An Open Mind

[Inoadar]

Fall 41st, 513

Inoadar got back to the his shop, 'Ino Vations', with the bag. He'd taken his leave of the courier, Shy Carsma, telling her to please report to her employer, Valerius Nitrozian, that the "errand" was successful. He didn't know if Carsma was going to bother with all the details of a job gone horribly awry. It was only the end result that really mattered. All the young aristocrat needed to know was that they'd gotten the Nuit head. It was probably all he would care to know.

There had been some sort of misunderstanding. The Nuit had believed that the young courier was brought to be his next body. The courier herself, and Inoadar as well, had arrived with the understanding that the Nuit already HAD his next body lined up. Tensions and mistrust had escalated quickly and the end result sat in the bag Inoadar set on the cleared off end of his worktable. After all, he had only needed the head anyway.

There was one side benefit of working with Nuit body parts. There was not a lot of blood. He had learned this a season or two ago, when he'd taken a job from The Spot to procure a body for a Nuit. It had actually turned out to be for his wife, also a Nuit. 'Well, I guess the family that dies together, lives on as undead corpses together.' he mused to himself as he gripped the hair and lifted the grisly trophy from the bag.

He didn't know why this Nuit had thought the young lady's body had been intended for him. He didn't know if it was common for a Nuit to want to try out different genders from time to time. He didn't imagine it was out of some sexual adventurousness or anything. After even just one season, a fresh, ripe young woman's body was still just a dead body. Not a sexy thing at all.

He supposed he ought to wait for the Nitrozian kid to get here before he began. He knew he had a day or two before the wait might effect the theorized potency of his results. But he knew it would be a few bells under the best circumstances for Shy to reach the Nitrozian estate and bring the young man back here to watch.

It impressed him that the dapper fellow wanted to observe such a proceeding. This went a little beyond "getting your hands dirty". This was the systematic dismantling of a human brain. And even though it was largely devoid of blood, he remembered from the last time that there were still some gruesome details.

He did not intend to subject his assistant, Ariella, to this process. She was only on hand to be a source of Kelvic blood for 'Wildleash' poison, a bodyguard, and to mind the counter when he had to be gone. She would have nothing but nightmares being forced to watch this ordeal. He told her to take the night off. it would take him quite a while to saw the skull in half without doing too much damage to the interior sections of the brain itself anyway. It needed to be done delicately.

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„I’m going out“, Valerius informed his slave Tuuli who was sitting in his suite with him and helping him organize his case notes for the Kelvic Research Institution. As she heard that, the young woman looked up. „I thought you weren’t working today, Master“, she remarked. „Is Mistress Amanda demanding even more of your time now?“ Realizing that it might be unwise to question her owner, she cast her eyes down and murmurred, „Forigve me my insolence, Master. It isn’t my place to question your family or you.

Valerius was in a favourable mood that day though, so rather than punishing the girl, he replied, „I’m meeting with one of my new associates. He’s finally procured an …“ Here he paused for a moment, wondering what he should call ‚it‘. Tuuli didn’t need to know that Mister Parnell was going to experiment on a Nuit brain. Tuuli was a good and useful slave, but she was unfortunately a little squeamish and afraid of blood. „… item that I’m most interested in. Can I trust you to organize those papers into their respective folders and put them into the bookshelf?“

The girl breathed a sigh of relief because he wasn’t mad at her after all and nodded. „Of course, Master“, she replied. „Then I’ll be off“, he informed her. „I’m not sure how long it will take. I’ve never dealt with such an item before and don’t know what my associate has in mind. If my grandfather asks about me, tell him I’ve gone to meet a friend and drink coffee with him.“

