Under the King's Assignment - Part 4

The air was still and the faint sound of rain continued to provide a background. Emery's patience wasn't especially high with this woman from his entrance. He checked his sides and the staircase with no sight of another person.

He grabbed the keys and stepped past the desk to head down the stairs. He’d either ask for approval later or apologize for his actions. They were just books.

Emery got closer step by step, but he could feel a force holding him back from the stairway. There was a strange darkness that felt almost like he was pressing through a thick barrier. The further he got into it, the harder it was to move in either direction. Eventually he reached the stairway completely overcome by black.

This didn’t feel like a Thanaturgy trick though. Considering it had to do with light and dark, someone with a background in phantastry had to have come up with such a complex trap. Emery wasn’t even sure where along the stairway he was. He had to walk down so he could unlock what he presumed would be a door at the bottom.

He took a step forward and nearly fell as it was a further drop down for a step than expected. He continued onward and questioned whether everyone experienced this, or if it was specifically because he wasn’t allowed here. He made his way down very slowly, but eventually reached a barred gate.

Emery fiddled with the keys to find the first option as he placed it into the lock. No good. He tried a second. Still stuck. He tried a third. There was a twist, but it wasn’t unlocking it. There was only one other key remaining and as he slid it into the lock he felt a chill in his spine. Like he was being watched in this darkness. He twisted the final key and it unlocked the entrance allowing him to step out of the darkness and into the restricted library.

Emery immediately looked behind him to see no darkness. Just a standard flight of stairs that led to a properly lit first floor. Either the House of Thanaturgy had some intense security, or someone didn’t want him down here.

He hung the keys on a hook by the entrance before walking around to check the numerous walls of books.

“How could there be so many restricted books for Thanaturgy? What is so important that they need to be kept from the general public?”

Emery found a mobile candle stand and struck a light. As he walked around the room he wasn’t quite sure what to look for. He reflected on keywords that might help him.

“The Hush wouldn’t be here since this is thanaturgy, but maybe if I find a book about the Mesothan I can see if they shed some light on why these soldiers return as unpronounced without more than a moment’s notice.”

Emery made his way around the room trying to find books that started with “M”, but he ended up finding the end of the alphabet first. He ran his hand across starting in a very short “Z” section, but as he got to the “U” a book was protruding.

He took a moment to press it back in, but he noticed the title along the spine, “The Unpronounced”.

“Wait a minute. That’s the term Silas used, and he’s a ritekeeper. Did thanaturgy pull that directly from the Law of Graves, or did they both just happen to give them the same title.”

Emery grabbed the book and looked at the ominous cover of a human brain with several tools and a year, 814. He opened it up and flipped straight to the introduction.

“This is a study upon two individuals. One, the corpse of a human, reanimated using thanaturgy. The second, a human that had died without ascending beyond Mesothan. This resulted in the second subject becoming what ritekeepers call ‘unpronounced’.”

So many things were wrong with this book in the first paragraph alone. Emery felt his stomach churning at the thought of human experimentation, but knowledge in this circumstance could lead to a solution. He had to continue.

“The reanimated, will henceforth be known as subject A. The Unpronounced will be subject B. How I have acquired these subjects is unnecessary information, but what should be recognized are the state of minds that the two present. A, is idle and motionless, it responds only to my command. B, refuses to stay strapped down as I conduct my research.”

Emery noticed the fine hand writing. This seemed to be a book of journal entries or logs for an experiment.

“A, doesn’t seem to have any will of its own as would be expected of a being that has been reanimated through thanaturgy. B, appears to have intentions, most of them seem to be violent tendencies as their overgrown nails cut pretty deep into my left arm earlier today.”

Everything was dated down to the time of day. He skimmed along in search of the more significant entries.

“I tied down B significantly more in order to get a closer look at both subject’s brains. I want to observe their functions if there are any. After removing the skull with a bonecutting technique shared to me by a sanguichurgy mage I was able to see the brain on its own. Neither subject’s behaviors changed after the opening of the skull.”

