“You didn’t do too badly at all, you know.”Theo shivered, his nose wrinkling in di

“You didn’t do too badly at all, you know.”Theo shivered, his nose wrinkling in disgust. He had to be lying. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better.” He replied, his tone defensive and terse.Hyden paused what he was doing and turned his pale gaze upwards toward Theo, his eyebrows raised. “No, I meant it. The positioning is correct. The implant healed well. The veins are active and flush with blood… and you can channel spells through it, yes? That would not be possible if the procedure had not been broadly successful.”Theo couldn’t argue with that. He looked down at the table. Hyden took his small hand again and turned it over and over in his massive paws, delicately tracing over veins and scars with his thick, black nails, each one nearly the size of Theo’s own fingertip. Ugh, it was so embarrassing. Showing his hands to somebody—there was reason enough not to do so under normal circumstances, but now, showing his faulty catalyst stone—to Duke Hyden, of all people—it was downright humiliating.“I can tell you are struggling to believe me, North. But, all things considered—it really is quite impressive work, do you understand? Really.” Hyden was still looking at him. Theo could feel the older man’s uncanny, piercing gaze boring into the side of his head, but he still didn’t meet it. “You did not have the proper resources, but you improvised. Lost technology, yes… always a complication… but I can tell that you were quite thorough in your research. It truly is commendable… to do something that nobody has done in decades… centuries, perhaps! Very commendable indeed.” Hyden gently palpated the back of Theo’s hand with his fingers, trying to get a feel for what was beneath the skin. Theo shivered again.“In fact… I dare say your foray into forgotten magic has caused orders of magnitude fewer negative repercussions than my own.” Hyden added, a wry note in his voice. At this, Theo did look up, but now it was Hyden who wasn’t meeting his gaze. He was staring at Theo’s catalyst stone, his mouth drawn in what could be the hint of a smile, or the hint of a grimace. Theo wasn’t sure.“Eh-hrrm… kkkh. I… I suppose. But I was only—I mean… you shouldn’t speak ill of yourself, Your Grace. You… you couldn’t have known about the Shadow’s…”“Oh, don’t worry. It was only a joke.” Hyden smiled, showing teeth. “Let’s not dwell on such things right now. We have work to do here, yes?”“E-hrk.. W-we do?” Theo’s eyebrows raised.“Of course! Commendably ambitious as you were, to one so experienced as myself, your mistakes are plain to see. You certainly have the skill, but I possess the knowledge you were missing. We can right this, yes? Just a simple adjustment to the containment charm that keeps the energy backflow from seeping out into the surrounding tissue. Do you understand?”“Are you… are you saying you can fix it?”“Certainly. Perhaps not undo the damage already done… healing is not my forte. But I—we—can stop the contaminant from spreading any further into the tissue. No need for you to continue suffering, yes?”“I…” Theo trailed off, unsure how to respond. It was quite an offer. “You—we… we would be… altering the containment charm only, correct? Not… not removing the stone?”“Correct.” Hyden confirmed.“Good. I- I wouldn’t want it removed.”“Of course not… of course. I understand completely. Parting a wizard from his catalyst stone would be a terrible crime indeed.” This time, Hyden’s wry smile was clear as he tapped the visibly cracked gemstone on his own forehead. “I would never dream of inflicting such a cruelty upon a companion. And besides, a bonded stone like this would be quite useless once separated from its host. Tissue damage or no, it would be a terrible shame to destroy such a rare and valuable artifact by removing it. Best to just reseal it as needed… wouldn’t you agree?”Hyden leaned back, the antique chair creaking ominously under his considerable bulk. “Now, my joints are acting up… and I’m certain that poor Miss Alex would experience a fatal brain embolism were she were to come in here and see me sifting through your spell ingredients besides. So, North, I will require you to retrieve… ah, let’s say, a milligram of powdered ruby, five… mm, five and a quarter milliliters of animal blood, and… do you have wyrmroot? Fantastically easy to work with, wyrmroot… always a favorite of mine! Failing that, a different specimen from the dragonsbane family would suffice.”“Of course, Your Grace.”Theo scooted off of his own chair and dropped to the floor with a soft tap. Leaving Hyden to his back pain, the rat made his way over to the chest of drawers that housed his spell ingredients, peering at the faded labels in search of what his mentor had requested. He found the ruby and animal blood easily enough, but the dragonsbane root… that one, he wasn’t so sure of. It was something he hadn’t used in a great many years, and even the lower quality trimmings from that genus were often prohibitively expensive. He was just beginning to fear that he might have to admit that he didn’t have it when his eyes fell upon a faded label that made his heart skip a beat. On the very edge of the bottom row, in an elegant but shaky cursive script: “Wyrmroot”—his mother’s handwriting.Theo paused to tenderly run his fingertip over the peeling label before opening the drawer. Sure enough, there was a small, dusty, shriveled piece of root inside. It must have been there for nearly a decade at minimum. He carefully picked it up and turned it over in his hands, examining it. Even now, one end of it bore a clean, well-measured cut—one that had undoubtedly been made by her hands. It almost seemed a crime to use it… but he knew she would have wanted this.“Ah, wyrmroot! You found some after all! You know, I’d half-feared that it may have gone extinct like so many other useful botanical strains from my era. Excellent work, North! Excellent indeed!” Hyden’s jovial words jostled Theo out of his fog. “Well, hurry up now, my boy, bring it all over here! Let’s go on and get started!”Hyden craned his long, shaggy neck over the back of his chair, watching Theo as he made his way back to the table. Noting a change in the rat’s demeanor, his eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. Theo began to arrange the ingredients and tools while Hyden took a piece of parchment and began to carefully draw a spell circle. Though his hands seemed stiff and somewhat shaky, the rabbit moved with a slow, practiced confidence, clutching a tiny, Theo-sized piece of chalk between two enormous, beringed fingers as he laid out several concentric rings and a few simple runes. With the groundwork complete, he pushed the parchment back toward Theo. “Now, North, I will require you to do the rest. The runes for blood and gemstone here, and a rune for captivity here and here. Then, connect them each with the symbol of bonding. My hands are not what they used to be, as you know… and given the nature of what we are attempting, it would behoove us to write neatly.”Hyden watched as Theo laid out the remaining runes, nodding approvingly to himself as he watched the younger wizard work.“You know, North… I’ve been wondering. Deciding to implant a catalyst stone… that is a curious choice for one such as yourself, is it not? Given their relative scarcity in the present day and the lack of technical documentation… the benefits of direct implantation seem marginal, from my perspective. If I might ask, what compelled you to attempt it? Intellectual curiosity? Or something else?”Theo glanced up at Hyden. The rabbit was looming over him, his thick arms crossed over his wide body and his pale blue eyes boring into him yet again. Theo immediately turned his gaze away, looking back down at his paper.“The stone… it was my mother’s. After she… passed… I… wanted to keep it… safe. Close.”“I see. So, concerns of theft, then? I understand. They are quite valuable.”“…Partially. But also, I wanted her to be… nngh. Never mind.” I wanted her to be with me forever, Theo thought. But he didn’t say it. He pointed turned his nose downward, determined to get back to work on his runes.Hyden was left to watch in quiet, silently puzzling over Theo’s words. After a few long moments, he spoke again.“I did notice that some of your ingredient labels… the older pages in your spellbook… portions appeared to be written by a different hand. That would be your mother, then?”“…Yes.”“She was quite a knowledgeable witch in her own right, it appears.”“Yes… exceptionally. She was… she was wonderful.”“How interesting. I would have liked to meet her.” -- source link

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