436 Meat Puppet (Part 2)

The group spent the morning interrogating more witnesses, but neither Jirni's wits nor Tista's charm managed to find anything that could further the investigation.

"Embezzlement, illegal gambling, fencing. All things that would make today a field day if they weren't completely irrelevant for the task at hand!" Jirni cursed in frustration.

To add insult to injury, no made mage had appeared since they had defeated the merchant the previous day. It left them with only one shot at cracking the mystery behind the specimen still stored inside the quarantine array.

"Did you learn anything useful from that meatball?" She asked Manohar.

"Many things. First, keeping it alive requires a steady supply of mana and flesh. Second, it uses part of the mana to convert the flesh it consumes into its own and the rest gets stored somehow. Third…"

"Lith?" She cut him short, since Manohar seemed unable to understand the "useful" part.