Quoted By:
"...Yes. But if I hadn't, the answer would still be no. If you had no blood, you wouldn't be Charlie, but it doesn't follow that your blood <span class="mu-i">is</span> Charlie. <span class="mu-i">Cum hoc ergo propter hoc.</span> If the Wyrm's Law weren't self-defining, it wouldn't be the Wyrm, but it doesn't follow that its Law <span class="mu-i">is</span> the Wyrm. Actually..." He drums on the table. "I shouldn't say that. That's false. My point is, Charlie, imagine you were a magician. Yes, contain your disgust. Imagine you injected the blood of somebody you knew into your veins. Say the blood of that horse man. Now imagine you activate this blood, transforming your body into a facsimile of the horse man's, and most likely gaining access to a rough copy of his psyche."
You wrinkle your nose. Richard smirks minutely. "I did say to contain your disgust. The question is, are you then the horse man? And the answer is, setting aside extraordinary cases, no. You have his blood, his body, his voice, a copy of his mind, but you do not have <span class="mu-i">him.</span> As an imperfect being, he is more than the simple sum of his parts. Now take the blood of the Wyrm. I will set aside any asterisks here, and we will treat it as a 1:1 example. Imagine you injected... or consumed... or drank this blood. Imagine it were 'activated.' Also, imagine, I suppose, that this blood were highly dilute. Like that man who turns into the shark? He dilutes his blood?"
"Earl?" Maybe you need to make him flash cards. "Um, I think so, yeah."
"Yes. Exactly. By diluting the blood, he experiences a percentage of its full effects. You obtained your 'Wyrm blood' through sideways methods, so it's naturally not as potent as if you drew it from the Wyrm's veins— which is not to say It has veins. I speak metaphorically. The point is, you possess, say, 1/100,000-strength Wyrm's blood. Now suppose it were activated."
Is this mathematics? You feel as though you need a pen, and maybe an abacus, but Richard doesn't sound like he's giving a test. (He has a particular tone of voice for that.) It must be simple. "...I'd have, um, 1/100,000th of the Wyrm's body? And mind, I guess?"
"You got it in one, Charlie. Now, it's nothing so precise, I made that figure up, but the core principles are the same. Your 'red stuff' is not, to be clear, the Wyrm. The Wyrm does not speak through it. More than likely, the Wyrm doesn't know or care that it exists, any more than you'd know if somebody drew your blood while <span class="mu-i">you</span> were sleeping. But, like any sort of blood, it carries the Wyrm's Law, its only Law, and its according tendencies. And, because the Wyrm is all-powerful, even such a drastic dilution continues to produce strong effects. Do you see?"
"...Yes." It makes more sense than mysterious red stuff. You'll probably keep calling it that, though. "What's that asterisks?"
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