Emery gulped as his hands clutched onto the book.

“Using thanaturgy magic I am able to see if there are any parts of the brain still functioning in either subject. It seems as though A’s brain is not involved at all. However, B’s brain is functioning at minimal levels. The brain’s frontal reasoning lobe shows activity, which makes some form of sense because decisions to act out are being made. The hearing center is functioning at a low percentage as well so it’s possible that it has a sense of language understanding.”

This man’s studies were so specific. He understood the brain on levels that many sanguichurgists didn’t even know. It’s true thanaturgy is able to look at the inside much more conveniently, but this seems beyond any standard student, apprentice or even professional.

“If that’s the case then it’s possible that if someone did the thinking for it then it could follow if it chose to. You could somewhat compare that to subject A’s reanimation. I am doing the thinking in its stead, and at the current level of reanimation magic, I have to do all of the thinking as though I were controlling both my own body and the other. Subject B does seem to have other parts of the brain functioning which include the areas for visual and motor skills, but the more complex factors such as emotion and touch sensitivity are showing no activity at all.”

This man’s ability must have truly been unique to be able to measure levels of engagement, response and functionality. Emery’s skin crawled reading these things, but he couldn’t put the book down.

“There doesn’t seem to be much of a biological explanation for this unpronounced having these cognitive abilities. The subject was recognized as deceased with all brain function at zero percent for over seven days. The soul does not immediately return to the body, but after enough time trapped in the Mesothan it seems to return to the body as an unstable being with an aggressive semi-cognitive state of mind. This certainly further suggests that the method of ascension does have some sort of an effect. There may in fact be a soul tied to our physical beings. Without the process of ascension it really is quite possible we can’t leave the Mesothan to arrive at the Asomera.”

Emery hadn’t been one to believe in things such as souls. He had only been one to believe what he could see. These last few days had been overwhelmingly proving the opposite could be possible. As dark as this study was in practice, if it was legitimate then it was empirical evidence.

“I want to sum up my discoveries and then propose a question. When an individual dies and their soul goes to the Mesothan, they of course lose all physical functionality. If they don’t ascend, then over time they return as an unpronounced thus regaining certain cognitive abilities. Now when they return to this semi-cognitive state, is it possible that they can be fully resurrected to a complete sense of their previous self? If so, how could we achieve that?”

Emery froze as he read those questions. Resurrection has always been a topic to leave alone. Reanimation was already dangerously close to that, but was looked past due to a lack of consciousness in the beings. Full resurrection was something his masters had always taught him to stay away from. He treaded with caution as he continued to read.

“My theory is that there needs to be some sort of a jumpstart to the physical body in conjunction with the return of the soul. The question then becomes ‘what’ would be a jumpstart?”

Emery was hesitant in letting his mind wander so he continued to read and preoccupy himself.

“After contemplating the possible options, I have decided that one method of jumpstarting could be the same reanimation method used on corpses. Although it’s typically recognized as a form of control over a corpse it is also technically a form of ignition. The spell alone may not lead to brain function, but that doesn’t mean a body that was in between death and life couldn’t be resurrected with the ignition from the reanimation spell.”

Emery’s bones shook, knots were forming in his stomach. This man was about to test the very spell humanity had accepted, due to its lack of consciousness, to resurrect a human being.

“I tested my theory on Subject B, and the result was a form of control over a semi-cognitive body. It was able to take commands. It had enough self awareness that I didn’t need to consistently manage it with magic. I took a risk and released it from its constraints to test its obedience. B was able to perform minimal tasks such as travel to different locations in the room. It was also able to inflict harm upon subject A without dispute. It isn’t resurrection, but that could be of use in the future.”

Emery paused on that page. Reading and re-reading that final line. The knots in his stomach remained as he struggled to turn the page.

“I tied B back up before releasing my reanimation spell. As soon as I did, he went right back to rebellion. It would require a truly significant mass of magic to be able to control multiple of these unpronounced using the current form of the reanimation spell.”

