It wasn’t much, but Gus’s body showed slight improvement from the doctor’s injection. A few shades of color returned to the young man’s skin, and the reddening of his eyelids began to subside. The acidic substance that was in process of dissolving the areas around his wound had halted its spread. Whatever the doctor had done, it was working.
Gus was still in an unresponsive state, and no movement came from him besides the slow rising and falling of his chest. This toxin that the woman jabbed Gus with had been some serious stuff – it had rendered a hardy, fully healthy man to this state in less than half an hour. It was now apparent to Marin that if he hadn’t treated the situation the way he did, Gus wouldn’t have made it out alive.
He also had to give it to the doctor who was in the basement below – the man was crazy in Marin’s eyes, but he was smart, and had concocted a solution to buy him time from scratch. Marin knew he had to thank the man – repay him in some generous way – but that wasn’t the highest topic in his thoughts right now.
What was, is the action he had seen the man do just minutes ago. Marin had never seen manipulation of blood like that before. The way he pulled the red liquid from Gus’s side – it was almost like he treated blood as an element. That was impossible though.
Blood was not an element. Even if he was a water elemental, only pure water could be manipulated. A skilled water elemental could extract all the water from blood – or any other liquid with water as its base – but not manipulate the entire liquid itself.
This was indeed puzzling to Marin, a wizard graduate of Arkana who had a solid grasp of every elemental medium – even the ones not of his own mastery. He began to think about any other ways of trickery the doctor could’ve pulled off the stunt, but none came to mind.
He was not sure if he had the slightest idea of who he was dealing with. He began thinking about Marge, his librarian back at Nocturne. She was a reasonably skilled water elemental. Perhaps she would have some idea of this doctor’s stunt.
The doctor turned the corner in the kitchen. He was back with medical supplies. The situation with Gus was no longer of dire urgency, so he hobbled at a slow pace. In his arms were white linen bandages, a few bottles of chemicals, and an adherence solution.
The doctor sighed as he approached Gus, getting on his knees again. Now that he didn’t have to move at a life-saving speed, he took his time and operated at a comfortable speed.
Marin sat in a dusty chair off in a corner, watching the doctor treat the wound. He started by cleaning it, using swabs to absorb the bodily discharges, and pouring a few chemicals that Marin guessed were disinfectant in nature.
“You both didn’t have much time. You were down to mere minutes of me saving him. It was destiny, I guess,” the doctor mentioned.
“You have my gratitude,” Marin responded. “You not only saved his life, but someone who I deeply care about.”
The doctor began to cover the wound in gauze. Marin watched as he worked professionally.
“I never got your name,” the doctor said.
“Marin. Sullivan Marin.”
“I am Edward Eisen. Doctor Eisen, most called me.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
Eisen worked in silence until the wound was fully treated. Gus had his entire side wrapped securely, and the doctor placed the caps back onto his bottles. He stood up, and faced Marin.
“I have some questions I need to ask,” Eisen stated.
Marin arose from the chair in a quick motion. “Of course, anything.”
Marin knew Edward Eisen would need a full explanation and story of what had happened to Gus and him – he was owed that at a minimum. Marin also knew that if the doctor could get the full story in detail, it may give him some leads on the origin of the toxin, and help him identify it to create a full counter to the poison.
He had already begun to prepare the story in his mind earlier, and readied himself for the full reasoning of bashing down his door, and invading his property. He had felt terrible about doing that, especially after Eisen was so ready and willing to help out Gus. He hoped that he would understand, though, and hold no resentment. Marin was even ready with coin in pocket to repay him for any damages and mental disturbances.
“My first question – and arguably the most important one -” Eisen removed his glasses and polished them on his lab coat. His eyes had been magnified by the lenses. They now appeared to be as tiny as his teeth, which did not help his case of appearing as a normal human. They stared right into Marin’s eyes, even through the mask, and into his soul.
“- is why you have no heartbeat.”
If Marin had any organs that worked – they would have all turned at once. A wave of fear spread over him, a grip of panic that would’ve given him goosebumps if his skin was not dead.
“C-come again?” Marin responded after a moment.
“You heard me. I can detect the vitals of anyone from a distance. Don’t try lying to me. I want answers,” Eisen smiled wide again. “Or this situation is going to get very dangerous, very quickly.”
