Pike's Study
This round room is at the base of the castle's single remaining tower. The ceiling is high, with a few trapeze-like hanging perches suspended from it where they won't get in the way of the spiraling stairs that lead through a trapdoor to the next level. Shelves, cabinets and desks fill the space, all of them overflowing with books, papers, drawings or dried plant specimens. One cabinet is full of odd stones and crystals, and the largest desktop is covered with open books displaying anatomical diagrams of various wing structures. Aside from the standard oil lamps, a large glass-topped brazier in the center of the room serves as both a heater and a light source for those who prefer to read while hanging upside-down from the ceiling perches.

After making it to the top of the winding stairs from the sub-basement, Mage Qing is cornered by Dr. Pike and dragged off to her study to 'relax' after he's finished dealing with the staff of the necromancer Valicross. The big book Meta-Golem Physiology is on the cluttered desk, and Pike asks if the spirit mage would care for some tea while he gets comfortable.

Having wound his way up after Dr. Pike, the pallid Naga is practically docile, compared to his usual testy demeanor. The past few days have been long, and the discorporation of the gruesome staff particularly draining. For once, Qing agrees some relaxation is in order, and allows himself to be hauled away. He even nods acceptance at the offer of tea, coiling himself neatly in an uncluttered spot. Though his ruby eyes are somewhat shaded by his hat, they don't miss the hefty tome on the table.

To make things a little more comfortable, Dr. Pike fires up the central brazier to warm the room. "Ig-" she starts to call, but of course the hunchbacked servant is already there at the door with the tea service. "Doth the marthter prefer cream, thugar or honey?" the patchwork Skreek asks.

"I do not. Black will do," murmurs Qing, his voice low and soft. His long neck curls slightly, angling his head upward a bit to glance at the specimens and papers bursting from overstuffed cabinets, but refraining from touching anything, whether he recognizes it or not.

"I'll serve him, Igor, you can go check on our other guests," Pike says, taking the tea service from her servant after a bit of a struggle. "Very well, Mithtrethth," the man lisps, and leaves the two scholars to their privacy. As she prepares the tea, she asks, "So, how did your examination of the staff turn out? I won't have to spray for ghosts in my basement, will I?"

The walls are crammed full of… stuff. Certainly lots of murky jars with mutant critters in them, usually serving as bookends. Mostly the room is filled with shelves and stacks of books and loose papers.

Qing angles his head back down, shading his face again. The forked tip of his tongue flicks briefly into view. "It was a twisted reminder of a more twisted man, and telling evidence of his willingness to do harm in his bid to pervert our craft to his ends. I quieted all the echoes but for the ones the Chalk spirit would not allow me to." He doesn't admit to how glad he was that he was stopped.

"Well that is good to… wait, Chalk spirit?" Pike asks, almost dropping the delicate teacup and saucer she was bringing the mage.

The Naga nods slightly, and reaches his upper set of arms out to take the cup and saucer when it rattles. "She was called Buffy Chalk, and acted as guardian for the Chalk family's mines, or so I was told. Another of the uncontrolled spirits the witches hold in mistaken esteem, but that is neither here nor there. It appears bound in some way, and I am learning to compromise with the covens."

"Goodness, you actually saw Buffy?" Pike asks, looking a bit nervous until she sits down on a stack of nearby books. "She's really real then? I wasn't sure, since… ah, well, I'm not the sort to assign a supernatural explanation for every strange thing I see."

Crimson eyes grow distant. "I sensed her first, before we began the ritual," murmurs Qing, pausing to sip his tea. "A presence beneath the earth, far below even the chamber we used in your castle. When our combined consciousness was drawn into the staff, we saw her there, a Lapi clad in a wedding gown. Nightshade knew her well, it seemed, and spoke on her behalf. When I came to the spirits of the children that Valicross slew, she bid that I stay my hand, and I agreed. They have gone with her."

