Third Operation: Eyes, Part 1
"How are you feeling, my boy?" asked Elder Ohari, with his head turned away from his student while tinkering with some arcane devices and consulting his notes. "I do hope no complications have occured since your last visit. Come inside, take a seat," he gestured lazily with his free hand. "We'll begin your examination shortly. Tell me about what you've been up to in the meantime." Calium entered the Elder's laboratory, tiptoeing around the scattered artifacts and stacks of research books. He wondered, not for the first time, not for the last time either, if Elder Ohari wasn't just a mad alchemist. Maybe there was a reason he stayed secluded in the Western Tower after all. The boy shook his head as he made his way to the operation bed, centered somewhere in the opposite side of the room. "Everything is going all right, master. I resisted eight full days without eating or drinking, just by circling mana from the air into my body." The Elder nodded for himself. "Interesting. Your constitution never ceases to surprize me, boy," said the old man, approaching the bed.
"We should start the examination. Undress and sit on the bed. How are you doing during physical training?" The student took of his clothes slowly, then climbed on top of the bed. He vaguely remembered the embarassment he felt the first time he undressed in front of the Elder. The old man was gazing at his stature with the same look in his eyes - a somewhat bored expression that was scanning his muscles, looking for any unnatural muscular development. "First position, raise one leg and move it slowly to the side. Left first." Calium squatted and, maintaining the position, slowly moved his left leg as instructed. For a couple of months now, he had followed Elder Ohari's instructions without fail, enduring the training exercises and diets of the old man; his body developed beautifully, and the meek bookworm turned day by day into a strong, agile and flexible teenager. His muscles danced under the dim lights of the manalamps. The Elder would sometimes touch the muscles, or ask Calium to flex different parts of his body, or have him stay in weird and difficult positions. He would scribble notes from time to time, and, although the boy did not know what exactly was written on those papers, the scribbles were probably notes about his development. "Sixth position now... Grasp the world slowly... Full circle, just like that. Now hold it and raise your right foot upwards."
After an hour, the examination was complete. "Wonderful! Simply wonderful. I will talk to Master Sarkuhar about your training regimen. I believe your body can handle going toe-to-toe with him, so I'll kindly ask him to not pull his punches anymore. You should also go back to the standard diet and increase your distilled mana consumption." Elder Ohari was talking as he mingled with his tools away from the bed. Calium just laid on the bed, sweat running down his tonified build. He was half listening to what the old teacher was saying, half preparing himself for the next part of his visit. "Are you wondering what will I do today with you? Don't worry, there are little operations left to perform on your body. After today and your next two visits, we'll only have to deal with your inner array."
The Elder prepared his tools, using a Rikten oven to cleanse them of any impurities. "All the tools are being sterilized, the same as usual," his voice droned. "Same quantity of mana in the same interval of time... mana waves of high energy, of course..." He was forced by the agreement he made with his student to leave out no detail of the process. He was not particulary offended by that; it was just a boring and repetitive task for him. "I'm preparing the serums, boy... I will halve the concentration of the inhibitor serum this time, since I will need your body at least a little bit alert. Unfortunately, it's going to hurt like... Well, the pain is, I believe, impossible to describe. Sorry." The student gulped, steeling his resolve. His teacher had told him of what was coming, so he had at least some time to prepare himself for the ordeal. "The second serum is ready as well. This, my boy, is pure aghapua venom." The Elder gestured towards a vial. A gross, yellow liquid was contained inside. Aghapuas were some of the most feared snakes of the Meridian; one bite could paralyze beasts ten times larger than them. One bite could mean a lifetime of partial paralysis, or death. "I need this because the human body does not react kindly to this sort of invasive operations," the Elder continued. "Don't worry, I'll have some assistance with me. You're in safe hands." From the shadows of the room, a veiled figure appeared, wearing a white mask with a red eye painted on top of it. They were completely silent, to the point that Calium questioned if they were alive at all. "Have you heard of the Watchers, boy? I'm pretty sure you haven't, but that is to be expected. Do not worry, I personally train their squads, I can guarantee their anatomical knowledge is almost as good as mine."
