“I was in the middle of something,” Orion grumbled.

  Selene didn’t seem to mind interrupting because she skipped around the lab, ogling just about everything with keen interest.

  “I thought you’d wait until the planetary alignment passed before working on the important stuff,” she said instead.

  Several interlocking lenses hovered just above the blood crystal, supported by gears made of hematite and whatever silverite Orion could spare.

  He was about to start taking notes on the crystal, and even though he had thought about postponing it, he ultimately decided against it. “I’m not making anything yet. This is just an experiment to determine the crystal's reactivity. Even if someone is spying on me, they won’t learn much.”

  Selene hummed, not convinced.

  With a roll of his eyes, Orion conceded, “And I know for a fact all the big players are busy with the vampire matter in Silverpeak. Mom told me they were having some trouble with the purification rituals for the thralls, so anyone with experience in the practice was called up, High Priestess’ orders.”

  “And who better than the one witch in charge of the orthodoxy and rites,” Selene murmured. “Yeah, I guess I can see why you feel safer. Still, you should have told me you wanted to experiment on the crystal. I’ve also worked for it, ya know?”

  “I have no intention of damaging it,” he replied awkwardly. It wasn’t so much that he’d forgotten he’d have to share with her, as he’d… gotten distracted. There was just so much he could do with it.

  “Hmm…” She peered at him, then back at the contraption. “Well, I guess I am curious about how it works, so I wouldn’t say no to some study.”

  Orion smiled brightly, “You won’t regret it! Oh, you have no idea the theories I have! I have three different models that would explain its structure, but I had to build the spectroscope first before I could get reliable data.”

  [Verification Principle] alone wouldn’t be enough. It could get a rough idea of how the crystal interacted with mana, but the data was flawed. Maybe because he couldn’t find a pure enough mana source, or because the magic powering the crystal was too advanced.

  Blinking, Orion realized he technically did have a source of pure mana on hand.

  Walking to the other end of the lab, where he’d carelessly tossed his bag, he opened it and pulled out the other reward Esmeralda had given them.

  “Aha!” He exclaimed as he carried it over to the work table.

  “Is that the liquid mana?” Selene asked.

  “Yeah, it is. I need a pure source to keep noise from interfering with my observations, so this is just perfect," Orion replied. He then paused, looking between the bag and his friend.

  “I guess half of this is yours. Or do you want more? I can give you it all, except for a couple of vials, if you let me have the crystal.”

  He didn’t exactly know the monetary value of either resource, but he guessed that a dozen vials of liquid mana should roughly equal the blood crystal. Maybe. Probably not, considering how difficult it was to find outside the Twilight lands.

  “Are you trying to scam me?” Selene asked with a snort.

  Orion sighed. I don’t really have much wealth I can part with. I’ve been saving some coin, but it’s meant for when I leave the Sanctum. If I dip into my savings now, I won’t have anything left when the time comes.

  “Nah, take half. You can use the crystal for your experiments, too, as long as you keep me in the loop. Let’s just say you’ll owe me a biiiig favor," Selene finally said, and while it was technically everything he wanted, Orion couldn’t help but feel like he was making a deal with the devil.

  Some might say a witch is just one step away from the devil. So I suppose it’s not too far off.

  “Well then, get to work. Chop chop!”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “I’m going, I’m going,” he grumbled, but he had a big smile on his face. He’d gotten used to hiding what exactly he was doing, but he didn’t feel the need to hide from Selene. She’d known he wasn’t exactly conventional since they were very young anyway.

  “Oh, did you see this?” She asked before he could start up the machine.

  Orion stopped, looking back. She had opened the sack with the liquid mana and was holding a letter in her hands.

  He blinked, suddenly recalling that he had placed it there himself after they finished being interrogated. Esmeralda had slipped it to him, but he hadn’t yet had the chance to read what it said.

  Selene casually opened it and started reading aloud. “I’d be very curious to see what you discover from the crystal. After witnessing your work on that thrall, I’m certain you’ll uncover something new. If you'd like, I can send a familiar to the edge of the grounds during the next full moon. It will be able to deliver your messages to me.” After a moment, she pouted. “She doesn’t even mention me! Ugh, I thought she was nicer than this.”

  Disregarding her theatrics, Orion took the paper from her hands and read it. “She must have noticed more than she let on. I was using a crystal as a focus, but it was hidden in my sleeve… Mhm, I guess I could write to her. Having a separate source of information wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

  “We could also see her familiar. Oh, I bet it’s a cute little bat!” Selene grinned. “Alright, enough waffling, it’s time to get to work!” She said, pushing him toward the spectroscope, as if she hadn’t been the one to distract him in the first place.

  Pursing his lips to stifle a chuckle, Orion headed to his station after swiping a vial. Since she was so generous as to let him keep half of the liquid mana, he decided to indulge.

