TIMESTAMP: 6th Sun's Zenith, 122
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For as useful as his Vitalis was, he knew he shouldn’t use it on absolutely everything if he could avoid doing so. So for the closure of the incision, he went with the Necromancy option– sinew thread sutures done with a bone needle. Removing the embalmer’s tongues, he went to work. By now, Hector was so exhausted his responses to most stimuli were minimal, and that was a relief to Vergil. He really did hate harming the younger man more than he had too.
Tying off the sinew thread, it activated and closed the wound. The surgeon ran his hand over the site; his patient’s thigh and hip looked good as new…but then one looked down, and there was the knee, the shin, the ankle, the foot– all destroyed still. He sighed. There was a lot left even before one considered that there was still his entire arm and perhaps parts of his torso.
Given the width of Hector’s knee and calf, an incision more complicated than a straight line down from just above the knee to just above the ankle was not required. Again, the elf groaned weakly when the carving hook kissed his skin, but such a thing could not be helped. Vergil really wished it were possible for him to simply fall asleep, but the constant stimulation would make that impossible. He could not take away the fledgling’s ability to feel, only warp it.
As before, Vergil started by holding the flesh open by placing embalmers tongs within just below the knee. He sealed off the incision site with Crystallize and used a combination of that and Vicissitude to seal any remaining lacerated flesh within the wound site before draining the blood and restoring it back to the elf’s circulatory system. Now that the site of the injury was cleared, he could get to work with the repair.
Hector’s knee was crushed into several different pieces with the cartilage and other connective tissue now being an utter mess. To start, he restored the bones themselves with vicissitude and, as gently as he could manage, fit all of the bones back into their proper place by hand. For Hector, he tried to stay still– but such a thing was difficult when somebody is treating your skeleton as if it is some elaborate sort of puzzle. Much as he wanted to take the other vampyre into his arms to try to comfort him, Vergil knew that the only way to actually help him was to keep going. Only through the fires of suffering would he be restored.
With the knee itself in place, he once again used Blood Magic to restore and bind the bones themselves together with the appropriate connective tissue. Cartilage to cushion the knee’s movement, the ligaments and the meniscus to hold everything together and so on. Watching everything knit back together was honestly cathartic for the surgeon…especially when a patient was so very severely damaged.
The elf’s tibia and fibula were in far worse shape than his femur; which, unfortunately, was to be expected. The density of these two bones just was not comparable to the large one. Again, much like a complex and gorey puzzle, the surgeon began the process of fishing splintered bone shards from the flesh, closing the wounds, and then placing those pieces where they belonged. He of course remembered what these bones were supposed to look like, but this nonetheless took time. Vergil had to pull out many of the pieces and set them on the table beside Hector's leg while he figured out precisely where each fragment actually belonged. Finally, he had put everything in its proper place.
Vergil was beginning to feel the gentle tug of magical strain once he’d repaired the knee and calf. As the tissues of the bones wove together, that subtle bite was nothing strong, but nonetheless…it was something to keep in mind. Again, he removed the embalmer’s tongs and used Necromancy’s bone needle and sinew thread to close the incision he’d made. Each prick of the needle made the elf’s leg twitch and while this would be not much to bat an eye at on its own, the movement jostled the shattered ankle and foot, causing him yet more discomfort. The doctor sighed. As he tied off and activated the thread, sealing the wound, it would have been wisest to take a break here; it would have been ideal for his health to do the foot later but, alas, for sake of his companion’s comfort he decided to go ahead and do that as well.
While this area was by far the smallest he’d worked on during this stretch of time, he had the most moving parts and volume of individual bones. Cutting into the area, the elf, clammy and weak, shivered. This was…exhausting for him, too. Vergil strained to maintain his pace, not wanting to prolong the suffering of his friend or, really, keep himself awake for any longer than was necessary.
With the incision starting above the ankle, he drew it down and pretty much degloved the top of the foot– a process Hector very clearly did not appear to enjoy. Like with the other two injury sites, he would begin with repairing the joint. Vergil employed the same combination of Crystallize, Vicissitude and Thaumaturgy to clean the area as before. A lot of the ligaments that affected individual toes were damaged and had to be repaired. Muscle tissue had been cut, smashed, pulled and so forth and had to be repaired. The pulverized bones of this area were by far the most complex and mentally exhausting to piece back together and fix. Despite the much smaller surface area, this process took just as long as the others.
By now, the surgeon was tired to a point that his hands were shaking. It was difficult to keep his eyes all the way open, but finally, he could close the site and take a break. Activating the sinew thread, Hector’s leg looked good as new. Maybe, perhaps, even better than what he’d had before. After all, Vergil repaired it to the medical, anatomical ideal– not to exactly as it was before. He'd even done his companion the courtesy of reinforcing each bone to a greater density than he was born with during each repair.
