The Haunted Traveler May 2017 Edition

8
bones, the device was still necessary to support his creation
over the required weeks of development. It took
more than just spells; there was a limit to what could
be accomplished without science and technology.
“It’ll be successful this time,” he murmured.
His project was complete; he had been celebrating
his success but trying not to act too suddenly by
letting her free before her body was truly ready. Too
many of his previous attempts barely even looked human,
never mind the image he crafted them after. The
grounds around his residence were slowly filling with
bodies of failed attempts.
“It will work now,” he said, passing over to the other
side of his lab.
A glass case housing an incomplete skeleton rested
against the far wall. Around the bones, he had it decorated
with crimson and pink roses lining the edges
of the rectangular table beneath the glass cover. Upon
closer inspection, several bones were missing, including
a triquetrum bone, a lateral cuneiform, a thoracic
vertebra, a palatine bone, and a temporal bone. With
each attempt to successfully make a homunculus, he
took one bone to begin the spell to create the new being
in her image.
The latest missing bone was a rib. He smiled as he
walked back over to the controls and waved his hand
above them. It only took the slightest focus of his will
to get them all to flip in the right direction to initiate
the process. He waited eagerly as the fluid in the chamber
started to drain out. Her hair fanned out around
her like a halo, drifting down to surround her as her
body lowered in the chamber. By the time it was half