It was time, the Demonic Incursion proved she needed some sort of offensive spell and distasteful as it was Jolyne knew the exact plants that she was going to end up crossbreeding for this one. It was not going to be something she enjoyed but rather something done under obligation for herself. She would have been of more use to her allies if she had some sort of ranged attack and could have taken far less damage as well, that would have ensured she could have been at peak condition for longer. As such it was duty and not fear that drove her into breeding these plants.

It required a few combinations but some of the 'grandparents' were nightshade, pumpkins, various fungi, plants that thrived in acidic conditions, plants that spread quickly, each one with a specific purpose and intention and each one allowing her to put more magic and control into choosing how the offspring would be. It was something she had figured out long ago and so it did not take her anytime in testing out various combinations or trying out different plants to mix in. This time Jolyne knew exactly what she would need to make this work, as unfortunate as that was it was something that had to be done.

She would need to be careful in the use of this spell when her allies were about and so it would need to be a controllable spell and while that would drain more it simply meant that she would have to be extremely aggressive with casting and use of the spell in taking down her foes. This also would not be something she could draw on someone she did not want to die however as the antidote would probably take longer to spread than the infection would to damage. They would be better off healing the damage if they were to survive and that was why Jolyne needed to make sure she did not brush her allies with even a single spore from this sinister spell of slighting.

After sixteen pairings she finally had it down to sixteen plants, then eight, four, two and finally she was at the abomination of a thing that she needed for this spell to work. She forged glass orbs to grow these plants in to ensure they would not infect anything when under storage. As much as she hated to say it though, her most recent quest in Orchidia had helped her forge this thing past her earlier imagination. The plant and infection she encountered allowed her to see the effects of something akin to her spell and gave her ideas on how to make it better, even if it was unconscious.

As prepared as she was for all of this however, Jolyne knew that she would need to try this thing out first before declaring her spell a success. It would require many rigorous tests and she was certain that the spell would take a couple more plants thrown in the mix to tinker with.

506/3,000

As disgusting as the thought was Jolyne needed to test this on live specimen and she refused to use human targets at this stage of the game, not only was it distasteful to her but it would be rushing the experimentation into the last stage. While danger was not a problem, it was better if she only had to ask the Rune Knights for one condemned prisoner to confirm her trials on. She would not be certain that it worked after just one test, that would be a faulty scientific process and she would not bear the thought of something like that.

With a heavy heart Jolyne needed to start at the insect level and that was when she found the first problem, it was not activating fast enough. The magic was but the spores did not infect and spread instantly, this would be less than ideal for combat and as such she would need to reforge this and add more ingredients into her stew of a plant. It may be a slow process but the end result would be something tailored to her desires and that was something Jolyne enjoyed about her magic a lot. It was something that she had and had control over, thanks to that she was more confident in giving up control of other aspects of her life. It allowed her to relax and focus on choice and investigation, coming to conclusions after gathering a lot of evidence. It was something the woman enjoyed and it was also something that centered her, overall it was a great revelation when it came to her six years ago. She was thankful for many things in this world but personal growth and her magic were top among them, below humans in her life naturally. So it was that this process of forging her own spell was not fully bad and Jolyne found enjoyment in it a bit. There was the aspect of challenge, working with plants and many other things that she enjoyed which outweighed and distracted from her end result, necessary as it was. Besides the worst aspect of creating a monster was other people being able to control said monster, nobody besides her could use this, and thus she could make it in the first place. While it would be erroneous and arrogant to say she was the arbiter of justice, Jolyne knew her distaste for such a thing would prevent her from taking this spell to the penultimate limit and causing chaos and destruction upon the planet with it. Instead it would remain a thing of shame hidden and seldom used, even more seldom spoke of as she planned to not have it spread about due to not using it on anyone she did not want dead. It was horrible to let someone live with the internal damage this would cause, or at least the damage it would cause after she got it more refined. For now it was a matter of seeing which added ingredient really fleshed out the stew.

