chapter 12: The Biomancer

They enter, before them several dozen tanks. Instead of the vats in the previous room, these were more like stasis tanks. Each held a number of creatures, various chimarias. These were not monstrous chimarias of Greek myth, instead these were hybrids. A Jackrabbit with wings for ears, a Panther with a large set of wings, a flying squirrel. Samar stopped at the turtle with a cute pair of wings ‘ok I’m seeing a theme here.’

They turned the corner and found themselves in the main workshop. The room was an OCD nightmare; books, papers, tools all sorts of things sprawled out randomly. To either side were wooden mannequins. At the far end of the room stood a cute looking elf. She had the complexion of someone that was half Asian half European. At least to a degree, her ears were like a pair of daggers pointing out either side of her head. Her hair, streaked with highlights of the same aquamarine as the slimes in the other room was tied in a topknot bun. She had a sort of easter scholar look to her, or at least a close modern equivalent of. Her face lacked Solveig’s strength and hard lines but instead had a soft cuteness to it.

She looked up from her tablet, looking oddly like one from their old world. She gave Samar a slime “I see you know the password.”

With a slight grin Samar nodded “very original.”

She nods “I get your criticism, but it served its purpose. it’s secure against the people of this world but for one of us, it is an open door.

Samar considered that for a minute. He was standing before her so the filtering did work. He gave a tilted nod conceding the point.

“Your slimes are quite effective.” he told her.

Like any artiste she grinned, enjoying the compliment “I’m glad you liked them-”

She was cut off by Solveig's hiss “enough I will-” Solveig was cut off when the elf tapped on her tablet. It dinged and from the room behind them there was a hiss, the clopping sound of something wet slapping onto hard stone.

Samar gave Solveig a pleading look “do you mind dealing with them?”

Solveig gave him a look “are you sure.” he nodded. She sighed reaching into her satchel and pulled out the lacrosse stick.

“No way.” Samar turned to the elf, her face a mixture of frustration and awe. “You countered them with that!”

Samar laughed “you're not the only one that can come up with counters.”

She sighed, then shrugged “I got what I wanted from this, did you create enough to counter the attack?”

He shrugged “there were twenty when we left and I’d be surprised if there were more. They thought the idea was crazy.” she nodded her eyes distant, remembering a similar experience.

Not even a minute after she had left Solveig stomped back in, dripping blue liquid. “Your turn.”

Samar raised his hand “love, a moment.” she turned her fiery eyes to him and he quickly added “she is one of my kind, and obviously here a lot longer than I have. If I can, I want some closer on why I was sacrificed.”

her burning glare softened, she nodded, then looked to one of the cuter creations and growled “if you try anything, I will skin this one alive.”

The oriental elf looked startled but nodded “My name is Sakura, here I go by Seltery. I was one of the Alpha testers, contractually signed so that my disappearance wouldn’t be noticed for a year, until your group launched. As far as the why, your guess is as good as mine.” she looked to Solveig then back to Samar “how about we make a deal.”

Samar raised an eyebrow, “you let me go without a fight.” Solveig let out a low growl. She tried a cute smile but her nervous glance at Solveig and her stammer “I -I have several of your cores, I also want my creations to go free.” Samar nodded, then thought occurred to him “do you know what the cores are for?” Seltery’s head bobbed “they house the fire spirit that acts as their soul.” Samar could feel the heat radiating off Solveig. Samar thought for a moment “have you told anyone about this?”

Seltery shook her head “my interest was to create a weapon as cheaply as possible so that I could create my babies.” she gestured to the winged animals in the tanks.

Samar nodded, knowing full well how much people loved their pets, a pang shot through his chest at the thought of Denali his dog at his parents house. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts, when he saw movement “No!” he shouted. Solveig skidded to a halt, halfway to the Scientist. She half cocked her head and growled “so you weren’t telling me to attack”

“No I was just reminded of what was left behind.” he took a steadying breath.

In a soft voice Seltery spoke “They don't bond like we do, their nature is more dominative. For the people of this world there are animals and there are people. For those without souls they view the same way we might view a landmine.”

He nodded solemnly “A threat to be dealt with.” a thought occurred to him "outside is dead, how do you plan on dealing with the slimes?"

With a coy grin "who says I'm dealing with the slimes?"

Samar gestured to the room full of animals. Seltery pouted cutely "I was going to save that till we agreed I was going to go free.”

