Meanwhile, on San Servolo, the Black Night continues…
At the Ospedale San Servolo Dei Malati di Mente, Carlo observed the waning of the Rent in the Sky with much interest. What would this mean for his experiments? Wondering if the Rent had in fact made his treatments more successful, Carlo decided that he must act now whilst the Rent had disappeared to see if this was the case.
Since their experiments began they moved extremely slowly, but after the advent of the Rent, the works exploded with progress. It stood to reason, Carlo thought, that his superiors would also be highly interested in the Rent’s impact on their treatments and decided not to ask permission, instead choosing to carry out the experiment and report with the results later.
Approaching the patient Carlo smiled reassuringly at the young boy who had been strapped down to a bed.
“Do not fret young man, I’m going to help you. Do you know what ails you?”
The boy barely shook his head; days of prolonged testing had left him devoid of spirit. Lifting up his chin, the doctor peered into his eyes as if searching for something. He took a syringe from the tray presented by his orderly.
“The last time I injected the patient with this, the body acted without thought. Spasms were recorded, and a mania that couldn’t be calmed for several hours,” the Doctor said matter-of-factly, reeling off the experiment from memory so that the orderly could keep notes, “But that was with the magical power of the Rent. Now that the Rent has waned, I want to see what effect it has on the patient.”
With that the doctor injected the boy with a blue serum and waited patiently for him to show signs of action or distress. The patient’s eyes clouded over, and his mouth hung agape. After several minutes of this unintended coma, the boy vomited profusely and returned to a normal state, twitching and whimpering.
“Disappointing,” Carlo shook his head, “I was hoping for more. Still, it shows how depending our work is on that astral tear.”
Carlo carefully wrote his findings down in a journal held stoically by the orderly. He paused several times to consider his findings and their ramifications. If the Rent in the Sky was tied so inextricably to the success of their experiments, maybe they should be studying its presence with increased vigour.
Maybe this was not quite as unsuccessful as initially thought.”