Wands and Warframes

Interview

"Yep. If sofa starts begging for food rather than her toys we know there's personality bleed."

"We should do Scritch and Scratch too in that case."

"I see, trying the same thing with Kavat."

"Who shall we use for the control?"

"Blackie and pounce?"

Natah nods and makes a note in the computer, "How long should we allow the experiment to run before we conclude that it's not deadly for humans?"

"I think a year and a day should do."

"Why the extra day?"

"Magical significance. It's the naturally weak point in any long-lasting magical ritual and the main reason why learning astronomy is so important. As it's the sidereal day that matters, not the solar day. There are echoes of this that can be used, and careful probing of an active ward can tell you when the next weak point is. If you're really good, you can even calculate the exact time the ward was cast. It's much harder with contracts and curses, but if the person is still alive after that time, it is much easier to break them. Though with contracts, that doesn't help much, as your own magic is keeping the contract alive as much as the initial magic used. As such, it's something only usually used in breaking slave contracts, like the ones forced on Veela."

"Veela?"

"A human subspecies that originates from a type of nymph that is now extinct. They had the beauty and charm of a Siren, and the ability to fly and use magic of a Harpy. They were hunted down and exterminated by witches, due to the fact there were very few wizards that could resist their charms. Charms that invariably proved fatal to the wizard. They found the half breed babies and mistook them for stolen children. Being raised in a human environment allowed them to retain their human features. Over the last 2000 years or so, they have become more and more human. However, they are still all astonishingly beautiful, and they retain some of the magic of their ancestors."

"That's fascinating, I'd love to look at their DNA to see if I can find anything that separates them from humans, or if it's all magic."

"I hadn't considered that. How are the farming trunks doing?"

"Marcus Sinistra has moved his entire family here, something to do with feeling disgraced. Maria has opened a Café on the Strata Relay with a couple of the house elves from the trunks, and some of the staff who want to learn how to cook. They signed contracts saying that they wouldn't go to work for the Corpus for at least 10 years after they've finished learning how to learn to cook. Revenue on that station is already up 20% outside what the café is bringing in. The Tenno only take the rent from them, and Clan Potter receives 10% of their profits."

"That's astounding, how are they making so much money?"

"They've priced themselves as they would in your home world rather than as the luxury goods they're actually selling. I've heard them talking about setting up a butchers and greengrocers, what ever they are, with a sign clearly stating that the produce is for personal consumption only."

Natah thinks for a moment as they're making their way to the pens where their experimental animals are kept, "How's your leyline project going?"

Pandora laughs despairingly, "It wasn't until the farming trunks arrived. Now a leyline has started to develop naturally between the Rookery and the Sinistra holdings. That single event has thrown out every single theory they had on Leylines in the Department of Mysteries. Until now, the assumption has been that leylines caused magical creatures to start to exist. Now it's become a chicken and egg situation."

"I don't understand that metaphor."

"You've seen the chickens in the trunks?"

"I have, though I don't see how that is relevant, as all avian species lay eggs, so it stands to reason that they evolved from a common ancestor."