They all gathered to watch the upcoming surgery.
The healers, except for Doctor Synecdoche, crowded at the end of Ninja's bed. Reverie was sitting on an examination stool, right next to her patient and temporary assistant, and finished sorting her medical tools.
Skulduggery, Valkyrie, and Nobody stood at a bit of a distance, and they were soon joined by Fletcher and Nuce. Once Nuce was within her reach, Nobody wrapped an arm around his back and rested her head on his shoulder. Nuce smiled a little and put his arm around her shoulders in reciprocation.
Ninja had positioned herself on top of one of the mobile medical tables. Her right leg was awkwardly angled sideways and backwards, her knee tucked in below the other, giving the surgeon better access to her ankle. Her right pantleg was tucked up and out of the way, exposing the shape of the electronic tracker inside. The angles of the murder device obviously bulged beneath her skin, and the sight was quite unseemly and disconcerting.
Diamond was sitting by Ninja's bedside for moral support. Though, admittedly, she felt almost redundant in her task, as Ninja didn't look all too bothered. She was leasurely chewing on a preliminary pain leaf, and seemed to be waiting for the show to begin.
Reverie looked ready, as she put on some sterile latex gloves and made sure to sanitize Ninja's leg with an alcoholic wipe before starting.
"Alright, is everyone watching?" She then asked, especially in the direction of Skulduggery and his crew. "I would like you to all pay close attention to this. Let's hope otherwise; but if any of us healers are injured, some of you might need to take over."
"You have our full attention, Doctor," Skulduggery replied.
She looked at Ninja. "Ready, dear?"
Ninja chewed her leaf. "Uh-huh."
Reverie reached for a scalpel first. She drew a precise line just above the center of the lockbox, extending it slightly beyond its full length. Immediately, blood came pouring from the cut, concealing the view onto her work. She waved her free hand above the wound, and the bleeding quickly stopped in response.
Once the first cut was complete, Reverie made another one just like it, in the same spot. In this manner, she carefully worked her way through the layers, on her search for the foreign material of the lockbox. From the looks of it, as well as from some personal experience, Diamond saw that quite a bit of force was necessary to cut through each layer.
Finally, the box was revealed. The skin on Ninja's ankle opened and stretched out of the way, as though it had been yearning to retreat for years. The tracker was a device made of black plastic, which looked about as Diamond had imagined by its outline.
She glanced up at Ninja's face, and she was surprised to see her unfazed. In fact, Ninja looked quite fascinated by all this.
"Now, what's the next step?" Reverie asked.
"There's a fail-safe," Ninja said, "to keep people from messing with it." She pointed from the recent incision, along the side of her ankle, to a spot above her heel. "They add a wire to the lockbox, and the wire goes to a metal thing, and the metal thing goes around the, umm... The Achilles heel?"
"The Achilles Tendon?" Reverie specified.
"Yeah, that. If you just pull the lockbox out, it can cripple my leg."
"Hate that," Nobody casually commented.
The doctor leaned in, inspecting Ninja's heel closely. "Hmm…" she murmured thoughtfully. "Can you feel any of the parts inside your leg? Does the metal clasp make it harder to move?"
Ninja shrugged. "Nah, not really. I only notice the lockbox sometimes - like, if I lie down on it."
"In that case, we should place an incision vertically along the tendon, right around here..." Reverie used the scalpel to cut another opening along Ninja's heel. It was placed somewhat to the side, closer to the lockbox, in order to access the piece that connected it to the fail-safe. She poked around in the incision with her pliers for a bit, until something shiny seemed to peek out through the bloody opening.
Diamond and nearly everyone else leaned in, too, eager to catch a glimpse of the horrific contraption. A simple metal tag was indeed coiled around Ninja's Achilles Tendon. It looked quite alike the ones biologists used for tracking-purposes, on the legs of wild birds. Additionally, it was connected to a metallic wire, which disappeared beneath Ninja's skin in the direction of the lockbox.
