Pandora Unchained - B1C61: Investigation

The week following the banquet was uneventful, and Sorin spent most of it learning from the spell books he'd rented from the Mages Guild. Threading the Spear was easy enough at lower levels, but learning the 'spear spray' spell necessitated a practice room with sufficiently durable walls and mannequins.

In the end, Sorin rented a silver-ranked one-star training room for 50 gold per day. The training room contained a total of five training dummies, which allowed him to train Threading the Spear and Veridian Smoke Bomb while simultaneously maintaining Anti-Mage Blade and Ophidian eye. The training dummies lasted until he ran out of mana and regenerated by the time he finished his recovery.

Threading the Spear was a tricky technique due to its flexible size variable. However, once one locked in your required size – the suggested size was six feet long and one inch wide – using it became very easy. Sorin naturally assigned acidic mana to the needle spray portion of the spell but also generated templates for paralytic poison attacks using 1-3 needles.

Veridian Smoke Bomb was best suited to acid attacks and paralytic attacks. Still, the method of delivery was starkly different for each case. When used with acid, Veridian Smoke Bomb aerosolized the mana used. It enhanced its ability to stick to skin, clothes, and armor. The paralytic version, on the other hand, gasified the poisonous mana to make it easier for living creatures to breathe in.

Sorin burnt through 150 gold before he was sufficiently familiar with all four spells, reinforcing his theory that only rich people could become successful mages.

***

It was late in the evening, nearly morning for some early risers. Sorin's eyes were tired from reading, but the helpful caffeine infusion from a near-limitless supply of tea kept his mind and body perky and awake. The room was dimly lit by candlelight, as mana lamps were hard on the eyes and just didn't feel right to Sorin, who enjoyed reading yellowing pages from dusty old tomes.

Candlelight wasn't an optimal lighting source. Shadows danced in the room as the candles flickered, elongating and shortening unpredictably. They were very unlike the slow-moving shadow that was creeping ever closer to Sorin's desk.

"Lawrence, you really need to work on your dramatic entrances," said Sorin, taking a sip from his teacup. "Also, why would you ever sneak up in front of me instead of behind me? Couldn't you just appear over my shoulder and slam a book down on my desk or something?"

"I was going to do that, but then I remembered that you could melt my face off in three seconds flat," said Lawrence, appearing from the shadows. "Also, are we going to do this or not? We don't have a huge opening if we want to avoid the guards."

"Give me a minute to change," said Sorin. "And Lorimer? Go to the clinic and scout things out for us ahead of time." The bleary-eyed rat had been resting in a small bed just beside the office window. He would have liked to rest, but master's orders were everything – he squeaked an affirmative and lazily launched himself on the windowsill before pushing through a crack of an opening and scrambling down the house's brick siding.

Sorin didn't have a thief's getup like Lawrence. Still, he did have dark clothes, courtesy of Percival, to help him get through clandestine outings. He blended in perfectly with the nigh-total darkness found in the market districts past ten o'clock. Only the occasional lamp post and guard light broke up the monotonous nightscape that clung to the Growing Branches Community Clinic like a wet blanket.

"This is it," said Lawrence to Sorin. "Your last chance to turn around and not antagonize a two-star physician."

"He's an arrogant fellow, so he'll at most have some recording treasures set up inside the clinic," said Sorin. "Lorimer? Get out here." The rat jumped out of a bush and scurried over to Sorin. "In you go. Eat any recording devices you find, and with luck, you'll develop a recording ability."

Lorimer protested Sorin's tyranny but stopped when the former physician tossed out a few demon cores. They were gone in less than a second, after which the rat scurried into the clinic. A window opened up 5 minutes later, Lorimer's signal that the coast was clear.

Sorin followed Lawrence through the window and looked around. The clinic was unrecognizable compared to when he'd last entered. Several more beds had been set up, and bookshelves had been taken down in favor of office space for Marcus, a two-star physician, and his five one-star residents.

"The place is a lot smaller than I remember," said Lawrence. "The office, I understand, but what's that room over there?"

"A lab, I imagine," said Sorin, leafing through the contents of the sole medical bookshelf in the room. They contained standard medical reference books. Three tomes were missing, and a note had been left behind by Gabriella stating that she was borrowing the books for personal study. This reinforced Marcus's claim that she was not being mistreated.

"That animal," said Lawrence, picking up the note. "How dare he be nice? He's supposed to be cold and cruel and have a target painted on his face. Ideally, he should be a lot uglier, too."

"Your sarcasm is noted," said Sorin. "Now help me look for incriminating evidence."

"And what exactly am I looking for?" asked Lawrence.

"I don't know," said Sorin. "Data? Purchasing records? Things with detailed information so I don't need to leaf through individual cases? And please remember how things should be put back before you take them."

