn’t care because it too will be H2-A.
Letting the excitement build inside him he clapped his hands and grinned at every one of the animals that was in his possession. They should be proud to be here because they were the stepping stones to his greatness. They will bring Homunculi back to the forefront of Alchemy and help Ray further understand the Alchemical Process to where he can make anything he can imagine.
Last experiment it had been simple. A lizard and two rabbits. This next experiment will require multiple steps in order to be successful, and in this procedure he will also be testing a inquiry that came up during the last investigation. Does the size of the animal in the center of the door compared to the relevant size of the creatures acting as the founts and filters matter in the acquisition of a certain property of those being sacrificed? The perfect example would be this dog compared to the lizards. Will he have to perform more steps to cover the dog in scales than he did with the lizard and the rabbit? If so then it is a good indication that size of the specimens do matter and therefor to cover a larger creature it would be more cost effective to find something around the same size to transmute rather than something smaller. For now though these thoughts and suspicions will remain just that.
Smiling he turned and walked towards the alchemy circle, the great doorway where all possibilities and all answers are one and can be thoroughly explored. The great warper of all things, the changer, but in change comes a greater understanding of not only what was but what can be. That is what the alchemists strive for, and it is that journey that is so recorded, so closely documented that one can follow the alchemist to perfection and on. There has to be something else, something beyond perfect. There is no one answer, no ‘one perfection’, no, that makes no sense. Perfection is all perception, and with perception comes infinite possibility.
He walked towards it, this time he needed not to risk anything especially the control of his alchemy circle. He needed perfect control over the alchemical flow, perfect control over the djed he would be trying to manipulate. Absolute control, which meant only one thing, it was time to experiment with glyphs yet again. Last time it worked so well for him. Yes, oh so well. Then it was decided, he would use glyphs.
Grabbing some ink off his desk and a quill it would be easy enough to write on the laboratory floor, and easy enough to clean up afterwards. On his knees he bent over the edge of the circle, dipped the quill in, and started drawing. His hand ran around with the quill making a circular motion, producing a circle itself. Not picking up the quill he dragged his hand to the side making the rune split in half with a dark inky line, and then a quick straight line up making it look like an ‘L’ was coming intersecting the circle. Next he came down from the tip of the ‘L’ and connected both ends making a triangle. He did the same thing on the other side, and then again and again until there were four triangle points coming out of the end of the rune. Next he connected all the outward triangle points with a straight line forming an octagon of sorts. In the center of the octagon he made a swirling sign and ended thee rune there satisfied that it now existed. He then mirrored the image on the other side of the circle and continued the process all the way around the circle. These runes were to act as two barriers, and together they would act as a path directing the djed.
This entire process took more time than he wanted it to, but the results were worth it. Quality after all mattered if these symbols were to help him in anyway. Looking over his work he was satisfied. Everything he did, or course, was perfect, any mistake made would be a flaw in the product and not him. Or so he was convinced. Poor self-brainwashed fool of an alchemist. He was on the road to perfection, but he was not perfect himself. Taking his supplies he returned them to his desk. Today, yes today he will be one step closer to making a true homunculus. He needed to understand this before he could make a true one, he needed to understand life. The more complex the H2-A would be the more notes he can take on life itself. Besides, he needed to raise an army of homunculi anyways. That was a promise he would keep. Sahova has given him a lot and he wasn’t going to put these newfound resources to waste.
Going over to the cages he looked down at the dog, the next subject of his crazy quest to understand the complexities of life. Kneeling down he looked at the dog, black fur was a mess, but it was an animal and one step up from a rabbit-lizard. Smirking he calmly put his hand out as if for the dog to smell, but the dog backed away and wined. Frustrated at the thing before him his hand sped forward and grabbed the dog by the gruff, he needed to condition it. Closing his eyes he concentrated at the releasing of his djed into the creature, the response was more jerking around and yelping. The dog tried to so desperately to get away from the sting of the flow, ray though didn’t let go and concentrated even more this needed to happen. He tried to get the yelping out of his mind, the ring of the dogs cries louder than he wanted them to be. It only made him want to flow more and more into the dog, but soon enough he grew tired and to stop. He was not going to overgive doing this, no. Releasing the hand he fell backwards and onto his butt. He huffed a little and got up on shaky legs. Stumbling over to a chair he had to rest. Closing his eyes again as he sunk into the chair and just let himself be. Rest… that is all he needed. With that final thought he let himself slip into a great state of mind, just existing and letting his body and mind rest.
An unknown amount of time passed before the nuit cracked an eye open. He felt well rested and ready to continue this tiring process of understanding life and how it works. Looking over at the cage it seemed the dog had time to rest as well, which was good. It was going to need all the strength it had to survive. For now he had to prepare the rest of his circle. A scornful gaze fell on the caged lizards. He had to skin half of them, all twelve of them. So he had to get to work.
