Essentia Animus

06-Beyond Death

The slate stone walls of the laboratory flickered faintly as the mad professor crossed the other side of the room, putting away an instrument he had been using and recovering a tome stashed away in another corner. Flipping through the pages, he stumbled in his exhaustion, his year of effort having taken its toll on him.

In the very middle of the room was his workstation which looked strangely like a reclined patient's chair of a medical facility. The girl seated in that chair took account of her surroundings, trying to figure anything out at all. What was going on? Where was she? Who was she? She blinked, figuring out how her eyes worked, and turned to look around. Her mind came to her at that point, a jumble of thoughts and facts but no real answers. Still, it gave her more to work with, she put together how to get her body to respond. She lifted her arm, opening and closing her hand before her eyes as she measured how it worked. Thoughts rushed through her consciousness, a jumbled cluster of mess that she still did not understand, so instead she tried to take things one at a time. She tried to sit up in her chair to look around, bumping a nearby tray table and sending its contents to the floor.

Mr. Ymheqxhya jumped at the sound and rushed over, pride surging through him at this sudden burst of progress. It made little sense why things had been stagnant for so long, only to change in this moment. Was it something he had done recently? He recounted some of his recent actions, all failures disproven. He was honestly searching for another solution when all of a sudden... It was nothing short of a miracle. Still, in his years of experience, his devotion to his practice, he knew everything happened for a reason, logical in its own way. It was imperative to figure out what had happened so that he could work with it, rather than against it. He set the tome back and went searching for another instrument.

The girl could not understand the strange actions of the man rushing around, but she could tell he was concerned for her. He was her caretaker or something? The girl searched her thoughts in concern, pressing diligently for an answer. Ah, she had it, this man was something of a father to her. Having accomplished that, she pressed against her memories, using the experience to see if she could divulge any more answers. While trying to sort through her mind, she paused all of a sudden, feeling two important presences approaching her. She couldn't figure out what made these two presences so important, but they were. She pressed her thoughts for an answer, invested into the importance of the matter, and in return only learned that her mind did not have an answer. So, it wasn't something she knew, it was only a matter of.. instinct. That instilled a feeling of curiosity, following the two presences as they approached and knocked on the door.

She was thus surprised to find three people entering instead of two. She pressed upon her mind for answers, and identified the first as her mother, but had nothing for the other two. All three of them meanwhile were surprised to see her. Ah, her father reacted as well, it was probably that she was awake as she was. Honestly, she was herself surprised how well she was doing with everything, her mind keenly aware of how much of an accomplishment this was. She watched her father rush over to them, beaming with pride. The two others, both somehow really important to her, they were still frozen and pale, like they had seen a ghost. Why was that anyway? She pressed her mind for answers, but was instead interrupted questioning her mind by the sudden conversation.

"It's remarkable, isn't it? She had been completely unresponsive until just a few moments ago, but now she's all too.. awake." "Khyzae.. is that really her?" "Well, yes and no. The real Khyzae did die that night almost a year ago, caught in the blaze of that fire. However, even in her last moments, her living essence held on despite the fire, the only vestige of her that remained. It was remarkable that I was able to recover such, in all honesty. If she had been left in the observatory, not even that would have remained. I managed only barely to salvage and transfer her essence into the Ersatz we had prepared based on her. It now also has her blood surging through its veins, even her own living signature imprinted into it, and its own set of thoughts based upon her own. Sure, it doesn't have the same memories as she used to, and it's still an artificial creation, but this is otherwise a perfect copy of her." Mr. Ymheqxhya surprised Sryine with the explanation, divulging not just the past year of effort, but some of his life's ambition long before it. Khyzae's father could certainly tell that making sure her body was thrown like that from the observatory was no accident, it was a final gift from his daughter. He had no idea how she would have known her essence would be so preserved, but had devoted himself to ensure such a gift was not wasted.