It was with a soft sigh that I stepped out of the shadows and back into my tower. The last few days had been seriously unproductive. Sure, I had managed to capture that Qalupalik and secured it so I could test a few things, but the creature might just be the least mentally sound being I ever had the misfortune of encountering. If it had just tried to harm itself while trying to break out of the cell I put it in, it would be one thing. Annoying, sure, but not the end of the world. But it was far worse than that.

My first step to keep the thing from harming itself had been to simply chain it up, holding its limbs immobile and against the wall, relatively simple. Only that the thing immediately started to thrash around, trying to rip its hands through the manacles regardless of the damage it would do to itself. It also bashed its head against the wall a few times, until blood was running oozing from small cuts and lacerations, forcing me to knock the thing out again.

After healing the Qalupalik, I added more and more shackles and binds, trying to cushion the manacles and even the walls around it, but that only slowed the thing down. It was completely and utterly consumed with the need to escape, regardless of the cost. When I tried to use Mind Magic to learn more, I was utterly flabbergasted.

The thing's mind was so far gone that I couldn't influence it beyond brute force methods. Knocking it out, sure, that I could do. But subtly make the mind see a familiar setting in an effort to calm it down? That turned out to be impossible; the thing was just too obsessed with its escape. It was, quite frankly, a little maddening, especially when the Qalupalik's condition started to deteriorate. It had only lasted a little over a day in the cell before dying, possibly succumbing to stress and self-inflicted injuries; I wasn't sure.

When the next Qalupalik I captured suffered the same fate, I realised that this wasn't working and considered how I could experiment on the Qalupalik without removing them from their environment while also remaining safe from the sound-based effect around the bay. Given the apparent insidious nature of that effect, I wasn't willing to get closer to the bay than I previously had, barely in range of it and always with sound-dampening wrapped around me like a cocoon.

The only way I could currently imagine doing my experiments was by using my scrying constructs. Still, those had severe limitations: they transmitted only visual and auditory information, along with a vague tactile sense. They had no olfactory senses; even their sense of proprioception and similar instinctual senses didn't apply, to say nothing of the magical senses I was accustomed to. There was no way for them to perceive magic, beyond running into some magical effect and getting affected by it, let alone something more arcane, like Minds or Souls. For the experiments I wanted to run, the constructs were sadly useless, meaning I had to return to the drawing board, which was why I had returned to the tower. It was simply more comfortable here.

"Hello, Mother, did you have a good trip?" Lia asked once I returned to our living quarters, looking exceedingly bored. Sure, she had one of the numerous books we had secured on our travel in her hands, but the expression on her face said it all.

"So, so," I shook one of my hands in a wavy motion, trying to convey just how annoying the trip had been. "There's only so much I could do regarding the various critters out there, with winter setting in, and my experiments with the green creatures in the water have largely failed. Although I can tell you that they are called Qalupalik, I must admit that the knowledge has no real use. Levels between fifty and sixty, from what I've seen, though there might be stronger versions out there. Or weaker, who knows," I explained, before adding my other observations, regarding their suicidal tendencies while in captivity and the strange sound-based mental effect I had observed.

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"And it's not Mind Magic?" she asked, once I had described the sound and what it did.

"No, at least not as I understand it. It's a mental effect, but I wasn't able to detect any Astral Power, nor divine power for that matter. I doubt it's purely physical, but I have no idea how it actually works," I admitted with a shrug.

"I think there's something about sirens in one of the books we gathered," Lia suggested, making me look at her with a raised eyebrow. "I was bored, okay? And given that the Change seems to have taken some inspiration from previous mythology and legends, who knows what else is happening out there."

At that, I was forced to nod in acceptance. Ever since we had seen the Sasquatch, a creature only spoken of in legends before the change, I couldn't discount that other myths might have come to life, too. So, sirens were a reasonable comparison, though the similarities ended with their sound-based mental effects and homicidal tendencies. Or maybe omnicidal for the Qalupalik, it didn't look like they particularly cared what they tore apart, as long as it was alive and they could devour the remains. Or it might be some sort of survival strategy, a need to consume everything they could lure into their claws during the winter, when food was likely to be scarce. I didn't have enough information to assign a motive. Or even determine whether motive and intelligence ever came into play, they might just be animals, acting purely on instinct.

"So, these not-sirens tried to kill themselves when you took them from the ocean, right? And the ocean is constantly surrounded by that weird mental effect?" Lia asked, apparently putting pieces together that I hadn't before.

"Yeah," I nodded, following her train of logic, "You want to know whether the suicidal tendencies are because they are away from the ocean, because they are outside of that mental effect or maybe even because they, as creatures of Water and Ice, were surrounded by Earth, right?"

"Hadn't thought about the elemental connection, but yes, something along those lines. There might even be a hive mind at work. It wouldn't be the first time we observed something like that," she suggested, only for me to shake my head and tell her how the Qalupalik had torn apart one of their own after it got wounded.

"What have you been doing all this time?" I asked, after we traded a few more ideas, none of which could be verified or discarded at the moment.

"Looking for something to do," she raised the book she had been reading, "I've considered starting a new alchemical project, but I'm not sure which direction I want to work in at the moment. But now that you're here, could you observe while I do a few more experiments with my superspeed? I want to see if I could drop things precisely and how well I could move into speed, stop and go into speed again."

"Sure, I can spot you," I nodded, considering her ideas, "But it might be best if we head somewhere else, maybe even take Luna along so she isn't as bored," I paused, "Or has she started some new experiments?"

"No, she's been good, complained about the lack of test-subjects, but she hasn't used any blood, just some of her plants. The dark and cold climate might be getting to her a little," Lia's look was one of concern. "She's been reading a few of the tomes, and I think she's been considering how to make new paper, so future writing can be done on paper instead of having to carve it into stone."

"You know, I considered that. Paper is nice and all, but there's something inherently more solid about inscribing information in stone," I grinned a little at my pun, though I had to admit there was some truth to the better portability of paper. However, I had considered carving information into a crystal using tiny letters, then channelling a magical light into it to project the information onto a wall, similar to a cinema projection. That would solve the portability issue while making storage as secure as possible, especially if the crystals were reasonably durable.

"Mhm, sure, if you want to have an encyclopedia the size of the Great Pyramids, or something like that," Lia snarked back before standing.

"Let's get Luna, we could take a day and relax somewhere. Maybe even step through the shadows and visit the Temple or even Jademoon Tower," she added, making me consider the idea. Taking a vacation day somehow sounded great, something to wash away the annoyance and exhaustion I was feeling at the moment.

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