Chapter 447: Protocol That Wears a Body

The Protocol That Wears a Body

Damon continued staring at the representation on the ground until he realized that the image was not merely showing an older version of his body. Eir had separated the structures into layers. The vampiric circulation appeared first, concentrated in the blood and in the organs responsible for converting absorbed life energy. The incubus structure occupied another section, connected to perception, desire, and the ability to convert emotional stimuli into usable energy. Beneath both of them, however, there was a larger system that extended throughout the entire organism, connecting tissue, blood, spiritual channels, and even regions that normally would not participate in the same circulation.

Aurelia knelt beside the image to examine it more closely.

"That doesn’t look like a spiritual root."

"It isn’t," Eir replied.

"Then what did it do?"

The tree took several seconds to find suitable words.

"Kept pathways compatible."

Damon looked at her.

"Adaptation?"

"Similar. Not the same."

Aria had already resumed taking notes, but this time she wrote slowly so she would not miss any details.

"Natural or constructed?"

"Natural."

The answer made Aurelia raise her eyes. She studied the image again and pointed to three places where the ancient structure came into contact with the vampire and incubus systems.

"Did those two natures come later?"

"Yes."

"Then Damon wasn’t originally descended from two different species?"

Eir took longer before answering.

"He is. But the divisions came later."

Damon frowned.

"That didn’t help."

Liora approached the broad root and placed her hand against its surface. The image changed. Instead of a single body, several similar figures appeared, all carrying that ancient structure. Some absorbed blood. Others reacted to emotions, heat, spiritual energy, or even organic matter. The differences existed, but they were not separated into rigid categories.

Aurelia understood first.

"It was a single lineage with variations."

"Yes," Eir replied.

Xue Lian watched the bodies change.

"Then someone turned those variations into fixed structures."

"Yes."

"Vampires. Incubi. Maybe other species we now consider separate."

"Yes."

Damon ran a hand through his hair.

"So my ancestors were something capable of developing different forms of feeding and circulation depending on the environment."

Eir answered more easily this time.

"Yes."

"And someone decided that was unstable."

"Yes."

Aria looked up from her notebook.

"The ancestors of the Scarlet Order."

The tree opened two eyes along its trunk.

"The same ones."

Damon did not need to ask why. The image itself provided the answer. The ancient structure had an obvious advantage, but it also presented a problem for anyone trying to organize populations on a large scale: it did not produce predictable results. Two individuals from the same lineage could grow up in different regions and develop very different abilities. One might use blood, another spiritual energy, a third heat or emotions. The adaptation was organic and occurred throughout life.

The first standardizers eliminated that flexibility.

Eir showed the process directly. Small structures were inserted into the bodies and began blocking pathways. Some routes were kept open, while others were permanently closed. The ability to reorganize one’s own circulation gradually disappeared until only specific systems remained.

Aurelia pointed to the branch related to blood.

"Vampire."

Then to the second.

"Incubus."

Eir confirmed it.

Damon continued observing the lower layer.

"And this was completely erased?"

"Almost."

Ester immediately turned toward him.

"Almost?"

The image enlarged around Damon’s chest. Small fragments of the ancient structure still existed among his current channels. They did not form a functional system, but they connected parts that, biologically and spiritually, should not have accepted one another as well as they did.

Vorn would have loved to see that.

Damon did not like thinking about it.

Aurelia, however, reached the same conclusion through another line of reasoning.

"That’s why Adaptation reacted so well to you."

Damon looked at her.

"Not because you were chosen," Aurelia continued. "Your body already possessed remnants of an architecture designed to keep different systems functioning simultaneously. Caelis Vorn found someone who survived incompatibilities because, on some level, your organism still had ancient mechanisms designed to do exactly that."

Xue Lian added:

"And when you received my celestial body, my root, and my memories, those fragments had even more work to do."

"So they became more active," Aria said.

Eir confirmed it.

Damon looked at the image for several seconds before pointing toward the ancient structure.

"Can it still come back?"

Ester turned so quickly that she nearly interrupted the question.

"Damon."

"I’m only asking."

"I know you."

"That’s why I’m asking first."

Eir replied:

"Yes."

Ester closed her eyes.

