Bab 38: It's Not Brain Surgery
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We chatted next about less sensitive topics and learned more about the beastkin country Mismede. Two hundred years ago, in exchange for their support and the mustering of beastkin legions in the Roadmere Union revolt, they were guaranteed recognition of their nation if the many different beastkin species could unite under one leader.
There was even an impressive tale of Exodus, beastkin from all over the continent. Mismede was not fantasy Israel however. It was actually much larger, situated along the shores of the Great Gao River that connected the left and right halves of the continent, right across and under Belfast and Regulus.
It was also built on the northern parts of the Great Sea of Trees. It was more like fantasy Brazil.
We heard knocking on the door. "May I come in?" Sue's voice came from the other side.
"Oh! Sue! Yes, come in!" the Duke answered back.
"I'm back, Father. Sorry for the wait." Sue entered, now wearing a white dress with pale pink frills and a headband with a matching pink rose.
"Did you talk with Ellen?"
"I did, yes. I kept quiet about having been attacked, however. I did not want to worry Mother."
Reim swiftly carried out more tea and set a place for her, also replacing my broken cup.
/"Ellen?"/
"Yes, that would be my wife. I am sorry she could not come out to meet you, and thank you for saving our daughter's life but Sue said that you had already been told that she is blind." The Duke let his gaze drop as he recounted the sad tale of five years ago.
Sue comfortingly laid her hand on top of his, such a sweet little girl.
"No magic could really cure it?" asked Elze. "As the brother to the king, no one could tell you no, could they?"
"I called out to practitioners of Healing magic all through the land, but it was no use. They said that if it had been caused by a physical injury, magic could have helped to some degree, but it would have no effect on the after-effects of an illness."
"Sir Zah… if you don't mind, how do you manage to see?" Sue asked.
"I am legally blind, not completely blind. My eyes are still capable of perceiving light and some very blurry vision, which Monika could correct by changing how my eyes receive light. In effect, she serves as my eyes instead. If, I think, your mother is actually completely blind… her eyes unable to perceive light at all… then this measure won't help."
"Mother can't see light, no," Sue replied softly, discouraged. "So even that won't work. Oh…! If only grandfather was still alive!"
"… Uh, how would that help?"
"My wife's father – Sue's grandfather, that is, my father-in-law, could use a very special kind of magic. He was able to cure any abnormality in the body. The reason Sue originally left on a journey was to find out more about his magic and to try and find a way to recreate it."
/"Recreate it? I thought [Null] magic was a very personal magic."/
"What is this magic?"
"It is a spell known as [Recovery]. I brought the many notes my grandfather left… but I don't know if that's enough," Sue replied.
The Duke added "Even if we could not use that magic, there was a possibility that knowing more about it we could attempt to substitute it with a spell from a different school of magic. At least, this is what the court magician told us."
"After seeing you work, Sir Zah, now I'm sure this is possible! So, could you do it? Could you cure mother?!" Sue said brightly.
"I can't make promises here. I already tried using [Cure Heal] on my eyes and it didn't work. It seems [Heal] doesn't work on degeneration over time, which only really makes sense or else no one would be dying of old age anymore."
The Duke accepted that with composure. "If that was not possible, then our only hope was that there was someone who could use the same magic as Sue's grandfather."
Sue nodded fiercely. "She said the possibility of that was very low, because no two people can use the exact same non-elemental spell as each other. But I'm sure there is a person out there who could use a similar spell!"
Linze raised her hand.
"… yes? You? Can you do it?!" Sue asked excitedly.
"No, not me. But, um, isn't that something Miss Monika already mentioned? That she is able to recreate [Null] spells for her own variations?"
"Lady Monika?!"
/"Yes, that is true. That is the reason why we're trying to learn as much about magic after all.
/"But even I have limits. For instance, [Aports] doesn't work because I don't have hands to receive the teleported items and it's going to take me examining a different kind of [Transportation] or [Teleport] spell to be able to create my own personal version. I was able to copy Elze's [Boost] into my [Amplify], so... I don't know?/
"It may be vaguely possible, but I can't guarantee anything either. We might actually need to speak to this court magician of yours."
"If nothing else, we won't lose anything by performing a non-invasive [Diagnosis] to figure out what's really wrong with Sue's mother's body, right?"
"Is that true?!" the Duke leaned forward excitedly. "Non elemental-magic is deeply personal, but human limits might not apply to spirits! Lady Monika, Sir von Chara!"
Sue clung to my arm. "Please! Don't leave without even trying!"
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"Oh my? Do we have guests?"
The lady sitting on the bed strongly resembled Sue when all grown up. The only difference was that she had light brown hair instead of the bright corn-yellow of her daughter. She looked towards the sound of the door and her husband's voice, but her gray-blue eyes stared off into nothing. She was beautiful and almost doll-like.
