I stared at the ethereal fox in front of me, it's form a reflection of my own. The fox’s twin tails swished behind it as the white fox crouched down, looking ready to pounce. Before it could leap on me, I un-summoned the wisp, and a rush of power returned to my core.

Magic followed over my body as the form of a red fox shifted into that of a humanoid woman. Sighing, I ran a hand through my mussed hair. The wisp drains the same amount of mana each time, which means my next step is expanding my core. Once I possess enough mana to summon the wisp without losing my human form, I can turn my focus to determining the nature of the strange wisp.

Dismissing the issue of increasing my core for later, I examined the loose pages of paper left over from the lesson earlier in the day. The lesson in the alchemy tower hadn’t exactly gone how I had planned. Ge Hong, and his group didn’t show up, leaving me giving a lesson to only three disciples.

Before seeing Ge Hong, I hadn’t intended on giving a lesson, and only came up with the idea as a spur of the moment attempt to keep Finnic close to the temple. So I was disappointed that the other Kitsune didn’t come, but he would be back. It was only a matter of when.

Setting aside the papers, I stood, and moved to the furnace. Pyr sat within the stone structure, half a dozen pelican flasks nestled around him. The new batch of my modified Berserker’s Last Stand was in its final stage of distillation, and with any luck I would finally have a variation of the potion that did not result in death.

Finished with my inspection of the flasks, I spared a glance to the red scaled Leosaur who lay in front of the furnace with one golden eye open. The target of the reptilian feline’s gaze- a pair of gray lizards which clung onto the far wall of the lab.

After reviving Scorch, and Sting, I decided to allow the pair to roam freely around the lab as a test of Leo’s intelligence, and obedience. The cub had been warned that death of either scorcher would result in the loss of his venom privileges, and so far, despite keeping a close eye on his favorite prey, Leo had sustained from killing either.

Not far from where the Leosaur laid, a six limbed primate was determinedly working his way through a bowl of hard shelled nuts. I had given Zaius the nuts with a handful of different tools, allowing the monkey to choose between them to achieve his task.

The only one missing was Zosimos. There was no dark feathered crow watching me from his perch, no reprimanding caw’s when I got distracted and lost track of a task I was meant to be doing.

The crow had disappeared the day I formed my second wisp, and I couldn’t help but feel the two were somehow related.

Even Trismegistus was silent on the subject of the bird, not responding to any inquiries I made about its whereabouts. It was strange not having the crow at my side. The bird had been my companion since shortly after my arrival in Kaledon, and we’d only ever been separated for brief periods since.

Trismegistus. The gods' words, and those of Dr. Carlson trickled through my mind.

I hadn’t really spoken in-depth to anyone regarding what I learned from the god, and Carlson. A few enquiries to my brother made it clear what happened with the servers wasn’t public knowledge, aside from Gaia announcing they ran a test on the backup servers to ensure they worked. There had been nothing noted by the players who were connected, no disconnections, or any news of anything being wrong.

Whilst I found it disconcerting that Gaia apparently had little control over the artificial beings, I also felt comforted by the knowledge I wasn’t entirely at the mercy of that corporation. People could be bribed, and were prone to greed, while Artificial beings had a rather different outlook on life.

The gods of this world operated on their own accord, and from what I had learned through interactions with Tris, they would protect their citizens as without us, there was no them.

With a sigh, I turned away from the empty perch. Moving to one of the shelves at the far side of the room, I opened a small wooden chest, pulling out a vial of thick black liquid. The substance in the vial appeared to draw in the surrounding light, giving off a sense of a never ending all consuming darkness.

When Icarus removed the taint from the Frost wolf bite on Kip’s shoulder, he said it was a remnant of dark magic, warning of its infectious and corrosive nature. This was confirmed by Haiden, the high priest of Anubin, during our meeting. The dark priest said the Frost wolves were necromantic creation, with the alpha’s infecting natural wolves with their bite. Those wolves would die from the taint, and it was from that corrupted wolf’s bones, a frost wolf would rise.