"That is… well, interesting," Pike notes, although she shudders as well. "Speaking of unusual spirits, I was wondering if you might know something about one spirit in particular?" the Eeee asks, reaching out to pat the golem book. "I don't suppose you ever had the opportunity to examine the Aeolun's spirit, did you?"

The Aeolun. Rare as they are, Qing knows immediately who Pike is referring to, and he sets his teacup back on its saucer. "Mm. You speak of Mage Envoy. We have some… history. I took her for a simple, if exotic, exile when first we met. Irreverent during the cross-bureau investigation into Isstan, incessantly and irritatingly curious outside of it, there was an occasion where I had to have words with a healer, and I sated her curiosity and silenced her by transferring her spirit to a candle temporarily."

"So it was a normal spirit, like a living person would have?" the Eee asks eagerly. "One generated by her, not imposed from some outside source?"

"Of course it was. She is a living, if strange, person," hisses Qing, arching a brow. "Flesh, blood, and a spirit."

"Excellent!" Pike says, jumping up. "There's something I need to show you," she says, and starts moving books around.

After raising a haze of dust, Dr. Pike finds what she was looking for, and holds up a small wooden box (that looks disturbingly like a child's burial casket). "You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find this," she says. "I had to track down the surgeon for an old traveling circus."

The mage leans forward slightly. His attention is focused directly on the box rather than simply looking at it with one eye, betraying some interest. "What is this?"

Setting the box down, Pike opens it up and takes out… a cave lizard. It's about two feet long, and the color of dark rock, just like every other cave lizard. Except that this one has large patches of white flesh, covered not in a leathery hide but in fine white fur. One of it's six legs is also white, and appears to have begun transforming into a wing, complete with tiny golden feathers. Bits of gold mane sprout from the patches on its spine, and half of its face has also gone white. "It's dead of course," Pike explains, "but according to all the research done on Aeolun cells, it is also impossible." She offers the reptile to Qing for a closer look.

Qing takes the box with his lower sit of hands, his uppermost pair of arms poised over it like a mantis, without actually touching the contents. "Strange," he hisses unnecessarily. "It does seem to bear characteristics of hers. You are saying, then, that she could not have whelped such a thing? How old is this specimen, and what is it preserved with?" He tilts his head, looking at the creature with a mix of interest and skepticism. "I do not see any stitches yet… it is my nature to first suspect hoaxes. I have been called upon to investigate many things, and it is more common than not that these traveling circuses craft 'amazing' creatures with which to fleece yokels." A spare hand slips into a pocket to fish up a lens of some sort.

"That's the interesting part," Pike says. "According to the surgeon, it's at least eleven years old, found in the same cave as the Exile, along with several others in similar states. They'd been trying to eat the Aeolun! And they are not preserved at all!" For emphasis, Pike lifts of the limp tail of the lizard, showing that there aren't any signs of rigor mortis or decay. "It may be dead, but it's still physically intact."

The mage takes Pike's motion as assent to touch the lizard-like creature in the box, gingerly lifting it up to study it, moving the limbs, opening the mouth, and prising open an eye. Initially, he looks for seams, or any other telltale sign it may be fake, as well as searching his memory of preservation techniques to determine what might be holding off the decay. "I know little of the exile's background. She was discovered in a cave, with mundane cave lizards?"

"Yes, she arrived on Rephidim as part of a freak show," Pike notes. "I've done a lot of research on it. I've compared the cells from the white areas to the descriptions in the book, and they match. But according to Caroban, it's impossible for the cells to be active once separated from the Aeolun's body. They've tried Life and Earth magic, and even alchemy, but they just stay inert."

Pike drops her bombshell next. "But they never tried Spirit Magic," she whispers, leaning in close to Qing (and nearly knocking his hat off with her forehead). "These cells don't have anything matching the structures ours do for containing genetic material. I think they become inert because they're actually tiny golems themselves, and only get their instructions from a guiding spirit."