Meanwhile, Ninja chewed her pain leaf a little faster. When the wire was visible, she briefly paused to speak and vaguely pointed at a spot inside her ankle. "See how the wire is thinner there?"
"Yes?"
"That's where it can rip, if you pull too much. And that will make chemicals happen, or something."
"I see." Reverie reached for a small bolt cutter, made entirely of stainless steel. She looked up at Ninja with an apologetic smile. "I don't want to risk injuring the tendon. During a standard operation, we probably would try to cut off the metal tag..."
"But this isn't exactly a standard operation," Diamond noted from beside them.
"Yes, unfortunately we don't have the time to do it safely for every girl that comes through today," Reverie somberly agreed. "My suggestion is this: instead of cutting off the tag, we cut the wire. We'll remove only the lockbox and the wire. If you'd like the tag removed later, you can book a proper surgery at the clinic."
Ninja looked a bit disappointed by this, but she bravely nodded, "okay. No problem."
Reverie smile became truer, as she held out the bolt cutters to her. "Would you like to do it, yourself?"
The disappointment disappeared from Ninja's eyes, as they filled with awe. "Really?"
At her excited reaction, Reverie seemed to brighten up too. "I'll give you a better view." She used the pliers to hold the wound open for her.
Ninja grinned with morbid anticipation as she accepted the little bolt cutters. She twisted herself skillfully to get a better angle on her leg. Once in position, she carefully guided the tips closer to the flaps of skin, grimacing slightly as she inserted them.
Some of the audience members began to grow uneasy, namely Nuce, at hearing the instrument sink into her exposed flesh.
"Good. Now make sure nothing's between the cutters except the wire," Reverie instructed. "If you see a thin, stretchy bit on the blades, that's a ligament. Ligaments help keep things in place inside your body, so don't cut those."
Ninja didn't respond, but she seemed to understand. She looked exceptionally calm and focused. Her hand was perfectly steady, as she guided the cutters around the tissue until they clasped the barely visible wire. A quick click, and she was done.
Everyone paused and waited to see if the fail-safe had been tripped. Yet, other than the sound of cutting wire, there weren't any clear signs of impending doom.
"Nice work," Diamond commented.
Reverie checked the results. "Looking good..." She contentedly evaluated.
Ninja proudly beamed and quietly accepted the approval.
"Alright, but as well as you did that, I should take over this last part," she insinuated.
Ninja gave her the cutters back, and Reverie set them aside. Refocusing on the lockbox above the ankle, she used the pliers quite similarly to Ninja a moment earlier. She first widened the opening, and then slid the pliers inside. With a couple of practiced twists, she maneuvered them until she had a secure grip on the edges of the lockbox.
More unease developed in the group. Diamond admittedly was beginning to identify with the notion, as she could clearly see the outline of the pliers through Ninja's skin.
Reverie took a strong hold of Ninja's calf with her free hand and, lightly twisting the pliers side-to-side, slowly dragged the lockbox out of her leg. The box made an eerie squelching sound, as the vacuum around it released, and it was successfully pulled from between seperated meat flaps. As the cable followed suit, various types of blood and mucus came with it.
Nuce moaned in disgust and turned away. He received sympathetic smiles from some, and gleeful smirks from others.
Reverie dropped the bloody tracker onto a surgery tray, along with the pliers. She pulled off her latex gloves, added them to the discard pile, and held her bare hand out above the two incisions. A warm light began to glow from it, until Diamond had to squint her eyes at the brightness.
When the light faded away, any signs of cut skin and spilled bodily fluids had disappeared from Ninja's leg. The only remnants of the makeshift surgery were the stains left on the single-use sheet below it.
Ninja relaxed a little. She looked just a bit pale after everything, but she seemed overall collected and ready for the next mission.
As Reverie glanced up at her with a smile, she looked sincerely impressed by her performance. "Ninja, have you considered what you want to do, after your friends are safe and sound? Will you be joining them in the United States?"
Ninja looked both overwhelmed and thoughtful at the breach of topic. "Umm... I guess I haven't really thought about it...?"