Necromancer’s in this world did not raise the dead, instead they corrupted the living and according to Haiden, if I were to inject the taint into another living creature, it would also rise after enough time passed. With the nature of the being determined by the type of magic the taint fed on after it finished consuming that of the creature’s core. The frost wolves, and the priest’s flaming skeletal horse were both examples of how different elements could affect the necromantic process.

“This is either going to be really stupid, or smart.” I said, breaking the seal of the vial.

Dipping a needle into the vial of necromantic taint, I coated the tip with the black substance before resealing the vial, and placing it back into the chest.

Needle in hand, I walked over to my work station where a cage sat on the desk. A tiny fluffy white rabbit with feathered ears was crammed inside the cage, its tiny body shivering fearfully as I approached.

I hesitated as I stared down at the test subject. In most modern labs the use of animal subjects for testing had been phased out in favor of simulated experiments. The advancements of virtual reality allowed many laboratories to conduct their research in simulated labs. Greene Pharmaceutical was no different, running its own specially built servers with advanced Artificial being assistants.

Staring down at the rabbit, I felt momentarily disconnected from the world as I processed the virtual nature of my current existence. More, and more I was finding the lines between what I knew to be real, and virtual blurring together.

Shaking my head, I shoved the impending existential crises to the depths of my mind, and jabbed the needle through the bars.

The rabbit flinched, letting out a high pitched squeak as the needle penetrated the flesh of its back leg. Soon the squeak became a shriek, as the rabbit shuddered, its body writhing and trembling.

Its high pitched shrieks of agony caught the attention of Zaius, causing him to come over to investigate what was making the sounds. Clambering up onto the bench, Zaius let out a soft chittering call as it peered into the cage. As the rabbit’s shrieks came to a sudden halt, its body collapsing to the floor of the cage, the Shimosaru let out its own shrieking cry as the primate leapt away from the bench, his body disappearing from sight.

Moment’s later the door to the lab was flung open as the invisible monkey fled.

I sighed, glancing between the cage with its rapidly decomposing rabbit to the still open door. After a moment, I decided to follow the Shimosaru. It would take a while for the taint to absorb enough mana to imbue the corrupted rabbit with life, and it was caged so it shouldn’t prove dangerous if I left it behind.

The same couldn’t be said for some of the other occupants of the lab however.

“Leo, come.” I called, stopping by the door.

In response, the golden eye of the Leosaur snapped closed as the Leosaur attempted feign sleep. With a huff, I strode over to where the red scaled beast lay, nudging him in the side with my foot. “Come, or no more dried spider legs.”

The adolescent Leosaur yawned, slowly raising to its feet as it padded to the door before looking back at me over his shoulder with an expectant gleam in his eyes. I shook my head, silently wondering how I managed to end up with such troublesome pets.

We found Zaius in my private courtyard, huddled in his snow plum tree, which was now surrounded by half a dozen others.

Thanks to Rainy the courtyard was now a flourishing garden that was protected from the elements by a domed glass. The transmutation priest had created the roof, and did the same in the other courtyards using the task as a makeshift lesson for the disciples.

After several minutes, I managed to coax the trembling Shimosaru down with a handful of dried fruits as a peace offering. The Shimosaru clung to me, its six limbs clutching at my robes as I stroked its back in what I hoped was a soothing gesture. I hadn’t intended to frighten him, nor did I consider that seeing the rabbit in pain might have affected either Leo, or Zaius.

As I did my best to comfort the primate, a low hissing pierced the air, and I looked around searching for the snake. I was used to snakes being attracted to the area’s Leo frequented, but so far none aside from the white Goushe had appeared in the temple. A quick glance around revealed Leo was no longer clawing at the trunk of a nearby tree, and was nowhere in sight.