Qing's normally smooth, scaly brow scrunches up as he finds no signs of fakery, the transition where lizard leaves off and oddment begins smooth and seamless. "Hmm. As you say, I don't even see what this creature might have died off. Have any been autopsied?" He gently lays the animal back in its box, and holds up his lens, draping a thin film of cobweb over it.

There are no signs of spirit activity from the body. "Well, it probably died from shock," Pike supposes. "I've been afraid to dissect it so far, since it's my only specimen. If my theory is correct, then when the lizard ingested a chunk of Aeolun flesh, the cells reacted to its own spirit and started spreading through and changing its body. Once the point arrived where it could no longer survive the changes, it died. Without the spirit, the cells went inert. I've no idea why the normal cells became suspended too though, instead of… well… rotting."

"That I would have no theories about," hisses Qing, after studying the body for a few moments through his lens. He pockets it again. "I must admit, my knowledge of biology is limited to anatomy, forensics, and other such related to my duties as k'sshatga in the Empire. My understanding of 'cells' is only the theory by life mages that the body is composed of them, tiny living machines. Why the exile's would not decay, I could not guess, but she has demonstrated unusual abilities. I simply took her to be a savant, they are not unheard of. You wish my assistance in testing with this specimen, then?"

"If you'd be interesting, yes!" Pike says, her eyes lighting up (which is a real sight to see behind her thick magnifying-lens glasses). "I think the only way to test it out would be to seed some of the cells through a growth medium and then impose a spirit on them, to see if they wake up and start trying to fill out its form."

Qing seems to consider this, tapping a blunt clawtip to his chin. "Mm. Very well, on the condition that this is performed in a secure area. We must assume the worst, that such an invasive organism would spread if it were to somehow make its way to the wild. These cells you speak of may need a spirit to survive, but most organisms technically do not. Ones acclimatized to our world collapse if the spirit is snuffed out, but it is a reaction of the body to its absence, similar to the body's reaction to different pressures."

"I was thinking of starting off with a slug," Pike admits. "It's small, simple and made all of soft tissues, and there aren't any issues of memories or a mind being transferred. A slug's spirit would be easy to copy, wouldn't it?"

The mage murmurs, "The spirit I introduce will be wholly artificial, so that my control is absolute. It would be possession, of a sort. How do you intend to apply the culture?"

"I thought a bowl full of what I use for my plants along with some of the cells would be fine," Pike says, then seems to think about what Qing says regarding artificial spirits. "I suppose any type of spirit would be sufficient for an initial test. It doesn't have to be a copy of a living thing, so long as it shows activation of the cells. If that succeeds, I'd still want to try an actual living spirit though, to see if the resulting creature would mimic the biology and maintain the spirit on its own."

A bony hand waves. "As you wish. I admit, my curiosity is piqued. I cannot guess what insight this might grant into Mage Envoy."

"I don't think we could make an actual Aeolun," Pike says. "But the possibilities for regrowing lost limbs or… lost bodies is there! Maybe even a cure for death or undeath! Dr. Twig will turn green with envy then!"

Qing sits up abruptly, and his hiss takes on a steely edge. "There is no cure for death, Dr. Pike. You would do well to disabuse yourself of that notion." He gradually settles back, and takes up his teacup to sip from it. "As to the implications… we shall observe and notate, for now."

"Oh, sorry, I get carried away sometimes," Pike says, and wipes some condensation off of her glasses. "I don't know what we'll get, honestly. Looking at the changes to the lizard, I'm pretty sure we can't get an exact copy of a living creature. But still, I can dream, right? Who wouldn't want to be able to create a potentially immortal copy of themselves, with all of their memories and personality. It would sure beat having kids!"

The reptile's face becomes even more difficult to read, even for a reptile's, and he fingers something at the base of his neck. "You have never had children then, Dr. Pike. As it is, death is a part of life, one of the things our world operates on and depends on. I have just cleaned up after one man who destroyed an entire township in his quest for immortality, and who nearly destroyed another. I do not want to do so again. We will see what we get, and learn just how dangerous this exile is."

