“It may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend’s folly.”
“Question: What are you doing?”
The Student of Applied Magic leaned over Wynona’s shoulder, its metallic joints creaking under the weight of its massive frame. Wynona stepped aside to let her friend get a better view of what she was doing at her alchemical station.
“I’m making cruelty-free blood,” she murmured, squeezing a red viscous fluid into a pipette with the utmost care. She then squeezed it out into a flask that was sitting on a white-hot open flame. “Stand back, S.A.M. I know you don’t have skin, but this kind of fire can still hurt you.”
“Fire can also hurt our dormitory,” S.A.M. observed.
“And then we can both magically put it back together again,” said Wynona with a wave of her hand. In response, the open flame grew larger. The substance started to bubble and pop, sending a pungent scent into the air.
S.A.M. couldn’t smell, but it could tell the scent was pungent by the way Wynona wrinkled her nose. And while it was still working on its own version of an olfactory sensor, it could sense things that people could not. Namely, the burning substance was giving off a distinct magical aura, plucking at the threads of magic hanging in the air with an almost desperate hand.
Wynona did not seem to notice. Instead she was dropping a cube of iron into the mixture, which caused the red fluid to displace. Some of it spilled out of the beaker and spattered the table, eating away at the finished wood like acid.
“That is concentrated red ooze,” said S.A.M. Though its voice was thoroughly monotone, it could still convey everything it wanted Wynona to understand: that is dangerous, that is foolish, that is disallowed by the headmistress. Wynona pretended not to hear it.
“It is not the chemical makeup of blood that your physiology craves,” S.A.M. continued, “but the destruction of a life force. I was wondering how you would make such sustenance cruelty-free.”
Wynona rolled her eyes. “They can’t feel anything, S.A.M.! They’re barely alive. Certainly not conscious. This is going to be better than hunting in the giant spider-infested woods or feasting on shitty frat bros, I promise.”
“Is that what you think?”
Wynona took her eyes off the mixture to look at S.A.M. for the first time. It didn’t have a traditional face, could not make facial expressions, but somehow it was still perfectly capable of expressing its disappointment with a look.
“Can I show you something?” it asked. Wynona nodded. “Hold out your hands.”
Wynona did as she was told, and S.A.M. took her hands in its own makeshift appendages. Its constant dull blue glow intensified, until the room shone with it. Wynona felt S.A.M.’s magical energy tugging at hers. She opened herself up to it, and then she felt it. She felt everything.
Wynona felt that same desperate pluck at the strings of magic, but she felt so much more with her people senses. The smell, pungent as it was before, reeked of burning flesh. The sounds of bubbling and popping were replaced with frantic pleas for help. It wasn’t boiling; it was writhing in pain.
“Oh my gods.”
Wynona ripped her hands away from S.A.M.’s and leapt to the beaker. With a hurried wave of her hand she froze the flame where it stood, turning it into a giant block of ice. “Oh my gods. I’m so sorry.”
She watched helplessly as the red ooze continued to struggle. “S.A.M., what do you know about ooze physiology?”
“I believe you should add water,” S.A.M. responded. “Perhaps a few bones and tendons for good measure.” Wynona looked at it helplessly. “I shall fetch some chicken materials from the dining hall.”
S.A.M. turned to leave, but Wynona grabbed it by the arm.
“Wait, S.A.M.,” she said, and pulled it into a hug. S.A.M. could not exactly feel her skin on its metal, but it could feel the heaving sob she gave into it. It could sense the change in the air, as Wynona’s emotions changed the color of the magic around her. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
S.A.M knew that hugging her back would likely only injure her. Instead, it cast a spell to fill the space around them with warmth. With that, it pulled away to see to the task at hand.
“I believe that is what friends are for, Wynona.”
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