“He’s been practicing with blindfold since you went to the island, Boss,” Kidd said, sitting out of Ewan’s reach. “Almost made it to fifty steps without stubbing his toes yesterday, he even stopped spilling all his food now. Though, he still can't cook like that.”
“I’ll cook,” Nana said, straightening her back, holding the edge of her seat as her legs dangled playfully, her boots scuffing the metal floor. “I can't be the only one idling around here, I’ll be the chef.”
“Sort through what you got on the island first,” Ewan said. “I need you to modify some artifacts for me after that. We’ll clear out the mechanics hall for you, use it as you wish, just don’t fall out of the back hatch while we’re on the move.”
“If we don’t need to fight anyone, I’m the most useless,” Lance muttered aloud. “Even in fights, I’m the weakest…”
“You just had to poke the issue,” Ewan said, glaring at Nana who shrunk her neck.
“Me! Me!” Kidd raised his hand, bobbing his knee. “I gather information for us and deal with shady stuff, I also do the networking to expand our connections.”
“I will handle the logistics,” Nana said with a glittering shine in her eyes. In the mental age, she wasn’t far from Kidd, almost two peas in a pod.
“And Stefan handles the navigation and warship repairs,” Lance said, looking lost. “What do I do?”
“You fought a lot of battles back in Drarith, you can handle our strategies and tactics,” Kidd said, egging the childish exchange on.
“Enough with the inane talk already,” Ewan said. “Kidd, go prepare the medical bay, I’ll start the procedure as soon as Stefan’s done here. Nana, sort through what you got, I’ll give you the details of the artifacts later. Lance, you go to the top deck and keep an eye on the horizon just in case someone chases our tail.”
“Information, Logistics, Strategy, Navigation.” Kidd pointed at himself and each of them respectively, then looked at Ewan, and Nana and Lance followed his gaze. “Boss, you…”
“Scram, you fucktards! Get to work!”
And the three scuttled away.
….
Stefan opened his eyes and the crystal ball shattered, nicking his hand. His hurried breaths, the slight trembles in his shoulders, and the clenched fist despite the bloody cuts oozed with excitement. His success wasn’t a surprise to Ewan, the strength of his soul had already proven itself. But he sighed, for the path Stefan chose was about to make him blind, and Ewan would play a role in it. What extent of the blame would he share if Stefan regretted it in the future…
“Are you ready?” he asked, regardless of his misgivings.
“Yeah, I don’t want to wait any longer,” Stefan said. “Don’t worry Ewan, I won't regret it. And even if I did, I would never blame you.”
“If only these things worked like that…”
The two made their way through the brightly lit corridors, the echoes of their clanging steps accompanying their words.
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“I got the lantern from Algernon,” Ewan said. “It’s supposed to be a vital part of a Whispered, but it wasn’t in the inheritance.”
“It seemed complete though, there were no obvious gaps,” Stefan said.
“Still, remain skeptical and double check everything with your own experience,” Ewan said. “You don’t have to follow it word for word.”
“I’ll do that.” Stefan nodded.
Down the stairs to the middle floor and through the corridor towards the tail, soon they approached the medical bay.
“Everything’s ready, Boss,” Kidd said, lining up the tools on the table, wiping clean the miniscule smudges his touch left with the clean rag.
“Let’s start then,” Ewan said and suited up, double checking the edge on the scissors, and recounting all the tools he would need. “One last time, are you ready?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Stefan said with a deep breath and lay down on the bed. The lack of cushion removed all the comfort, and nigh frosty metal made him shiver.
“I’m going to put you to sleep now,” Ewan said.
Siesta!
He cast and Stefan dozed off, his eyelids fluttering. When the spell deepened, his drowse became a slumber, and he fell into an induced coma.
The theory of the procedure ran in Ewan’s head, and his ample experience with his experiments held his hands stable as he retracted Stefan’s eyelids with the speculum and snipped the connective tissue around the globe. The squint hook isolated the muscle and detached the capsule from it…
…
…
…
He clamped the optic nerves and snipped them, finally pulling the second secured globe out of the socket, and only two hollow masses of squirming flesh and strips of orbital fat remained where Stefan’s eyes were once.
“What now, Boss?” Kidd asked from the side, taking away the bloodied tools and the globes, and shifting Stefan to the resting bed.
“Keep the eyeballs safe, he’ll need them when he wakes up,” Ewan said, heaving a heavy breath with his head up. Operating on strangers and working on someone he knew and shared meals with took different tolls on him. If this was Nana, he might not even have a stable hand. He still had a lot to learn, he still had much to experience….
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Status: Healthy
Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 7.0
Spirit: 25.5
Anima: [Fire – 25.5 | Ice – 25.5 | Blood – 25.5 | Mystic: 25.5 | Dark: 25.5]
Astylinds: 5 [Potential: 0]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Bloodthorn-Lotus [Iris]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-D]
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Necros-Crow [Ghost]: Step-0 [Level-4] [Grade-D]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball]; Rainwarden [Staff]; Blackfeather [Overcoat].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Unknown Book [Radon’s Legacy]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Hub-Connector; Ingredients; Lantern.
Novas: 24,285
Crelith: 1,014