"Naturally."

Damon ignored her reaction.

"What happens if it comes back?"

The image changed again. The vampire and incubus structures did not disappear. The ancient system grew around them, reconnecting parts that had previously been separated. Then new pathways began to emerge, but Eir stopped the demonstration before showing the final result.

"I don’t know."

Damon looked at the tree.

"You just showed us."

"I showed process. Result depends on you."

"Could it kill me?"

"Yes."

Ester crossed her arms.

"We’re done."

"I haven’t even said I want to do it."

"You asked whether you could die."

"Important information."

"Sufficient answer."

Damon turned back toward the tree.

"Could it alter my personality or memories?"

"It shouldn’t."

"’Shouldn’t’ isn’t no."

"I don’t know."

"Better."

Aurelia looked surprised.

"Better?"

"I’d rather she say she doesn’t know."

Eir opened another eye.

"So would I."

Damon almost smiled, but returned to the main point.

"Don’t do anything."

The response came immediately.

"Yes."

No insistence.

No message attempting to classify him.

No explanation about destiny or wasted potential.

The structure simply disappeared from the ground.

Ester relaxed slightly.

Xue Mei, who had remained near Liora throughout the explanation, asked:

"Then why does the Scarlet Order want you? If their ancestors made these alterations, they should know how to reverse them."

Eir replied:

"They no longer know."

Aurelia looked at the structural symbol that still remained on part of the root.

"They lost the method."

"Parts."

Aria closed her notebook for a few seconds.

"The chains can prevent restoration, but they can’t perform it."

"Yes."

"So they’re specialists in fixing current states, not recovering previous ones."

"Yes."

Damon understood the difference.

"They know how to stop something from changing. And you know how to make it return."

"Yes."

That made Eir far more important than a simple ancient entity. If the history shown by the tree was accurate, a large portion of the biological and spiritual structures used by modern species had been altered by people who predated even the Architects. Eir retained memories of what those structures had been like before the alterations. That did not mean she could reverse anything without consequences, but it meant she possessed something no modern organization would have: original references.

Aurelia also realized the implications.

"They want to use you as an archive."

"More."

"As a tool?"

"Yes."

"To restore what?"

Eir did not answer immediately. Liora removed her hand from the root and looked toward the direction they had come from. Her eyes narrowed.

"Someone is coming in."

Damon placed a hand on his sword, but Liora shook her head.

"One."

"Varos?" Xue Mei asked.

"Yes."

Ester looked irritated.

"I knew he wouldn’t simply leave."

Eir did not close the path.

That caught Damon’s attention.

"You’re going to let him come."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"He needs to remember."

Liora did not appear surprised.

A few minutes later, Varos appeared between the trees. He was alone and no longer wore the metal piece that had been around his neck. He had also left his spear behind. When he found the group standing before the central tree, he stopped at a respectful distance.

Damon looked at his empty hands.

"You’re improving."

"I didn’t come to fight."

"Another improvement."

Varos ignored him and looked directly at Eir.

"You knew I’d come back."

The leaves moved.

"Yes."

Xue Lian observed the man. The fear he had displayed at the camp had changed. He was still tense, but now he looked like someone who had entered that place expecting a conversation he had avoided for a very long time.

Damon went straight to the point.

"Liora said Eir gave you back something you’d lost."

Varos looked at the girl.

"She talks too much."

"Four days in a cage probably aren’t good for manners."

The man’s jaw tightened, but he did not respond to the provocation.

Eir made a root emerge in front of him.

Varos did not touch it.

"No."

The root remained still.

Damon realized Eir would not move any closer without permission.

Varos realized it too.

"Last time, you didn’t ask."

"You were dying."

"That doesn’t change anything."

"You asked for help."

Silence.

Damon looked at him.

"That sounds like an important detail."

Varos took a deep breath.

"I was seventeen when I came here for the first time. The Order still didn’t know exactly what Eir was. My group was ordered to recover samples."

"How many of you?"

"Twelve."

"How many made it out?"

"Three."

Xue Mei looked at Liora, but she remained silent.

Varos continued.

"I was injured. A root went through my abdomen. I lost a lot of blood and was left behind. Eir found me."

"She healed you?"