While Lawrence busied himself in Marcus's office, Sorin headed over to the new laboratory. The small medical mixing room had been torn down to accommodate five complete sets of one-star laboratory equipment, including earth flame spell circles, ventilation runes, and safe storage for medicinal ingredients.

Judging by the residual smells, this lab was used just yesterday, thought Sorin. These equipment sets all smell slightly of cleaning agents, which means that all five sets were used.

There was also a large number of half-open boxes containing poisons. Many of their contents were depleted, further evidence of Marcus's claim that they were indeed using the poisons they'd obtained from the Alchemists Guild.

Sorin had a great need for these poisons, but he held back from taking them. Instead, he took note of their contents to confirm some initial guesses. Steelblood Amaranth, cold blood extract, blood rush ginseng… the only commonality between these poisons is that they primarily affect the blood and mana circulation system.

Six boxes in particular stood out to Sorin. This was because they were critical ingredients for concocting the meridian clearing tinctures he'd obtained from Sirius's research notes. But they're not placed together, and I don't see any manabane poisons. This indicates that they're not concocting a finished product but experimenting with different mixtures.

Was the Sovinger Branch attempting to replicate the Abberjay Branch's secret medicinal formula? Though Sorin. There was evidence to suggest this, but it was far from conclusive.

"I found some purchasing lists," Lawrence called out. "I also found a case summary list."

Sorin took one last look at the poisons before leaving the alchemy workshop. "Let me take a look," said Sorin, grabbing the purchasing list first. He confirmed that large quantities of 1-star poisons were getting shipped in from Dustone to replenish the lab's stores.

He inspected the case summary list with much greater scrutiny than the purchasing list. Unfortunately, it was difficult to make out anything from the scattered data points. Even if tests were being performed, they were mixed in with various other cases.

But the amount of medicine used is inconsistent with the amount of medicine ordered, thought Sorin as he compared the figures on both lists, not by a large margin, but enough for testing purposes. Moreover, there are no records of the poisons in the laboratory being used.

"Put these back where you found them," said Sorin, handing the papers back to Lawrence. "We're leaving."

"Leaving?" asked Lawrence. "But we just got here."

Sorin shook his head. "We won't find anything, Lawrence. It seems I underestimated Marcus."

Inwardly, Sorin analyzed what he'd discovered. This is clearly a case of research and development. Human experimentation may or may not be involved, as no data supports either situation. The only way I'll know for sure is by finding the secret data set. Given the importance of these experiments, Marcus was either keeping it in a secure laboratory, or directly on his person.

Sorin didn't particularly care about the Sovinger branch trying to deduce the Abberjay Branch's secret meridian opening tinctures. He'd never agreed with keeping the method a tight secret, and neither had his father. Moreover, the secret formula has changed hands in the past few years. The Mockingjay branch oversaw the Kepler Clan now, and it was much more populous than Sorin's Abberjay branch, which only had 100 members and very little residual influence.

What did bother him, however, was the potential for human experimentation. Such things were ethically dubious even in the most reasonably argued cases. As a result, physicians were required to submit proposals for human experimentation to the Medical Association and obtain approval prior to proceeding.

The review process was even more stringent now than it had been twenty or thirty years ago. Recent improvements in animal cruelty laws had rendered most medical testing models obsolete, and the entire research community was scrambling to find a replacement.

Since Sorin had no proof, he decided to silently keep an eye on things. In this regard, he had an opening to exploit: Marcus had hinted that he would be willing to issue commissions to Sorin once he obtained his apothecary designation. In fact, Marcus might actively pursue the matter since it was entirely possible for Sorin to be privy to the secret meridian opening formula.

Lawrence returned after 'tidying up' Marcus's office. "Unless he's super obsessive about cleanliness, he won't know we were ever here."

"Our tracks?" asked Sorin.

"Dusted," said Lawrence. "And Lorimer doesn't leave tracks for some reason. Good job, Lorimer." The rat squeaked as he climbed up Sorin's pant leg and scurried into his shirt pocket.

They left the clinic through the window and successfully evaded detection. The rogue went off to another part of town to continue his nighttime peeping. In contrast, Lorimer went straight towards the sewer entrance, only to be stopped by Sorin.

"Lorimer," Sorin said to the rat. "You're hiding something from me, aren't you?" The rat shook his head aggressively. "Fine. Then how do you explain the lack of footprints?" The rat hesitated before activating an ability. His fur blended in with the shadows much like Lawrence did. "A stealth ability. That's very useful, but only if I know about it." The rat squeaked to protest his innocence. "You were looking to surprise me? I'm not a three-year-old, Lorimer. Keep this up, and I'll confiscate a part of your sewer earnings."