"Well," Reverie cheerfully replied, "just you know that my door is always open. If you'd like to train at the clinic, that is."
Her eyes widened in disbelief. "You mean... Train to become a healer?"
"Yes."
"Oh." Ninja looked stunned for another moment. Then, she blushed and awkwardly nodded, "okay... Yeah, sure. I'll think about it. Thanks."
Reverie smiled wider and, for the first time in quite a while, glanced at their audience. "Is everyone clear on how to safely remove a tracker?"
Almost everyone nodded and mutedly agreed. Nuce defiantly shook his head.
"Alright, then! This concludes our lesson of today," Reverie announced. She deterringly waved away the various onlookers, "run along now."
Everyone scattered and headed towards their designated meeting spots. Ninja took a moment to appreciate the lack of an intrusive object in her leg. Afterwards, she adjusted her pantleg, hopped to her feet, and walked over to where the healers were getting back to work.
Diamond stood up after her, but before she could join her own team, she was held back by the arm.
"May I have a quick word with you?" Reverie asked, once she had stopped and turned around to her.
Diamond shrugged, "sure?"
Reverie reached for a bag and pulled out a patient file. "I wanted to show you something about that abdominal stab wound we treated on you, a couple of months ago."
Hearing this, Skulduggery faltered along the way. His weight lightly shifted from side to side, as he looked torn between following Valkyrie and listening in on the intriguing conversation.
She raised a brow at him. "Excuse us, Detective Pleasant, this is a confidential conversation. Would you mind?"
Skulduggery's jaw and his feet moved, as though he was about to excuse himself and leave.
Diamond shook her head at this. "It's alright," she said, "he can stay."
Synecdoche curiously mustered both of them, but she seemed inclined to get to business. She handed Diamond her patient file. "I've been studying your case, and I've noticed something odd. In fact, I had already noticed something odd during the surgery, but I believe I have an explanation now."
Diamond studied the file as Reverie spoke. The first page was a patient sheet, which listed her personal information and summarized the treatment of her injuries. Her throat grew tighter and the scar in her belly gently ached.
The next pages were made up of photos that had been taken for the records. There were pictures of her stab wound, both before and after surgery, as well as of the knife that they had pulled out of her.
"What have you noticed?" Skulduggery asked the Doctor, when Diamond was too busy looking through her file and concealing her disgust and sadness.
"Well, we couldn't stop the bleeding," Reverie continued explaining, "and not for a lack of trying, I might add. That's not necessarily unusual, but the odd thing was... Well, usually, uncontrolled hemorrhaging occurs when we can't find the origin of the bleeding. We did find it, and we successfully sutured it, but..." She helplessly shrugged, "it just kept opening up."
Skulduggery's head tilted curiously. "It kept opening up on its own?"
"Yes, there was no extensive blood pressure, movement, or manipulation, that could have been responsible. The stitches simply kept falling out, and any attempt at magical intervention failed completely."
He nodded along and then asked, "so, in the end, how did you manage to stop the bleeding?"
Reverie sighed and glanced at Diamond, who couldn't get herself to meet Skulduggery's gaze. Instead, she wordlessly handed him her patient file.
Skulduggery accepted the file and quickly read it. Once he got to the part where they had decided to simply take out all of her reproductive organs, his skull snapped around to Diamond.
She could tell that his mind was putting together the puzzle pieces, as he stared at her from the side. Diamond continued avoiding his gaze as, even months later, the loss still cut too deep.
Also, she was quite embarrassed about the hysterical outburst that Skulduggery had witnessed first-hand, mere days after her surgery. The information surely cleared some things up for him - including why she had turned to him that day - but this only made her feel more mortified about it.
"I kept thinking; none of this makes any sense!" Reverie meanwhile recalled, "it's like this surgery is cursed! Eventually, that made me wonder..."
"What if it was actually cursed?" Diamond attempted to finish the thought.
Reverie slowly nodded. "And so, I took a close look at your file, especially the photos of the initial injury, and something stood out to me. Can you spot it, Detective?"