Putting all of his tools down and away, he cleaned any spilled blood by drawing it into an orb with Thaumaturgy. Unlike the rest, he didn’t put this back into Hector. Rather, he was feeling so light headed at this point that he drew the blood to his own lips in a thin ribbon until it had all been consumed. It wasn’t much, but it was something, and…his companion’s taste was one he quite favored.
With everything cleaned up, the doctor wiped his forehead and steadied himself before walking over to the head of the table and looking down at his rather delirious patient. Covered in a thin veil of sweat, the elf looked up at him through hazy, half closed eyes.
“I’m…going to stop for now. Your leg is…good as new. Sorry for taking so long…I just really wanted to do a good job.” Vergil sounded precisely as exhausted as he looked. His voice was worn but each word was laced with a reassuring gentleness and woven with affection towards his companion. “I’ll fix your arm after we’ve rested, alright?”
Hector didn’t reply with words. He couldn’t, really– he lacked the energy. Instead he simply closed his eyes and nodded.
Lifting the elf into his arms, Vergil very slowly made his way out of the surgery theatre to ask somebody where he and Hector could sleep. If anyone were to go in there in the interim between now and their return, they’d notice it was fairly spotless. Vergil used Vitalis to clean all blood and bodily fluids along with just his general compulsion to put things away and be tidy.
Wherever they would be told to go, the older of the two would set down his exhausted companion, press a soft kiss to his forehead, and then leave to go find something for the two of them to eat. By now, it was quite dark and most were sleeping. Using bits of Pheromancy, Vergil altered the body chemistry of his victims to keep them deep in their rest when he drew their blood. There would be no wounds left behind. The older vampyre would bite into the wrist of a couple different healthy survivors and crew, satiate himself, pull out and Crystallize blood for Hector then seal the wounds. He took no more than what was necessary from anyone. They would awaken from their slumber with symptoms of blood loss but no reason to believe any was taken.
It would be incredibly unlikely anybody would add all the variables together and assume Vitalitasi, frankly. The common man generally thinks of them as brutal monsters that kill with indiscriminate ferocity– Vergil killed nobody and left anyone he drained only a bit worse for wear. The most suspicious thing would be how clean the surgery theatre was and how flawless Hector’s repaired limb was in the amount of time that Vergil had worked. While it had taken him greater than half a day to do, if one were working only with Necromancy, the process would’ve been much slower than a mage working with Vicissitude.
Fed and with blood crystals in hand for Hector, the older mage made his way back to where he’d left his companion. By now, the elf was fast asleep. He figured he’d let the other feed when he awoke and slid the crystals into his bag before laying down to rest beside the smaller man.
Tying off the sinew thread, it activated and closed the wound. The surgeon ran his hand over the site; his patient’s thigh and hip looked good as new…but then one looked down, and there was the knee, the shin, the ankle, the foot– all destroyed still. He sighed. There was a lot left even before one considered that there was still his entire arm and perhaps parts of his torso.
Given the width of Hector’s knee and calf, an incision more complicated than a straight line down from just above the knee to just above the ankle was not required. Again, the elf groaned weakly when the carving hook kissed his skin, but such a thing could not be helped. Vergil really wished it were possible for him to simply fall asleep, but the constant stimulation would make that impossible. He could not take away the fledgling’s ability to feel, only warp it.
As before, Vergil started by holding the flesh open by placing embalmers tongs within just below the knee. He sealed off the incision site with Crystallize and used a combination of that and Vicissitude to seal any remaining lacerated flesh within the wound site before draining the blood and restoring it back to the elf’s circulatory system. Now that the site of the injury was cleared, he could get to work with the repair.
Hector’s knee was crushed into several different pieces with the cartilage and other connective tissue now being an utter mess. To start, he restored the bones themselves with vicissitude and, as gently as he could manage, fit all of the bones back into their proper place by hand. For Hector, he tried to stay still– but such a thing was difficult when somebody is treating your skeleton as if it is some elaborate sort of puzzle. Much as he wanted to take the other vampyre into his arms to try to comfort him, Vergil knew that the only way to actually help him was to keep going. Only through the fires of suffering would he be restored.
With the knee itself in place, he once again used Blood Magic to restore and bind the bones themselves together with the appropriate connective tissue. Cartilage to cushion the knee’s movement, the ligaments and the meniscus to hold everything together and so on. Watching everything knit back together was honestly cathartic for the surgeon…especially when a patient was so very severely damaged.
The elf’s tibia and fibula were in far worse shape than his femur; which, unfortunately, was to be expected. The density of these two bones just was not comparable to the large one. Again, much like a complex and gorey puzzle, the surgeon began the process of fishing splintered bone shards from the flesh, closing the wounds, and then placing those pieces where they belonged. He of course remembered what these bones were supposed to look like, but this nonetheless took time. Vergil had to pull out many of the pieces and set them on the table beside Hector's leg while he figured out precisely where each fragment actually belonged. Finally, he had put everything in its proper place.