Calium felt his muscles grow limp, slowly losing his control over them. He could feel subtle wires of mana grasping his heart and lungs; soon enough, his body would cease all voluntary movement under the effects of the venom. The Watcher was sitting in silence beside the bed, a flux of mana slowly coming out of his fingertips. He held his internal organs with mana tethers, grasping the internal clockwork of the boy's body, getting ready to artificially pump them in order to keep him alive. "And so we begin," said the Elder to himself. Tchrrrk. He ripped his right eye out of its socket, using his scapel to cut the connecting tissue. Calium felt pain. He wished to scream, yet his throat would not budge. He wished to run, yet his body was fast asleep. He felt like he was choking, about to vomit, about to die from the excruciating pain. "You must be in much pain, boy," the Elder sighed, carefully placing the removed eye in a jar of translucent liquid. He moved on to his left eye. Calium begged in his mind, in his soul to be spared from the pain. Tchrrrk. He felt like he was dying. His breathing could not quicken, nor could his heartbeat. The world went dark, he was floating in a black abyss, he was being tortured in this liminal space between life and death. He wondered if this was his end. "I really am sorry. But I cannot afford any complications caused by a full dose of the inhibitor." The Watcher was keeping his bodily functions intact with his mana control; because of that, lall the boy could do is endure.
"Okay, I've removed the eyes. You will now feel little stings on top of your head." Tsik, tsik, tsik, tsik. Mana needles pierced his head, smaller than a fingernail. His scalp was on fire. He could feel the needles wriggle underneath, inside his skull. The Elder gritted his teeth while he concentrated on the brain operation. He used a black pen to engrave glyphs on the boy's body with one hand while maneuvering the mana needles to operate on the structure of the brain. Then suddenly, as one of the mana pricks touched the membrane, everything went cold, and the boy felt pain no more.
"How are you feeling?" the boy heard as he came back to his senses. The room felt... weird. The light inside reflected in unnatural ways, and he could see lines of blue and purple flowing back and forth in the middle. He tried to blink. He heard a mechanical clink as he closed his eyes. The Elder coughed from behind Calium. "You have enough time to get accustomed to your new vision. If you feel unwell, do not hesitate to come back here." He put a hand on his shoulder. "The operation was a success. I was able to attach the old optic nerves and I gently altered some of the connections to your new eyes and inside your brain. You should experiment these following days. Keep note of anything you see that you couldn't see before. Colors, objects, mana... Anything and with as much detail as you can." Calium stood up, his head reeling from the memory of pain. He kept his eyes closed and walked towards the exit. Surprisingly, he was able to avoid the obstacles in his path, as if he knew where to find them already. "Also, I integrated a few more traits inside your brain. Make sure your innate trait adapts the new ones into your system like I taught you. You'll find yourself better at eye coordination and memorization," the Elder added. Before the student left, he stopped in front of the open door for a moment. "Thank you," he muttered. "No need, my boy," came the response. The old teacher was back at his desk, examining his notes and scribbling some doodles on some papers. "I should thank you for helping me with my research. May the Architect reward our efforts, boy." Calium left the laboratory, closing the door behind him.
As he climbed down the stairs of the tower, Calium felt the dizziness inside his head intensify and spread across his body. He fell to the ground with a loud thud, groveling in pain, eyes closed shut. His facial muscles were reshaping near his eyes, jolts of pain scattering across the sensible skin. The mana pathways of his body began to glimmer blue, and he felt himself slowly losing conciousness for the second time that day. As his adaptation trait activated, he felt a surge of information flood his brain: his body was adapting to the changes made, to the new sensing organ and its superior capabilities. When he opened his eyes again, a pale, ghostly figure stood in front of him, watching. Realising the boy could see it, it quickly vanished, leaving Calium dazed on the floor.
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