It was a small piece of knowledge that had cost Faluel countless tries and extensive agony to learn, but she was now sure that waiting past the three-minute mark would bring no new developnt, only prolong her suffering.
She cut off the extra mana flow, and the pain abated instantly. Faluel waited to feel the now familiar itch behind her eyes again before sending the mana to the secondary sunspots.
'Gods, yes!' The itching spread to the rest of her brains and then down her necks. 'Wait, why my necks? Of course! The spinal cord and the cerebellum must also play a role-'
Her eyes shed blood tears while her throats tightened, making every breath a wheezing gasp. Bone spikes erupted from her spines, piercing her flesh open with wounds.
'Gods, no!' Faluel lost her proto-Dragon Eyes and felt an imnse bloodlust rise in her gut. The newfound insights about the arrays' runes faded at the edges of her consciousness, replaced by a violent hunger.
'No, no, no!' Then, her own lab beca a scary and unknown place as every form of magic above tier three beca a blurred ss she could no longer understand.
Anger clouded her vision, followed by the desire to escape from that underground prison and hunt until her stomach burst.
While she still retained her sanity, Faluel cut off the flow of the Hands and activated the safety protocols. The arrays drained the world energy from her body and readied to send a distress signal to Lith, Solus, Friya, Ajatar, and Fyrwal.
The signal contained all the information they would need to find her, access her lab, and fix her life force.
Luckily for Faluel, it wasn't necessary.
The changes in her life force were only due to the vigorous flow of mana, not due to the stable alterations caused by a Body Sculpting spell. The mont the arrays grounded Faluel and established a Sealed Space around her, the bubbles and the sunspots started to fade.
The bone spikes left gashes in her flesh, but she welcod the pain as her ntal faculties beca as keen as usual. The itch disappeared, and with it her nascent form of Dragon Eyes.
Faluel first used the Life Sculpture to ensure her latest failure had inflicted no permanent damage on her life force. After that, she used light fusion to heal her wounds.
Her body was on the verge of collapse, and she didn't want to increase its burden further. Lifestream wasn't an option either. It would erase the effects of her experint before the arrays could record them in their entirety.
"Good gods. I went this close to being the first fallen Hydra on Mogar." She panted heavily, feeling her stomach grumbling as if she hadn't eaten in days instead of hours. "Just my luck. The thing I chose as my last try was the right one. Next ti-
"What is it now?" A small alarm pulled at her consciousness, alerting Faluel that soone was at her door.
A tendril of mana connected her with the enchantnts comprising the security system of her secret lab, which gave her access to those of her ho despite the distance separating them.
"Ajatar?" The holographic cara showed Faluel a colossal sapphire-blue lizard standing in front of her doorstep.
The horn on his snout took up most of the hologram due to perspective, but left enough space for her to recognize her friend.
"Why is he here? More importantly, why am I talking to myself out loud like a crazy person? How long has this been going on? How long have I been holed up in here?" After waiting a while, Ajatar pressed the rune again, pulling at her consciousness.
"Gods, I've spaced out like a Lich!" Faluel's voice quivered with shock. "Even worse, I can't stop talking to myself. I need to get out of here!"
Faluel Warped back to her ho and lifted the rock wall covering the entrance to her lair before another stream of consciousness turned into babble and spilled out of her mouth.
"Good morning, Faluel." Ajatar noticed the bloodstains on her necks, the still-open wounds, and the clear signs of exhaustion written all over her seven snouts, but he didn't so much as furrow a brow. "May Leegaain's favor be with you today."
"Wait, what?" Faluel recognized the traditional greeting between Dragons that she and Ajatar had slightly altered in a passphrase to ensure the other wasn't held prisoner or under duress.
'Why does he think I'm in danger? This is my house and…' Only then did she rember she had yet to clean up her body and fix the consequences of her recent experint.
"I an, no more than usual, Ajatar. Please, co in." Had she used "dear friend" instead of his na, it would have ant soone was listening to them, but there was no imdiate threat.
Had she called him with his full na, it would have ant "run for your life and call for help". The rest would always remain the sa, following tradition so as not to alert her alleged enemies.
"Thank the gods! You had worried for a second. You look like shit." Ajatar cast a quick Life Sensing array anyway, just to be safe.
"Thanks. Always the charr, I see." Faluel grunted. "Do you want to co in, or do you also want to pat down and insult so more?"
"I'm sorry, I ant no disrespect with the array." Casting the Life Sensing spell in another Awakened's ho was no different than telling your host you don't trust them. "But you really look terrible and have yet to offer an explanation for your sorry state."
Ajatar pointed at Faluel's many still-bleeding wounds.
"You caught in the aftermath of a failed experint." She replied. "I'm still collecting data, so I can't heal myself yet."
"Was it dangerous?" The Drake stepped inside, doing his best not to stare at her like a fascinating specin.
"No. More like humiliating. I made one mistake after another and learned very little from my ordeal." Faluel sighed deeply, leading him to the Hydra equivalent of a living room. "I don't only look but also feel like crap."
A massive pile of gold and platinum coins ford a makeshift chair where she sat, while the guests' seats were comprised of silver coins mixed with just a few gold ones.
The table between host and guests was a raised stone plateau covered with gold and tal ingots forming a checkboard design.
Masterfully cut gems the size of a waterlon decorated the edge of the table, forming a pattern that followed the elental sequence from fire to Spirit.
"Then I've co at the right ti." A smile appeared on Ajatar's reptilian muzzle. "I've just what you need to cheer up."
Asking about her experints would have been considered a rude attempt to steal or, at best, copy her research. Among mages, knowledge could only be freely offered, not requested.
Faluel clearly had no intention of saying more, so Ajatar dropped the subject and conjured a vast assortnt of dishes from his dinsional amulet with a wave of his scaled hand.
Each plate was the size of a Lesser Divine Beast and filled with an equally big serving of real food.
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