"Yes."

"By restoring your body."

"Yes."

Aurelia became serious.

"And she found another alteration."

Varos finally looked at her.

"Yes."

Eir caused a different image to appear on the ground.

A young man.

Varos.

At seventeen.

There was a small structure implanted at the base of his skull.

Aria immediately knelt to examine it.

"Is that from the Order?"

"Yes," Varos replied.

"Function?"

He hesitated.

"Emotional stability."

Damon exhaled through his nose.

"Naturally."

Varos ignored him.

"The first agents who entered pre-network areas suffered psychological changes, memory loss, and episodes of panic. The Order created a procedure to reduce extreme responses."

Ester became serious.

"Reduce?"

Eir showed them what the implant actually did.

It did not merely reduce panic.

It blocked specific emotional associations and weakened memories considered harmful to the agent’s function.

Xue Lian understood immediately.

"You removed attachments."

Varos closed his eyes.

"Yes."

"Family?"

"When necessary."

"Fear?"

"Yes."

"Guilt?"

Varos did not answer.

Damon looked at the image.

"Eir removed it from you."

"Yes."

"And your memories came back."

"All of them."

Ester studied his face.

"That’s why you said she gave you back something you’d lost."

Varos opened his eyes.

"I had a sister."

No one spoke.

"Two years older than me. She joined the Order before I did. She died during an operation."

Damon waited.

"After she died, I tried to leave. They said my emotional response was compromising my ability to function. They performed the procedure."

Aurelia understood.

"You forgot that you wanted to leave."

"I forgot she existed."

Xue Mei became visibly angry.

"And you still went back to them."

Varos looked at her.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because remembering one wrong thing the Order did doesn’t make everything else false."

Damon did not interrupt. It was a more rational answer than he had expected.

Varos pointed toward Eir.

"She can restore structures. She can also restore things the body abandoned for a reason. Old diseases. Incompatible instincts. Biological forms that wouldn’t survive in the current world."

Aurelia slowly nodded.

"So you believe controlling Eir is necessary."

"I believe allowing her to freely restore any previous state would be irresponsible."

Damon looked at the tree.

"Eir, do you do that without permission?"

"Not now," Varos replied.

The wording caught everyone’s attention.

"Now?"

Varos looked directly at Damon.

"You taught the restored network to recognize refusal. Eir noticed."

Damon became serious.

"She changed after that."

"Yes."

Liora confirmed it with a nod.

Varos continued:

"Before, Eir asked far less often because she didn’t distinguish individual choice from the integrity of the region. If one part was damaged, she restored it. Person, tree, animal—it didn’t matter."

Aurelia looked at Eir.

"That’s why people came back without memories."

"Yes," the tree replied.

Damon finally understood.

"You weren’t stealing memories."

"No."

"You were restoring people to a previous state."

"Yes."

"From before certain memories existed."

"Yes."

That made the old accounts much clearer.

And much more dangerous.

Damon looked at Varos.

"So your Order isn’t completely wrong about the risk."

"No."

"But locking Liora in a cage and torturing Eir is still a shitty choice."

"I agree."

The answer surprised everyone.

Varos took a deep breath.

"The operation was not authorized to use the manifestation as an anchor."

Liora went still.

"Who authorized it?" Damon asked.

"My superior."

"Name."

Varos hesitated.

Eir spoke before he could.

"Serik."

Aurelia’s expression changed.

Damon noticed.

"You know him."

"Not personally."

"Then?"

She looked toward the symbol of the chains.

"Valcair had ancient records containing that name."

Damon became serious.

"Serik is that old?"

Aurelia shook her head.

"It wasn’t a person."

Aria opened her notebook again.

"What?"

Aurelia pointed toward the design Eir had left behind.

"Serik was the name of a protocol."

The color drained from Varos’s face.

Eir confirmed it.

"Now it uses a body."

Damon closed his eyes for a moment.

"Of course."

Ester looked at him.

"Don’t start."

"I’m not starting."

He opened his eyes and stared at Varos.

"Your superior isn’t who you think he is."

Varos remained silent.

Damon pointed toward Eir.

"Then I think we’ve found the next concrete problem."

This time, no one disagreed.