Limits.

He replied "15 Black Hals". I nodded my head, and gave him 15 Black Hals. He seemed surprised, and said "I thought you were going to barter a bit". I smiled, and replied "I don"t have the need to barter. Besides, you are a good blacksmith, so I know the quality and precision will be good. I don"t mind paying for such things". The old Lizard replied "If you have any other tools or weapons, that you would like to make, be sure to come by". I nodded my head, and left the workshop.

I first went to see Crow, and trained with him. Crow was getting more used to being blind, and his training was going along nicely. With Crow"s training taken care of, I left Olrad, and headed towards the Wilderness. I had to catch something, and test out my tools. For that purpose, I searched for Corpse Dogs. It wasn"t hard to find them, outside of the Obsidian Mountains range. I caught one, and started my experiment.

"This is tricky, even with the tools" I thought, as I tried to connect the nerves. In the end, I connected the nerves, and the eyeball stayed in the socket. "I have to watch that Corpse Dog for a few days. When it heals properly, I will check whether its eyes are working" I thought. Time pa.s.sed, and the Corpse Dog should have healed completely. I took off the bandages from its eyes, and had a look. When I moved my finger, the dog didn"t react. Even when I moved my finger closer and further away, the eyes didn"t react at all. "This is a failure. Its eyes are no longer functional" I thought, and gave the Corpse Dog a quick death.

I didn"t go back to Olrad, and simply caught another Corpse Dog. I tried again, and again, but nothing worked. All Corpse Dogs, that I tried the procedure on, couldn"t see anymore. "What else is there, besides the nerves? It"s just that nerve, which connects the eye. Then is that really impossible? I can"t replace eyes?" I thought. I didn"t want to give up, and decided to try a different creature. I caught a Fire Mare, that lived at the Obsidian Mountains. After doing the procedure, the creature"s eyes had some reactions, but the Fire Mare was still pretty much blind.

"This one worked a bit. It"s weird, I did everything the usual way. Nothing changed, so why could it see a bit?…. " I thought. I decided to give it a few more tries, and the same thing happened. "Hmmm, maybe because Fire Mares are not rotting, so the nerves are in much better shape" I thought. I had no other solution, and it didn"t seem that changing anything, would provide different results. "If that is the case, I should be able to return Crow"s sight, at least partially" I thought.

It was better than nothing, I guessed. "I could try to find a perfect solution, but how many years would it take. Crow"s eyes were already left in that state for a while. If I don"t do anything, I may never be able to return even a bit of his sight" I thought, and returned to Olrad. There, I told Crow the good, and the bad news. Crow replied "Do it then. Being able to see a bit, is better than being completely blind. Your training also allowed me to perceive my surroundings a bit better. With more training, I might not even need the eyes, to move around".

I nodded my head, and said "Alright. I will try my best to repair your sight. If you get it back then great, if not, I will train with you, until you can walk normally everywhere. I can"t just leave you here, unable to do anything". Crow nodded, and said "I"m alright with that". I prepared for the procedure, of replacing Crow"s eyes. I took it much more seriously this time. This was my friend after all.

I made sure all my tools were clean. I took out the preserved eyes, that used to belong to Teron. I also took out the poison, that would paralyze Crow. I had to use a lot more on him, due to him being a Shade. A Corpse Dog, became paralysed with a few drops of my Extract, Crow needed quite a substantial amount. With everything ready, I said "Open your eyes". Although Crow didn"t have eyes, he knew what I meant, and opened the eye sockets.

I looked around, and said "As I suspected, I will need to cut you up a bit. The wound managed to heal up a bit, and it"s going to make it more difficult. Just take the poison, and try to bear the pain". Crow nodded, and said "Alright". I gave him the poison, and waited for it to kick in. When Crow became paralysed, I started cutting out the healed up flesh. I could hear Crow gritting his teeth, but he had to bear through this.

With the wound opened up again, I saw the nerves. They were a bit different than those of Fire Mare, but a nerve, was a nerve. I managed to find the correct nerves on the eyeb.a.l.l.s as well, and began connecting them. I had to use a replacement for Trantum Solution, and I also improved the recipe. Because poison couldn"t really harm Shades, I added poison to the solution, and used that to connect the nerves. This seemed to work well, because Crow felt much less pain, then he would have.

The procedure went rather smoothly, and no complications arose during the procedure. With the eyes attached, I wrapped Crow"s eyes, and head with bandages. I then said "It"s done. Don"t try to move, or do anything to your eyes for a few days. Just rest, and let the eyes heal up. I will take the bandages off, once I deem it safe". Crow replied "Alright, I will watch out". I then continued "I have no idea whether this will work or not. I tried that on different creatures, but only Fire Mares were able to get a fraction of their sight back. I hope you will be able to see completely, or at least partially".

Crow smiled, and said "Don"t worry. I told you already, that I can still function without my eyes. Your training is something, I must master in order for that to work. This will be very useful to me in the future anyway, whether my new eyes work or not". I nodded, and let Crow rest. I returned to my room at the inn, and focused on my energy control training. "There is still a long road ahead of me, before I can achieve the full control" I thought, and continued my practice.