New discoveries

The next day didn’t begin promising. Around 9 am Lisa got a priority call from central. She threw on some clothes and immediately used a teleport spell to arrive at the headquarters. She didn’t even eat or shower or bother to equip herself in her armour. She could summon her combat suit from her vault later once she knew what was going on.

Only nothing was going on.

It had been just a drill. She was commended for her swift reaction and then tasked to evaluate the reaction of the newcomers. She wasn’t doing the evaluation alone, thank heaven, but seeing the dozen new Wardens half dressed in their combat gear - thus making a summon impossible - or **** on some hasty breakfast wasn’t pleasant. And then there the idiots that screwed up the teleportation spell.

All in all, Lisa and the other three veteran Wardens who shared her impromptu assignment were busy. First with clean up and then with instructions on how to improve. She did have time to clean herself up and get something to eat, but instead of a nice weekend, she was held up in the bloody headquarters until late at night.

At least she had gotten more sleep than the day before.

When she finally got back home it was nearly as late as the day before. True, she wasn’t as exhausted, but she had lost the entire day.

Still, she decided to do SOMETHING useful.

After a long and greatly enjoyable shower, she decided to be productive. Throwing on a loose shirt and shorts, she quickly unveiled the vault and opened it. Lisa didn’t have time for some in-depth examinations, but she could certainly get a closer look at the weird spheres.

But when she dismissed the wards of the security drawer, she immediately noticed something was wrong. The drawer was cold. Not a bit chilly, but really and utterly cold. There was condensation and it felt like touching ice. Of course, this didn’t stop Lisa from pulling it open.

She didn’t exactly wonder what caused it to become so cold. Putting one and one together wasn’t difficult. The creepy spheres were all but guaranteed to be the cause. The more intriguing questions were ‘how’ and ‘why’.

Pulling the drawer open was unpleasant, but easy. And the spheres were still very clearly inside. Only, they weren’t scattered around. They had all connected to each other, their tiny tendrils entwining and pulling them together.

And there were more of them.

Lisa knew for a fact, that she had put eight spheres in the box. So, why were there ten now? Do they multiply? Is that connected to the icy temperature of the security drawer? Whatever the case may be, this was both a fascinating and helpful surprise. She had wondered how to use the eight spheres, but she might be able to create more herself.

First, she had to figure out whether the temperature was important. For that she got a pair of tongs - no way would she touch things that turned people into lethal monsters. With that, Lisa pulled out four spheres one by one and put them into another drawer. Then she programmed said drawer to be heated. Maybe they can’t multiply if it is too hot? Four more spheres were put into yet another drawer as something of a crude control group.

That left Lisa with just two spheres to experiment with. If she was even slightly right, she would have more of them soon enough. Looking at them, Lisa knew, she should start with basics, analysing spells, biological checks etc. but after this day she just wanted to sate her curiosity a bit.

As such, she opened the holding to her combat suit’s left. Inside was a rather simple outfit, consisting of black leather boots, a fine knee-length, brown skirt, a long-sleeved white shirt and a black chocker. Nothing too wild, and that didn’t change the fact that just looking at them gave Lisa goosebumps. There was just something wrong with them.

But today wasn’t about that. She just wanted to try something simple. Taking out the boots, Lisa looked them over. They looked fairly ordinary with their smooth leather, flat heel, zipper on the side and calf-high shaft. The only odd thing was a strange round indentation on the front of the boot. It looked like there should be something there, like a gem. Both boots had one such spot.

Frankly, every single piece of clothing Lisa had found after her battles had such spots. Some more, but one seemed to be minimum. She had tried some magical stones and such, but they didn’t do anything.

And now she was going to try the organic and weird spheres she had found.

Carefully, she picked up one of the two leftover spheres and brought it to the spot. The closer she brought the round thing - or was it a creature? - the more life it seemed to contain. Tendrils sprouted and lashed out in the direction of the boot. Maybe she should stop at this point and try to find out how the sphere knew that it was close to the boot, but her curiosity was too big. That, and she had no patience left after this shitty day off.

So, instead of stopping, she pushed the sphere against the indentation. The tendrils connected and sank into the leather of the boot, almost like a liquid. Lisa let go and watched the sphere merge with the fabric. Soon, it looked like there had never been an indent at all, but a strangely shimmering darker spot of black on the boot.

And nothing changed.

Lisa was a bit disappointed, but after a few moments, she realised that it wasn’t true. Something had changed. The boot no longer had this strange aura of wrongness. What an odd effect for the sphere to have.

She considered leaving the other boot as is, again as a form of a control group but decided against it. It was a pair and she had one sphere to spare. So, she repeated her actions with the second boot.

And once that was done, a lot more than some subtle feeling in Lisa’s mind changed.

Simultaneously, both boots started to twist and twitch, to shift and squirm. The leather lost all definition until it was a formless mass of black. The shaft stretched upward until it had nearly doubled in length. A high heel formed at the sole, slowly growing in length. The zipper melted away.

Lisa stepped away and with practice born out of experience started to conjure up a magical ward around the entire mass. She **** herself to relax, lest a stiff arm or even finger screwed up her whole conjuration. Doubts and irritation were creeping into her mind. She knew not to skip steps during her research. She knew to be careful with… She pushed those thoughts away. They were pointless and distracting.

As the ward flickered into life, the strange change of the boots was calming down. They no longer looked as if made out of leather, now they appeared glossy, almost like a liquid. The shaft had nearly doubled in length and would now reach well onto the thigh of a wearer. The new heel had reached about five to six inches and wasn’t too thick. It also looked like strange markings were etched into the boots, but they were hard to make out on the dark material.

All in all, they now looked like the type of footwear the women wielding abyssal power were known to wear: Skin-tight and suggestive.

Not feeling any kind of danger and hearing no alarm from the vault, Lisa slowly dropped the ward around the transformed boots. She couldn’t believe her luck. If the vault’s security system - the one that should protect Lisa from intruders - had triggered, all her secrets would have been revealed.

But that hadn’t happened, so she calmed herself and stepped closer again. Now that she had a better look, the boots almost looked like made of latex. She gingerly prodded one. It was not exactly latex. It was too flexible, almost gooey, but not quite.

The Wardens called the strange outfits abyssal wielders wore void gear. And now the boots looked exactly like that. Everyone was sure that void gear had supernatural powers, like the combat suits of the Wardens. But Lisa had never heard of anyone finding intact void gear. And now she had created or maybe repaired void gear, even if by accident.

The fact that her carelessness might be responsible for a breakthrough in her research made Lisa grin. It was at this point that she noticed that the boots had no zipper. It couldn’t be comfortable to have to stretch and push your leg into the shaft. She imagined it would be like her struggle with her last Halloween costume which was just a bit too small.

Then Lisa stopped herself. She wasn’t going to wear them, of course. That would be silly. Also very dangerous and reckless. She bit her lower lip. She couldn’t do something like that.

Right?