The Discarded

The Reject Chapter 9 - 1

Wednesday January 7th 2015

Robert watched with shuttered eyes as Cesare stripped his dress shirt off. "You're moving like you're ready for me to pull those stitches," the doctor said as the under shirt followed. Running cool fingers along the trench gouged into his chest, the doctor's words were soft. "I see you've gone back to training." A wry look crossed the man's face as he traced the bruises marking Cesare's body.

Sniping stitches, Robert pulled threads through healed holes, tiny dots of blood blooming as he talked. "I don't see why I bother with you. I spent hours getting your guts back into your ungrateful body, only for you to throw yourself back into the same stupid that got you here. Half this school wants to kill someone, and the other half are desperate to survive until graduation. I don't know how they keep it from flying apart."

"There are only two things that are infinite, space and stupidity," Cesare said, wincing as a stubborn stich was pulled through lacerated flesh. "What do the Umbrae Lunae do for medical care? With DNA scans and the rest, I'd think the secret would come out."

"The mendacium is as simple as it is complete," the doctor said, probing the new wounds with fat, icy fingers. "If I put your tissue in for a DNA scan, it would show what I expected to see. Even knowing your Umbrae Lunae, I would still see a human's DNA. Some part of me would link what you look like now with the tissue sample."

Leaning back, Robert snapped the gloves off his fingers and turned to wash up. "Even for me, the illusion holds. It's different when you turn into your authentic form, that bypasses the protection of the mendacium. Then I can see you for what you truly are."

Robert turned and faced Cesare, leaning against the sink as he dried his hands. "It's a powerful protection and a hell of a curse. It protects us from the humans but stops us from providing all but the most basic care when the patient is in their true form."

Getting dressed, Cesare's mind turned the information over. "But you can treat us in human form."

"Mendacium," Robert corrected sharply. "It's not the human form, it's the mendacium. If you go talking about us taking human form, you're liable to get yourself gutted again. The mendacium makes us seem human and to some extent what works on humans works on us. Cut us open, and you'll see the same guts, but the differences kill dozens every year. Operations that work on humans are fatal to some species of Umbrae Lunae. It's even trickier when you work on something like the akatharton and vampires who retain a lot of their power even in the mendacium."

"Sounds complicated," Cesare said as the last button was done on his shirt.

Shrugging, the doctor opened the door for Cesare. "Medicine's tricky, no matter what angle you look at it from. The Umbrae Lunae are centuries behind humans. Not only are you dealing with different species, but you're up against the sleight of hand of the mendacium. It's hard to do research when tests change before your eyes."

He'd have to put ointment on the holes the stitches had left in his chest, but other than that he was as good as new. Better than new. The incident with Blaez had been a blessing dressed in torn flesh and gleaming guts. His mind shied away from thinking about the changes the incident had caused between him and Anastasia. He didn't know where they'd be if it hadn't happened, but it sure as hell wouldn't be where they were today.

Coming down the infirmary steps, he looked over at the beautiful akatharton as she fell into step beside him. He didn't know where they'd been heading, only that it wasn't where he'd wanted to go. He still didn't know where they were going, but at least he was enjoying the ride. No, all things considered, the pain, humiliation, and degradation he'd endured had been worth it. You don't get to choose the pain life brings, only hope to make something from the destruction.