Skulduggery finally tore his prodding gaze off Diamond and focused on the file in his hands. He flipped through the pages, until he got to the images that depicted the stab wound and the responsible knife. He seemed to regard them with the professionalism of an investigator for a moment, before looking clearly surprised.
"That is, indeed, quite odd..." Skulduggery murmured when he seemed to have caught up with the doctor.
"What is," Diamond impatiently pressed, "what's odd?"
He held the file so she could easily see the pictures, gesturing at them with a tap of his gloved finger. "Look at the shape of the wound, and then look at the shape of the knife. Notice anything?"
Although Diamond wasn't thrilled to look closer at the pictures of the bloody knife and the bruised hole in her abdomen, she focused on comparing the two images. It didn't take long for her to notice what the others were talking about.
"Wait... That doesn't add up," Diamond realised as well.
"Exactly," Reverie confirmed. "The wound clearly came from a spear-point blade, such as a dagger. But the knife we pulled out; it was a drop-point blade. A classic hunting knife."
"So, the knife inflicted a different wound than it is designed to?" She confusedly pressed.
"No, you can see the marks of the hunting knife as well, but they're smaller. It looks more as though..." Skulduggery thoughtfully said and tilted the photos side-to-side for a better angle. "They pulled out the first knife, and then stuck the second one inside...?"
Diamond pulled a disgusted grimace. "Oh, wow! I'm lucky then, because I don't remember any of that."
"You're even luckier than you think," Reverie injected. "As a matter of fact, the second knife is what kept the bleeding contained until you arrived at the hospital. It quite literally... Saved your life."
"The invisible child murderer, who stabbed me with a cursed blade, tried to save my life?"
"Either that..." Reverie hesitantly began to reply.
"...Or he was trying to cover up the use of the spear-point blade," Skulduggery concluded.
"Because it's cursed?" Diamond asked.
"Because it's important somehow," he clarified. "Bax Hench has been extremely selective with the type of information he gives us access to. If his lackeys are supposed to conceal the identity of that knife, it must link to information he doesn't want us to have."
She raised a brow at him. "I thought we were ignoring Hench...?"
"Ignore Bax Hench all you like," Reverie said, "but we shan't ignore the existence of this weapon. Judging by the chaos in that surgery room, it's a knife of the same caliber as Billy-Ray Sanguine's razor, or even the Godkiller Weapons. It's extremely dangerous, and you might very well encounter it again today."
Skulduggery gave her back the file. "Thank you, Doctor," he said, and then glanced in the direction of Valkyrie and Fletcher.
They were waiting along with Nuce and Nobody, and seemed to be engrossed in a casual conversation. As though she could feel his gaze on her, Valkyrie turned her head and looked at Skulduggery. He nodded to her, and she grabbed Fletcher's arm and pulled him closer.
"What's up?" Valkyrie asked, as they arrived.
"We need to take a look at some Sanctuary files," Skulduggery said to them.
Fletcher looked surprised, but he shrugged and held out his arm. Skulduggery and Valkyrie held on, and the three of them disappeared.
Diamond and Reverie looked at each other, cluelessly pouted, and waited for them to return. Meanwhile, Nuce and Nobody seemed curious about the developing situation and walked closer as well.
"What's going on?" Nuce asked.
"We're about to find out," Diamond replied.
A couple of minutes later, the other three returned. Skulduggery was holding an old book. It was big, heavy, and bound in worn brown leather, and its pages were thin and plentiful. Skulduggery energetically dropped it onto the closest clean hospital bed.
"The Book of Knives," he presentingly declared.
"Never heard of it," Diamond admitted.
"You might also know it as the register of magical weaponry."
"Oh, yeah," she said and nodded, "that, I have heard of."
"I haven't," Fletcher admitted next.
"It works similar to the Book of Names," Valkyrie explained, "it's a list of all the magical weapons, how they work, and who has owned them throughout history. Any time a weapon changes ownership, the book automatically adds their name to the list."
Diamond was admittedly curious now, but she hadn't failed to notice, this tome of a book had thousands of pages. "Do we have time to go through all that, right this second?"
