Zodiac Story

Brown Vines, Shield Me From The Abyss Part 2

Wake up, wake up, wake up! It's a new day!

Which sister was it?

It's me, Clytemnestra. Helen and I are twins, presumably. That's what she told me.

The door dinged. Today's breakfast consisted of plain oatmeal. Once she was done with her morning routine, Amalia ate it, cleaned it in the sink, and placed it back into the plastic food compartment. The thought of starting her day as planned made her stomach content and satisfied. Clearing her workbench, she took out the amulet and washed it under the sink. Drying it with a spare towel, she held it outwards at an arm's length making sure that her body was positioned correctly. Any possible deviation could lead to an experimental error and the introduction of unknown variables.

"My only wish is to serve the cosmos and maintain order amidst the swirling chaos. It is my duty to shield the cosmos against entropy, and I understand the magnitude of what I am to do."

The amulet burst into dark brown light, and swirled around Amalia. She felt vines entangling through her body, deconstructing it and building it anew. Once it was done, she rushed over and took measurements of the Amulet treatment group. To ensure that the amulet didn't contaminate the results, Amalia stored the other treatment and control groups in the bathroom. It was not ideal, but to ensure a controlled environment, she did what she had to do.

They should be still growing.

What?

The aftereffect of your transformation would be hard to suppress,unless you have immense self-control or have cultivated enough in order to develop willpower. Based on your mind, I don't think that is happening. That said, your mind also says that the others aren't growing as fast so you might be subconsciously repressing their growth afterwards.

If she was doing that this whole time, that meant that the entire experiment and all of her quantitative observations were wasted. She couldn't have had a subconscious bias when she started using it though, as she had not anticipated any of its effects. Amalia checked in the bathroom anyways. The T. aestivum samples had not grown at all. While she may not have had bias on the first day, subsequent days would have introduced bias as she had seen the effects of the amulet. Did that mean that all of her notes had been useless so far? She felt herself picking at her nails again.

Maybe they aren't? Hey Helen, can you tell if Amalia's plants are growing?
No, I can't. Only the Servant can identify if a plant has grown because of her or naturally. Why don't you try and sense if that is the case?

Amalia washed her hands, and picked up the amulet.

The amulet won't do anything, it has to be you. It's only a conduit.

She still held it in her hands. It prevented that itching feeling. She focused her concentration onto the plants, trying to detect any abnormal changes in growth rate. According to the scan, there was no interference in the natural growth in any of the treatment groups or the control groups. Therefore, the research had not been affected by any outside variables. Her stomach relaxed internally.

Interesting, although if there was anyone with a weaker aftereffect, it would be the Servant.

Cool technique with the plants, but let's talk about escape planning. Helen and I are parked in front of this massive building. It's a dark grey and it's lined with an electric fence. Not too many cameras...anyways, do you know when the guards rotate in and out?

She only knew the one guard. There were two alarms that came on daily. The first came roughly one or two hours after the at nine meal, just before the noon meal. The second was just before the night meal. Amalia counted about eighteen steps from when she first heard the guard walking into her holding cell to when they opened the door. She unfortunately did not know the activities of the guards, but she had heard them soon after the noon meal and right before sleeping.