This surgery tube was similar to what Uncle Theon used when he needed to operate. It was essentially a tube filled with sharp, remote-controlled instruments that surgeons could use to cut into their patients with far more precision and stability than they could with their own hands.
A device like this deliberately did not involve AI. Although AI was far from a new technology on Eryndor, or anywhere in the Eldkin collective, there were some things that were still better left to the hands of an experienced Eldkin surgeon: like the life or death of a patient.
Lavinia's tube, however, was better classified as a direction tube. It had no tools for sewing or suturing wounds. No, if you ended up in this device, you'd leave it in pieces. And so it was for the remains of Luca.
After Damian dropped them in the tube, Lavinia went to work while he watched. She inspected every inch of Luca's body, inside and out. Inside the tube, it was a bloody mess, but Lavinia occasionally looked enlightened, causing Damian to wonder what she saw in that bloody gore.
By the end, she turned to look at Damian with shining eyes. "Ah, my little Dami has evolved into something truly fascinating!"
Smirking, Damian parted his lips to respond, but Lavinia was faster. A small blush had appeared on her pale cheeks, and she looked a little awkward. "N— Not that you're just a science experiment, I Just—"
Seeing his chance, Damian quickly swooped in to wrap his arms around her from behind. "I know what you meant, Mom…" he purred enticingly in her ear. "I'd love to be your science experiment, though."
"Ugh," his mother groaned and rolled her eyes. Yet, she didn't try to get out of his arms. Instead, she leaned into it with a meaningful smile.
They stayed like that for a moment, enjoying each other's company after the turbulent days they recently endured. Suddenly, Lavinia murmured softly, "Send me your notes and recording of the awakening, alright…? I'd like to correlate them with my findings here."
Damian chuckled when he realized his mother's mind was still on the science of it all. He wasn't surprised she'd assumed he took notes and recorded what happened to Luca. It's the level of competence she expected from him, and what he gladly provided her.
Without a word, he ordered his Nova to send the files to Lavinia's Nova, and 'she' complied.
"Thank you," she sighed comfortably, a smile on her lips. Not wanting to waste a moment, she closed her eyes and began to sift through the information. It took a little while, but they didn't move from their embraced position…
They both knew Damian would leave in a week, and it might be a while before they saw each other again. His mother hated having to send him away, but she knew she couldn't protect Damian if his existence and survival were discovered—not against the entire Eldkin Cooperative.
His best chance for survival was to never be discovered… and that meant he had to leave on his own, at least until this all blew over.
After half an hour, she opened her eyes again. "Interesting…" she muttered, her smile sincere and joyful. So far, it looked like Damian had turned into a truly powerful, and fortunately stable, kintype.
"Care to share what you're thinking…?" Damian asked curiously.
"Hehehe, later, Dami," Lavinia chuckled teasingly before pushing herself away from him and walking back over to the surgery tube. "First, I want to properly examine every piece of genome, genetic material, and DNA that your first scion has to offer."
Lavinia reached out to a holographic display, where she adjusted some sliders and pressed some buttons. Damian, curious about what she was doing, stepped closer… until he saw a sight that even unsettled his ruthless mind.
Luca's remains had already been sliced open and examined from every angle, but now Lavinia wanted to take it a step further. Without warning, the body was sucked into something that could only be described as a meat grinder. With the crunching of bones and squelching of flesh, it got to work on reducing Luca to nothing more than slurry.
Damian's eyelids twitched a little. 'That's… going to stick to my cornea for a while,' he muttered in his mind, a shudder travelling through his spine. He certainly didn't care about the desecration of Luca's body, but it was still a sight that would haunt most people for at least a little while.
Lavinia didn't seem affected, however. She'd likely seen worse already and turned around with a wide smile.
"There we go!" she exclaimed casually, seeming not to notice the strange look in her son's eyes. "It will take a while for the slurry to be separated into useful components, so we have some time before I continue. You said you wanted some teachings on awakenings and scions?"
Damian coughed a little to get his mind unstuck from the gruesome sight he'd just seen.
"Y— Yeah," he nodded at Lavinia, quickly returning to normal as the standard, charming smirk returned to his lips, this time with a hint of curiosity. "Can you tell me why the words of awakening are needed? And I'd like to know more about the relationship between scion and progenitor… or perhaps primogenitor in my case?"
"Hehe," his mother chuckled mysteriously, forcefully hooking her arm behind Damian's and leading him out of the room. "Come, let's go find someplace more comfortable, and I'll tell you everything I know."
***
Soon, they found themselves in one of the luxurious living rooms of their mansion, where Damian had convinced Lavinia to sit on his lap… with surprising ease."So, first of all," she began, feeling very comfortable. "The words of awakening are actually in the Xelthari tongue, and it's related to the way they channel myst."
Absentmindedly, she waved her hand and caused some blood-coloured myst to crawl across her fingers, her eyes fixed on it. "The Xelthari language has a strange relation to myst that we still don't fully understand."
Suddenly, she whispered, "Tzor vek draxun," causing Damian to blink in confusion. He had no idea what she just said, but he recognized the language as being similar to the words of awakening.
About to ask what she just said, he was silenced when the myst on Lavinia's fingers reacted by separating from her skin and forming into a sphere.
"Dra'qothu qel'noroth!" she continued, and the myst reacted once again, rapidly forming into different shapes. Damian watched the myst dance with fascination. He could feel his mother wasn't actually using her catalyst to channel the myst. It was simply… obeying her words.
"That— Why aren't we using this?" he muttered in surprise. "Wouldn't that solve our problem with catalysts?"
Unfortunately, Lavinia shook her head. As soon as she stopped talking in Xeltharian, the myst dissolved again. "Would that it were so easy. But, no. What I did just now is essentially the limit for non-Xelthari. It's not just their language, but also their voices, working in conjunction with the words, that allow them to use myst in ways we can only dream of..."