506+506=1,012/3,000

Different fruits, vegetables, flowers, fungi, and ferns had gone into this plant and now Jolyne was on her second edition of trials starting on insects. This time the infection spread immediately and caused damage as well, it was better than last time and she was satisfied in the progress she had already made now knowing that she would need a more advanced organism. At this stage that could be a fish, a reptile or an amphibian, the next stage would be a mammal and after that she would need to confirm that the spell would work on a human. While it would be difficult it would not be impossible and she would simply need to act as an executioner for the Rune Knights on a condemned prisoner. Thus Jolyne had to have so many tests beforehand, she did not want to cause needless suffering after all.

Her process for determining the next type of subject was quite simple, a dice roll, thus it was a fish that was determined to be tested and thus it was that Jolyne went out to go fishing. It was a nice enough day for it and having just rained Jolyne figured she would not have to wait long. While she had not fished much before a few years ago she had learned a few things about it and the weather surrounding it was something that fascinated her even if it was just all superstition from old fisherman and fisher-wives. This was a nice relaxing part of the process and Jolyne savored the time spent fishing before she landed a specimen and began her trek back to her temporary lab in Orchidia.

She bit hello to the elderly couple and gave them one of the two fish she had caught before she went down into the basement which had now been fully converted into a laboratory. Most of her trials save the last would be conducted down here and thus it was that she began round two, stage two. This time it seemed the spores were stopped by the membrane that surrounded the fish as it was an aquatic creature. This simple would not do and so it was back to the drawing board, with the fish on her desk in a bowl enjoying it's last moments though it lacked the capacity to comprehend it.

Jolyne would have to make this generation seventeen and marked it down in her journal that she kept in a pocket between her shoulder blades. The Atreides figured that this would be a good way to keep it safe from most damage as if she was damaged there it would not much matter that the journal was ruined, she would have much bigger issues. This time Jolyne added in a plant that breed under the water and as such would probably be better suited for it. All that was left to do now was try it. Placing the pencil down temporarily Jolyne went about testing it on the fishbowl, which afterwards she was able to empty out and mark her Third Trial a success at that stage, now to retroactively try it on an insect.

527+1,012=1,539/3,000

The trial on the insect was successful and now she was onto the stage where she would have to try it on a mammal. It was at this stage Jolyne was beginning to have doubts again, failing the first time and having the fish around the time had created even the smallest of bonds and that made her feel guilty about taking the life of an animal that she did not eat afterwards. While it was consumed for a purpose, and knowledge was a good purpose Jolyne could not help but feel guilty about what she had done on that day. Still maybe she needed to, after all what was the life of things that were small compared to the lives that she would save?

What would have happened had they not closed that rift? What would have happened if the Demons had made it into the city proper and begun killing people? The others had to use offensive spells to seal the rift and she could not, she could only keep her allies clear and hold onto her consciousness as they closed the rift. Thus it was that at first her shame overwhelmed the guilt, but now she was having doubts again they resurfaced like a bubbling broth of stew on the stove. Something volatile and hot seemed like a fitting analogy for her feelings on this subject, but one must strive to keep their emotions in check even when not in the desert.

It seemed that even with this resurgence she should still soldier on with the experiment however. The benefits simply outweighed the cons of this spell, Purple Haze , and it would have to be a spell that she utilized and categorized among her own. It was an undertaking that she would complete and for now she would have to set her moral qualms aside.

The question now that she got that out of the way was; what sort of a mammal should she use for this test? It was then that the thought struck her that she should test an avian specimen next, after all generation seventeen had proved to be something she did not expect. Who could have known that the aquatic realm had so many mysteries? That would be a thought for another day. For now she needed to find a way to capture some form of bird. This was a perplexing puzzle that cost her a day of progress but the next morning she entered the basement with a bird and plenty of scratch marks to show her process.

Sure enough her hunch was correct and yet another problem was encountered and another generation was needed. Jolyne wondered if it would be like this for every step as it had been so far, probably if she had to write this much down in her journal she thought continuing to chart her progress in the written word on the pages of her love-bound journal.

What kind of thing would need to be added to the plant's lineage next?