"Can you spare two minutes?" Skulduggery asked.
She frowned at him. "Two minutes?"
Skulduggery gave her a look that suggested, he was about to impress her. He took a hold of all pages but the front and back cover. He stressed the paper stack with three fingers, as though he was about to shuffle a giant deck of cards. Next, he seemed to introduce magic to the process, as a soft gust of wind came out of nowhere and blew across the pages.
He allowed for the pages to escape his grasp in quick succession. His air magic made sure that they fanned out evenly, one after the other. Albeit this made sure that each page was briefly visible in its entirety, the next one followed far too quickly for anyone to read along. Anyone, that was, except for Skulduggery.
Diamond stared in astonishment, as he read almost the entire tome within a little over a minute. About three quarters into the book, his hand abruptly moved. It slid in between two pages and quickly interrupted the process of fanning the pages. He opened up the book up all the way, flipped back to the previous page, and revealed the correct description.
Diamond was, indeed, impressed. She made sure to shoot Skulduggery an approving look that told him as much. The skull tilt that she received in return could only be described as self-assured.
Everyone leaned forward to catch a glimpse of the writing. Some wearily glanced at each other.
"The Limb Killer Blade," Valkyrie read aloud.
Skulduggery took over the task of reading the description. "The Limb Killer is a dagger made entirely of indestructible white marble. It curses whichever limb or organ it injures, no matter how benign the injury might be. Should the affected area not be removed from the victim's body in its entirety, the likelihood of survival is... Zero percent."
"Sounds about right..." Diamond grimly murmured. She received an agreeable and sympathetic glance from Reverie.
"And now, as for the grand reveal!" Skulduggery demonstrably ran his index finger down the list of people that had owned the Limb Killer.
He turned over to the next page and continued down the list, until he reached its end. His finger tapped the last name on the list.
Diamond felt her face drop. She felt some worried glances on her, but her eyes were fixed to the name by Skulduggery's finger.
"Christopherus Gian," Nobody read aloud. "Which means... The Limb Killer belongs to Bax Hench?"
Valkyrie wasn't convinced. "Why doesn't it say Bax Hench on the list, then?"
"Well, it can't be Gian's anymore, can it?" She countered, "he's dead. It has got to be Hench's. Maybe, the book is outdated?"
"Impossible," Skulduggery thoughtfully murmured, "this book doesn't lag behind."
"Huh..." Valkyrie puzzledly said.
When neither of them could come up with an explanation for the puzzling phenomenon, right here and then, most everyone's attention returned to Diamond.
Diamond expected the emotions to come flooding over her, at this revelation. But she was surprised to find, she didn't feel much of anything. Her mind comprehended the logic, but her body didn't seem able to respond. She guessed, it only made sense. Hench had decided to suddenly become the bane of her existence, after all.
Diamond felt obliged to say something, with everyone's apprehensive eyes on her. She decided to respond with a sour scoff. "So, Stabby wasn't just some lackey. It was Hench. He did that, personally."
"Stabby?" Nobody confusedly asked, but she was ignored.
"Are you okay?" Nuce asked instead.
Diamond scoffed again. The sourness inside her was gradually building. It was transforming into something acidic that she hadn't felt in a very long time. A level of acidity that she mightn't have ever felt before. She believed it to be the venomous bloom of sheer hatred.
And yet, Diamond continued smiling with bitter irony. "You know what?" She said to her equally concerned and curious audience. "All this time, I've been wrecking my brain, turning over my memory, trying so hard to figure out... What on earth could I have done, to make someone so mad at me?" She shrugged, "but it really doesn't matter, does it? It doesn't matter why Hench hates me because, whatever I've done, it couldn't possibly justify what he's been doing."
"Even if his reasons for hating you were justified," Skulduggery noted, "Hench deserves to be behind bars for all that he's done."
"Mostly, I want him behind bars before he stacks up any more bodies," Diamond added. "Besides, I'm done wasting my breath on that git. Let's get going."
Everyone nodded in agreement.