That was a not bluff, it was a threat. Marin had seen the blood manipulation earlier, and it was out of his realm of knowledge. That was quite bad, because it meant he had no idea what this doctor was capable of.
For once, Marin didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have much time to respond, and began to quickly think about what to say. He couldn’t respond with hostility. Even if he could overpower the doctor, it could very well end in Gus’s death, and he didn’t want to take that route. At the same time, exposing himself would equally be a massive risk, met with an adverse reaction.
His options were extremely limited. It was impressive enough that Eisen could detect that Marin’s heart was not in operation. Mixed with what he had seen earlier, he had no choice but to tell the truth.
His only hope was that since the doctor had been so kind to assist him and his friend, that maybe, maybe, Eisen would not turn on him.
It was decided then, and instead of beating around the bush, or hinting at the truth, Marin would just come out with it plainly. Judging by how crazy Eisen was, he doubted anything would surprise him.
“I’m not alive,” Marin stated.
Eisen became excited, which was expressed in a queer movement of his shoulders and neck. He didn’t like that answer, it was not acceptable to him.
“Ooh, you’re not alive? Well, you’re standing right here, right now, talking with me. Unless you’re a torchen created by the outlawed fire skills, that wouldn’t make much sense to me now, would it?”
Even more shock from Marin. Doctor Eisen was well educated in the realm of the elements like he was. Torchens were dead bodies reanimated by one of the hardest fire elemental skills there was to master. It was such an abomination that Arkana, Neo and RAM jointly declared the skill illegal to perform.
Very, very few know about the ability, and even fewer have ever used it.
“I’m surprised you know about that,” Marin stated.
“I know a lot of things. In fact, I know almost everything,” he proudly declared in a cocky voice. “So when I come across something I don’t know about, I make it so I do. That’s not a hard concept to comprehend, is it?”
Eisen was becoming impatient. Marin had already decided to tell him the truth, but now Marin’s interest had been piqued in a way that had not been since he could remember. Eisen had revealed himself to be a sort of genius. He had an unyielding desire to pursue knowledge. To solve every mystery out there, and because of that, maybe, just maybe,
Edward Eisen would be able to help him with his entire situation.
Seeing now that the doctor had given away his burning desire to figure out what the heck Marin was, the King decided to make an attempt at playing the fact to his advantage – a swap of knowledge, of sorts.
Marin sighed. “I have quite the case for you to solve then, Doctor Eisen. I will tell you everything, if in turn you share some of your knowledge with me. I think that’s a fair deal, don’t you?”
Eisen folded his arms, mediating on Marin’s offer. His glasses were back on his face, magnified pupils staring deep into Marin. He tapped his foot slightly in thought.
“Alright, what do you want to know?” He finally gave in.
“Are you an elemental?” Marin shot out.
“I think you can answer that yourself,” he responded. “You saw what I did.”
“Blood’s not an element.”
“Correct, blood’s not an element, under normal circumstances. I, for one, am not a normal person. Blood is a new fork in the water element that I have invented.”
Could it be true? Marin was mentally doubling over. He hadn’t been caught this off guard since he was a brand new student at Arkana, watching his teachers utilize the power of the elements in ways he never thought possible.
This far in life, after growing so much in power, experience, and knowledge, could it be possible that he was once again meeting someone who made him feel like a child?
“You invented a new element?” Marin repeated.
Eisen didn’t see the big deal in it. “Yeah, I did! What’s with the fascination? Are you an elemental yourself?”
Marin thought of an idea. Something he would try. As smart as the doctor was, he guessed there was no way he had not mastered this skill.
“Can you read handshakes?” Marin asked, extending his hand.
Eisen smiled. Now they were getting somewhere. “Indeed I can.” He stepped closer to Marin. The doctor reached his hand out to meet his.
Immediately, Marin could tell by just the angle of the incoming handshake, that he would be in for a ride.
Their palms met, Eisen’s gnarly fingers wrapping around the gloved hand.
Marin had prepared for an aggressively high reading, but it wasn’t enough. Eisen’s grip was one that reminded him of Arkana’s most accomplished elementals. Powerful beings of immense mastery of their element. He hadn’t shook such a hand in decades. Centuries, if you counted the time he was not alive.
