There’s a joke among Greyport conspiracists that men are allowed to stay at Secret House, but those who stay too long don’t remain men. The house, which was originally four separate rowhouses before the current occupants installed doors between them, is home to a constantly-rotating group of conspiracists and conspiracy-adjacent scientists, academics, and eccentrics, but the core of permanent residents who own the house are all women. The chalkboard that tracks the relationship status between them infamously involves solid, dashed, and dotted lines and two different styles of arrows. Luna, the woman Hannah is here to see today, is one of them.

The front doors are left unlocked with so many people coming and going, so Hannah lets herself in and finds Luna sitting on the floor of the house’s study with three textbooks and a half-dozen loose papers in front of her.

“Hey, I haven’t seen you around here lately,” she says when she notices Hannah approaching. Sunlight from the window reflects off her glasses as she turns to face her. “Or at the Society chapter, now that I think about it.”

“Yeah, I’ve been antisocial lately,” Hannah says apologetically. She sits down on the floor as well, not wanting to stand or take a chair when Luna seems so comfortable on the carpet. “I’ve mostly just been spending time with Catherine. My new girlfriend,” she explains not-quite-truthfully.

“Oh, that explains it. Congratulations on the girlfriend. What’s she like?”

“She’s a Maletese immigrant who came here to get away from her shitty family,” Hannah lies. “She’s smart and observant and also just, the prettiest.”

“Nice, I’m happy for you. I probably can’t expect to see you at our play parties anymore, can I?” It’s not quite flirting – Hannah knows she isn’t Luna’s type – but it’s probably indirect flirting on behalf of some of the other Secret House girls. Hannah isn’t sure what to say. She isn’t actually in a relationship with Catherine, but it wouldn’t feel right to sleep with anyone else. Then again, Catherine probably doesn’t want Hannah to give up her sex life just because of their arrangement.

“I... would have to ask Catherine about that, I guess?”

“Oh, of course, you’ve got to get your domme’s permission first,” Luna teases, and Hannah blushes with embarrassment and frustration because she wishes that was it.

“A-anyway, I came here to ask you a science question. I wanted to know about blood transfusion, and you’re the best biologist I know.”

“Awww, thanks. I’ve actually been consulting with the university hospital on setting up their new blood bank. All the technology you need to extract, transport, and re-inject blood already exists, you just need a vapor-compression machine to keep it cold in storage. The problem is that patients usually have an immune reaction and reject the transfusion. The recent discovery is that each person’s blood can be categorized into one of several blood types, and we can do a chemical test to see which donor’s blood is compatible with a recipient’s immune system. What’s your interest in it?”

“Just something that came up in my research.”

Luna picks a fountain pen off the floor and starts fidgeting with it. “Your research is still focused on magical existential risks, right? If your work is intersecting with medical science, that sounds concerning. You haven’t rediscovered Hakkar’s plague or anything in that general reference class, have you?”

“No x-risks, thankfully. I came across accounts of blood magic as a method of immortality. Of course, it was historically associated with violence and dark sorcerers, but I was curious if modern science would make it possible to do the same things ethically.”

“Hmmm. It’ll be years before we can really measure whether blood transfusion has any life-extending or anti-aging benefits, but I wouldn’t expect anything close to immortality from it. And even if you could extend someone’s lifespan by giving them blood from younger, healthier donors, it couldn’t possibly scale to be widely available to anyone except the very rich, right?”

“No, what I mean is whether it’s possible to do literal blood magic rituals without the violence by collecting it the way they do for transfusions.”

“Wait. Is this a purely theoretical exercise, just imagining what would have been possible if this technology existed during the age of magic? Or do you think it might still be possible to do actual immortality magic in the present day?”

Hannah knows how much overcoming the limits of biology matters to Luna. “It might be possible, but I’ll need your help figuring out the right way to do a practical experiment.”