The last two weeks had been fraught with several annoyances that were luckily matched with several successes in my experiments. I was currently doing the record keeping in my laboratory next to the greatest annoyance I had to deal with. Murettita, or 'the Quivering Mess' as I had come to consider the woman in my head, was the remaining scout I’d freed from slavery. I had already created five different wands with the disenchantment spell needed to free any future slave scouts and handed four of them out to my guards and assistants. I was proud of those wands, too, as I had crafted them from a polished dark oak that I had shaped like keys. The fifth, of course, I kept with me in my bag of holding. Murettita absolutely refused to be moved. Even using [Earth Manipulation] to try to move her cell had set the woman off into hysterical screams and fits. With nothing for it, it required me to carry her food from the entrance of my laboratory to her for every meal. I had considered putting her back to sleep and then move her entire cell, but I suffered from a bout of emotional weakness that caused me to pity whatever life turmoil had left her in her condition. My assistants, Philipe and Jax, were on their way with lunch soon. I planned to pause my record keeping to eat and then display the tests and results to them so that they might learn. Until then, however, I had to deal with trying to write and answer odd questions from my prisoner who wasn’t truly a prisoner. “Why are you so old and frail for a man? Where are your muscles and scars?” she asked, though her tone made it more of an accusation than a matter of curiosity. “I am a wizard. I do not require muscles and scars for my work,” I answered while scribbling. It took exactly ten days for the Asrid Flowers to monsterize. All of them. This was unique in that most other plants and beasts, even of the same species, varied in the timelines for their change. I needed to obtain samples from other nonmonster species that came from monsterized plants to see if the ten days were common among all or just this type of plant. “I do not see how you can call this task you do work. Where is your Matron? She should have raised you better,” Murettita demanded. “My mother? She died of old age in this very tower more than a hundred fifty years ago,” I answered with a sigh. Perhaps the numerical details could wait. I should be able to illustrate the monsterized version while I was tolerating her questions. In a series of containment cells across the room from me, six monsterized Asrid Flowers grew. They behaved like normal flowers until another living being drew close. In height and leaf, the plants didn’t look much different than the flower I was already familiar with. Broad green leaves, a straight stem, and petals that grew in a cup shape. The coloration was different on the petals. Instead of bright yellow, they were bright orange that melded into yellow tips. The greatest difference, however, was noticeable when a live animal was nearby. Then, the plant released a puff of pleasant-smelling yellow pollen that induced loyalty and calmness. I had used mice to test and found that if they were too close to the flower when it did this, they would also fall into a deep sleep. Those that fell asleep were then attacked with sharp roots that drained their blood. The mice that weren’t too close when they smelled the pollen would change their behavior to one of guardianship towards the plant. I imagined that in whatever dungeon these flowers came from, they lived in an area that contained other beasts that worked in tandem with them. “You have lived for more than a hundred years without a matron to guide you? No wonder you look so frail!” I glanced up at the woman and smiled, but she wasn’t even looking at me. Instead, she sat on the edge of the bed I had brought for her to sleep on and stared at her hands. She had come a long way in the past two weeks. When she first started speaking with me, it was to beg for her death. After two days of that, she must have realized I didn’t plan to kill her, so she changed her tactic to one of insults. Or rather, insults that would be effective maybe in Furing. They were useless against me, especially when I knew she only insulted me in some strange attempt to incite her own murder. I actually chuckled when she told me I wasn’t truly a man. The look on her face when I told her I was half-elf was worth it though. A knock at the doorway shook me from my thoughts, and I waved down the wards to allow my two assistants to enter. Each one walked slowly as they carefully balanced four sets of plates and cups. Murettita darted from her seat on the bed to huddle in the small space created between it and the wall. I stood and accepted a plate and cup from Philipe to carry to her, slowly setting it down just inside the cell’s wards. Both Philipe and Jax were polite enough to remain quiet and not even look in the woman’s direction, a behavior I very much appreciated considering she had screamed and pulled out a clump of her own hair when Jax last tried to make conversation. I took my plate and cup from Jax and bid them to take a seat with me around my record-keeping table. The meal smelled delicious. One of the recent successes was my project to induce an elemental Flame Boar. I had tested the boar meat on the snakes first, and then the wolves to ensure that the poison element was entirely replaced. Now, I’d left it to Chelsea to find the best use for the meat. That is not to say that all the specimens were successfully converted. There was one pit that produced a creature that [Analyze] showed to be called a Noxious Boar that released flammable, poisonous fumes. Four of the boars in that pit had converted to this type, but further study showed they were not immune to each other’s gases. I verified my suspicion that the gas was flammable when only one remained. I didn’t try to replicate that unintended result, though, because even after the fire, the meat