Chapter 616 - End of a Struggle (Part 1) (1/2)
The first part of the operation required that space be made for the new nervous tissue without harming the patient. Lith had no experience in the field and the brain was too sensitive of an organ for a rookie.
Vastor took the lead, removing what he could and using Body Sculpting to slightly alter Zinya's skull to create more room whenever he had no other choice. The changes were so subtle that only a detailed diagnostic spell like Scanner could detect them.
When he was done, he stepped out and made space for Lith.
”Remember, the best approach is always to go from easy to hard. Start by creating the optic nerve from the eye end and leave the connection with the thalamus for last. That way, we can immediately check if the brain receives the right stimuli.
”If we worked the other way around and make even just a few mistakes, the sudden massive flow of wrong inputs might cause permanent damage. Plus, we would need to destroy all the connections and redo everything from scratch, since we would have no idea what went wrong.” Vastor said.
Lith did as instructed and created the optic nerve, the chiasma, and the optic trait. Then, he used his Probe spell to create small tendrils of semi solid mana that stimulated Zinya's visual cortex following Kamila's optic nerve pattern.
The tendrils would carry the electrical impulses that light generated by hitting Zinya's eyes and allow Lith to check how the brain processed the acquired information. That way Lith could make sure that the impulses would travel through the right pathway before making a physical connection.
”Zinya, I need you to keep talking during the entire procedure. I don't care what you say, I just need to check your cognitive functions and your mood. If you feel anything weird, just tell me. Don't hold anything back.” Lith said.
Zinya nodded and started to recount whatever she remembered from her youth. As long as everything was okay after testing with Probe, Lith would grow the optic nerve, yet more than once he was forced to stop and backtrack.
Sometimes the electrical impulses would cause her small spasms. Other times fits of pain or uncontrollable mood changes. Every time that happened, Lith had to quickly disconnect the tendrils and search for another point of access to her brain.
Luckily, the more the procedure progressed on the right track, the more Zinya regained her sight. It gave Lith a clear indicator of his progress and gave Zinya something useful to talk about.
At the beginning, she could only see a white light, but every time Lith found a proper pathway she would start to see small dots of colors appear.
”Dammit, Lith. Your Probe spell is amazing. It saved us a lot of mana and the patient a lot of pain.” Vastor said. Even with his expertise, he would have missed the right connection more than once.
Yet his help proved to be invaluable for Lith. Whenever he had no idea how to proceed, it would take the Professor just a couple of tries to find the right pathway among hundreds of seemingly identical alternatives.
”You are doing great, son. I'm really proud of you.”
Lith nodded, not having the luxury of wasting his focus to reply. What Vastor had no idea of, was that to be able to carry a physical stimulus, Probe required a great expenditure of mana.
It was one of the reasons Lith couldn't hold it for long back when he had used Probe for the first time on Zinya. Such a huge amount of energy would have burned her brain and left him weakened in a matter of minutes.
Now, however, he was only creating the extremities of the optical nerve with Probe, lessening the burden on both Zinya and himself. The procedure took a few hours, forcing Lith to take a rest.
Vastor or Quylla stepped in to check on the progress, keeping the patient's conditions stable while Lith consumed a tonic and used Invigoration to regain his mental focus.
Mana wasn't an issue, but he could feel his concentration declining. For a normal Healer, it would have taken several minutes for a tonic to give them back their focus, but Invigoration had no such problem.