[excerpt from the universal counsel]
It was the fact that he had his sister's organs in his body, absorbing and metabolizing Magick. He is an impossibility, something of an abomination, not human, but not magickal. Tal’s Heart pumping mana stream through human veins. Like gold transported on an unarmed open freightliner through downtown. To Tal’s kidneys purifying the mana streams keeping them clean of human scum. Countless other processes working overtime to simply keep his human physiology running. One should not put jet fuel in a vintage car, one might have a bomb on their hands and not know what to do with it. He at this point is more her than himself.
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There was a warmth that settled around him after a while of being under. Like an aura of his own heat around him like a halo. He looked up as the circle shaped beam was now starting to dim. A small crustacean came right in front of Elliot as he meditated and lifted the colorful lobster. Soon he felt it was time so Elliot came up for breath after almost 15 mins of being under the ice. He hit against the thinner frozen over section to burst back through it.
" Director Elliot your heart and O2 content showed little change this time and you lasted almost an entire minute longer” a One eyed man said.
“ Robert, Elliot works just fine” Elliot said to The Brick’s old guard, “ I am certain that Brouge could do better. ”
“ Brouge is not a human Elliot.” Robert assured with a shudder to his voice, “ That man is something else”
“ He’s a human Robert, people like him in the top brass just have certain talents that supersede our own.” Elliot chuckled, “ but I do hope I was wrong about that measuring stick, I sure would like to give that Dr. Z a scare like Brouge did.”
“ I like how you are, you don't seem to have side effects like the others. Can I ask though Elliot what it is your kind does to become the way you are. I would love to not have to wear a coat in Neo-Antarctica soaking wet, you make this look like a sauna.” Robert asked.
“ I am a human too, Robert. I’m not like those you're thinking of. I think I am something else. I don't take supplements like they do. I don't have that pseudo-sickness. I don't even think I could lift it more than my body weight.” Elliot explained, “ Brouge gets the way he is because of his Titan supplements.”
“ That's not true anymore Elliot, they found a more sustainable way.”
“ Wait really?” Elliot seemed shocked.
“ Yah we had to take him to this secret lab at least 3 times a week and they just drained his blood and filled him with this blue stuff. Makes his cough eight times worse, but now he can lift ten times more. Right after a treatment I saw him spin a tank like a top. “ Robert seemed to feel distressed as he recounted his memories. His job had been one that was synonymous with a short lifespan. They gave one’s family your entire expected life's salary, because the overall life expectancy was 3 months.
“Robert, do you want to go home to your family?” Elliot felt a pang of guilt having asked Robert to be transferred to a position as one of the research assistants. Elliot needed as many people on the team that had some level of experience with these odd happenings. Elliot had plans of testing his limits though, such a thing would be difficult in his current situation. After a few months of being the director of The Ice Cube, Elliot was starved for freedom, so he did something.
It did not take Elliot long for him to notice that everything he did was under a very watchful eye. There was not a thing he could do that was not noticed. He had been on ice for too long to not be noticed as someone who did the impossible. The very thing that every government in the world wants, especially those working on projects similar to the Titan project. With a product like The Brick Brouge. Having a few of those kinds of people would be quite useful. So, when one day during a routine ice dive Major Dr. Elliot R. Kane disappeared. Governments near and wide mouths began to salivate with urgency.
Elliot had not planned on disappearing that day, or going on the lamb. Elliot was meditating under the ice listening to the calming warble of the ice. The temperature did not do anything to him. I was not as if he could not notice the change in temperature that surrounded him, It was that that simple had no ability to damage him. His cells had become completely fortified from the extreme cold of a Sub-neoarctic plunge. It was in of this serene moment when Elliot was scanning the world around him that he could now notice was brimming with life. Once the aquatic creature notice that he meant no harm, they all exited from their lairs and continued with their business. Small crustations traveling in Pods swimming by him, small multicolored lights beaming from behind their eyes. He saw small eel-like fish pop their heads from the sand bed under him and wave like worm on the sand floor. Even a few plant-like branching creatures exited from thing shell-tubes, waving and grabbing fish.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
After watching the life around, him sing with the echoes of creation he heard a low wailing rumble. It was a sound that sunk deep, and rattled him. He was concerned of what could make such a large sound and why it would sound so pained. After pondering the sound that dug at his bones, he decided that it would be worth it to check it out. He was not actually such how long he could stay under the water with out breath, but Elliot was not in an experimental mood now, so he broke a hole in some thing ice and breathed in the icy air and returned to the depths.
