A folksy tale for the ages.

Stella opened her eyes in full panic. In a second she had to try to understand what was happening. The last thing she remembered was being in the fountain with this really weird guy. Now she was dry, clothed, the borrowed clothes now fit her and were adjusted for her tail. This John was holding her in his arms and walking towards the quad that they had rode on to this forest.

"What... What are you doing? What did you do to me?" she asked, wondering how she had allowed to let herself go to like this.

"We stayed in the waters for a bit over an hour; it seems like you really needed this. I don't mind, the results were worth it. The scars and burns on your back are completely gone. I don't know if you noticed other changes. I have to go back to the castle for some important business but I didn't want to leave you here alone," he explained.

"I was... Naked, ****... Why didn't you..."

"I told you I wouldn't. I only touched you to hold you and get you out of the water. I won't **** myself on you, nor would I take advantage of you in such a moment. Do you feel good enough to ride?"

"You really are a weird one... You got yourself a harem but you play gentleman. You give away priceless things on a whim."

"I offered them my protection, just as I did to you. I take care of my own. That's what I'm on my way to do, you're not the only one in need of care today."

Nodding and trying to understand where she ended finding herself, Stella let him put her down and followed him to the quad.

A short yet bumpy ride later, they were back at the castle. She got a short visit of it, surprised that most of the functional rooms were underground. There was some delicious assortment of foods waiting for them, prepared by Anna.

It took a few moments for Stella to remember that the food was free and to sit down to dig in.
John took a few bites and emptied a few plates into his inventory for later. Going back to the ground level, he came upon a delegation.

Algernon and nearly a dozen of his evolved offspring, the same size as he was, were gathered at the entrance of the castle. The ratfolk seemed to have branched into two species, one nearly indistinguishable from normal rats except a bit taller and a lot smarter, and the kin of Algernon, even taller and spending most of their time standing upright, using tools and able to speak a language John could understand (almost).

"Salutement, your Lordiness. The tenebrous has told us by the talky brick that your venturement was successional and the curation of the folk within paws reech. My spawn are gatheringed here to get this blessation from your omnicicence," said Algernon, making John take a pause to decipher his speech.

"We have indeed finished the machine that should allow us to cure you and your children. Follow me to the lab and we'll begin," John replied, beginning to climb the stairs up to the laboratory.

"Self is not to go first. My kin is importanter."

"Well, that's not how it will work. And please stop calling me the tenebrous, my name is Tricia," replied the nerdy blonde, busy calibrating some weird doodads connected to the vat at the center of the room.

"Apologizements, Tree Cya. Why can't you curate my kin?"

"It your... Self. Your structure is so damaged, transformed, modified, unstable. I need to treat you first to get the maximum of data. Since they are all your kids, once I have you healed, I'll know how to heal any of them a lot more easily than I would if I had to find a cure for each of them at first."

After this short explanation, Tricia had him disrobe. She gave him four shots of various chemicals in the neck or arms from an injector, swapping vials between each shot. John helped Algernon to climb into the vat of water at the center of the lab and Tricia put multiple intravenous needles in him, connected to the tubes. He was then given a mask to breathe in and fully submerged.

Two of Tricia's drones were in a stationary flight above the vat, scanning Algernon's body continuously. She was busy typing on a small tablet, moving sliders around on the screen and turning valves on the tubes and the various tanks.

John was ready. Tricia had given him a series of instructions of how and when to use either his alchemy or biomantic powers to operate slight adjustments that a normal procedure couldn't get exactly right.

Of course there was a lever, John had insisted on it. This was a long brass looking rod with a round knob at the end. On a console there was also a large red button, serving as an emergency shut-off command. The ascension lab looked like a very classy version of the lair of a mad scientist; the gold and brass coverings on most appliances (courtesy of the recently applied visual enhancement reward) gave the whole place a sort of steampunk look.

On the dot, John pulled the lever. Liquids started to flow through the tubes from the various tanks, most of them going around or even through the glowing glass apparatus filled with the gold-looking dust that John had traded with the Order as part of his contractor work. This Endless Dust was a legendary substance, magic mimicking technology, or the other way around. The powder as fine as flour was shedding a golden light. Each grain of the dust was some sort of magically charged nanite, of a size too small to make any sense in the face of their properties.

The show of now glowing liquid flowing through the coiled tubes was mesmerizing. As soon as they reached Algernon, everything changed. The body of the ratlike creature started to shake, a noise of cracking bones filled the room and his fur covered skin split open in many spots, reddening the water. His veins and eyes were glowing now. Tricia's were flying over her tablet, making adjustments so fast that they rivaled what John could have done with Move. The water cleared and the pump on the very large tank of nutrient paste began humming a lot louder, pumping its content at triple the rate it had started at.

Algernon was growing and he was changing. His body was becoming a lot more human like with the exception of the head, tail, claw-tipped fingers and fur. John was busy following to the letter the list of instructions, reinforcing newly reformed bones, softening and stretching skin, stabilizing internal organs. Despite the **** of the process, the elder rat didn't seem to be in real pain, no doubt helped by some kind of painkillers pumped into his blood.

John was so focused and so attentive to the cues for each of his interventions that he quickly lost track of time. A series of the same crystal emitters that were on Tricia's drones had been integrated into the machine. They were emitting multi-colored energy, as rays to target precise points or wide beams to cover Algernon's body inch by inch.

After a few eternities, the humming of the machine came to a stop. With some help from John, a reborn Algernon rose from the vat. He now stood 3ft tall and looked more like a ratman than an oversized rat.

After a few tests, it was determined that, thanks to the Elf blood infusion during the procedure, his expected life span was now raised to 30 years or more. It wasn't that much, but it was the best they could do for now considering the ephemeral and unstable nature of rat folk. From the amazed looks of the patriarch’s progeny, John was pretty sure that Tricia and himself as well as Algernon would soon be the center of a tale that would be recited for many generations among the folk.

Algernon, still a bit frail and needing to get his footing after such a growth spurt, was guided downstairs for some food.

After a small conversation and a nod from John, Tricia, who had finished working on her tablet as the supercomputer finished to process all of the data, turned towards the small group of ratfolks.