"Dear, these are some friends of Sue. They looked out for Sue while she was on her journey. One of them, on hearing of your eyes, has said that he would like to see what he could do to figure out the truth of your ailment."
"The truth of my ailment?"
"Hello, Duchess Ellen. I am Zah Playa, and my companion –"
/"Monika please, pleased to meet you,"/
"… well, we have some ability in healing. But more than that, we have a unique spell called [Diagnosis], which is much much more informative about problems in the body. This won't take long and it won't hurt a bit."
"Mother, please relax for a moment," Sue urged, and clasped her little hands against hers.
I looked to the Duke for approval, and he nodded at me to approach. I went over and laid my hand in front of Duchess Ellen's face.
"Come forth, Wind, subtle resonance, [Ultrasound]."
/"[Diagnosis]"/
After a few seconds, we pulled away. "Huh," murmured. "Well that explains things…"
"What's wrong?! What did you learn?" Sue cried out.
"Well odd as it may sound, there's actually nothing wrong with your eyes, Duchess. No wonder all attempts at healing it have failed." I turned around to butler Reim. "Could we darken this room a bit again? We need to project something."
And after a while, Monika projected an image onto a blank wall. I stood in front of the slide and began to point things out like a lecturer.
"This is the human brain. It is divided into three main parts – the forebrain, the midbrain, and the hindbrain or brain stem.
"The forebrain is the largest part of the brain, responsible for your memories, your thinking, your conscious perceptions. Here, in this lower part near the back is the midbrain, responsible for your sense of balance, your vision and hearing, and your muscle control. Then here, the lowest part of the brain connected to your spinal cord, is responsible for all automatic functions in your body… your breathing, your heartbeat, your response to changing temperatures or rush of emotion, like that."
"Oooh…" Linze and Sue stared attentively.
Monika switched the slide. "And this here are the eyes. As you can see, it is connected only to the brain by this optic nerve." The slides switched again to a view of how the eye worked and I pointed at the cutaway diagram. "Light enters the lenses here and stimulates the optic nerves here, and the brain translates those stimuli into vision."
I waved and Monika flicked the display back to the larger brain view. "And the part of the brain responsible for vision is here – at the back. Now when talking about blindness usually the problems are with the eyes. That's my problem, my eyeballs and lenses had already deformed so far and putting pressure on my optic nerve.
"Since Duchess Ellen's eyes are fine, that narrows down our problems to two other areas. Here – the transmission of signals from the eyes to the brain through the optic nerve – or here, the area responsible for processing said stimuli and turning it into recognizable information by the thinking areas of the brain."
"… really?! That's how that works?!" Sue gasped out. "That's… is that really it? I thought, well, what about the soul? They teach that it's our soul that makes us alive, and animal souls are different from human souls."
"Souls make us alive, but it's the brain that makes us think. I don't know how ghosts function, but for living beings I am perfectly sure about this. It's proven. People survive sometimes being hit in the brain, and then they just... change afterwards."
"This is true," the Duke put in. "This happens sometimes on battlefield or after accidents. People can sometimes be 'struck dumb' after being hit in the head… but now that I hear this, it makes sense."
"So what's wrong with mother?!" Sue asked loudly.
"I think a stroke, high blood pressure or a blood clot during her illness caused a pinch to either these two areas, destroying the connection between nerves. Inflammation and fever could also have damaged the lobes directly, and no one could cure it BECAUSE THEY KEPT FOCUSING ON HER EYES."
"So, now that you know, could you do it?! Could you make mother see again?!"
I slowly lowed my hand and shook my head sadly. "… no, because we have already gathered that [Cure Heal] doesn't work on long-term damage. But now that we know about it, if we find a superior [Heal] spell, or re-engineer your grandfather's magic, it is more than possible."
"But won't you at least try?!"
/"Of course we will, dear."/ Monika appeared on the projected screen and addressed Duke Ortlinde. /"We will need to talk to that court magician about this later though."/
I paused and suddenly asked "Wait, how many people could even have known that Sue would set off to her grandmother's estate? How much do you trust this court magician?"
"Miss Charlotte is beyond reproach!" the Duke answered. "She even apprenticed under the Fairies of Mismede in order to learn all she could about the different elemental magics. She is strongly progressive, she is surely an ally!"
"Did you hear that mother?! You could see again! I'm not going to wait for healers – Sir Zah, Lady Monika! Please, try! And please teach me how to [Heal!]"
Past them and closer to the door, I could see Elze, Linze, and Yae, nod approvingly. They looked so proud of Sue. Butler Reim was almost close to crying.
"All right."
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