Elliot continued traversing the underwater wonders of the world around him. It was not all framed with that desperate giant wailing then maybe it could have been a bit more peaceful. That was when he came across something he could not miss. A large horned-whale’s body laid on the floor. The horned-whales body producing a shaking rumble was released under was looked similar to strained breaths. As he calmly approached, he noticed the horned-whale did not mind. Its body was covered in barnacles and small corals. He lets his eye and hand glide across the smooth skin that seemed almost opalescent, gleaming and glowing a blue tinge. ‘Why you come all the way here girl’ Elliot thought looking at the frost building on the ancient horned-whale’s form.
As its large heart slowed the horned-whale let out her last wail that almost spun with live and dancing currents around the surrounding area. Small lights surrounded the area filling the bottom of the sea in a blanket of stars. They each slowly drifted upon the surface of the sand. Leaving patterns of vibrational like wave ebbing from under the horned-whale. Within an instant a Zen Garden had formed under his feet. It was beautiful and twinkled under the ice, the sight was framed by the beauty of the twang and warble of the ice sheets above. Nature was at peace. Elliot reached out his hand to the horned-whale to thank her when he noticed the body was rapidly decomposing, the horned-whale seemed to be absorbed by the blue glowing substance, that went over it. It went into some of the smaller coral or barnacle on the surface of the horned-whale but that only ended in small under sea fireworks as the barnacles and coral erupted from the small organisms. The display was beautiful and enchanting but the amount of death around him was unsettling.
See Elliot at this time was still new to this world and its laws. The blue substance in this case was a bacterium and its biofilm building and consuming in hope to find a suitable host. The magickal subspecies of bacterium, Deinococcous radiodurans al Magikcus, wants a place that is favorable in which it can double and reproduce. The horned-whale was the function for a long time, It natural resistances allowed for the bacterium to survive inside of it. Combined with the Horned-whales naturally calm demeanor and large size little would mess with it. Allowing for the Bacterium to survive and off-gas metabolized magick into the horned-whale fortifying its vitality leading to the gargantuan, ancient horned-whale before Elliot now. Sadly, nothing lives forever though not even a Magickal Horned-whale. So as the bacterium went out it connected with the nearby organism, them being unable to survive the extreme magickal pressure immediately died. The Magick power collected by the bacterium was escaping back into the greater weave of the universe. So that once the firework show was done and a small star like fragment of bacterial spore fell unto our little Elliot. It was the beginning the perfect storm too soon make the abomination known as Elliot the Arkanist.
The star like endospore landed on Elliot’s eye entering into his blood stream. The bacterium was weak now, and so to conserve its energy it desired to stay in an endospore stage. Once inside of Elliot it was in a diverse biome rich in things it liked. Some of the other microorganisms in Elliot’s gut were confused by the new entrant. Elliot’s microbiome began one way communication with the endospore. Sending their own nucleic acid into the Endospore. Normally this would not happen, as the genetic information of the bacterium’s genetics were usually reinforced with Magick. The bacterium working to cultivate itself in the end though leading to a very parasitic relationship. Although now unresponsive and weak a few chemical signals, and a few dozen horizontal gene transfers led to the bacterium, soon believing itself to be a native to Elliot’s microbiome.
Elliot on the other had felt an impending sense of dread the spore that came from the ancient Horned-whale, that then killed the horned-whale, and all surrounding organisms had gotten on him. Elliot almost wanted to cry. The Wife, and a wedding he’d never have. He thought of all the children he would not have. It all made him think of his sister, and his family, he was so distraught. He wishes that he hadn’t signed his life to the military rose up from his chest, maybe if he had not done that he could be waking up from a coma in a normal hospital. Maybe if… suddenly his body felt a rush of euphoria like he’d never felt before as blue energies filled him. He felt as though he was about to rupture, when everything went calm. A cool refreshing feeling running over his cells like a smooth ice refreshing sore muscles. A black substance fell from his skin as toxins left him. He was a new creation, filled with living water. His once dark eyes turned a misty gray. His skin had never looked so well nourished.
‘ I don’t know what just happened, but I hope I don't end up like this majestic horned-whale’ Elliot laid his hand on the shriveled horned-whale. His heart was weighted by the death of such an ancient peaceful being. He thought of what its old eyes must have seen in its travels, he took time to mourn a lost life.