A peculiar smell hung in the laboratory at Stargazers' Tower-a mixture of glintstone dust, starfrost coolant, and a faint trace of something burned.
Ranni wore specially made glasses, her four hands operating three sets of glintstone apparatus at once. Her movements were as precise as clockwork, every finger carrying out a different command.
Tarnished stood cautiously beside her, watching the Hornsent Kachacha strapped to the operating table inside.
"So... this is the 'experiment'?" Tarnished swallowed.
"Phase three, to be precise." Ranni did not turn around. Her left hand adjusted the focus of a glintstone lens while her right scribbled rapidly in a notebook. "Phase one was mapping the living cerebral cortex. Phase two was neurotransmitter interference testing. Now we're at phase three—the neutralizing effect of stellar and lunar power on the Bewitching Power."
A skylight had been opened in Kachacha's head-literally. His skullcap had been carefully removed, exposing his faintly pulsating cerebral cortex. More than a dozen hair-thin glintstone probes had been inserted into different regions, each connected to a complex instrument.
"Are you sure he's still alive?" Tarnished asked.
"His vital signs are stable," Ranni said calmly. "His brain remains conscious without anesthesia. That's a necessary condition for the experiment—I need to observe the Bewitching Power's real-time response to disruption."
She pressed a button.
The Hornsent's body convulsed violently. His eyes rolled back, and unintelligible choking sounds escaped his mouth. The readings on the instruments fluctuated wildly.
"First stimulus, intensity three," Ranni recorded. "The subject exhibits seizure-like reactions. The charm imprint's brightness has decreased by seven percent."
Tarnished shuddered. Suddenly, he felt rather cold.
"This is only the beginning." Ranni switched to another set of probes. "The second phase drew on the Memory Maze spell recorded in ancient Carian manuscripts. In simple terms, it constructs an endlessly looping maze