Page 74 of A Drop of Corruption

Now it was Ana’s turn to sit up. She fumbled blindly about on the table and stuck a finger in the parchment of symbols I’d drawn for her minutes ago. “And that’s whatthisis, isn’t it? This isn’t some damned code. This is the process you designed to bind up the marrow.”

“Correct,” said Thelenai. “The symbols you witnessed, Signums, show when and where to inject the moss to preserve the tissue. Indeed, it is the process we’ve had the most success with. But it took tremendous effort, years of toil, to get even there.”

“Why?” asked Ana impatiently.

“Because as I told you when we last met,” said Ghrelin, “eachleviathan is alwaysdifferent.No two are alike. We suspect that they have evolved to change continuously, adapting to new forms—and that, perhaps, is why their blood is so powerfully transmutational.”

“But this means the marrow, too, is always different,” said Thelenai. “Biologically different in shape, density, nature…so eachextractionhad to be different. We needed a way of reading the randomness. Only then could we succeed.”

Thelenai swallowed. Her face looked terrifically aged now, as if saying these words drained the very life from her flesh.

“What we needed,” she said finally, “was a different way of looking at it. A different type ofmind.That is why we produced augury. And that changed everything.”

—

“Augury…” murmured Ana.“What is this augury? I do not know of it.”

“It is…a type of alteration,” continued Thelenai slowly. “It is produced as a black pellet, placed underneath the tongue to dissolve as you slumber. But it alters the human mind, as opposed to flesh.”

“A new type of Sublime, ma’am?” I asked. “A suffusion that changes what you are, how you think?”

“No,” said Thelenai. “No, not like what was done to you or me, Kol. It is more like a graft, or perhaps a mood graft, bestowing a temporary effect. One that works only upon axioms—and grants those who consume it an unusually heightened mental state.”

“Ahh…” Ana steepled her fingers beneath her nose. “Let me guess,” she whispered. “This graft, this augury…did it grant people unusualpattern-identifyingabilities?”

Thelenai and Ghrelin exchanged a bleak look.

“You have it exactly,” muttered Thelenai.

“Under the effects of augury, any normal axiom’s cerebral capacities are magnified,” said Ghrelin. “They attain a stunning capability to rapidly analyze, dissect, and deduce marvelously accurate predictions, about the most complicated of phenomena, from thebarestshredsof evidence or data.”

“They were instrumental in our progress,” said Thelenai. “The physiology of the leviathans is so unpredictable, so dangerous, and so random—only the augurs could make sense of it.”

“Then if this augury graft was so successful, ma’am,” Ana asked, “why is it not known? Why isn’t it used across the Empire, to predict all the ills of the world?”

The two Apoths hesitated.

“I should guess,” muttered Malo, “that it had someunintendedeffects…”

“Yes,” said Thelenai quietly. “If an axiom remained in a high state of augury for more than three years, they began to exhibit…afflictions.”

“Apophenia being the worst, and most notable,” said Ghrelin. “An uncontrollable, debilitating impulse to spy patterns ineverything.”

I glanced at Ana, but she only smiled and wryly said, “Oh, I’m familiar withthatone…”

“But perhaps not to the extent of this,” said Thelenai. “Some augurs would sit in their rooms, studying the bricks in the wall, trying to comprehend which spot of earth they came from, and grow so absorbed in the task that they nearly starved to death.”

“Others became unreasonable,” said Ghrelin. “They believed they had identified some horrible motivation in the behaviors of others. They grew paranoid, mistrustful.”

“Enough effects, then,” said Ana, “that this augury was never approved for use. Yes?”

“Correct,” said Ghrelin slowly. “It…was not approved for use in the Empire.”

The silence lingered. Ghrelin looked to Thelenai, his painted features full of anguish.

“Ohh,” said Ana slowly. “Usein the Empire.But…Yarrowdale isnottechnically the Empire. Is that it?”

“True,” said Thelenai softly. “It is not.”