Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 44 - 43 Strange Talents

Dull yellow candlelight invaded his vision, prying Lyle’s eyelids open, like a person forever nested in the darkness seeing light for the first time, all he felt was its blinding effect. Not until his petrified brain, like rusty gears, began to turn again did the congealed imaginings in his mind start to melt and flow into inconspicuous corners, like a dream.

Lyle realized the ceremony had ended.

The remaining soup potion retained its warmth, its viscous colloid sticking onto his coat, the slippery feel conveyed to his brain by every pore, and what made him most uncomfortable was the bits of chives stuck to his coat, clumping together like a plate of stir-fry arranged on his belly, quite a considerable amount.

"How do you feel, Plague Doctor?" the gentleman inquired with concern, while Miracle and Inspiration seemed more preoccupied with the bits of chives, staring long and wordlessly at the whole green clump congealed on the belly.

"My head feels a bit heavy, my body a bit sticky, other than that, no special feelings. Did it fail?" He swatted the excess matter off his body, the constraining Stone Lock had vanished, and Lyle easily stood up.

"If you are referring to your talent ceremony, it has already succeeded," the gentleman pointed behind Lyle, toward the stone tablet where he had lain, its original spot smooth as new. In the center of the stone slab, there was a small indentation, with shattered Stone Fragments piled haphazardly.

"Did I do that?" If he had crushed it by lying on it, he could only apologize, not taking responsibility; the stone had looked quite sturdy, but unexpectedly fragile.

"That’s the revelation stone tablet, part of the ceremony, the cornerstone it bears. In eras long past, people would place a formed Stone Fragment in the open, waiting for lightning to shatter it, deducing good or ill omen from the fragments, yes, like Divination. We determine our talents by transcribing from the fragments."

Lyle examined the scattered Stone Fragments carefully, finding no pattern in them.

"This is (Egg), over here is (Thought), no, the angle of observation is wrong, considering the position where Plague Doctor had just laid down, it should follow the direction of the spine, starting from the head, this direction, this is, skewed (Thought), it should be understood as (Fantasy) or (Delusion)," Miracle caressed the fragments, mumbling to himself, madly whispering like a sorcerer casting a spell. "Fantasy Egg? Delusional Egg?"

"Did the experiment succeed?" asked Inspiration, looking at Miracle, "You changed the Spell on the fly, by conventional standards, that should have failed."

"Failure is the mother of success; the failures we’ve been through could well be the great-great-great grandmother of success. Even if by a process of elimination, this time it ought to have worked. Now, we need to confirm whether the Egg in his talent was inherent or something we imposed upon him."

Listening to the conversation, Lyle felt there were things he should have been made aware of but seemed to have been kept in the dark.

"Gentlemen, can someone explain exactly what you did to me?"

"Of course, Plague Doctor, I too am curious, first of all, do you have any, that is, are there any stray thoughts in your mind?"

"What stray thoughts?"

"That is, thoughts of wanting to reproduce."

"What? Reproduce? Do you mean a mating urge? No, I haven’t considered it for the time being."

"Not that, you’ve misunderstood me. I mean, do you have a desire for procreation? Procreation that skips the preparatory work."

"You wouldn’t happen to mean having children, as in a natural birthing desire?"

"Yes, do you have thoughts of producing offspring? Simply the thought itself?"

"Miracle, have you lost your mind? I’m a man, and men don’t bear children. Wait, is this what you mean by a small adjustment to the ceremony?"

Miracle nodded generously, "Yes, we wanted to confirm the conditions under which desire arises. Firstly, we wanted to see if it’s possible to reverse desires. During the ceremony, we infused you with the desire for wealth and attempted to switch it to a desire for procreation."

"..." Lyle looked at the gentleman standing by. Was this the reliability you mentioned?

"Plague Doctor, I think you’re misunderstanding. Miracle is referring to a more primal desire, the ability to produce offspring, perhaps explaining it as division would be more accurate. Cellular division and replication, perhaps ’duplication’ would be a better term."

"No, I don’t have that feeling, I believe your experiment has failed, Mr. Miracle."

"Could there be another variable we haven’t considered..." Miracle mused, his head bowed in thought.

Inspiration glanced at the two, gave a bow, "Thank you both very much for your help, though our experiment has failed again. Please leave now, there’s likely no more need for your presence."

"Your talent has awakened, but it will take some time before it surfaces, please be patient."