Vergil was beginning to feel the gentle tug of magical strain once he’d repaired the knee and calf. As the tissues of the bones wove together, that subtle bite was nothing strong, but nonetheless…it was something to keep in mind. Again, he removed the embalmer’s tongs and used Necromancy’s bone needle and sinew thread to close the incision he’d made. Each prick of the needle made the elf’s leg twitch and while this would be not much to bat an eye at on its own, the movement jostled the shattered ankle and foot, causing him yet more discomfort. The doctor sighed. As he tied off and activated the thread, sealing the wound, it would have been wisest to take a break here; it would have been ideal for his health to do the foot later but, alas, for sake of his companion’s comfort he decided to go ahead and do that as well.
While this area was by far the smallest he’d worked on during this stretch of time, he had the most moving parts and volume of individual bones. Cutting into the area, the elf, clammy and weak, shivered. This was…exhausting for him, too. Vergil strained to maintain his pace, not wanting to prolong the suffering of his friend or, really, keep himself awake for any longer than was necessary.
With the incision starting above the ankle, he drew it down and pretty much degloved the top of the foot– a process Hector very clearly did not appear to enjoy. Like with the other two injury sites, he would begin with repairing the joint. Vergil employed the same combination of Crystallize, Vicissitude and Thaumaturgy to clean the area as before. A lot of the ligaments that affected individual toes were damaged and had to be repaired. Muscle tissue had been cut, smashed, pulled and so forth and had to be repaired. The pulverized bones of this area were by far the most complex and mentally exhausting to piece back together and fix. Despite the much smaller surface area, this process took just as long as the others.
By now, the surgeon was tired to a point that his hands were shaking. It was difficult to keep his eyes all the way open, but finally, he could close the site and take a break. Activating the sinew thread, Hector’s leg looked good as new. Maybe, perhaps, even better than what he’d had before. After all, Vergil repaired it to the medical, anatomical ideal– not to exactly as it was before. He'd even done his companion the courtesy of reinforcing each bone to a greater density than he was born with during each repair.
Putting all of his tools down and away, he cleaned any spilled blood by drawing it into an orb with Thaumaturgy. Unlike the rest, he didn’t put this back into Hector. Rather, he was feeling so light headed at this point that he drew the blood to his own lips in a thin ribbon until it had all been consumed. It wasn’t much, but it was something, and…his companion’s taste was one he quite favored.
With everything cleaned up, the doctor wiped his forehead and steadied himself before walking over to the head of the table and looking down at his rather delirious patient. Covered in a thin veil of sweat, the elf looked up at him through hazy, half closed eyes.
“I’m…going to stop for now. Your leg is…good as new. Sorry for taking so long…I just really wanted to do a good job.” Vergil sounded precisely as exhausted as he looked. His voice was worn but each word was laced with a reassuring gentleness and woven with affection towards his companion. “I’ll fix your arm after we’ve rested, alright?”
Hector didn’t reply with words. He couldn’t, really– he lacked the energy. Instead he simply closed his eyes and nodded.
Lifting the elf into his arms, Vergil very slowly made his way out of the surgery theatre to ask somebody where he and Hector could sleep. If anyone were to go in there in the interim between now and their return, they’d notice it was fairly spotless. Vergil used Vitalis to clean all blood and bodily fluids along with just his general compulsion to put things away and be tidy.
Wherever they would be told to go, the older of the two would set down his exhausted companion, press a soft kiss to his forehead, and then leave to go find something for the two of them to eat. By now, it was quite dark and most were sleeping. Using bits of Pheromancy, Vergil altered the body chemistry of his victims to keep them deep in their rest when he drew their blood. There would be no wounds left behind. The older vampyre would bite into the wrist of a couple different healthy survivors and crew, satiate himself, pull out and Crystallize blood for Hector then seal the wounds. He took no more than what was necessary from anyone. They would awaken from their slumber with symptoms of blood loss but no reason to believe any was taken.
It would be incredibly unlikely anybody would add all the variables together and assume Vitalitasi, frankly. The common man generally thinks of them as brutal monsters that kill with indiscriminate ferocity– Vergil killed nobody and left anyone he drained only a bit worse for wear. The most suspicious thing would be how clean the surgery theatre was and how flawless Hector’s repaired limb was in the amount of time that Vergil had worked. While it had taken him greater than half a day to do, if one were working only with Necromancy, the process would’ve been much slower than a mage working with Vicissitude.
Fed and with blood crystals in hand for Hector, the older mage made his way back to where he’d left his companion. By now, the elf was fast asleep. He figured he’d let the other feed when he awoke and slid the crystals into his bag before laying down to rest beside the smaller man.
____
'Thoughts'
"Common Tongue/Speech"
"Mythrasi Tongue/Speech"
"Vallenor Tongue/Speech"
Aidolon Speech
'Thoughts'
"Common Tongue/Speech"
"Mythrasi Tongue/Speech"
"Vallenor Tongue/Speech"
Aidolon Speech