Taking a lizard out of the cage he quickly, well as quickly as a nuit could, took the lizard to one of the many tables around the lab and flipped it on its back placing the reptile on the cold wood of the lab. Taking a knife he slowly made an incision down the lizards side and began the troublesome process of descaling the thing. It was a painfully slow process, but once he got all the scales off he was happy with what he had obtained, a now dead skinned lizard. Now it wasn’t perfect, but it worked for him. He still had a lot to learn before he could skin with much precision. Then again, it worked. That is what matters. Satisfied he went and got another lizard and another and another and repeated the process on eleven more lizards. It was a time-eating process, but in the end he was sure it would be worth it. That was enough for six transmutations.
Rubbing his hands together he looked at all the hard work yet to do. What was done so far was the easy part that was for sure. Now, now was the hard part, the actual transmutation. He wondered how the dog would hold up against 6 transmutations. Perhaps, yes, he would space them out. Giving the dog time to rest between going through doors. He nodded that would work.
With nothing more to do, the glyphs were set, and all what that was left to do was preform the alchemy. Grabbing two of the skinned lizards he put them in the Filter slots, and then he made his way over to the cages and spying two lizards he grabbed them up and placed them in the fount slots of his alchemy circle. He has gained enough confidence in himself and in his powers to do a full alchemy circle. Four chargers, the max he could do. Stopping he tried to use the power of his presence, the power of hypnotism, a feeling of pure fear implanted into the lizards. The fear apparently being so powerful and so pure that it froze the lizards in place, and now all he needed to do was get the dog into the center of the circle.
Going over to the dogs cage he opened it and grabbed the dog by the scruff of the neck. Dragging the dog to the center of the circle he said, ”Stay” and implanted the emotion of fear again along with the subconscious command to ‘stay’. Though the fear itself made the creature to tremble and stay put.
A light smile appeared on his face as he walked towards the edge of the circle and bit a finger. The ring was, in alchemy terms, loaded. Now all he needed to do was charge it. The skin broke almost too easy this time and precious Ichor dripped from his punctured fighter. Placing the wound on the keystone he felt the familiar connection to the items in hand. As soon as the blood hit the keystone Ray began to concentrate. This wasn’t a complex reaction, but still, everything deserved his all. He started to will the djed present in the circle to move. It needed to move because he now commanded it. He now had control over everything inside the circle. The Djed… oh how he could feel his connection slowly growing. This feeling, there was nothing like it in the world. It was one of absolute power. Yes, for in this short amount of time, he commanded the powers of change!
Grinning, the feeling was invigorating. Taking a moment to strengthen the connection he felt to the djed in the circle he closed his eyes and focused. He slowed his mind just concentrated on the feeling, the power that Alchemy brought him. He slowly willed the Djed in the circle to start moving. It was slow at first, but slow was all he needed. He was feeling the circle, feeling it out, feeling the djed, and most importantly he was feeling the glyphs were working, guiding the power. Yes, he could feel it working. The glyphs were guiding the power along more smoothly, allowing the alchemist to have far greater control than normal for the energy which he was commanding was having a hard time escaping the D-wire circle. So all that time spent wasn’t for nothing. A grin spread across his face as he knelt there and willed the djed to go faster, faster, and even faster. This was amazing, these glyphs worked better than he had hoped they would.
Slowly the Djed started to trickle into motion by the sheer force of the practiced nuits will. Ray, yes, the commander of change, would now turn this block of wood into something extraordinary. He would show Lenore there that Alchemy isn’t to be trifled with. It was funny how he had an odd compulsion to prove himself to every nuit he met, and he hoped that this would do the job. Slowly the nuit concentrated more and more on the reaction, on the spinning, on the circle, and on the fount banishing all other thoughts out of his mind. Right now, he was focused on only feeling that power, that godly power, which he feels when doing any reaction. More and more the Djed began to inch around the circle, more and more it moved, and with each passing second it sped up; moving faster, but only slight.
Alchemy took great concentration to not lose control of the Djed stream. Yes, great concentration indeed. The djed needed to be felt, watched, and commanded all at the same time. Yes, it was a careful and slow process, but one that brought results. This experiment was going to be one to record. Indeed.
Soon though the Djed was spinning quite faithfully, and his command over it was just about absolute. This was power right here. The power to change the world was all summed up in this circle. The power of transformation… And then there would be a slight hum of energy as the Djed could be seen now spinning across the circle, pure silver djed. Yes, soon… Soon this all would end. Faster and faster and faster he willed it. He knew he could go faster than that and so he willed it to do so. The djed however didn’t respond with the aptitude that he would have liked, the djed delayed to his commands if only by a second or two it still annoyed him.