In turn, Eisen pulled away his hand almost as soon as they made contact. He cackled, a foul laugh that Marin swore would fuel young children’s nightmares. Eisen shook his hand in a rapid motion as if he had endured a new chemical burn.
“Woo! Woo-haha! Now that sir, is a handshake! One of a Neo General! One of an Arkanian wizard – scratch that, a Grand Wizard.” Eisen fidgeted around, his excitement barely being contained.
“You – you are something. Who am I in the presence of?” Eisen added.
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“I am a wizard,” Marin started.
“Well, no shock there. Sorry for that threat earlier. If I had known an encounter between us would result in a quarter of the city being destroyed, I wouldn’t have said that.”
Marin nodded, assuring him that no harm had been done.
“Well, Marin the wizard, you have much to explain to me. How has an Arkanian wizard, stuck up and snobby, arrive in this humble abode wearing rags and a face mask? Ah, scratch that for now. My first questions will be about the lack of vitals from you. If I hadn’t felt your physical form earlier, I’d almost swear you were a ghost!”
Marin understood that Eisen would have a million questions, but Gus was still on his mind greatly. He looked down to the boy.
“I will tell you everything. But first, I want to know that he will be okay for the time being,” Marin said.
Eisen nodded. “He’s completely stable. He won’t be back to full health until I create an antidote, which I can’t start until his blood gets analyzed. Its sitting in a solution right now that takes time, so we have a little over an hour to talk,” he explained.
“Very well. Let’s get comfortable. I will share my entire story to you, from what I can remember,” Marin prepared.
Both of them left the living room they were standing in. Eisen offered for them to get more comfortable in the basement, where he had furniture and space suitable for lounging in.
Marin agreed, and Eisen led him down the stairs. The entire lower floor was walled in stone bricks. The floor was concrete. The first sight Marin was greeted with was the shelves of books. Most of them medical in nature, some in potion brewing and other experiments. Most of these books Marin had not seen since his days in Arkana – these were some advanced reads and guides sitting on display.
Past that, were tables and counters of glass beakers and liquids. Bunsen burners sat in every corner, open books and notes had fallen to the cold floor. There were herbal ingredients grind up, with ones drying on the wall.
Eisen had Marin approach a table with light centered on it. In a glass container was Gus’s blood, with a telescope above that. He explained that once the solution stabilized his blood, he would be able to use the telescope to read the composition, and figure out what exactly had gotten into him.
After they passed that, they came to an open space with a few empty chairs and a table in the middle, which surprisingly, was all cleared off. Eisen took a seat and gestured Marin to do the same. They were now sitting across from each other.
“It’s a nice lab,” Marin observed. “It reminds me of my old one.”
“You experiment?” Eisen asked.
“I did, a long time ago. I’ve given it up since my… accident.”
Edward’s interest was piqued. This accident must’ve been the absence of his vitals. He began to realize that if Marin’s current state was from a failed experiment, he had met a man of his intellectual level.
As Eisen remained silent, Marin continued.
“I tried creating a potion of immortality. I worked on a formula for years. Refined it. Adjusted it. And eventually, believed I had perfected it. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have tried using it on myself first to see if it worked. My, uh, pride levels were quite high, and I believed I couldn’t mess up.
After I drank it, I didn’t remember anything after that. What happened next was me finding myself on the floor, and some two hundred years had passed by. Based on how my body looked, I had decayed quite a bit, which led me to believe I had died.
But for some reason, I was alive again. Not truly alive, as you could sense, but in this half-alive state, which has been a curse for me. My muscles are seemingly working. My brain seems to work, as well as my sight and hearing, but nothing past that. I can talk, so my lungs and voice work to some extent, but I require no air to breathe. I can’t feel a thing, I can’t eat, and what bothers me the most, is the fact that I can’t sleep. None of my organs work besides the ones I stated.”
The doctor had his head tilted down, hands in a steeple, finger tips pushing against his lips. It was a lot to take in, Marin knew, but he wondered how it would fair for this mad scientist.
“...Fascinating… Absolutely fascinating.” He held his head up. “It explains the entire concealing of your skin. And the mask. That is a nice mask.”
“Thank you. Someone gifted it to me.”
“So there’s others who know?”
“A very few.”
Eisen thought more, and then, his eyes drifted over Marin’s body. He made a silent gesture, almost as if afraid to ask a question.
