"There's no way of getting around it, is there?" Lillet admitted with a dejected sigh.
"I believe not," Dr. Chartreuse agreed.
It had been a less than enlightening three days for the two master magicians, days spent going back and forth between library and laboratory, poring through texts and conducting experiments for eighteen hours a day, occasionally remembering to stop for food and generally worrying their respective homunculi that they should take better care of themselves.
Amoretta had finally put her foot down, exercising a lover's prerogative by virtually dragging Lillet out of the library for an hour-long soak in scented bath water followed by a half-hour massage that left Lillet all but melted into an utterly relaxed puddle (its complete absence of erotic content going far to convince her of how right Amoretta was about her working too hard). She had then found herself dressed in fresh clothes and plucked unceremoniously across a table from Dr. Chartreuse.
"There!" Amoretta had declared when Gaff set a steaming bowl of soup, a cold collation, and a salad liberally strewn with garden-fresh vegetables in front of Lillet. "You can talk shop if you want, but if I come back and find any leftovers, I'm locking the library door and hiding the key."
"Yes, Mom," Lillet had responded, and got a smirk and a kiss on the cheek in response. But she had to admit that her lover's methods were both effective and necessary. With good food in front of her and a cup of tea in hand, she found that her head was clearer than it had been in days.
So, of course, she and Dr. Chartreuse were indeed talking shop.
"It appears to be a fundamental truth that sexual reproduction requires the elements of both male and female. What we do in creating life through alchemy is essentially the magical equivalent of asexual reproduction. Such techniques will not permit two women to conceive a child together in the sense that you desire."
Lillet nodded and sighed.
"Yes, it seems the male element is necessary." She drummed her fingers on the table. "Yet I can't see why. The end result is either male or female, not both. If male and female elements went in, indeed are necessary for the process, then why aren't they both expressed in the end result?"
"A number of the ancient philosophers suggested that the male and female do battle, with the stronger elements being passed on in the child. Absurd, of course. A simple examination of heredity and breeding shows that. How often do we see a son with physical qualities of his mother or a daughter with those of her father? Clearly it isn't an all-or-nothing affair."
Dr. Chartreuse handled the cutlery with careful, almost delicate gestures despite the clumsiness of his paw-like hands. It was almost fascinating to watch how he coped with the day-to-day tasks made more difficult by his curse, Lillet thought.
"You don't have to tell me about breeding. I did grow up on a farm, after all, and anyone who's raised animals knows that the traits of both parents affect the offspring. That's why I want this child to be Amoretta's as well as mine. I want it to have part of her as well, not just her love as a mother but...to be a continuation of us, an expression of our love for each other."
She stopped suddenly and looked Dr. Chartreuse square in the eyes.
"Wait a minute; that doesn't even make sense," she said.
"It seemed quite clear to me. I understood what you said about how you want a child to be of both of you. Indeed, most parents do."
Lillet shook her head.
"No, not that part. I meant everything I said about that. The part that doesn't make sense is the one about mixing both parents' traits."
"But that's also correct. No doubt there is some rule of natural law which determines which traits are passed on, but in any case the child clearly is a mixture of the attributes of the parents."
"But male and female are required."
"Yes, that's--ahhh."
Lillet smiled at him.
"You see it, don't you? There's no priority, no benefit, no weight to male or female over the other in picking the qualities to be passed on. They're weighed equally in the making. Some of the traits themselves seem to have greater resilience--like red hair, for example--but there's no partiality to picking the father's over the mother's or the other way around."
"So you're hypothesizing..."
"What if the need for both sexes is merely mechanical, like...a key in a lock." Her thoughts seemed to be crashing wildly into one another, tumbling pell-mell through her head in their need to find expression. It was only later that she realized that she'd made a fairly obvious double entendre with her metaphor, but luckily she was talking with Dr. Chartreuse, who completely ignored it--indeed, who probably hadn't even realized it was there given his decidedly asexual nature.
"Mmm?" he murmured, ears pricking. "Please explain, Miss Lillet."
She popped a piece of cheese into her mouth, deliberately forcing herself to slow down and order her thoughts.
"We believe that the male seed combines with its feminine equivalent within the woman to create the new child, merging elements of each, correct?" she said after swallowing.
"Quite," Dr. Chartreuse agreed, his massive lion's head bobbing once up and down. "Our recent experiments have verified it."
"That emphasizes equality--duality--a perfect balance. Yet the expression of heredity is not a process perfectly balanced. A random factor exists. That's an inconsistency."
Understanding gleamed in Dr. Chartreuse's amber eyes.
"Ah, I see! When a process is inconsistent with its own nature, then it is a sure sign that it is not a process, but more than one combined, a signal to the researcher that he is over-broad in his assumptions."
"Right! So try this for a hypothesis: the male's seed carried the elements of heredity from the father to the mother, like a boat carries cargo. It docks"--Ugh, another double entendre!--"and offloads that cargo, which combines with the elements of heredity from the mother in a second, separate process to create the child."
Again the great shaggy head nodded.