Samar nodded then called out “Solveig, are you fine letting her go in exchange for both this area being fixed and a number of your peoples cores." A pause, "Solveig?"

She turned to him, her face more neutral than he'd ever seen it "what does it mean when your people bond, that you can bond with anything."

Samar felt the danger of her uncertainty, and knowing her insecurities. “There is no magic, or feats where we come from.” he paused “Seltery” he asked hesitantly “what does bonding mean in context to this world.”

The cute elf came over, putting herself well within striking range of Solveig. She pulled out the threatened winged-jackrabbit and started petting it. “To Solveig, it's nothing magical or dominating. To Samar, when a wild class individual like say a ranger finds a wild animal it likes, they can bend its will to their own.”

Samar nodded “Solveig, love, the world we come from has no magic, we are all comparable to a level one human here.”

Seltery added “think about how most humans or most organisms think when they think of you, a weapon, one with a mind of its own so an especially dangerous one because you might act irrationally.”

“Irrationally” Solveig hissed, her look was still a bit hurt but now had the look of a woman that was just told to calm down.

Seltery’s head bobbed “yes, but our kind are the polar opposite, we will empathize with animals, understand them, humanize them. We even have a word for it '擬人化”

Samar laughed “that's terrible”

Seltery looked confused “what?”

“That last word you just spoke in Korean or umm.”

She nodded “Japanese, but haven't I been talking in Japanese this whole time.” Samar shook his head “it automatically translates, so basically that last word doesn’t have a direct translation, which is pretty sad.” Seltery nodded.

Her anger seemingly simmered down if only for due to the confusion “what does that mean?” Solveig asked.

“It means that we will make anything human. craters on our moon look kinda like a face, so we call it ‘the man on the moon” Samar explained

“And by anything we mean anything, if one of us is stuck on an island with only a volleyball we will name him Wilson.” Seltery added.

“Willlsoon!” Samar called out forlornly.

Seltery sniffled “Good bye, Wilson, my sweet prince.”

Solveig sighed “you two are idiots.” she closed her eyes for a moment, gave a sad snort “am I ever going to stop doubting you?”

Samar moved forward and pulled her into a hug, “my love, I know your history and your pain. I cannot promise I will be perfect but I will try.” he let her go after a long moment. He locked eyes with Seltery to apologize but she waved off with the slightest shake of her head.

Seltery moved to an innocuous beaker “I take it I will be able to leave, and all of that.” Samar nodded. Seltery licked her finger and ran it around the rim of the beaker. There was a corresponding reverberation that came from outside. Samar’s ears popped uncomfortably, it was like hearing the mosquito ringtone be blasted at you. After a minute it stopped. Seltery had a torn expression “the slimes are dead.” Samar raised an eyebrow. She clarified “I made a sonic weapon to quickly kill them off without so that I could repopulate the environment.” she made her way further down the line and activated several things. The animals in their containers began disappearing.

Another thought occurred to Samar “what is your opinion of the knights here?”

She looked at him, “Darius, the captain of the guard is my husband.” Samar swallowed and Solveig coughed.

Seltery laughed “I’m joking. the knight that you had to cut your way through. hmm how to put this. You don’t get the job of guarding a crazy witch in the middle of the highlands as a reward.” She shook her head, a slightly sad look “I grieve that human life has been lost. Those men however, the world is honestly better off that they are dead.” Samar gave her a question look but Seltery shook her head.

Pressing something on her tablet the dozen or so mannequins came to live. Most marched to the back of the room in a mechanical fashion. A few moving with more grace picked up several bags and boxes. Before moving towards the back of the room.

Samar looked to the living mannequins then to Seltery “do you make Gargoyles but out of wood.”

One moved forward, unlike the others that were just the type that one might model clothes on; this one was more a moving wooden statue; with four wings, metal armor and a sword.

Seltery nodded “mostly, do you know the difference between sprites and spirits?”

Samar explained what Solveig told him. Seltery thought for a moment “that's close. So a spirit is what lives in Solveig’s core, a fully sapient entity. Like Cathbad here, who can think and feel. These others are different, they are powered by sprites. Like your swords. They can feel pain, hunger but they are not intelligent.

She keyed something else on her tablet and a bluish portal opened up behind them. “Well, it looks like the gargoyle attack succeeded and I am **** to retreat” she smiled and walked up to Samar. Standing on her toes, she kissed his cheek “maybe next time you best me, you will earn a bit more.” with that she sauntered to the portal and walked through. The dozen or so Mannequins followed her out.

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