The djed was going faster, the energy was intense and he could feel it going around the circle with increasing and awe inspiring speed. It could only go as fast as he could will it, and it was surprising how fast the glyphs helped the process around. Amazing even. Why hadn’t he thought of it earlier, why didn’t he think of this like five hundred years ago? Laughing he felt he couldn’t hold the energy anymore, and so he released it. Taking his hand off he forced the spiraling energy past the path and into the target. The circle was activated. A flash of light ensued and he looked upon what he had created.
The result for the first transmutation was the same looking black dog, but with patches, spots of lizard scales. Smiling at the being in the center he hurried to his desk and scribbled down the formula D+L01+L02-L-L=H1. Clapping his hands his eyes scanned the creature, it seemed to be tired and so he didn’t want to push anything. It could rest for now, but he had plans for it. Getting up he returned the animal to his cage and then returned himself to his desk where he scribbled down what he did, what his plans were, and what happened. It was a report of sorts, but most of this was for his own personal reference. The report being written entirely in nader-canoch, the ancient tongue.
His report finished so far he sat back and stared at the cage letting the creature rest as he mentally put together the rest of the procedure. He was going to have to do this five more times…
After some time passed he judged that the creature had rested enough he went across the room and removed the old ‘left overs’ from the charger slots throwing them into a heap by some dark corner of the lab. He would take care of them later. Replacing the ‘left overs’ were fresh new ‘supplies’: two more lizards both alive and skinned, and the beginning of H2-A. Now the circle was again loaded he could get onto the main event: the charging! He had no time to make a mistake, and no time to lose. There was an experiment to finish.
Piercing his finger again the ichor slowly pooled out of it. This was the lifeblood of his art, the thing which allowed him to control change. Funny to find such a power within himself. Maybe this was worth further exploration? Making that side note of the power of blood and the effects that it had on world magic he placed the wounded appendage on keystone. Again, he could feel the slight tingle of energy, the slight connection with the circle that only a few seconds of connection could imply. It was through practice that he could feel the subtle forces at work, and it was through dedication that he developed such a feeling for the Djed making up the circle. Everything can be changed, and everything will change, that was one of the lessons which alchemy teaches.
The connection made he continued on his way, for now was perhaps the hardest part of Alchemy, and the thing that divided great alchemists from the meager and lame. It was an alchemists control over the circles ‘flow’ which gave him greatness, for the greater the control the greater and more dramatic the reaction will be. He had to get better, not only for his sake but for the reactions.
The energy moved based on his will. Wasting no time this cycle around he quickly concentrated on the Djed, again feeling the runes presence direct the energy, and forced the energy to move. Slowly he could feel the Djed from each of the chargers trickle out of the circle, following the ring in a clockwise fashion. The line of energy connected fount to fount, filter to filter, filter to fount. The circle was complete as the Djed passed over the keystones. Complete, and now fully connected he felt the energies mix, the addition and subtraction of the essence. For when Djed is filtered it is noticeably felt by the alchemist for he is most sentiment with the circle and the energies flowings. Every little change could be felt and noted, and this was key to understanding a reaction.
The gradual increase of speed became so apparent when there was a faint hum in the air, the very atmosphere seemed to be effected by the ring and circling of the alchemical forces. This was the power of the alchemist. Soon the energies behind the reaction were spinning around the circle hundreds of times per second. Oh, how strong was this alchemists will? He controlled the energies with all his concentration and willed it to go just a bit faster, just a bit faster, just a bit faster. If he could push himself to the edge and beyond for this reaction he would, he needed this to be as good of a reaction as possible.
The increase in speed slowly plateauing Ray figured it would be a waste of time to have the reaction go on any longer. In one fluid motion he took his hand off the circle, breaking the connection, but not before he willed the energies to shoot into the beginnings of H2-A. The result of two forces colliding, a flash of light over before it began.
Looking at what happened the dog was now a little more complete. There was definitely more scales than before. Smiling he looked at the dog, he was going to scale this thing. Again he returned the dog to the cage and wrote his results on paper, again copying down the formula H1+L03+L04-L-L=H2. Again he wrote down the progression and how it seemed to affect the target.
He repeated this process, letting the creature rest some, and then doing another transmutation on it. Eventually he used all his lizards and concentration on the task at hand. With each step he wrote down the formula (H2+L05+L06-L-L=H3, H3+L07+L08-L-L=H4, H4+L09+L10-L-L=H5, H5+L11+L12-L-L=H6) and the progression and his thoughts. Soon he had the final product H6 also named as Homunculus 2-A. Smiling at his second success after five hundred years of failures fate seemed to be smiling on him. Homunculus 2-A, another piece of the puzzle to create his true Homunculus and the homunculus army he promised Sahova. He laughed as he finished his notes and looked at the scaled dog.
OOCI didn’t write out all the transmutations because it would horribly repetitive, but if you want me to just say so and it will be done. Thank you. |
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by Rayage on August 30th, 2011, 7:27 am 