As she heard this, Tuuli looked at her owner questioningly. What kind of item was it that Master Valerius didn’t want his grandfather to know about? She wished he’d tell her, but it was not her place to ask. Master and slave looked at each other for a moment, and then Valerius pulled his gaze away and left the room, and Tuuli sighed and went back to her work.

~~~~

A short time later Valerius was standing in front of Ino Vations. The young man was dressed in fine clothes of black and emerald green and polished black leather boots. He looked more like he was going to attend a ball, drink fine wine and flirt with the ladies rather than watch somebody cut a Nuit brain up. He hesitated for just one moment before he knocked.

Once he was let into the shop, he greeted Inoadar, and then he asked, „Do you really have it? Where is it?“ Valerius had assisted in various operations at the Kelvic Research Institution, but he had never watched somebody cut up a Nuit brain before. He had to admit, he was curious, even if it promised to be a slightly messy affair.

[Inoadar]

If it had been anyone else, Inoadar would have responded sarcastically, 'No, I sent your courier back to fetch you and got bits of sawed skull fragments all over the floor because I didn't get it.' But he suppressed the impulse and even nodded eagerly.

"Yes, I've finished cutting the skull away. There's some obvious damage to the outer tissue, but that's of little concern. I will say that this particular Nuit is far more cooperative NOW than he was before. Do you know he thought that SHY was being provided for him to jump to? He was actually waiting for me to strangle her or something." Inoadar tried not to laugh, but he was only partially successful. "I can tell you, there was a tremendously awkward moment right then."

His laughter shifted to a grimace and a slight gasp as the twitches of is torso aggravated several newly acquired injuries. "I'm not sure exactly what he did, this Nuit, but the next thing I knew, Shy seemed to ALSO think that I was intending to sacrifice her as well. Don't blame her though, I sort of lost my own rationale there too, for a bit. She swears she was only trying to make sure I didn't kill either him or her. And I can only say that I suddenly found myself convinced that her actions were conducted with lethal intent against ME."

Inoadar took a broom and swept aside the bits of cranial debris, but left the emptied skull halves on the table. As he crouched to wipe up the surprisingly small bit of wet residue from the floor, he went on. "I've had that done to me before, that mind-petch trick. I know it's some kind of djed-craft crap. I guess there's a plus side to all the trouble it caused me in the past, in that I was able to recognize the inconsistent and uncharacteristic attitude I was exhibiting. I was able to shake it off before anything...unfortunate...occurred."

As he stood to discard the soiled rag, he again, twitched in pain from some result of the day's events. "I'll tell you something else. That courier is one tough little woman. I was genuinely trying to kill her, and she was supposedly only trying to subdue me, and I think I got the worst of it." He chuckled a couple of times in appreciation, stopping and wincing suddenly. "Anyway, by the time I got my head right, and convinced her that some mind trick had been used on her, she was mad enough to offer no complaint about cutting the bastard's head off."

He got out a large knife and began shaving away thin layers of the outer coils of brain tissue, stopping now and then to add comments. "I guess I can understand not wanting to kill unnecessarily, and as a courier, it's not the focus of the job. But she seems pretty well trained for a pacifist. And I can't see waitin' so long to decide that it's necessary." He shook his head and shaved away more, answering any questions his visitor may have asked.

He stopped and set aside the blade motioning for Valerius to come close. As the young man leaned in, Inoadar pressed on the large remaining bulk of brain, near where he had cut. The pressure forced an odd clear fluid, with a bluish tint to it, to squeeze through the openings in the walls of exposed tissue. "There. You see that stuff? That is the key right there. I'm sure of it. See how there's no blood, but there's this blue shyke? My theory is that this fluid seals off the parts of the brain that the Nuit does not use. This fluid is not present in a regular brain, live or dead. I think that the Nuit...condition...generates it somehow. Then, when the Nuit departs the body, this fluid flows back to equalize in all parts of the brain. So now, because this..."sealant"...is present, the Nuit can not re-inhabit this same body."

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„I can imagine that“, the Nitrozian remarked somewhat sarcastically as Inoadar informed him that the Nuit was for more cooperative now. As the poisoner told him that the creature had thought that Shy was supposed to become his new body, he arched an eyebrow, slightly surprised. „Is that so? I wonder where he got the idea from. I can imagine that it was …“ He paused for a moment, looking for the right word. „… a strange situation.“ Unlike the poisoner Valerius didn’t laugh. He didn’t find anything funny about Inoadar’s story, besides, he disapproved of becoming so emotional, over anything.

