The Serpent's Experiments
The sterile chill of The Vault permeated Lyra’s very bones. Days blurred into a disorienting cycle of cold light, the prick of needles, and the insistent hum of machinery – all designed to strip away her will, her very essence. She lay strapped to a gleaming metal table, her body a canvas for Dr. Aris’s relentless diagnostics. Blood draws, tissue biopsies, neurological scans that probed the deepest recesses of her mind—each test was an invasive violation, a clinical dissection of her pureblood being.
The virus was a persistent, insidious tormentor. It didn't rage like a fever; it slowly, methodically chipped away at her. Her senses, usually razor-sharp, were dulled. Her pureblood strength, once limitless, felt rationed, a finite resource. She could still feel th