smelled awful. The Flame Boar meat, though, had an interesting flavor. Chelsea had prepared this meal with thick chops of the boar smothered in a honeyed molasses sauce that paired perfectly, even if it were messier than I would have preferred. It tasted so good that the three of us ate in silence. Even my captive had found herself unable to resist and was devouring the meal with loud noises from where she sat on the other side of the bed. The young men finished before I did, likely because they had decided to eat the meal with their hands like savages rather than use a proper fork and knife as I did. I gestured to Philipe, the taller of the red-headed men, to talk while I continued to eat. “Master, we believe that we have fully prepared the spell needed to bond with animals. We couldn’t bring it below tier one without risking the integrity of the spellwork, but I think it can be used.” I raised my eyebrow as I chewed. “Here, we brought a copy with us,” Jax, the shorter of the two chimed in, unrolling a scroll on the table beside my plate. I almost chided him for smearing the sauce on the document, but he quickly muttered a cleaning spell to clean both the scroll and his hands. I grunted and looked through their work as I ate. The boar was really filling, but by itself didn’t feel like a complete meal. The spell they had designed looked nearly satisfactory. It should work for the purposes they wanted. I checked it three more times, finding small weaknesses, but nothing that would compromise the integrity. Rather the weaknesses were closer to loopholes that would allow another mage to affect the bonding magic. “Hmmm,” I said as I leaned back in thought. I couldn’t help but pat my full stomach as I did. The questions that came to my mind were if those same loopholes worked for other types of bonding. Could I interfere with a [Ranger’s] Companion Bond skill in the same manner? Who could I find that would allow me to test this subject? After a few moments of silence, I looked back at the two brothers. Their freckled faces did nothing to hide their nervousness. “You’ve done well, it appears,” I told them and watched as they both gave each other an excited look. “You may proceed to the next stage, and solicit volunteers.” Jax raised his eyebrows, “We aren’t testing on ourselves first? I already picked out a pup with Eni.” That got a chuckle out of me, “Not a chance. That should have been a rule taught in the Arcanum. It’s disappointing that they no longer cover it. No, you will solicit the nearby villagers for volunteers, but keep in mind that no children should be used.” “Yes, master,” Jax answered with Phillipe shortly afterward. I was glad the two brothers were cooperating so well on this project. The misgivings they had towards each other over Leslie had been a concern for a while, but separating their duties to keep them apart seemed to have worked for now. Then again, I’d seen siblings bond and feud over the tiniest of things before, so their future wasn’t set in stone. We made small talk until I was done eating, just time spent getting to know each brother a little bit better. When I’d finished and cast a cleaning spell on myself to get rid of the sticky sauce, Phillipe coughed into his hand. “Yes?” I asked, seeing that both brothers looked uncomfortable. “Master, a merchant came by today with some news we thought you should hear,” Philipe began. “He said that Laxton Bay had fallen to Mirktal,” Jax followed. Both men seemed uneasy with the news. They should be. Laxton Bay was the seat of Ducal House Laxtoni, and one of the five major cities of Sena. I ran my hand through my beard and sat back down to consider the matter. Laxton Bay was the second-largest city in Sena and contained the largest port in the kingdom. I glanced up at the two brothers, who both wore worried expressions, and waved them away, “We’ll review the results of the experiments at another time. Continue your duties, as they take precedence over your own spellcrafting. Also, I want you two to begin writing papers either supporting or denying the validity of Alchemist Dextro’s assertion on the taste of Flame Boar. You may consult with Chelsea to have her prepare unaspected boar in the same manner as a comparison.” Both apprentices bowed as they departed, but my mind was now focused on the political ramifications that the loss of the city would entail. The Laxtoni Ducal house was responsible for a small navy and seafaring trade. Many of the commodities that came from that port would no longer be available. The loss of saltwater fish, crabs, and eels wouldn’t affect my diet too much, but the House was known for one thing above all others—their monopoly on couch production. Part of me reveled in the news that they had fallen. It served them right, after denying me couches for a hundred years over a tryst I barely remember. The other part of me feared what this meant for the kingdom. The loss of a Ducal Seat would not go unanswered, and the battle to take one could not have been small. In a time when the kingdom should be preparing for the Pestilence, Sena was instead forced into this wasteful bloodshed that could threaten all. Worse, what this meant for me was that I would no longer be able to avoid taking part in the war. Or rather, I could but it would cost me much of my reputation with the kingdom, a reputation I would need to leverage soon if any were to survive the end of the age. I returned to my study and pulled a tome I had secreted there. The same tome I had used to track the effects the Asrid Flower tea had on me had also been used to formulate nearly twenty different plans for revenge. Some of which, of course, weren’t feasible to begin with, and others would take up too much time. Yet, I had come up with several that would be perfect to use when I was inevitably summoned to the King’s court for whatever appointment they designed to secure my aid. With quill and tome at hand, I worked late into the night to further develop my plans.