„And, Mister Parnell, did you at any point intend to kill Shy or was it all a huge misunderstanding?“ he wanted to know. He wasn’t particularly worried that one or two associates of his might almost have died. He was more curious than anything else. At the mention of ‚mind-petch tricks‘ his eyes widened, but only slightly. For a moment he considered asking Inoadar about a few more details, but then he decided not to. Apparently Shy Carsma wasn’t just a girl that climbed walls, she was also a mage. It would be better if Inoadar believed that he, Valerius, had known of the young woman’s skill all along.

„Yes, she definitely is“, he agreed as Inoadar called Shy one tough little woman. „I wouldn’t have hired her otherwise.“ While the poisoner spoke some more, he watched what he was doing with the Nuit head. He’d occasionally seen a corpse, even brains, but those had belonged to Kelvic. He’d never seen a Nuit brain and looked at it closely. Did it in any way look different from a human or Kelvic brain? As Inoadar motioned for him to come closer, he immediately made a step forward. As he noticed the blue fluid, he looked at Inoadar questioningly.

„I see it“, he confirmed. He said nothing about Inoadar’s use of words like ‚shyke‘ even though they were unnecessary in his opinion. The man might not be as willing to let him watch if he criticized him. „Why is it blue rather than red like blood, Mister Parnell?“ he wanted to know. „Have you already tried to analyze the substance? And – I hope that you don’t mind the question – do you know which parts of the brain the Nuit don’t use?“

[Inoadar]

Inoadar was taken slightly aback by Valerius' question. He didn't see any actual suspicion in the Nitrozian's eyes, but a hint of defensiveness nonetheless crept into his response. "Of course it was a misunderstanding! I had been given to believe that Gedrin had already assured you that he had a body lined up. And Shy indicated that she, too, thought this was the case. I would not take it upon myself to dispatch one of your employees, sir. Not without your clear instruction, giving me leave at my discretion."

He sighed in resignation, realizing that further explanation was going to be necessary. "What happened was that there was the awkward silence, as I said. Then I said that I 'wasn't going to go home empty handed...after coming all this way.' Or something like that. All I meant was that I was willing to go and get him a body right then. Some bum or whore or whatever. I realize now that this may not have been the best wording. I expect he thought I meant I was going to kill him, outright. But he neither asked for clarification, nor gave me a chance to reconsider my wording."

He took a deep breath and blew it out in mild frustration, "The next thing I knew, she...Shy, is attacking me, and some unseen source of wind is blowing me into walls and tables. And then, somehow...this Nuit's mage skill I now presume...Somehow, it became an absolute certainty, in my mind, that she intended to kill me. But there came too many points where she could have, and didn't, that I started to have doubts. As I said, I have been victimized by this particular ability before, and the moment I suspected its use, I completely broke free of it."

He made a hurry up gesture to show he was condensing the rest, and actually began to tend to the brain as he spoke. "So I had to shake her out of it. I think it was as much the fact that the Nuit had run that convinced her...But at any rate, she was then mad enough that she had no complaint about killing him. But no sir, I had expected him to already have his next body lying there when we arrived."

It appeared that Valerius was either satisfied or no longer interested. He stepped close and began asking questions. Inoadar considered a moment, "I really can't claim to know, but I have noticed before that blood is darker from some wounds than it is from others, as though the body cleans, or regenerates some aspect of it as it passes through. One of the inner organs, no doubt. Maybe this fluid is red as well when the Nuit first takes over, and becomes this color in time. Only a very specifically aimed experiment would reveal whether this is so."

The young man's next question reassured him somewhat that Amolina had not spoken of their mutual run-in with that crazy mage, Clyde Sullins. He deliberately kept his eyes on his work, now cutting into the other side, at a deeper angle. "I have made enemies, Mr. Nitrozian. I suspect all successful people do, for one reason or another. One of these enemies...contrived to have my work interrupted, right on the cusp of discovering many of the questions you may be asking me tonight. I never had the opportunity to complete my analyses. This is another reason I value my association with you, sir. I lacked the support to fully prevent these nuisances before. Now I know I can continue this research undisturbed."

