I Loaded the Mysticism Panel

”We’ll deal with the items on his body in a moment. Let’s do the autopsy first.”

”Take a look at this.” Old Big used the back of his scalpel to nudge the mass inside the deceased’s thoracic cavity.

That was where the heart should have been.

But all that was there was a dubious, dark-red mass of flesh, its surface covered in tiny pores.

”What about the lungs?” Richard asked, suppressing his unease as he continued to observe.

Old Big’s scalpel shifted upward.

”The lungs are gone. Replaced by this.”

Where the lungs should have been, two extremely thin, membrane-like objects were stuck to the inner wall of the ribcage.

The membranes were translucent. Under the light, you could see countless black filaments within them.

These filaments were still pulsing, contracting and expanding, even though the man had been dead for several hours.

”They’re still moving.” Richard heard his own voice come out dry.

”Yes.” Mrs. MacNeil spoke up from the side. ”The connection from beyond the Curtain hasn’t been completely severed yet.”

Old Big used a finer pair of forceps, their tips wrapped in silver thread, to clamp the junction of the two membranes and pull gently outward.

A sticky, tearing sound echoed as the membranes separated from the inner wall of the ribcage.

Red fluid dripped down the forceps, blooming into a small, faint wisp of mist.

”An external interface,” Mrs. MacNeil said. ”I’ve suspected it, but this is the first time I’ve seen one in person.”

Old Big’s brow furrowed.

”What the hell is an external interface?”

”It’s mentioned in the literature, but this is the first time I’ve seen one in person.”

The Spirit Medium explained, ”A Cultivator’s internal circulation is normally a closed system. From the moment they sign their name, the entire circuit belongs to them alone.”

”An external interface means that someone ran a line from beyond the Curtain and tapped into this man’s circuit.”

”And for what purpose?”

”To input commands, or... to input Strength.”

Mrs. MacNeil was clearly not an expert on the subject either.

”The Answering Head was able to unleash a Technique at the Minor Mastery level in the mine, but his actual Tier was likely only Practitioner.

All legitimate breakthroughs to Minor Mastery are officially registered, and this man isn’t on any of the lists.”

”He was borrowed.”

Old Big asked, ”What do you mean?”

”Exactly what it sounds like,” the Spirit Medium continued.

”The wisp of Spirit on the Marvels he signed his name to probably wasn’t entirely his own from day one.

The Echo Society could control what he did, what he said, and what he *didn’t* say in that mine.

I’m afraid even his death was probably arranged.”

”What about the names on the registry?” Old Big asked. ”Can’t we just check them one by one?”

”The registry records Tier, not allegiance,” Mrs. MacNeil said, shaking her head.

”There are at least a hundred registered individuals at the Minor Mastery level of various disciplines within the Imperial borders alone. You can’t tell who might be a Nail planted by the Echo Society just by looking at a list.

What’s more, this whole external interface system is designed to bypass the official rituals... The one who lent the Answering Head all that power probably isn’t on any of our registries at all.”

The autopsy room fell silent for a few seconds.

Richard suddenly thought of the ”Harmony” who was captured alive yesterday—the one who would only respond, never speak first.

’That guy wasn’t hollowed out,’ Richard thought. ’He was never filled to begin with.’

”When he was alive, did he know he had been altered like this?” Richard asked.

”It’s hard to say.” The Spirit Medium shook her head.

”Perhaps he didn’t know at first. By the time he found out, it was too late to go back.

Or maybe, from start to finish, he willingly let them change him, one cut at a time.”

”That’s what the Echo Society excels at—making you believe that giving yourself up is what you wanted all along.”

Old Big took the piece with the external interface and placed it into the Refining Furnace by the wall, then closed the lid.

”This has to be incinerated.”

”It’s a tag that’s been ’written’ on from beyond the Curtain. Keeping it is like leaving a homing beacon active. It’ll bring trouble wherever it is.”

The furnace activated with a low hum.

The pulsing of the two membranes finally ceased completely.

Mrs. MacNeil walked to the other end of the body and took several items out of a leather case, laying them out.

”All right. The living parts of the Answering Head that we could interrogate are gone. Now I’ll squeeze something out of the corpse.”

Richard was confused. ”He’s already dead. How can you still question him?”

”A man dies, his flesh rots, but some things are carved into the Ether Layer. They don’t decay.”

The Spirit Medium said as she began preparing for a Divination.

”Especially a tool like this, one that’s had commands ’written’ into him.

The commands he executed would have left ’ruts’ in his internal circuit. The man is gone, but the ruts remain.”

”My job is to trace those ruts.”