“Could I…?” Eisen waved his hands in an outward motion, as if Marin would know the rest of the question.
“Are you sure you want to see?” Marin carefully asked.
“It would be an honor,” Eisen humbly stated with a smile.
This was a reaction Marin never expected any normal person to have. It dawned on him though, that there was next to nothing that would scare away this doctor. He lived for this kind of information, these kind of experiments.
Marin took a moment, then used his right hand to grab the glove of his left. He slowly began to pull it off. Eisen’s eyes widened in anticipation.
As the soft silken glove glided away, the pale skin of Marin began to expose itself. The doctor studied every imperfection in the skin near the wrist.
The glove came off in a second, but to Eisen it took hours. When it was fully off, Marin wiggled his fingers, bony joints moving, chunks of skin still attached in some areas. Fingernails were missing, ones that still hung on were cracked.
He held it out for Eisen to gawk at. He fully extended his fingers, and turned his palm right side up to reveal the other side.
Marin saw that Eisen was in a state of euphoria, which was something he wished he hadn’t noticed. Eisen stared, face frozen, mouth hanging slightly open, with a grin.
After a moment, Marin grabbed his glove, and slid it back on, over his exposed hand. This was not exactly something he enjoyed showing off, but if his developing plan of Eisen helping him out would come to fruition, he needed to inform him of everything he needed to know.
“How about the face?” Eisen boldly asked. “If I can study that, I’ll be satisfied with your story.”
Marin nodded. He knew the doctor would ask about it next. Outside of Loid, Phil and Rocko, Edward Eisen would be the only other person to ever see his true face.
Marin flipped his hood back, and pulled off the black mask with light-blue crystal lenses.
Marin was now staring back at Eisen with his true face. He had expected Eisen to make at least the slightest repulsion or cringe, but he did not. He smiled entirely, grin ear to ear. His eyes were lit up, a fire in them he had not seen yet.
“Wow! Absolutely incredible! What a feat! What a feat!” This was the most excited the doctor had been yet. He stood up, and walked around the table, hands in front of him.
“May I?” He asked.
Marin looked reluctant, but then nodded yes.
Eisen’s hands gently grasped the zombie head. He stared into the eyes of Marin inches away. He looked up his nasal cavity. With Marin’s head in grasp, he moved it side to side, studying every feature he could. He noted the missing teeth. The patches of hair. He looked down Marin’s throat, to see most of it missing and dried out. The doctor was having a field day studying this walking failed experiment.
“Try talking again?” Eisen asked while looking down his throat.
“Hello.”
Without the voice enhancer of the mask, it was incredibly raspy and almost unrecognizable. Marin’s voice box was so decayed, the voice coming from him now was a shadow of the one he once had. It was barely functional.
This took Eisen back for a second. Hearing Marin’s sorry, pathetic voice, the psychotic doctor almost felt remorse for Marin.
“You sound much better with the mask on,” Eisen stated.
Marin nodded in agreement.
The doctor took several more minutes studying his head before he was satisfied.
“How your body is even able to work in that state defies all understanding. What a breakthrough,” Eisen spoke in awe. Finally he backed away, and slumped back into his chair, bewildered, and full of thoughts.
Marin spent no extra time fitting his mask back on. After it was in place, he threw the hood up of his tattered clothing back on.
He looked back over to the doctor, who was unchanged. He still looked down, pondering. Even the great, crazy doctor full of endless knowledge was actually shocked. This would end up being his most difficult project yet.
“What do you think?” Marin asked, sounding much clearer with the mask filtering his voice.
“What do I think?” Eisen said in a concerned tone. “I think… I think you might even be crazier than I am, and I thought I was pretty crazy!”
Marin lowered his head. It wasn’t the best answer he had hoped for. He began to wonder if maybe this was above even Edward Eisen’s paygrade.
“But do you know what’s wrong with crazy?” Eisen said while suddenly standing up. “Absolutely nothing. Crazy is what innovation is called. Crazy is what people who don’t push the boundaries of the world see us as. Crazy! Crazy is what we are, my friend. We are crazy!”
He walked over and grabbed Marin’s hand, pulling him up from the chair.
“And you!” He said, putting his hands on both sides of Marin’s shoulders, “are my new best friend! We are going to do great things together, you and I!” He declared as he walked away, and over to a shelf.