  The spectroscope was arranged so he could shine light through the different lenses, hoping to make the blood crystal reflect it in interesting ways.

  “Can you tell me what you're doing? I'll let you know if anyone is spying on us in exchange," Selene called.

  Orion shot her a look. If she could have protected his lab from peeping Toms before, why wait until now? She grinned back unrepentantly, and he gave up as a bad job. Understanding that girl wasn’t something he could dedicate himself to at this moment. It would take too much effort anyway.

  “I have several theories about how the crystal might interact with both light and mana. Depending on the specifics, I might decide to turn it into an all-purpose focus or a more specialized one," he explained, adjusting the lenses.

  “The first experiment will be without mana. I will aim the mirrors to direct a beam of light at it, and observe what happens. Everything afterward will depend on the results.”

  Selene hummed but stayed silent, letting him finish his preparations.

  Initially, Orion had dismissed the idea of experimenting with different types of mana. The crystal was a dense construct of vitality, he could see that much with [Verification Principle], so he was pretty sure the level of compatibility he could achieve with Light mana would be far greater than anything else.

  But he was a scientist. He’d rejected the [Rationalist] class precisely because he was a man rooted in experimental sciences, not in deductions. If his hunch was proven correct, he’d be happy, but he wouldn’t blind himself.

  This first test was a control run. He would perform a second control run with liquid mana, as it lacked any personal taint, to see the baseline reaction to mana. Only then could he finally begin experimenting with aspected mana.

  “Alright, test number one!” he called, vaguely gesturing toward the desk, where his journal was open to the right page, and the pen he had enchanted lifted in the air.

  The [Note-taking] charm was a result of his lessons with Morliana so far. Nothing groundbreaking, that was true, but extremely useful to him, as it let him dictate while working.

  Regulating the mirrors, he finally moved away from the desk, letting the lone window shine on the spectroscope.

  “Light beam successful. Reflection successful.” He began calling out, carefully watching as the instrument went to work.

  Calling it a spectroscope wasn’t exactly accurate. He didn’t have a grating, for example. But it was heavily based on one, and if he wanted to call it that, no one could argue otherwise.

  Once I confirm that everything functions properly, I will give it a more unique name. I’m still a bit concerned about how the hematite will respond to the foreign mana, but I’m hopeful I’ll get a few uses out of it before I need to gather new components.

  As soon as the light hit the blood crystal, several crimson beams diverged, striking the pre-arranged landing pads.

  One contained the seed of a plant. It trembled and slowly began absorbing water from the cloth around it. The speed wasn’t anything compared to the magic Mothon the elf had showcased. But it was still several times faster than what it should have been capable of, and that was without mana involved.

  The second beam struck a drop of blood Orion had taken from one of his mother’s live test animals. This was the one he was most curious about, but unfortunately, nothing at all happened.

  The third and final beam struck a plain stone slab. As expected, nothing occurred there.

  Orion watched everything through [Verification Principle], noting any unexpected change. “I can see minor traces of mana dispersing into the light as it refracts. I do not believe we have achieved true Foci Refraction, but it is encouraging.”

  With that, he shut the window and turned off the light. As expected, the seed stopped drinking at a faster rate now that it wasn’t getting the extra support, but it didn’t seem to be suffering from the experience.

  The blood stayed inert. Whether it was because he couldn’t see the changes or because it was too stale, he didn’t know, but he made sure to note it down.

  Once that was done, he replaced the targets with fresh ones. He had observed the crystal release tiny amounts of energy, and he didn’t want it to influence his results.

  “Next, we will try to introduce unaspected mana. This should serve as a baseline for all magical work," he said, taking the cork off the vial and giving it one last look.

  “The liquid mana appears to be pure. I will now proceed.” Tipping the vial into a funnel, Orion let the liquid drip down.

  Once released from the constraints, it began vaporizing and returning to its natural state. It could only turn into a liquid thanks to the extraction process, and the inert vials kept it in that form. As soon as it touched the atmosphere, nothing prevented it from expanding.

  Fortunately, it still followed the trajectory he had planned for it, moving like a haze as it hit the first mirror, only to gradually become less solid the further it traveled, until, by the time it reached the last one and struck the crystal, it was entirely pure energy.

  The refraction this time was notably different. The light split into more orderly beams. Whereas before it was mostly physical light with all the dispersion that came with it, this was primarily mana, so it tended to move as a single entity.

  The first beam hit the seed, and Orion confirmed his hunch. Watching the lentil sprout in real time brought a huge smile to his face, but it was the sudden bubbling of the blood that made him really excited.

  There was no body for it to return to, yet the regeneration directive was so strong that it still had to attempt something. The blood clumped together, and Orion watched as it became firmer and firmer, until he had a solid chunk of flesh sitting in his spectroscope.

  Just the thought of using Light mana made him salivate.

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