Emery’s shoulders relaxed a small amount. It was good news to know that it wasn’t easy for this man, but this book was written ages ago and magic has advanced a lot.

“Today I was fortunate enough to obtain a third subject. I have tracked the brain’s cognition during reanimation and the Unpronounced state. The one remaining test is to track the body during the actual process of death and ascension. That does in fact mean subject C is alive. This complicates matters only in procedure, not in purpose.”

Emery’s knees grew weak enough to give out. He fell to the ground with the book barely in his grasp. Could he really continue reading this? Everything up until now was already in a moral gray area at best. This was crossing the line to be unethical. He took a deep breath in, closed his eyes and let the air out. He wasn’t the one doing the research, he was merely reading a log from half a century ago…in a restricted library…that he didn’t get approval to enter…. He shook his head and shut out the inner voices to continue.

“He has been in an unresponsive state for over six months now. His body is functioning, but his ability to form complex thoughts is no longer there. Sanguichurgy asked for thanaturgy to put him to rest at the family’s request, but I managed to convince the group in charge to let me take the patient.”

Emery brought his palm to his forehead and wiped straight down. The man basically stole a family’s loved one for experimenting…

“I have prepared subject C in a separate room from A and B. They will be put to death by a suspension of their oxygen intake. As a thanaturge I will be able to ascend him after he enters the Mesothan. I will also be focused on their brain and body’s statuses.”

Emery flipped pages as his stomach churned.

“Subject C has ascended to the Asomera now. There are important things to note. All cognitive functions fell to zero after the suspension of oxygen led to C’s death. When C was officially regarded as dead I could tell, as a thanaturge, their soul had entered the Mesothan. The most interesting note came when I was tracking vitals and cognition during my ascension speech. The body was irrefutably dead, but there was the smallest instant in which some form of lifeforce ran through the body.”

Emery paused on that last line. His queasiness started to settle as that idea stuck to him.

“My final theory is that the soul ran through the body during the process of ascension. I believe the soul exits the body to enter the Mesothan as has always been presumed. However, it’s possible the body is the gateway to reaching the Asomera. Once the final words are spoken allowing the soul to ascend, they must exit the Mesothan through the body and ascend to the Asomera.”

The final theory was an intriguing one. To think that the soul has to exit the body once more is a very curious concept. He wondered if Silas knew about this theory.

“Unfortunately my work here must be concluded. It appears as though my involvement with acquiring subject C led to my discovery. Things are being kept quiet so I will be ending this research without any knowledge of whether I will return to it.”

Emery closed the book shut after finishing it. He looked around the room, still on his knees from collapsing earlier. He checked the back cover and saw the author, Richmond Bellant. His eyes grew wide making the connection, but it was also a reminder that Liora was upstairs and likely looking for him.

Emery slipped the book back into its original spot flush alongside the other books. He had no time to look at anything else so he went straight for the door grabbing the keys as well. Part of him was ready to face the darkness that he experienced when he first came down, but upon his first step everything was clear.

He quietly made his way up into the silence of the first floor. He peeked his head over and Ms. Weaver was gone. No one else appeared to be around either so Emery took soft steps to reach the front desk and place the keys back on their hook.

“What are you doing?”

Emery jerked his head upwards to see Liora looking down on him from the staircase. Her eyelids were close to shut as she stared at his hand positioning behind the desk.

“Oh I was just checking to see where Ms. Weaver went!”

Emery pulled his hand back before Liora leaned over the railing to get a better look at his positioning.

“Were you checking under the desk, because there’s no one back there. The keys are still there so she can’t be downstairs either.”

Emery shuffled himself back in front of the desk as Liora walked the rest of the way down.

“You know what, it’s alright, I think out of the books you gave me earlier I learned what I needed to. I’ll just leave you be.”

He walked toward the door and grabbed the handle before pausing. He turned his head over his shoulder.

“Your name was Liora, right? Liora Bellant?”

Something about Emery’s fixation on her last name made her heart sink, but she nodded in confirmation. Emery continued on out the door.