He gave himself a mental pat on the back. He'd very nearly said 'MY research' and doubted that it would have been very well received. He cut laterally to complete a wedge shaped cut, exposing more tissue and fluid. He drew Valerius' attention to the newly exposed section. "See, here, how the configuration of the tissue is different? The walls are thinner, yet more orderly in their...looping and coiling...almost "tighter" in its winding? I think it would be reasonable to assume that these two sections are related to entirely different bodily functions."

He stepped back to let the man take his place for a better view. "There are basically two things I believe I can discover, in addition to collecting this fluid. The first is how many different sections, judging by texture, density and outward appearance, that the brain contains. The second is harder to explain and will require that I now proceed slowly." He began sketching a crude outline likeness of the brain, thinking that Valerius might have questions about what he'd already stated.

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„I’m glad“, Valerius replied as Inoadar assured him that it had been a misunderstanding. „And Gedrin did assure me that he already had a new body waiting for him. Maybe he couldn’t access that body though due to some unforeseen circumstances. We should probably have asked him where he expected to get a new body from, but I guess it doesn’t matter anymore now, does it?“ As Inoadar informed him that he would never kill one of his employees without clear instruction, Valerius smiled very lightly. „For now I would prefer if you didn’t kill Shy Carsma. She’s quite a useful woman.“

„The Nuit was a fool then“, he remarked as Inoadar provided him with more details on the encounter. „A paranoid fool.“ At the mention of the Nuit’s mage skill the Nitrozian furrowed his brow little. Was Shy not a mage then after all? Or had there been two magic users been involved in this? He decided that he would need to investigate this. „It’s good that you managed to break free though.“ He quietly wondered how often Inoadar had been subjected to such magic before. Could you build up a certain resistance to magic if you were regularly subjected to it? Could you protect yourself against magic without becoming a mage yourself?

„And what kind of experiment would reveal how and why the color of a Nuit’s blood changes?“ he wanted to know. „It’s a pity that there’s a Kelvic Research Institution, but no Nuit Research Institution, isn’t it?“ As he said that, he wondered if it would be possible to turn Kelvic into a Nuit and experiment on them. Would a Kelvic turned Nuit still be able to shapeshift? Would it be in any way different from a Nuit that had been human? Had his aunt ever conducted any experiments in that regard?

As Inoadar informed him that he had made enemies, he nodded. „If your enemies ever start becoming too much of a problem, let me know“, he remarked. If he had known that Clyde Sullins, a mage that he had met once and found to be slightly useful, was one of those enemies, he might not have offered his help so readily, but alas, it seemed as if Mister Nolan Parnell was a man who liked to keep a few things to himself.

He turned to inspect the area of the Nuit’s brain Inoadar was working on now. „I see“, he confirmed. „You said that you can find out how many different sections the brain contains. Is there any way of finding out which bodily functions they are related to short of opening a ‚live‘ Nuit’s skull?“ He didn’t ask what the second discovery Inoadar hoped to make was. It seemed as if the man was going to show him anyway. It wouldn’t be good if he asked too many questions, like an ignorant and somewhat annoying boy.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar nodded appreciatively at Valerius' statement regarding the good fortune of his having broken free of the hypnosis. The next question set him back a bit. It was not an experiment he would anticipate having many willing subjects for. He raised his eyebrows with a doubtful look, "Well, it would require a number of Nuits willing to abandon their bodies after steadily increasing intervals of habitation. We'd have to cut their brains open and see how long before the bluish fluid first appeared. And if truly WAS the blood, or something newly generated, which is actually what I suspect."

He turned to face Valerius, "There is actually a fair amount of blood, under a fair amount of pressure around the brain, inside the skull. I think it acts as some kind of cushion. I spoke with a Nuit a season or two ago. I had a commission to obtain a body for him. Apparently, Nuits prefer to drain the blood from their new bodies before they inhabit them. Both this one and the other one I worked on had virtually no blood, but the brain was swelled enough to make up for the gap. I think the outer layers of tissue are swelled and sacrificed as cushioning, and perform no functions."

