Aris checked the connections. Three inputs: raw material (he’d chosen a block of lab-grade carbon), energy source (a dedicated fusion cell, also “borrowed”), and the template. For the template, he’d carefully inserted a single glass vial containing a drop of Lena’s dried blood, reconstituted in sterile saline.
Dr. Aris Thorne had never believed in magic. He believed in electrons, in the cold logic of machine code, in the elegant brutality of physics. Magic was for children and the desperate. omniconvert v1.0.3
Just a mirror that showed you exactly what you’d lost, and gave you just enough time to hold it before it shattered again. Aris checked the connections
He wanted to scream. To tear the Omniconvert apart with his bare hands. But all he could do was nod, because she was already walking toward the door, and her seventy-two hours had just begun. Magic was for children and the desperate