Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Volunteer

"What you are attempting to d simply cannot be done."

Dr. krill stood in his office both sets of arms crossed heavily over his chest as he listened to the protests of his fellow colleagues.

"We cannot even be sure that this mind body connection exists in a physiological sense." The doctor that had spoken was a Rundi scientist with brownish green skin. He wore a contraption around his neck not dissimilar to a human stethoscope.

Dr. krill turned on the spot idly examining his notes as he waited for the protests to die down. Sitting cross the room, Dr. Riss was perched at Krill's desk. He said he was there for "moral support" but Krill had never needed moral support in his life, at least not when it came to verbally beating other physicians into submission.

He could only assume this was out of Riss's own insatiable curiosity.

"I have done the research, and there is evidence to suggest the existence of this mind body connection." Krill was saying, glancing up from his notes.

"What evidence!" A chorus of voices demanded.

"I have seen it." Krill said, holding steady against the protests that followed. He waited for the voices to die down before continuing, "During a spiritual ritual on Anin, I sat with a shaman and a starborn. Using meditative methods the shaman was able to pull the group of us into a..... cognitive state of inner observance. We followed a thread of thought in the mind to a location visualized by the mind as an interpretive location where the thoughts ended in a single point. The exertion from such an event resulted in the shaman's connection snapping, and he was dead for approximately four minutes before he could be revive."

The Rundi snorted, "You hallucinated and someone had a cardiac event, I hardly see how this is evidence."

Krill cut in, his voice more forceful than before, "We know the Anima exists, there is no doubt. We have met and had open access to makers before. They are the manifestation of an anima powerful enough to give itself physical form. The young Anima, like those housed within our bodies are young and mosty incapable of controlling themselves. The body is designed as a sort of trap...... A training protocol if you will gibing access to just enough power to learn control before we are given access to so much power. It also acts as a dampener that was to hide us from the void in years past."

He turned and paced around his office, hands behind his back.

It had been years since he moved like a Vrul, and his human habits were almost completely natural now.

"We know that the Anima exists, we know that constructs exist, and with this knowledge comes the logical conclusion that a connection between the two exists, soemthing that keeps the Anima from fleeing the body. You might call this location some sort of flood gate, holding back the anima until it is time to return to revelation. We know that this gate breaks when death occurs, but we also know it takes some time before the anima leaves. I propose that there are other more minor teathers that must be severed before the anima can leave through the gate."

"I fail to see where this is going doctor.'

"If this tether exists, you might say that people should be dropping dead for unexplainable reasons all the time, and I argue that they do. The connections that hold the anima in place may be simply two or three neurons deep within the brain, and when they are severed death occurs. If you were to have an aneurysm in that part of the brain odds are the connection would be severed of course. When the heart stops the connection is broken, but when the heart starts up again the connection can be repaired or perhaps another connection made. We know that there are multiple teachers more minor in nature. Additionally I have a theory that these other theaters are broken all the time. For instance, Adam Vir's ability to hear the thoughts of star born is the result of a broken tether in his frontal lobe. It may be that symptoms resulting from brain abnormality or damage might simply be a manifestation of Anima ."