He had made no comment regarding past enemies. And the closest thing to a 'Nuit Research Institute' he could think of was the Island of Sahova itself. "I believe I should be able to discover every different section of the brain." He stood pondering a moment, then shook his head. "It's possible we could discover which parts of the brain affect parts of the head, but I don't see how we could test parts we think may affect, say, the arms, without the arms being connected."

He returned to his cutting, going more slowly and stopping to check something before completing each cut. "Okay, the other thing I'm trying to find out for certain is if the fluid is concentrated at the core of the brain when the Nuit inhabits it. The other time I worked on a Nuit brain, I found the core decayed, but the outer portions still reasonably...fresh, I guess I could say. There was a greater concentration of the blue fluid in these outer portions than there are in this brain. So I'm going slowly to see if I come to a point where the fluid is more concentrated, possibly even under pressure."

His face reflected his belief that the current level of fluid he was finding was supporting this theory. He had cut pretty deeply and showed Valerius the increased presence of fluid. He was having to actually let it flow into a tray he had nearby. Whereas before, he was having to squeeze the bulk to get it to ooze out. "What I think this proves is that the functions that a Nuit does not use are at the core of the brain. And I think it is under pressure there to seal it off from the Nuit inhabiting it. The Nuit I talked with before says it takes several bells before a Nuit can even barely move, after inhabiting a new body, and a good quarter season before they are in full command of it. I think this indicates the time it takes for the Nuit "influence" to bring about the creation of this liquid. So when the Nuit dies, or leaves, this fluid is no longer restrained and begins to seep back out toward the extremities of the brain."

He knew he didn't need to explain to Valerius how significant a discovery it could be to be able to track which parts of the brain controlled which functions. The young man had asked the very question himself. "This brain is much more recently...departed...from its Nuit owner. And I have deliberately cut the head off close to the shoulders in the hope that the muscle and bone present in the neck would seal off the brain's core so it wouldn't leak this fluid at that end. What I'm finding so far is that there is much less fluid in these outer portions. This is consistent with my theory."

He grinned with satisfaction. "So, as I go from point to point, looking for indications of new "sections", I also note how much flow of this fluid there is as I get closer to the core. Of course, I am gathering it up, because I believe it is the key component in the antidote to 'Dark Reaving' poison."

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„I realize that being able to conduct experiments on Nuit, at least on willing Nuit is unlikely“, Valerius remarked in case Inoadar found his question strange. „But I’m allowed to think about it, am I not?“ He found the information that Nuit preferred to drain blood from their bodies interesting. He hadn’t known that. „Do you know why Nuit drain their bodies first, Mister Parnell?“ he wanted to know. „Do they thus try to slow down decay?“ Valerius hadn’t worked with a lot of dead bodies so far, and he’d never studied the rate at which they decayed, but it was the only explanation that made sense to him.

As Inoadar informed him that he should discover every different section of the brain, Valerius just nodded. It wasn’t necessary to say anything to that. He doubted that Inoadar appreciated a spectator that constantly asked questions – questions that showed how ignorant he still was. As the poisoner returned to cutting the Nuit brain, the Nitrozian thus simply stood near him so that he wouldn’t get in his way and watched what he was doing.

„I see“, he remarked as Inoadar showed him the increased presence of fluid and handed him a tray so that he could let it flow onto it. „Do you have any idea why the Nuit don’t use the core of their brain?“ he wanted to know. It was all quite fascinating. A little while ago the Nitrozian would have been slightly squeamish when faced with experimenting on a Nuit brain, but after operating on Kelvic and shoveling Kelvic excrements for seasons he didn’t care about the dirty parts of it as much anymore. He just wanted to watch and thus increase his knowledge.

As Inoadar informed him that he believed that the fluid was one of the key components of the antidote to Dark Reaving, he nodded again, but again he didn’t say anything, but let the poisoner continue his work. He was the expert here, and Valerius was perfectly fine with that, as long as the things he talked about remained as interesting.

[Inoadar]

