This document is classified Top Secret by the Dark Realm Research Institute. Not released to the public.
Compiled: 27 November 1886
Title: Traumatic Brain Injury
Surgery-1886-BE-001
Name: Adrian Okinga
Age: 33
In the first craniotomy targeting Dark Realm Erosion, the patient’s mind plunged like a cliff fall after prolonged exposure, wracked by hallucinations and broken memories.
The operation was led by a top neurosurgical team, instruments buzzing like bees, seeking and excising regions the erosion had fouled.
Once Adrian was under, they lifted the skull like a lid; the cortex churned, twisted, a stormed sea in cramped bone.
They teased apart fiber bundles linked to the Dark Realm Erosion, trying to cleanse the stained strands with a device, like rinsing soot from silk.
Midway, an unexpected energy backlash snapped like a whip from the void, driving the procedure off its rails.
The team fought like firefighters in a gale, but the candle of his life went out on the table.
Surgery-1886-BE-002
Same date.
2 p.m.
Name: Iris Collins
Age: 23
Her case was a knotted net: the mind frayed, the body waning like winter grass.
The team, burned by failure, chose a new isolation method, to strip the source from the brain like a thorn from flesh.
They built a barrier inside Collins’s brain, a dam of light to block the Dark Realm from healthy tissue.
As they pressed deeper, they found the erosion rooted in her deep awareness, stubborn as vines through stone.
The barrier stood in the flesh, but pain kept gnawing like cold rain; hours later, she bit her wrist artery and ended it.
Surgery-1886-BE-003
28 November 1886
Name: Frans Kegen
Age: 47
A logistics worker at the Institute, he strayed into the Dark Realm by accident, and returned with ruinous erosion, like frostbite in the soul.
After two failures, the researchers chose a gentler path, a guidance therapy, to steer the erosion as one turns a river.
They avoided cutting, and used an energy conduction device to shift the taint inside his brain, like easing a knot.
Even soft hands couldn’t bar tragedy. The procedure was calm as dusk, yet soon after, his mind collapsed and death took him.
All three surgeries had family consent and patient signatures.
Deputy Director Evelyn Stratford observed the procedures in full, eyes steady as a night watch.
Below is her recorded interview.
Recorded on magnetic tape.
Interviewer: Robert, Investigator, Dark Realm Research Institute.
Question: Wasn’t scheduling three operations in a row too rushed?
Answer: We weighed the matter like stones in both hands and chose the best path within limited time.
Before each procedure, our team argued hard and clear, learning from the previous failure, attacking the knot from different angles.
We also measured each patient’s decline against the risk and the possible gain, like sailors reading tides before a crossing.
These three surgeries were brave blows against Dark Realm Erosion, and a quick net to gather data and experience for better treatment later.
We’ll keep auditing each attempt, and we’re seeking alternatives and safer therapies, like lanterns lit along a long road.
Question: Why restart the suspended operations?
Answer: We made that choice after deep thought and many-sided review, like charting a map from scattered stars.
Dark Realm Erosion worsens by the day. More people suffer, some near death. Existing data can’t meet the wave. We need a new breach.
On prior work, we gained theory and experiment that deepened our grasp of its nature, like seeing the river’s undercurrent.
The surgeries fell short, yet yielded hard-won lessons, letting us refine plans and tools.
Given urgency and human need, we must test every path and fight for a sliver of life for patients.
Risk remains, but with rigor, teamwork, and a steady will to explore the unknown, we will find a way to resist the erosion.
Question: Some say your scheduling links to your return from Shattered City. Your view?
Answer: I understand the timing invites connection, but there’s no direct tie, like parallel lines under one sky.
I did gain leads and possible directions about Dark Realm Erosion, but that wasn’t the trigger.
Shattered City made me feel the gravity and urgency like cold iron in the hand, so we sped our review and upgrades.
Restarting was a collective decision, based on full analysis of data, patient progress, and projected impact.
We face a hard sea. As Deputy Director, I must hold both science and mercy, and push toward a cure.
Question: You left the Institute briefly. Was that key to the restart?
Answer: Given the knotty and urgent nature of the erosion, we seek cross-disciplinary and cross-field help, like braiding cords into one rope.
An expert with a unique background and hard-won experience offers new angles and breakpoints for us. Details remain confidential for now.
When the time is right, we’ll introduce this expert to the public and authorities.
Please trust our steps serve one aim: to better fight Dark Realm Erosion and save lives under its shadow.
Question: After failure, what comes next?
Answer: The failures cut us deeply. Each attempt was a lantern into fog. Though dim, it showed the road’s ruts.
We will run a full review, study every slip in the process, and adjust our strategy from those scars.
We will also invite that expert to join us against the erosion, seeking a more effective treatment.
Interview ends.
Attachment request code for this interview: Archive-1886-BE-Meeting-001-Attachments
Hedi gripped the file, fingers white as frost, her gaze pinned to the sofa’s edge, replaying the dialogue and the meticulous surgical notes.
No doubt: the surgeries happened two days after the café talk, like thunder trailing lightning.
The subjects weren’t patients in the usual sense, but ordinary people drowning under erosion, after conventional means failed.
The Institute had sent me an invitation, clear as a push, ready to set me on the table.
This chain of decisions… was pure flint, sparking without care for lives in the tinder!
Hedi thought, and another thorn surfaced.
The record says I brought a breakthrough to their research. So the restart… was because of me?
Goddammit, the Institute didn’t send this to apologize. They hung a Sword of Damocles over my head.
Stratford, you’re really the worst.