509+1,539=2,048/3,000

The dander of a dandilon may help Generation Eighteen Jolyne thought to herself as she added the seed with that of a Generation Seventeen. She then planted the resulting thing and watering it, watching as it grew much faster than when she first began casting spells. Jolyne made sure to note that as well in her journals, it was a remarkable thing, unexpected and surprising in a good way. Jolyne always enjoyed a pleasant surprise and it seemed like she had at least one to look forward to.

Now it was a matter of seeing if this worked, she really hoped that it did as she did not want to keep cycling through things but much to her dismay it failed. It would take until Generation Twenty One for her to succeed in taking down the bird for good, Jolyne felt a pang of guilt again but this time it was shoved down much quicker. Jolyne noted this generation as the successful one in her notebook before reaching another time she would need to make a choice.

The question popped up again, which mammal? Again however Jolyne felt like pushing the question off and just trying another test, but she knew she must continue forward. It seemed that her guilt had made it's way through despite her best efforts though now that she realized that it should be easier. Jolyne had to steel herself to make it easier and thus she chose a rat as being the mammal she would test on before moving on yet again.

This time it would be much easier it seemed as the good folks who owned the home had a couple cats due to the grainery nearby which, while it had it's own cat and trap defenses, drew in the rodents from miles around. It did not take her as long to catch a rat as it took to catch the other creatures and the rodent was something that was extremely plentiful and also it would have died soon anyways. Thus it was that Jolyne tried the first test, which while it killed the rodent did not do so to her liking. So it was now that she had to trap another one and breed a new generation. It was a few cycles of this but soon Jolyne would happen upon the correct combination, she was certain of it now. She could see the light at the end of the tunnel and felt more and more of a personal connection to the spell, she had felt this for every other one she had trained so far and this allowed her to remain hopeful as she hit Generation Thirty Two.

This time instead of attacking the outside as it had before, it attacked from the inside out and Jolyne was satisfied with how it functioned. There was now only one more hurdle for her to overcome and she would need to do a lot more paperwork than hunting for this next specimen on her list.

502+2,048=2,550/3,000

Now it was onto maybe the hardest or the easiest part Jolyne would not know until the end of this process but hopefully whatever happened Generation Thirty Two gave this inmate a swift death. The less she knew about the person going into it the best, while it would seem tempting to hear about the person's crimes Jolyne wanted to keep this as clinical as possible for herself and that would allow her to not get emotional about this test nor bring in the fact that this was a human being she was going to experiment on. With this kind of thing it was the only way to be tested, it was not a spell that just caused general damage, it caused biological damage. It would be much easier to train if she simply had to use it to blow up a wall but as it was she would have to use it to end a life.

The paperwork was tedious but she made sure to cross all the i's and dot all the t's to ensure that she was going through all the correct legal channels for this. While not a reason for joining the Rune Knights, this privilege was a nice perk for being within the group and would allow her to run these trials without worry or without risking harming the innocent(unless the Rune Knights had gotten the wrong person, which Jolyne would not have thought about at this time). Finishing up she left the small and stuffy room and went through the tunnel of offices where the beurocrates dwelled and worked their magic of red tapes and signings. It had taken time for Jolyne to trust them and not think of them as Devils who were bargaining for her soul like they did in the old times according to her ancestors. That being said she did not enjoy the environment they conducted their business in, it was too cramped even for someone who worked in a basement and that was saying something.

Once outside Jolyne realized she had been breathing shallowly the whole time, she took a deep breath of the outside air and went to her arrangement. It would be an old man whose age was old enough that he may have died without committing a crime and being caught, this would hopefully make it even easier for Jolyne to go through.

It was over sooner than she thought and luckily a success on the first try, but it was also more horrific than she expected. Seeing the other animals succumb to it was different than seeing a man die to it. This was something that would stick with Jolyne Atreides and she deserved it, it was a sacrifice for her to gain this spell, a sacrifice to ensure she did not mis-use it as lose her way. It was the thing that solidified her mind on the fact that she was right in choosing to learn this spell and also right in how awful the spell was.

508+2,550=3,058

Purple Haze Trained