Inoadar nodded, smiling sightly as he looked up. "I would expect we should think about anything that comes to mind. And research anything that comes to interest us, sir." Valerius then posed a question Inoadar himself had wondered about. He shook his head and the smile faded. "Yes...why do they drain the blood...I wish I had thought to ask the Nuit that when I spoke with him. It could be that it helps delay the decay. Or maybe it coagulates, and the hardening acts like a...rigor mortis effect, making it hard for them to move. I know that they DO massage and break this stiffness before they inhabit a body, but I think that's more a muscular thing." His eyes wandered and he remarked absently, "I'll have to ask a mortician about that sometime."

Valerius got to the heart of the matter with his next question. Inoadar brightened and focused again. "Ahh, now we come to it. This is precisely what I hope to verify. I think they do not use the core of their brain because that is where those functions they do not use are located. The other brain I worked on had been left uninhabited for several days and the core possessed no great amount of this fluid. But it was far more decayed than the rest of it. Now, it didn't contain a great deal of this fluid either, BUT..." he held a finger up to indicate the pertinent information to follow.

"There was SOME. And the rest of the brain had nothing like the amount we have here. And there's more..." Again the gesture to forestall interruption. "In the outer portions, the tissue was stained in such a way as to indicate this fluid. AND in the decayed core, the tissue looked stretched. I take this to mean that, during Nuit habitation, this fluid was concentrated in the core, under pressure even, causing this stretching. Both of these factors cause me to believe the core is where the functions that Nuit do not use are located."

He cut more on the other side, now getting close to the core from both sides. The fluid was more prevalent here as well, as it had been on the other side when he cut deeper. "The way I see it. The fluid seals off these unnecessary portions, and is being maintained. Perhaps some gland there is altered by the Nuit habitation to accomplish this. There IS some sort of djed alteration involved in the ritual to become a Nuit. Some sort of magic. So I theorize that when the Nuit departs the body, the fluid is released and soaks back out into the rest of the brain, leaving the core stretched and quicker to decay, since it was never actually kept alive. This would be sort of like the way an old document will crumble when unsealed and exposed to air."

He knew there was one last detail to explain. "The only remaining question I had was answered by the stained tissue in the "old" brain. The tissue was consistently thicker. So my belief is that this fluid, over the course of the three days that the brain sat uninhabited, soaked back in, not just into the newly abandoned sections, but into the tissue itself. And then, it...sort of...dried there. But it was still too concentrated, by comparison, in the core section to quite achieve this before I cut it open."

He got out a large, fairly deep tray and backed it up with a second tray, positioned horizontally behind it like a wall. He picked up a knife and positioned himself and the brain to cut deeply in such a way that the cut would "face" these trays. He looked over at Valerius. "So, my theory will be greatly supported, if not proven, by cutting into the core right now and having a pressured burst of this fluid spray out. I expect it to be similar to the blood spray when cutting the primary vein in the throat."

He looked expectantly at Valerius, "Let me know when you are ready."

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„Let me know when you’ve had the opportunity to ask a mortician“, Valerius said. He’d briefly considered investigating the matter himself, but it would be a bit strange if a man like him went around asking about Nuit and (other kinds of) dead bodies. Showing an interest in such a topic here, in the relative safety of his own home was a slightly different matter.

„And which functions do they not use?“ the Nitrozian asked even though he had decided that he would not pose too many questions out of fear to annoy the poisoner or seem stupid just moments ago. It was a strange behaviour for him, but the topic fascinated him. „I assume they have no need to eat anymore, and thus their digestive system as well as their bladder are functionless? Do you know if they still breathe?“

As Inoadar spoke more about the fluid, the Nitrozian listened quietly. Interrupting him would be impolite. Fortunately Inoadar answered most of the questions he had with his explanation. He couldn’t help but wonder where the fluid came from in the first place, but he doubted that the poisoner knew, and thus he decided to let the matter be and simply nodded.

As Inoadar spoke of some kind of fluid spray, Valerius frowned for just a moment before he had his features under control again. He was a little worried that some of the fluid would end up on him, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to come in contact with it. He didn’t find it disgusting, not exactly, he just preferred to be clean. Still, he informed Inoadar, „I’m ready.“