>>5814865>>5814845>>5814829>>5814796>>5814785>>5814745>>5814731“Two rooms will be fine,” you answered quickly.
“Aw, Tips~, you’re gonna’ break this poor gobs’ heart,” Zith-Zi whined in a facetious falsetto.
You glowered darkly at her, but she only stepped closer, grabbing your arm and pulling it to—and INTO, in fact—her abundant cleavage.
“What, did all those nights mean NOTHIN’ to ya’? I’m HURT!”
The two darkly-attired mages exchanged a look, and your blush deepened. Your face was so hot you half-expected your hair to catch fire.
“Two rooms,” you stated firmly, “will be FINE.”
Even separated by a wall, you could hear the goblin cackling and giggling at her little jape for what seemed, in your flustered state, like hours. Never were you so grateful for your own space. It was private but for Muffins, who (thankfully) was afforded his own cushion-like bed upon the floor. Likewise, you were never before so thankful for your eleven metabolism; deprived of sunlight, and with the sun above long set, sleep came swiftly and easily.
Over the next few days, you became acclimated to the new state of things in what, for good or ill, was to be your life for the foreseeable future. Rather than attending classes as you once had, you now found yourself receiving tutelage of a more direct sort—a single tutor, a single pupil. Most often, this was under Assistant Chimericists, identifiable by the green band and intertwined snakes upon their black, pointed wizard’s hats. There were few of them, as the Archmage had implied, but they were knowledgeable of their craft—moreso than any Mage Proctor you had ever had. They taught you ways of understanding the natural order which you never had before, advancing your understanding of the mechanisms of life by leaps and bounds.
You learned of traits dominant and recessive, and how one could be roused or suppressed to become the other; in deference to your sensitivities, these were mainly demonstrated and practiced upon plants, and fungi, and generally not in such a way as to inflict permanent harm or deformation upon the subject. From there, you were also taught theories which were little known upon the surface of the world, and even Senior Initiates, as to the origins of life: how it might be spontaneously generated by the combination of alchemical compounds, or even natural interactions between matter, and how many suspected that from simple stock it would advance or ‘evolve’ across generations, by means of mutations.
“What,” you’d asked incredulously, “at random?”
“Obviously not,” your instructor—a Chimericists named Ventura-told you. “The gods and spirits must guide their progress, or all will revert to aberration or ooze. This is where such beings originate, it is believed: random mutation, without intelligence to guide its design.”