Lips pursed together, I let out a whistle to call the troublesome feline back. After a second, the hissing sounded again, coming from the pond. Carrying Zaius on my hip, I headed in the direction of the pound, hoping that it wasn’t the white Goushe that I would find there.

As I drew closer, I saw Leo’s red tail swishing from within a fire berry bush, giving away the feline’s hiding place as it stalked the creature swimming in the pond.

A swan swam around the pond with beautiful white feathers, and a gracefully curving neck that arched downwards as it snapped up the tadpoles swimming around in the pond.

My heart stuttered in my chest as the bird raised its head, and dark eyes stared into mine with a familiar air of condescension.

Zosimos.

“Really, Zos?” I scoffed. “You’re nowhere to be seen for days, then show up out of nowhere and start eating all my Glacis Bufo tadpoles?”

The swan hissed, dipping its head back beneath the water. I walked closer to the pond, intent on scolding the bird, only to get smacked in the face with a blue blob.

From his position in my arms, Zaius chittered, reaching up to pluck the blob off my face. Frowning, I looked down to see a small amphibian in the primates hand.

I tossed the Glacis Bufo back into the pond. It still had its tail, so whilst it technically wasn’t a tadpole, it clearly wasn’t fully matured yet. “You’ve made your point, Zos.” I huffed, glaring at the swan. It may not be a tadpole, but he was still eating them.

Hissing, and snorting, the swan wadded out of the water, shaking out its wings as it did so. As the swan crested the bank, a red blur dashed towards it. I said nothing, watching as Leo closed in on the swan, where he was met with a sharp peck from the bird who hissed at him.

Leo crouched low to the ground, just out of reach of Zosimos, his golden eyes filled with confusion. Clearly the Leosaur did not recognize Zosimos, not surprising considering he was no longer in the form of a crow. As Leo once again attempted to swipe at the swan, he found himself on the receiving end of another sharp peck.

“The white swan, the Albedo, otherwise known as the whitening.” I mused, gazing at the swan with a mind full of tumultuous thoughts. The albedo was often described as an experience of awakening that involved a shift in consciousness, or one's understanding of their inner self. It was a state of clarity, and peace, wherein one opened themselves to the world of greater understanding.

I laughed, shaking my head with a wry smile. “So, I was correct that Zosimos is a living symbol of the alchemical stages.” I had concluded as such when first encountering the crow, and now here was the confirmation.

“Fire has taken you through the dark into the white. As your inner being lays bare, light is shed on the psyche.” Trismegistus’s voice whispered through my mind, his power a gentle caress. “You have come far, my priestess, but there is still much progress to be made.”

I pondered that, thinking back to that moment back into the fire when I was fighting the wisp core as it absorbed my mana. “The voice I heard, the memories I saw. It was the cleansing, the self-search of the Nigredo, wasn’t it?”

The god did not respond to my question, but I did not need his words to confirm it, the evidence was in front of me harassing Leo with a flurry of pecks.

After breaking up the clearly one-sided fight, I carried Zaius back to his tree. Taking his poor reaction to the rabbit’s death into consideration, I decided it was best not to have him in the lab when it was revived. Leo also seemed reluctant to leave the courtyard, though I suspected it had something to do with swan waddling along beside me.

Locking the door to the courtyard, I made a quick detour into the kitchens to request May check in on the Leosaur, and Shimosaru periodically.

Whilst I knew both were safe in the courtyard, I felt better knowing someone would be around to ensure they weren’t getting into any mischief, as I was prone to losing track of time.

The slap of Zosimos’s webbed feet on the stone stairs brought a smile to my lips, which quickly fell away as I reached the door to my lab which was torn off its hinges.

Mouth agape, I stared into the chaos that was my lab. Shattered glass lay strewn across the benches, and floor, liquids of varying color seeping across the stone. The furnace lay cold, my fire wisp nowhere to be seen, and the cage which once contained the wing-eared rabbit was now a melted lump of metal.

“Well- this isn’t good.”