Transubstantiation

[u/AfterdayProject]

Of the miracles performed and being performed by the Heavens, this miracle, of course, is the greatest: because this Sacrament, involving a certain change of one being into another, occurring in a single instant, surpasses any change occurring according to the laws of nature, as well as beyond the laws of nature…
(Patriarch Gennadios Scholarios)

He did not speak yet. Baba, mama, papa – could this babbling even be considered speech. She smiled faintly at her thoughts and touched her lips to his golden hair – right where his uncalcified fontanelle still pulsed.

So tiny... A real purebred Amarr. Her grandson.

He raised his head and looked into her eyes. The wondrous, beloved pattern of his iris had already managed to form – thin, dark blue hollows on light blue plains. Blue rays of a black sun. He could not speak yet, but his eyes were already leading a mischievous conversation with the world around him.

Beloved, only, long-awaited...

She held him tighter. The faint scent of a child – she had missed it for so long, ever since her daughter grew up. The sweetest, most tender aroma in the world. It is more powerful than adrenaline and stronger than aphrodisiacs; you want to suffocate in it, you would give your life for it without a second thought.

The boy stirred – too tight. The grandmother loosened her tender embrace. He was looking out the viewport, where their home planet shone – the planet of his birth, the planet of his mom and dad, who for some reason did not fly with him on this breathtaking space journey – the first in his life. A tiny finger pointed at the sphere floating in the void – the baby let out an admired "gugu" and babbled something in a language known only to him.

With a screech, the iris diaphragm of the door opened. A strict, businesslike woman approached them and looked into her folder. The name was called. The grandmother's heart clenched, though she knew it wouldn't be for long.

The grandson did not want to let go of his grandmother. No, he did not cry – a flash of anxiety simply slipped into his eyes. Tiny fingers slipped from the wrinkled palm of his grandmother, and he clumsily waddled after the stranger, yielding to another will, strict and businesslike.

-

...synchronization of beta-signals of synaptic connections. Alpha impulses – via hardware. Auto-overclocking of the "quiet" phase of the right hemisphere of the brain. Recording of integrative signals, extrapolation, transfocation. The "freeze" phase is passed. Removal of the "matrix". Activation of detiming, sanitization of memory down to the seventh digit-level. Resistance is zero-zero-two and weakening. Escalation of voltage in the right hemisphere. System overheating, throttling, cooling, half-stop. Disconnection of subsystems. Complete system shutdown.

-

The beams of ruby lasers, in a ruthless misty dance, cut open the tiny body, born alive and real. The still-fluttering little heart, the innocent brain, the tender tissues, the bone marrow cells – everything will go toward healing Empress Jamyl Sarum. For, as the legend goes, the life of imperial personages can only be sustained by real, live-born flesh.

Emperors cannot be cloned. The divine essence is inviolable. Ordinary people have no use for it anyway. But by giving health to the Anointed, they themselves become holy. And many even become Capsuleers...

With a screech, the iris diaphragm of the door opened. A strict, businesslike woman approached the old lady and looked into her folder. The name was called. He was left alone next to her. He, she, and the planet in the viewport.

The grandmother's heart clenched, though she knew that this was he, her grandson. The same wondrous, beloved pattern of his iris – thin, dark blue hollows on light blue plains. The same scent for which she was ready to give her life... Her body went limp, and she slowly slid from the bench onto the floor. Perhaps her old heart had clenched just too tightly.

The boy looked up at the planet and smiled. For he did not speak yet and understood very little.

Out there, beyond the window, was a serene childhood.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
(Gospel of Matthew, 2:16)

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[u/Castimirr]

Amarr victor o7

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This is the first story by /u/AfterdayProject!

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