The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 83

Part 13

“He was an interesting research subject for a few hours after I first got him. I’ve seen a great many psionic attacks, but I’ve never seen a mind obliterated as thoroughly as his was without affecting the health of the rest of his body. His brain was not harmed, it was erased, and it was done with a unique and ground-breaking psionic attack. It was quite useful to study the results. I’ve considered how useful it would be to be able to erase the mind of a demon and replace it with one of our own design. I can think of no more effective technique for turning them to spying, sabotaging, and even counter-attacking for us.”

“Eww.” Helemia went, and wrinkled her nose. “I haven’t thought about Vanakit in a long time.”

“Oh, a very long time indeed.” Quewanak teased.

“A hundred and twenty million years old, and that’s the best joke you’ve got?” Helemia retorted. “Anyway, it bothers me that he’s just… stored, like a thing. It doesn’t seem right.

“So I think I should fix him.” she decided, and Summoned him with a slight gesture.

“That’s creepy.” Valentia said as she considered the vegetative blank stare of the naked Sylvan who now floated before them. “At least put some clothes on him.”

Helemia did, casting an illusory brown tunic on the limp body with only a moment’s distraction from the spell she and Reggie were designing.

“Did you know where he was?” Bezedil inquired, curious but unable to follow what she was doing. “Or did you search for him, or have Quewanak tell you where he was stored? I didn’t detect you asking, and I’m a bit curious.”

“She’s just aware of him.” Reggie stated. “Her awareness of him was pretty acute when she wiped his mind, and she’s a good enough psionic that she’ll always know where he is if she wants to, even with no mind inside him to keep track of. The uniqueness of his nervous system is enough for her to find his psionic aura.

“And to answer your next question, right now she’s designing an automated Reading that’ll Read her and me and everyone else here including Quewanak for everything that anyone ever knew or experienced of Vanakit Lamitkeze, and then it’ll consolidate all that together to try to recreate his mind, then she’ll try to put it back into him. I’m helping her of course, because I can’t help it. I couldn’t not help her unless I put a lot of effort into blocking her, but she doesn’t really need it.”

“Wow, that’s really very good.” Mark marveled as he psionicly observed what they were doing. “And it’ll be an incredibly useful addition to the Resurrection spell.” he privately added to his family. “If it works good enough, we might not have to be Linked with someone to Resurrect them. We might be able to gather enough information about them from everyone that knew them with this.”

“It worked.” Helemia declared with her eyes closed as she considered her results. “But now that I’ve got a chance to consider him again, I realize how much I dislike him. Even among Sylvan, Vanakit Lamitkeze was a very unpleasant person. I think I’ll dilute this into a general Reading of every male Sylvan here. And make a few more minor changes too...”

She fell silent for half a minute as she worked, while those around her who had the skills tried to follow what she was doing.

“There. Now to put it in him… Hm. This is going to be a lot trickier than I thought.

“Father, without actually doing it, can you show me how you’d do it?”

“Wow. This is a lot of work.” Mark said as he considered what she was showing him. “Do me a favor; while I’m working on how to give this to him without screwing it up, get a consultation from Quewanak, Povon, Hilsith, Equemev, Yazadril, and at least three of these senior Sylvan, as to whether or not the amalgamation you’ve made of Vanakit and six thousand other Sylvan is going to be able to function as a complete and healthy mind. No one’s ever done this before, and I don’t want to take part in creating a monstrosity.”