“Are you going to try to cure me?” Marin asked.
“Oh yes, cure you I will! And mastery of your failed potion, we will see done! You, you have almost perfected it. And I will see it complete!”
He started pulling books from the shelf. Marin appreciated Eisen’s sudden display of ambition, but there were other things that would need to be addressed first.
“Is that blood sample ready to study?” Marin asked.
The doctor froze. His head looked to the side. “Ah yes,” he said in a much less excited tone.
He placed the two books in hand back onto the shelf, and walked over to Gus’s sample.
“There are other projects that are pending,” he reminded himself. “There’s an order to everything. Would you like to help me?” Eisen asked.
Marin agreed, since it meant saving Gus’s life. Eisen looked into the telescope, and confirmed his solution had stabilized the blood enough to study. He began peering down to the microscopic level. The doctor instructed Marin to grab him certain books off certain shelves. With Marin’s help, Eisen began comparing what he saw to what was written in books on toxicology.
Eisen began asking questions about how Gus was stabbed. Marin informed him on the entire situation, about the rogues who attacked them, and how the dagger was coated in the substance.
That allowed Eisen to narrow down what kind of poison was used. Rogues were famous for using a select number of venoms that were favorable for coating their weapons with. He asked Marin for a few different books. He pulled out a notebook, and began writing. He started comparing results to what was inside his different texts.
After what was about another hour, Eisen successfully identified what exact poison had been used. It was a high grade scorpion venom, which had been refined to be especially concentrated. It was also mixed with a few other herbs which exaggerated the acidity and speed in which it terminated whoever was unlucky enough to be injected with it.
Eisen bolted around, grabbing ingredients and mixing them together. He asked Marin to grab complex solutions which Marin could barely remember about.
The doctor poured, mixed, and cooked. He studied his books intently, making sure everything was done right. They had worked for another two hours, and the sun was starting to set. All the brewing had reminded Marin of the time when he had worked on making his own potion. While he didn’t remember any of the specifics, the actions that he and Eisen had been doing set him back in time.
Eventually, he poured the final solution into a freshly cleaned beaker, and informed Marin that it was done.
Since Marin explained the entire story of the stabbing to Eisen as he studied, he had a better grasp on the situation. The story, though, opened up more questions than it did answering, and Marin told him that once Gus was injected with the antidote, he would share the entire tale of what he had been doing since he woke back up.
They traveled up Eisen’s creaky stairs, both feeling accomplished from the work of crafting a suitable antivenom. Gus was still lying unconscious on the living room table, but was in much better condition than earlier.
Eisen drew in the liquid into a new syringe. He shot Gus with it.
“How long until he gets better?” Marin asked.
“A few days. He’ll be conscious again in one day, but it might take a few more before he’s completely back to normal,” the doctor explained back.
“That table doesn’t exactly look comfortable for him,” Marin tried.
Eisen nodded in agreement. “Let’s get him somewhere more suitable, now that he’s not critical.”
Eisen headed to a spare room in his house. The bed in it looked like it had not been used in quite some time. The doctor’s clutter had crept even in here, but it was far more manageable than the other rooms in the house.
Eisen pulled the blanket back, and Marin lowered Gus into the bed. He straightened out his limbs, and made sure the pillow was comfortable. Marin combed his hair slightly with his hand. After that, Eisen laid the blanket over his body, the top of the blanket halfway up his torso.
Gus’s breathing was no longer weak or labored – a good sign, and he actually looked to be in a deep, recovering sleep. Marin finally breathed a sigh of relief, now fully believing that Gus was going to live.
“Doctor, I want to thank you again,” Marin mentioned, as both of them stood over Gus’s body.
“Don’t mention it. You were just lucky to have found me.”
“I am in your debt. Anything I can do to aid your research on me, let me know,” Marin told him.
“Well, first thing’s first. I’m starving. Let’s grab a – ah, haha. I mean, I’ll grab a bite to eat, and then we can continue to talk. We have much to discuss.”
Eisen turned around and left the room. Marin stayed longer, looking at Gus.
Gus was going to live. He was going to make it.
It had not dawned on Marin yet, but because Gus had gotten stabbed, Marin inadvertently recruited his first powerful ally to his kingdom.