Dusts of Avalon - Beastwithin.org

“So I'd imagine. Anyway, how did it all happen?” Dr. Grovepath asked.“It all began a few decades aer Arthur's death. I grew nearer death everyday. I was… I was finding I was not the ancient bard they thought I was going tobe. I was old when Arthur reigned, and I didn't expect to outlive him. Morgan,however, had worked on dead people more than I could ever have time for. Shehad devised a way to discern the state of consciousness from long-dead people.”“State of consciousness… from ashes of the dead?” Dr. Grovepath asked.“No, not ashes”, Merlin said. “Dust. A pyre will destroy what remains of theconsciousness. By the way, I was fairly amused by the name of the General ofyours. Pyrehill?”“Oh yes”, Daleworth said. “And believe it or not, his first name is Arthur. Hismiddle name is I-something. Probably ‘Irony’.”Merlin uled. “Anyway, A body must be le to rot, its brains must degradeto dust. We only recovered the brain; afflictions of the body, emotions of the heart,were no longer any kind of concern for us. ough it seems to me that they stillaffect us, even when their bodies no longer exist.”“I see”, Dr. Colbert said, “fire destroys whatever information was le, at leastmore certainly than other forms of natural degradation. I'm no medical expert,but even I know our science has struggled with this kind of things, to put it mildly.Brain death is an insurmountable obstacle — but we've always believed it's onlyan obstacle. Last I read about the most recent resear on this field, we havesome crude methods of decoding synapse pathways, but that only works on avery recently dead person — decoding something from dust is almost too fancifulto believe. We can decode, through statistical comparisons, what kind of skills theperson has developed, but it certainly doesn't work well enough to decode a person'smemories or their personality — neurostatisticians will say there are dozensof ways to remember a thing, and there are million faces to general crankiness…”Merlin coughed. “Isn't it a shame how in bale between solars and laymen,the laymen oen win, with tragic results? Morgan suggests some Greek paganscientists had discovered these things, shortly before Christian crusaders flayedthem alive for being vile necromancers they were”, Merlin said. “I have to sayI start to see her point of view on the ideals Arthur represented, even when Isomewhat believe she was slightly misguided in many maers.”“Yes, this has happened way too oen”, Dr. Colbert said.“Very well”, Dr. Grovepath said. “So — you figured out a way to decode thebrains from dust of the dead. What happened next?”“What happened next? I died. Morgan's granddaughter — I've forgoen whoit was, one of the several, I'm not good with names — said she'd bring me ba tolife. And her mainery worked, as you can see. Within this body lie my dustsand bones, in a coffin of metal. Around it lies mainery that makes it operate.Cold casket fashioned out of strange new metals, lead and titanium, surround my