"Oh, sorry again," Pike says, thinking she hit on a sore subject. "I'm actually sterile. Childhood illness, you see. I was a bit frail."

"Then I can understand your interest, to a degree, and you have my sympathies," hisses Qing gruffly. "But a simple replica of oneself is no replacement. As a father, I can assure you I would trade myself a thousand times over that my daughter would live. But that is neither here nor there. This alien tissue has disturbing properties, and I would see what it is capable of."

"Well, I suppose there's no reason not to open up this little fellow now," Pike says, patting the lizard. "I'll see if any of his internal organs were converted, and prepare a sample to experiment with," the Eee notes. "I should be ready in a few days, once you've recovered and Madame Natasha is done with her Spirit ritual for the Chalk girl."

Qing looks down at the lizard in its casket. "Hmm. Have you considered implanting a spirit in that cadaver first? Just to see how it reacts? There may be a latent pattern there that might give some indication of how it behaved."

"I… well, I didn't want to think about that," Pike notes, looking down at the lizard. "I could have tried injecting the cells into a living animal as well, but the idea of being consumed by some alien cancer… I mean, is there a more horrible way to die?"

A brow ridge rises at this. "I find your squeamishness surprising, doctor. I had assumed most of your experiments were on animals," murmurs Qing. The ridge flattens out. "If it is any comfort, as a coroner I can offer you professional assurance that there are very many, far more horrifying ways to die."

Pike looks a bit queasy at the assurance. "Most of my work involves plants, actually. My animals provide me with certain necessary materials, but I don't make them suffer," she explains. Tapping the lizard she asks, "What would we do if the lizard reanimated… and stayed that way? Would that make it undead, or alive?"

"That depends on whether it is actually dead or in a state of suspended animation," hisses Qing, leaning down to put his nose near the box and look closely at the animal. "Undeath is the animation of a corpse with a spirit that replaces motor functions and essentially uses the body as a puppet. Uncontrolled undeath is aberrant, and to be destroyed. Animation of the cadavers of sentient beings is controlled through limits enforced by the Council, and is generally disallowed on the basis of dignity and the rights of sentient beings. If a spirit simply awakened this… thing, I do not know what it would become, exactly."

"Suspended, hmmm," Pike mutters, and goes back to the big book of Aeolun biochemistry. "It would need a much higher mineral content than normal organisms maintain. The process could have stopped because of a lack of the needed minerals, instead of shock or death."

"Before we attempt to apply a spirit to the lizard, I'd like to prepare some special food for it," Pike concludes. "Just in case."

Qing cranes his head over Pike's shoulder, flicking his tongue as he tries to get a look at the book. "Has this much study been done of the Aeolun? I have only ever heard of a few subjects, the Mage Envoy, a noble from Rephidim, and two apparently associated with the Rephidim Temple. I could be wrong, however." He nods. "Yes, we will make a decision later. I would rest before we attempt any work."

"Well, Envoy helped with this study herself," Pike notes, pointing to a list of 'dietary supplements' that include charcoal, sulfur, limestone and even sand or powdered glass. "She had special 'biscuits' made of these ingredients. I can probably mix up something similar and pump it into the lizard's stomach before attempting to apply a spirit to it."

"Well then, would you like Igor to escort you to your cottage, Mage Qing?" Pike offers.

The reptile begins uncoiling, stretching his many arms out, several joints popping. "Very well, make the preparations you need to, I have paperwork to submit to Caroban in the meantime. You may summon me when you are ready. There is no need to send your manservant back with me."

Dr. Pike spins around to look behind her, and doesn't find Igor waiting there. "Oh, I suppose you don't need Igor then," she says, sounding a bit disappointed. "Do get your rest, Master Qing. I should have preparations done in a few days."

"I will be waiting," murmurs Qing. With that, he glides out the door and down the stairs, tasseled tail leaving the chamber several seconds later.