“Now, what do we have here?” I mused out loud, looking at my latest magical experiment. It was one of the few things I wasn’t willing to share with Luna and took quite a bit of effort to hide from her, simply because I wasn’t willing to let her see this.

In one of the basements we had used as a lair during the campaign against the Withered, I had set up what could either be described as a laboratory or a prison, though some might draw rather uncomfortable comparisons to the most horrifying crimes of the twentieth century. Uncomfortable, but sadly apt.

Here, in my basement of horrors, I was holding multiple Shattered and even a pair of Withered Husks, hoping to gain some insight into their existence using Mind Magic, while also trying to understand what the connection between the Mind and the Soul was and how the body, the physical brain, played into this.

Research from before the change had only been able to determine that memories were stored in the brain but essentially overwritten each time they were recalled, subtly altering the memory as it was viewed through a new lens. Thus, I could fairly confidently say that the brain was vital, though at the same time, I had to question just how vital. If it was all just the brain, what would happen if I gained the ability to move into something akin to Lenore’s Hallow, where I temporarily lacked a physical body, what would happen if I learned how to transform myself in the way Adra had been able to? I was certain that not having a physical brain meant the non-existent brain couldn’t store anything, just like I was fairly certain that there was no way to stuff the brain of an adult into the skull of a springbok or a crow, it simply wouldn’t fit, but given that magic had its ways to bend, or even outright break, what used to be considered inviolable rules, I was only speculating.

Just as I was speculating about the nature of souls and the mind. I was hoping that my experiments on Withered, Shattered and, if possible in any way, even Scorched would give me some additional insight. And if not, it wasn’t as if anybody would miss a few extra Withered, not like I was taking people out of their beds to tear their minds to pieces or steal their souls. Just some monsters, held in captivity for my experiments. And if a nagging, little voice reminded me that I might be employing the same line of thought that had led to the most horrifying crimes in the past, I managed to ignore it. Or rather, I managed to push it aside, though I kept note of it. How far was I willing to push my experiments, how deep was I willing to sink?

What would I do to get Sigmir back? Or, maybe more importantly, were there any lines I wasn’t willing to cross? And why was there a part of me that was scared of the answer?

But boundaries on possible future research weren’t that important, I now had my current research to deal with. Namely, trying to figure out how much of the brain within a Shattered was still there, or how much of it was used.

Given the previous case of Lia, I could say that the memories should still be there, at least the physical medium, though I had to do some tests to confirm. Lia might have been a special case, either due to luck or due to time. Either way, the first experiment wasn’t one of Mind Magic but one of Blood Magic, trying to figure out how damaged the insides of the Shattered’s skull were.

Stretching my Blood Magic into the Shattered, I immediately noticed the incredibly obvious damage to the skeletal structure, especially the spine. Given that I had been the one to sever the spinal cord and render the test-subject paralysed, while also destroying some of its major bones to make sure it was unable to attack me, there was no surprise about its condition, if anything I was a little surprised at how much of the damage seemed to have been regenerated and how cleanly that regeneration had been.

If left unharmed, the Shattered might regain use of its limbs in about a week, which was incredible and made me wonder just how far that regeneration could go. Could a Shattered regenerate a limb if I chopped one off? And if yes, where did the materials to form said limb come from, the various carbs, proteins and so on, that actually constituted the flesh? Because I certainly wasn’t feeding the Shattered, nor had I ever seen a Shattered eat.

But Shattered regeneration and the insanity that could come with a creature capable of constantly generating flesh wasn’t what I was interested in. No, I wanted to figure out the brain of a Shattered, and the memories within.

Before even trying to deal with the Shattered’s Mind, I focused back on the physical side. The injuries I had dealt to the Shattered weren’t my concern, but the state of its brain was. Just from feeling the feedback I received from my Blood Magic, it was fairly obvious that the brain wasn’t in a good state. I might have used my Blood Magic to get an idea of what a human brain was supposed to feel like while healing a few patients, and what I felt from the Shattered was different. There were some similarities, but they were fairly vague, the closest comparison my mind could come up with was that of a painting and a photograph. And not a terribly good painting either, it was more as if the painter had carefully painted some parts of the image, the brain, before haphazardly filling in the rest so the skull wouldn’t be too empty.

Sadly, I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to know what the carefully painted parts were supposed to do, nor did I have the means to stimulate them in order to garner a response. It might be possible if I could combine Mind and Blood Magic, but for now, I had to pursue other avenues, namely, I wanted to see what I could figure out about the Shattered’s Mind.

Looking into the Shattered’s eyes, or rather the fire that filled its eye-sockets, I used my Mind Magic, combining it with my extrasensory perception of the mind and tried to push into its mind. I had done similar things before, trying to listen, for lack of a better word, to the thoughts and instincts of enemies in an attempt to figure out their plans and intentions, but this was something else.

The moment my mind made contact, I felt myself flinch back, both physically and magically, to the point that I stumbled and landed on my bum. Just getting into contact with the mind was enough to give me an incredibly painful, burning sensation, somewhat similar to the one I had felt just as the Change occurred. Back then, I hadn’t been able to avoid it and now that I could, I wasn’t about to plunge into the flames, at least not more than I needed to.

Shaking my head to get rid of the phantom pain, I decided on another avenue, going back to my original approach, using Blood Magic to get a better understanding of the actual grey matter within the skull.

Just studying the flow of Blood while trying to understand what was going on in there was both incredibly difficult and boring at the same time. It was highly complex and I soon realised that what I was doing was nearly impossible, it was akin to looking at the traffic flow of a city in an effort to figure out what the various buildings did. Or maybe to look at the roadmap, as the various blood vessels were at their distinct size, so I could get a feel for which area got how much blood, but that didn’t actually tell me what they did.

Did an area get extra blood because it governed some sort of predatory drive and might be increased due to that, or was it for another reason? I simply didn’t know and I doubted that I could easily figure it out.

Starting to get bored, I decided to try poking around a little, just to get a better idea. Increasing the flow of Blood carefully, I tried to see what would happen. For a few moments, nothing happened, until I prodded a little harder, until suddenly, the Shattered started convulsing and I realised I had accidentally pushed too hard and given it the equivalent of a stroke.

Letting out a sigh, I stopped prodding and settled in to watch, curious if the impressive regeneration of a Shattered was capable of regenerating the damage I had just done to the thing’s brain. Maybe if it was, I could get some idea about the different functions that way, by destroying parts of it and checking how the Shattered’s behaviour changed.

Clearly, more experimentation was needed.