On day fifteen, Riven was finally allowed to regain consciousness briefly by the Imperial Anatomist, simply because the old man wanted to make sure that Riven’s senses, such as eyesight, smell, taste, and hearing, had not been affected by the prolonged coma.
Gasp.
Riven suddenly inhaled a deep breath as consciousness finally returned to him, while a blurry stone ceiling gradually came into focus above his head as his vision slowly adjusted after what felt like an eternity of darkness.
’Huh?’
Riven thought dazedly, as his head throbbed with a dull ache that felt as though it had been punched a dozen times.
However, ignoring the pain, he attempted to make sense of his surroundings, only for the unfamiliar scene before him to leave him even more perplexed, prompting him to search his memories for the last event that he could still remember before everything had gone black.
’Where’s Garron?’ Riven wondered as the old recruiter’s face immediately surfaced within his mind.
The last thing he could clearly remember was Garron beating him without restraint, while repeatedly kicking him across the cold ground until every bone in his body had screamed in agony, before everything that followed had dissolved into complete darkness.
’Am I... in a ditch?’ Riven wondered next, as he vaguely remembered Garron saying that he would throw his body into one after he was done with him.
However, the stone ceiling hanging above him made that explanation difficult to believe.
Instinctively, Riven attempted to turn his head, however, he couldn’t.
Something cold and rigid had been fastened securely around his neck, locking his head firmly into place while restricting his vision to nothing more than the ceiling directly above him, preventing him from looking toward either side or even down at his own body.
His brows furrowed in confusion, as he instinctively tried to raise an arm and remove whatever restrained him, however, much to his horror, nothing happened.
’My arm? Why can I not feel my right arm?’
Riven wondered, as he thought that maybe his body had simply become stiff after lying still for too long, and so, he tried to move his left arm next, only for the left arm to not respond to him either.
’What?’
He wondered, as a strange sense of unease slowly settled within his heart, as he desperately tried moving both arms together, then his legs, then every part of his body that he could consciously command, however, none of them responded no matter how desperately he tried.
’Why...?’ Riven thought as his heartbeat rapidly quickened.
’I can’t feel my lungs either...’ he thought next, as the realization struck him with terrifying force.
’Am... am I even breathing?’
The thought alone sent him into complete panic, as he desperately tried forcing his body to move over and over again, knowing with absolute certainty that his mind still remembered exactly how to command every muscle that he possessed.
Yet nothing happened.
He couldn’t feel his arms.
He couldn’t feel his legs.
Hell, apart from his own face, he couldn’t feel a single part of himself below the neck, making it feel as though he had somehow become nothing more than a floating head.
PantPant
His breathing rapidly became heavier, while every passing second made his panic worse as he continued trying to move with every ounce of strength he believed he possessed.
As it was at that exact moment that slow footsteps entered the room.
StepStepStep
An elderly man gradually stepped into Riven’s limited field of vision, his deeply wrinkled face framed by thinning grey hair while a pair of unusually sharp amber eyes quietly settled upon him without blinking even once.
"Hey there, my boy. No need to breathe so heavily," the old man said as his voice carried an unexpected warmth that immediately contrasted the panic raging within Riven’s mind.
"Relax... relax. You’re perfectly safe. This is a place of healing, and you’re here to heal."
He reassured, and although something inside Riven wanted to believe those words, he could somehow just not bring himself to take the old man’s words at face value.
The room smelled strongly of medicine, while shelves lined with bottles, bundles of dried herbs, and polished instruments surrounded him from every direction, making the old man’s explanation sound perfectly reasonable.
However, the longer Riven looked into the stranger’s eyes, the less he believed a single word that came out of the old man’s mouth.
Doctors looked at frightened patients with empathy.
Parents looked at injured children with worry.
Even Garron, brutal as the man had been, looked at his recruits with genuine concern whenever one of them suffered a serious injury.
However, the old man before him possessed none of those expressions.
Instead, he looked at Riven the same way merchants inside Ashfang had looked at expensive merchandise before agreeing upon a price, carefully studying every tiny detail while calculating how much value they could eventually extract from it.
It was the gaze of a merchant, not a healer.
The old man wasn’t looking at Riven as though he were an injured child in need of treatment.
He was looking at him as though he was the greatest investment of his entire life.
"Who are you? Wh–where am I? And why can’t I feel my body?"
Riven asked, his voice full of panic, as the old man immediately gave him the most rotten yet concerned smile that he had ever seen.
"They call me the Imperial Anatomist. I’m someone who can unlock the full potential hidden within one’s body.
As for where you are? You’re still within Stoneville, and will most likely continue to be here for the next year or two.
As for why you can’t feel your body.... Well, that’s because it’s currently under reconstruction.
If you were able to look down, you’d realized that nearly every single muscle and joint in your body is currently under some sort of procedure to make them perfect.
It looks horrifying right now, and that’s why I have restricted your neck so that you can’t look at it and panic.
However, trust me, once this procedure is complete, you will heal flawlessly and there won’t be a single scar left behind.
But for us to get to that point, you first need to survive to see that day.
And the only way you survive till then, is if you remain oblivious to the pain today.
So, I guess it’s best for both of us that you can’t see or feel the pain from neck down..."
The old man explained, as Riven felt his heartbeat fasten.
However, after so many failed subjects, the Imperial Anatomist knew exactly what he was doing, as under no circumstances was he going to let Riven see the current disshevelled state of his body, with his bones and muscles ripped open throughout.
"What you don’t know can’t hurt you my boy. And so it’s best you don’t know what’s going on for now.
Sleep well now..... For the next time you wake up, I’ll need your mind alert and strong for what comes next...."
The old man said, as Riven slowly felt his consciousness fade, as darkness took a hold of him once more.