"This sounds like a reasonable, rational idea," Dr. Chartreuse agreed. "It will require testing, of course."
"Definitely! There's no way I'm playing games with my baby using an unproven idea."
"Ah, so you have an idea for a practical application of your hypothesis?"
It was Lillet's turn to nod.
"Yes! At least, I think so. Using basic glamour magic, we can tell when a woman--in this case me--is fertile, and if we're impatient we can actually bring on that state with slightly more advanced magic."
"Quite," Dr. Chartreuse agreed. "These are the sort of matters a village wisewoman addresses regularly, using the potions and such of ritual glamour. Why, wasn't that the subject of the grimoire you yourself compiled three years ago?"
Lillet grinned.
"Uh-huh. I thought it would be a good idea to study those kinds of common magical traditions, first to separate out what was ritual magic, what was natural herbalism without a magical element, and what was pure superstition. Then, when I found what was truly magical, I developed Rune equivalents for them to make them safer and easier."
"I read the copy you sent to Gammel. It had little application to my own field of study, but it was fine work; for his part, Gammel could not have been prouder of his student."
"That's what he said in his letter," Lillet said, blushing.
"In any event, then what?"
"Well, we extract the living seed from a male," she continued her explanation, and her blush only got worse, a fiercer red. Dr. Chartreuse might not think of the process in any other way--indeed, he probably would view the step as "extracting seed" without any erotic overtones at all--but Lillet was a sexually active young woman and even if that particular process wasn't part of her routine she couldn't discuss it with complete scientific detachment.
The lion-headed alchemist regarded her with a sort of pity and concern, understanding that she had the problem even if he couldn't quite sympathize. He knew well enough that others felt passions and desires even he himself never felt them strongly enough to overrule his intellect. This is one time I wish I was more like him!
"Then," she hurried on, "using alchemy, we expunge the elements of heredity from the seed, then replace it with similar material taken from the body of the one whose traits we want to pass on--in the final instance, of course, I mean Amoretta. Finally, the altered semen is inserted into the female--"
She broke off again, cheeks flaming. Whatever else happens, I am so having Amoretta do that job! It's embarrassing enough imagining her doing it, let alone anyone else!
"Whereupon nature takes its course," Dr. Chartreuse finished up for her, sparing Lillet the trouble of untangling her tongue. "Presuming that your hypothesis is correct, then it should work. Furthermore, it provides a suitable experiment for the root principle as well as for itself. Should you be incorrect about semen being only a vessel, then eliminating what you call the 'elements of heredity' from it should render it sterile."
"Yes, except that I don't really know what the 'elements of heredity' are or how they function. Admittedly we're using magic instead of natural science so we should be able to fudge through, but alchemy is the worst of the four types at reading the magician's intent and making the outcome reflect that intent. It has to be alchemy, though, because we're manipulating the natural law in an unnatural way. Glamour can't help with that, and of course Necromancy is useless in the conception of life."
"Hmm. I dislike mentioning it, but sorcery may be better suited than alchemy to the task. A properly bound devil would fulfill your wish and do so according to your intent, and sorcery includes a broad power over physical transformations."
Lillet shook her head emphatically.
"No; I'd rather work with alchemy."
"I'm relieved to hear it, but why?"
"On the one hand, it's like you said, Dr. Chartreuse: a properly bound devil. If the binding isn't done right or the devil is just too strong to be fully bound, then it can carry out the wish in a way that fulfills the letter but not necessarily the intent, and given how complex the process is and how little we really understand the technical details there's a lot of room for it to be warped. That's dangerous."
"And on the other hand?"
Lillet sighed.
"I've played fast and loose with sorcery in the past, I admit. Really, I've done more in that area than a reputable magician should, and I've been able to get away with it sometimes because of cleverness, sometimes because I have power that weaker magicians lack, and sometimes because of sheer luck. I know myself well enough that I'll probably do it again in the future if I see the need. But I will not have a devil involved anywhere in the conception of my baby!"
"A wise precaution, I must say."
Lillet shook her head.
"It's not about wisdom, Dr. Chartreuse. It's about love. I'll risk that kind of taint for myself if it seems like the risk is worth it, but not for Amoretta and not for our child. I can't be rational and weigh risks versus benefits where it concerns them."
"Interesting," he mused. "This child does not even exist--indeed, we have not even established with certainty that it even can exist, and yet you think of it in terms of love."
"Well, of course I do. If I can't find it in myself to love the idea of a baby, then I shouldn't try to be a mother. I wouldn't bring a child into the world not knowing if I could love it."
Dr. Chartreuse hung his head.
"You shame me, Miss Lillet. That is precisely the mistake I made with Amoretta."
She was glad he'd gotten the message; she'd chosen her words purposefully to raise the implication. The old Dr. Chartreuse, she thought, probably wouldn't have even caught her meaning.
It was a good sign.
"You said that you intended to make a fresh start with her," Lillet suggested. "Maybe you should start now. I can still get started on our next experiments by myself." She looked down at the still half-full plate in front of her, sighed, and picked up her fork. "Once I finish eating, that is."
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