Role

Chapter 19

Tamazin's hands did not shake as he prepared to animate the enormous red
monstrocity. The sweat running down under his feathers was due to the lava,
not from the knowledge he'd failed about eight times today already. This
would work. He was not nervous. He was sure - oh god its moving is it still
alive... oh. It worked.

The zombie rose to its full, outrageous height, towering over the small
crew. The necessities, he'd determined from the last time. A bit smoother
without people being launched off the mountain and deciding to have a
picnic before returning, but still a close thing.

Tamazin clicked his beak as he stared up at his creation. This was going to
be incredible. He'd need a sterile environment to test it in, of course.
Everything had to be just perfect...

"Mrre wants to show book lady."

What? No, this was a terrible idea. But Mrreagle had helped, and even if
the bribe had been sizable, Tamazin liked him even if he was seriously
weird. A small stop off on the way couldn't hurt... right?

A few hours later, Tamazin found himself in some field, preparing to have
Mrreagle detonate his masterpiece for him. Part of him kind of hoped his
pal would be consumed - not maliciously you understand, but he had dragged
him up to this library and said a bunch of unkind things about the Provost
that Tamazin had to be horrified about. Anyhow...

It was wonderful.

Corosive blood filled the air less as a mist and more as a deluge. A bone
shard almost took out one of Tamazin's eyes, but he had learned: a safe
distance is a worthwhile precaution. Guts rained down in a visceral cascade,
and released mana filled the air in a thick, almost tangible haze.

As the shockwave from the munition passed it had been everything Tamazin
had hoped for. Or at least, in part.

He stood there for a moment, considering what he'd discovered. It was a
breakthrough by all accounts, though an incomplete one. Or perhaps
incomplete was not the word. Not techcnically an unwelcome one either. It...
just was.

It was...

Tamazin's eyes came to rest upon the stoic form of the 'book Lady', and by
an effort of monumental will he did not blanch.

Carefully he reached up and removed a piece of guts from his feathers,
studying it like it was the most interesting thing in the world. Perhaps if
he pretended he didn't notice how covered in dragon... stuff she was, he
might be alright.

Despite Mrreagle's attempts to get him horribly murdered, demoted, or
promoted (in no particular order), he did in fact survive said encounter.
But as he returned to the Spire he turned the results over in his mind.

The mana released in the detonation had been very significant, but the
amount that was his compared to the amount that had been the dragon's was
very different. He needed to be able to pump more power into the animation.