Lia and I had stepped through the shadows to return to my tower, only for Lia to freeze and warn me that she could smell the scent of blood in the air. Somewhat alarmed by that revelation, we had immediately started to check the tower, my mind conjuring images of strange monsters breaking into the tower and attacking Luna. I had been certain that the remote location and the protections I had put in place would be enough to keep my daughter safe, which is why I hadn't done more. Had my complacency harmed my daughter?

The scent led us to the laboratory and, at that point, I was able to smell it, too. Just as I was able to detect another scent, this one strange and funky, nothing I had consciously smelled before. It didn't matter; the scent of blood was too dense to mean anything but trouble, which is why I almost shattered the door into countless small pieces in my need to reach Luna.

Only for the room I entered to be an utter mess, blood splattered across numerous surfaces, alongside a strange, brown paste I didn't want to think about too much. In the middle of that mess stood Luna, looking quite focused on one of the numerous containers I had conjured while setting this place up. Streaks similar to those splattered on the walls decorating her clothes, adding to her concerning appearance.

"Explain!" I couldn't help but demand, my voice cold as my previous fear and worry seamlessly turned into anger.

Luna whirled around, her eyes going wide as she saw me standing over the broken remains of the laboratory's door, anger undoubtedly visible on my face. My magic was certainly trying to escape my conscious grasp, the earlier agitation and the need for action still roiling within me, but now, it didn't seem as if there was a target.

"Mom? You're back?!" Luna asked, her voice cracking a little and her eyes darting all over the place, taking in the massive mess she had left all over the place. The nice, pristinely clear and clean walls, all streaked in blood and that weird, brown paste I still wasn't willing to investigate as if some particularly demented lunatic had decided to try their hand at fingerpainting with whatever they had available.

"Obviously," I growled, working hard to rein in the emotions swirling around my chest. "You were about to explain why this place looks like a massacre has taken place," I reminded her, my eyes flashing with a complicated mix of fear, worry, relief, and now a bit of anger.

"Um," Her eyes were darting around once more, not quite willing to meet mine, "You see, I wanted to try a few things. Expand my abilities and knowledge, I wanted to see if I could work with blood instead of only working with plants and grow them from seed. To achieve Mastery over Life, I need to expand my foundation, and blood seemed to be a good, if not quite a logical, next step," she explained, her words hitting me like a punch to the gut and taking the wind out of my sails. Mastery over Life, one of the crucial requirements to bring Sigmir back.

"And then the shit hit the fan?" I asked, glancing at the brown stuff liberally smeared across numerous surfaces.

"Huh?" she blinked, "No, that's nutrient paste. I made the stuff from plant matter I grew outside, and let me tell you, the soil here is horrible."

Now it was my turn to blink and take a much closer look at this brown paste I hadn't been willing to inspect too closely. It certainly was the source of the funky smell, proving that it wasn't what I had thought it was.

"Tell me about your experiments, your methods, your plans and your results. How much of this mess you'll have to clean up by hand depends on the quality of your work, so make it good," I threatened, my curiosity now taking the upper hand.

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She did exactly as I asked, laying out her ideas and methodology in clear, fairly concise words, though when it came to results, her words lacked the clear certainty. Instead, she was waffling, indicating that her efforts had largely yielded information on what didn't work.

Finally, she finished, looking at me expectedly. "Well, some of those ideas are good, but I'd prefer if you wait with anything volatile until I'm here to supervise," I chided her, "And creating new life is certainly something volatile. I'll help you clean up in here, but the lion's share will be yours. Additionally, I will ask your sister to tell you about her experience with risky experiments and how badly they can backfire," I finished, giving her my most serious look.

"What happened?" Luna must have caught my tone, eyes darting over to the door, where Lia had stood earlier, when I barged into the room.

"She figured out something new, decided to test it, it didn't go so well," I paused, "It's her story to tell, so that's all I'll say on that matter. But I'll ask her to share the experience." My words must have driven home just how serious this matter was and, maybe, how worried I had been.

"I'm sorry, Mom," she whispered, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around me. I returned the embrace, holding her gently as she whispered, "I just wanted to make you proud."

"And I am proud of you," I assured her, "Maybe not for the mess you made here, but I am proud of you. Of your boundless curiosity, the willingness to push forward to figure things out, of your kind soul and of so many other things that make you who you are. Never forget that, okay?" I added, giving her a brief squeeze.

Luna, in turn, simply nodded against my shoulder, holding tight. Sometimes, for all her magical and system-granted maturity, Luna could be a child, though even teenagers and young adults had their moments of insecurity.

"Let's clean this up, and I'll listen to your results, okay?" I asked after holding her for a bit, getting a nod in return. Then, we started to clean, carefully scraping off the brown paste and removing the splattered blood, while she added more details to the story she had already told me. Her approach didn't feel right, so I reminded her that humans couldn't be grown from cuttings, which was effectively what she had been trying to do. In fact, I couldn't think of any complex life-form that would grow that way. Some worms, maybe, but even there I wasn't certain.

Instead, I thought that she had been growing massive amounts of the numerous germs contained in the blood, including microbes, bacteria, and all those tiny little bugs that inhabit our bodies. Once the blood was removed and in stasis, nothing much happened to them, but once the stasis was broken, there'd be no immune response to limit their growth, leaving them in a nutrient-rich environment to grow as quickly as they could. Unless we wanted to explore the evolutionary tree, tracing its progression from simple microorganisms to complex organisms until we could guide it to humans, that wasn't the way to go.

While such a project would undoubtedly be incredibly interesting, it would also take immense amounts of time. The natural process had taken billions of years, so a guided process shouldn't take as long, but I had no idea if any of the microbes present in the blood would ever evolve in that direction. They had their niche; why would they evolve to fill a different one, unless they were forced by outside pressure?

Regardless, it wouldn't work in a feasible amount of time, and even if it did, it was unlikely to yield the results we wanted. Instead, I reminded Luna that we had some appropriate genetic material, harvested from the local giants, though I wasn't willing to use that outright. Instead, I told her I would gather some usable material during the next hunt, and we could start experimenting with that, then. Initially, it would probably be best to start with already combined genetic material, before working our way up to combining the material on our own. We'd have to see. This was something largely outside of my magical expertise, meaning Luna would have to take the lead, with me offering support.

Finally, the room looked a lot less messy than it had when Luna and I started our work, meaning Luna was allowed to leave with a reminder to ask Lia about experiments without having proper safeguards in place.

I, on the other hand, headed up to the top of my tower, sitting down on my throne, just thinking. Thinking and scheming, trying to lay out a plan that would allow me to achieve my ultimate goal. The first big step, control over the Nexus, was completed. Now, I had to figure out the following intermediate steps until I could finally embrace Sigmir again.

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