Private Finished Merger Monday

The workshop had undergone quite the change.

Normally, the workshop had shelves full of books and all sorts of tinctures and magical paraphernalia. Not today.

It took quite a bit of overtime work, but the entire room had been converted into an array for a single spell. The garage walls were covered in arcane inscriptions and crystals had been painstakingly set into the concrete at various intervals. The kill - safety spell on the roll-down door was still there, still ready in case of failure.

The floor was a good foot higher than it used to be. Since she had used the floor previously for the original sealing spell for Bastet's essences, she needed new flooring to draw the new, much more complex spell into with arcane paints.

And beneath that new wooden stage, there was another spell, one that merely needed a power source. Though that wasn't something she was going to spill the beans on.

With preparations done, she called Bastet on the phone, far ahead of schedule. Her efficiency when it came to magical exploits gave her a sense of pride as she dialed the number and said, "Merger's ready when you want it."

With any luck, today, both her and Bastet would get what they came for.

@GrimRPer

"Yes, well, you're looking at someone who built a living person before I was eighteen," Adelaida said with a smile, allowing herself to be proud of her achievements and bragging. "If anything, it's weird that I thought this would take two weeks to begin with. All it took was a bit of extra money to get people to set up the new floor to speed it up."

Adelaida pulled up a chair and gestured to a tray of crackers and some basic drinks. Normally, she would have whiskey to herself, but even though she was a heavy drinker, drinking and doing magic was something she'd made taboo to herself. So instead she had a spot of tea and coffee for the both of them.

"Let's take it nice and easy, keep you in the right, calm state of mind. It's important not to get too excited when doing this magic, because I'm sure you've noticed that the circle you're working with today's a lot more complicated than the previous one."

It wasn't an exaggeration. The new patterns were far more intricate to follow and cast compared to the previous one, even with all the waste trimmed out and streamlined.

And of course, there was that hidden layer that she hadn't mentioned.

"That's... well, good luck," Adelaida said, knowing that what was supposed to happen wasn't something you could endure with just normal human limits. This was a matter of two essences both far beyond humanity on their own, and the task of forcing them to do something against their will and making them bend, and then making them into something brand new, and then absorbing the new thing... well, that wasn't something you could prepare for just with normal means.

"Not as painful as I think? Well, how about I put it this way - the closest I can describe it is every single inch of you will be set on fire. While you're paralyzed and there is no anaesthetic strong enough for what you'll be going through. And you'll have to keep completely focused for as long as the merger lasts - which could be anywhere from ten minutes to days depending on how powerful your essences are. A single slip-up and you lose control, and they take over. No coming back from that, and that's why we have these failsafes. But even these failsafes... you won't be coming back, you'll just not harm anyone else."

Adelaida pointed to the spells carved into the garage door, though she didn't quite explain in detail what they were supposed to do.

She let herself be serious for a moment and covered herself in flames briefly. "Trust me, I know what it likes to be on fire. And I've gone through something like this myself... this will be the most painful thing you'll ever experience. It's even going to be worse, because I just went through the forced absorption and didn't have to merge anything. Yours will be - well, in some ways, harder than mine."

"The kumbaya's nice but there's no helping her on this one, you know? The spell for assimilation requires it to just be her. There's an isolation on it so that other entities don't cause complications because the littlest stray detail means you're gone. You're doing this - just you."

Adelaida tried her best to ignore the other entities, to no avail. She was a bit irreverent towards divinity to begin with, but what she didn't quite like was the way they were trying to help. This was a completely different school of precise magic, and any interruption would be fatal with a spell this complex.

"So if you'd please, do keep away from her when she starts it, okay? I don't know anything about you guys, but you're using my methods, and that means you follow my rules if you don't want anything going bad. This island's fascinating... every single system of magic and divinity exists here at once, all its rules intact. And my system - eclipse script - has a lot of rules." There was just the slightest bit of disdain there - Adelaida couldn't help it. She was a professional through and through, but this was a serious and complex situation that she felt was not being treated with the gravitas that was appropriate.

"You don't get it. But I don't think you'll get it. Just - just take it seriously, okay?" Adelaida said, exasperated. Positivity was fine and dandy but their nonchalance was bordering on reckless. It made her irate, and thankfully her part of the job was already done, or else her annoyance would have risked messing up part of the process.

"Fine. Just - okay, you've been through the process before. It's the same as before, except the circle's around five times as complex. We'll do this in stages. Don't start yet."