CHAPTER TWELVE

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"Is it a poison? A venom? An infection? We do not know, for these creatures are utterly unlike day-side life, and their bodily processes possess few direct correlates.

"What we do know is this: In our earliest records, we find evidence that the substance secreted by clivia fibers, when introduced to a victim's body, once produced no ill effects. Then it went through several generations in which it produced mild effects of short duration, such as symptoms of malaise.

"However, in the last couple generations, the substance began to show clear neuroinvasive potential, inducing migraines, visual and auditory disturbances, and in some cases, neurogenic shock and death. These changes advanced the swiftest in clivia populations of the night-side Barbaricum, followed by populations bred in captivity in the night-side Solarium, and the slowest in day-side clivias of the textile farms."

—Habita Sambucus,
207th Annual Congressus Historiae Naturalis

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