The good doctor took a break from his morning rounds to admire his work sleeping behind the glass. Filling the entirety of the 4 by 10 cylindrical tank was an engorged mass riddled with pulsating veins. The doctor’s crimson eyes moved upwards, and he spotted the shadow of a finger, a bulge that was once a foot, and in the top right corner, pressed against the glass were three closed slits and two tiny nostrils between them. 

What was once human was torn apart and reformed into a cocoon of flesh, and the good doctor sensed a steady pulse deep within. Her Aether heart is healthy and emitting a great deal of Aether. The other four tanks are doing well, but hers is certainly the loveliest creature out of the bunch. 

The good doctor’s pale lips formed a smile. “This is good, another high-quality batch.”

“That’s perfect, Master!” shouted a voice behind him. “We finally found the golden method.”

The good doctor turned to his apprentice, a vigorous young man who shared the same lowly brown hair and humble station as he did in his youth, and nodded.

His apprentice’s brown eyes widened with mad joy, and he stood next to his master. “Can I be next?”

The good doctor shook his head and left the tanks for his desk on the other side of his dissection room. His dutiful apprentice followed him in step as they passed the vast cabinets and shelves filled with all manner of bottles and instruments. He always asks me this when he hits a wall in his development.

The good doctor remained silent, his steps clicking across the tile floor were his only reply. But his constitution is still too weak for this, and he knows that. 

They passed the metal table with arm and leg restraints at the center of the room that permeated the stench of industrial-grade cleaner, and the doctor sat down at his desk. There, he went back to studying tissue samples underneath his microscope. 

 His apprentice sighed and then said, “I follow a strict diet, train from dawn to dusk, but...”

“You are making progress. I taught you everything you need to know at your current level.”

“Yes, master, you keep saying that, but I need help getting out of this plateau.”

 Too impatient.  

The good doctor looked up from his work to the top shelf, housing a row of jarred Aether heart specimens, each of the spherical organs was terminally deformed, some blackened with hard lesions, and a few torn from a rupture. His eyes rested on the picture frames placed in front of them, and he picked up the one of him and his expedition team. This is what started it all. What a wondrous time.

Look at me, I thought I was at the height of my career, and even still, I thought of myself as nothing but an ugly, wretched creature among celestial beings. But most of them are dead now, and I have surpassed the sole survivor. 

He scoffed at the demure violet-haired woman wearing a pith helmet, a gaberdine coat, and trousers. To think I saw myself as an ant beside them. 

 He heard his apprentice murmur and walk away. I already told him this story, that is enough encouragement. He just needs to keep going. 

 The good doctor's gaze drifted over her to another old friend, a speckled young man with snow-white hair and orange eyes that glowed as brilliantly as his mind. Lord Winston the Wise, Hrmph, Lord Winston the Fool. He wouldn't be six feet under if he listened to me! Backstabber! Snitch… Still, I miss him. 

 He then looked at the towering brute of a woman, robust in build, with sharp eyes and raven-black hair. The good doctor chuckled to himself. A linguist, who were they fooling? Those two getting together always amused me, Beauty and the Beast in reverse. But they both died miserably, and for what?

He slammed the picture frame back on the shelf and sat at his desk.

 And that kid of theirs… 

He raised his brow. Come to think of it! How old is my sad excuse of a godson, now? 17, 18, no, 19! Hell’s Bells! How much time has flown by? He is a man now. Thrown into a pit of vipers with the same feeble condition he had since birth… He won’t last.

The good doctor looked up and saw his apprentice about to exit the door and called out, “Jett!”

Jett stopped. “Master, is there something wrong?” 

“Perhaps, you will benefit from a change in pace. There is something I need you to do for me.”