Dusts of Avalon - Beastwithin.org

XI. T Mto upgrade some of the parts. Dr. Grovepath had had some insightful ideas onhow to make the arms behave in more natural manner; the “hands” Merlin hadconstructed long ago were quite crude, with only three of the fingers in bothhands actually working, and even on them, only two “bones” on ea finger hadany articulation.“Mine legs feel cold, wizard”, Sir Palomides said.“I've heard people complain about cold legs when their bodies have been cutin half”, Daleworth said. “You're luy that Merlin can still stit them in, andisn't even in any hurry to do so.”“Hmm. e idea of the Knighthood persists…” Dr. Grovepath said.“…and so does the idea of pain.” Daleworth said.Even Daleworth was quite curious about how the armour really worked, andshe couldn't contain mu of her curiosity as she peeked in the est section ofthe armour. In the cavity, she saw an enclosure that did resemble a sarcophagus,made of gliering metal; the outer layer was titanium, inner layer was lined withlead. Daleworth could see pipes, cables, strange boxes, a few unaaed lines andpistons, some lines tied at the end to prevent things from leaking out as Merlinfixed the thing; the tenology seemed familiar, but the strangeness was in thelile details.“Just curious — what actually would kill the Knights?” Daleworth asked. “Intenical sense.”“I would prefer not to tell you that”, Merlin said.“Would puncturing the sarcophagus do that? I guess that's where you keepthe dust of the dead…”“I… suppose that's one way.”“…and the pipes probably move that dust to the ‘brain’, wherever they are.”“Fine, it is quite obvious that the secrets of death are well known to you. Notonly are you capable of taking life, you are well versed in destruction of non-livingthings.”Daleworth shrugged. “I kill robots on weekly basis.”“But what is a death of a maine, hmm?” Merlin asked. “Are they dead? Canthey die?”“Death is hard to define”, Daleworth said. “Killing is merely about takingsomething apart, isn't it?”“You could say that”, Merlin said.“And what is apart, you can rebuild. I wish you could do something to humansthis easy”, Daleworth said.February 20, 2632, 14:26 UTC