Eyes

"Learn the Holy Light from me?" Uther split a log with his massive axe, the weapon in his hands savage and violent. "Me?"

Liadrin nodded. She could not understand why Lister always sought Uther out whenever he had something on his mind instead of choosing her. In her view, the Holy Light was the same for everyone, with no distinction of rank or worth. Yet even Lady Vandelor had praised Uther as one of Azeroth's finest priests.

"Then come help me chop firewood, miss." Uther set the huge axe before Liadrin. "I still need to teach the children to write, and the printing work is pressing too. It would be wonderful to have your help."

Liadrin reluctantly picked up the axe and swung its heavy blade with great difficulty. Uther's voice came from behind her. "Be careful. Once you finish chopping the wood, come find me at the church."

Looking at the enormous pile of thick logs, Liadrin silently cursed. Uther immediately turned his head. "Don't lose your temper, little girl. The Holy Light teaches us to be humble and patient."

"Fine!" the priestess shouted back, raising the axe and nearly smashing it down. "I'll be very patient!"

Lister watched Liadrin chopping wood, then entered the printing house with Uther. Uther smiled and asked, "I haven't seen you in a while, and you've become a duke. If I don't see you for another decade or so, will you become king?"

"King? You don't honestly think I want to do something that dull and tedious, do you?" Lister raised an eyebrow and handed Uther several vials. "Lesser Stoneshield Potion, Minor Magic Resistance Potion, Defense Potion—good stuff for staying alive."

"There's no danger right now." Uther glanced at the warhammer propped beside the door. The once exquisite hammer had become exceedingly rough. He accepted the potions. "All right, there are wolves at night. A very small number of the big ones are still dangerous."

"How is the latest newspaper printing going?" Lister flipped through the freshly printed papers, the crisp scent of ink refreshing his spirit. "Master Kel'Thuzad said newspaper sales seemed to have declined lately, affecting his experiments."

"There's nothing I can do about that. I only lay things out according to the material you give me. But, Lister, the shops in Dalaran are limited. We've printed more than thirty issues now, and I've looked through them. We've reported on almost every shop. Readers are bound to grow tired of it." Uther sighed helplessly. "The workers know their income has fallen too, but no one has complained, because you are an employer who truly gave them shares. Every one of them is part of the newspaper."

"So, we need more content. Better content. More explosive content." Lister folded his arms. Uther's expression turned serious. "What content? Dalaran isn't the wilderness. There are no adventures there..."

"What if I have one, Uther?" Lister revealed a sly smile. "Now is exactly the time to begin a grand adventure. I wonder whether you would be willing to join?"

Uther covered his head. "You always have so many ideas. How is your Mage Eye research going? Haven't started it yet?"

"Uh, soon."

C'Thun probably hated Uther to death. Every time, he had to remind Lister that he still had one of C'Thun's eyeballs left to dissect.

To answer the Holy Light's demands, Lister disinfected his entire body and reached out to grab an eyeball. Not C'Thun's, of course. That was a legendary item, the only one of its kind in the world. He would start with the simplest eyeball and practice on a wolf's.

After steadying himself, Lister worked beneath Kel'Thuzad's cold gaze. His fingers deftly dug an eyeball from the head of a frozen dire wolf, then he suddenly lowered his head. Kel'Thuzad tilted his head. "Get out and throw up!"

"I'm very sorry!" Lister ran out bent over, then returned to his station a moment later with a pale face. He picked up the eyeball again. A rune was attached to the silver-plated surgical scalpel, ensuring that no blood would stick to it.

He gently cut open the eyeball, forcing himself to endure the nausea stirred by its innards. Kel'Thuzad patiently waited for the feeling to pass, then took half the eyeball and began to explain in detail. "Mm, this is the sclera, the outermost skin of the eyeball in your hand. Peel it off slowly, like peeling the membrane from a boiled egg. Slowly. Yes, yes, yes. Now put it under the microscope. Let's take a look."

"Pay attention to the pupil. Switch to the other eye and slowly pry open its pupil. Slowly. Do it under the microscope, since that part is difficult to separate. Hurry up. The lens structure behind it alone will give you three days of study."

Over three days, under Kel'Thuzad's guidance, Lister dissected more than a thousand eyeballs. The goblins' entire stock of forest wolves had been emptied.

"This is my Anatomical Analysis. I hope you study it carefully." Kel'Thuzad tossed one of his works to Lister. Lister nodded. "I will."

Kel'Thuzad took his payment and dried fish, then departed at an unhurried pace, as though he had merely done something insignificant.

Yes, insignificant. Lister returned to the laboratory and went to the desk, spending an entire day carefully studying his notes before casting Mage Eye according to the laws of biology.

An ordinary Mage Eye was simply a crude periscope. Two convex lenses were condensed with ice magic, then Arcane power stuck them together and sent them flying into the air. The mage connected to them with mental power, and there—it was done.

But Kel'Thuzad did not see it that way. Bionics was the new driving force behind a mage's creations. This dead thing, no different from a telescope, did not deserve to exist as a Mage Eye. It needed to adjust its own focus automatically and function without being connected to a mage's mind. Astaroth had used this trash spell, which was why he had gone temporarily blind during battle. Kel'Thuzad's words were harsh, but they made perfect sense.

Based on the data he had gained from dissection, Lister slowly constructed an eyeball with Arcane magic: cornea, pupil, iris, lens, and lines that carried magic power in place of optic nerves. This was even more complicated than a real eyeball, because all the membranes of a real eye shared one supply system. Within a Mage Eye, however, the magical vibration frequencies and intensities simulating each tissue differed, requiring additional channels to transport magical power.

Lister pushed string theory, runology, and biology to their limits. It was not until the fourth day that he barely completed the model. This simple Mage Eye contained nineteen complex rune nodes. Every rune was built from several smaller runes, allowing the entire eyeball to move flexibly without collapsing.

But this Mage Eye would be one meter in diameter. Was that really an eye?

This was why the human body was the most complex machine. With the model complete, the next steps became easier. Lister began removing unnecessary components. The immense amount of revision work immersed him in the world of Arcane magic so completely that, when Kel'Thuzad came to see him, he even urged him to make some dried fish for Mr. Bigglesworth. Mr. Bigglesworth had used him as a litter box for three nights in a row.

"More or less like this." A translucent azure eyeball floated before Lister. Under his control, it bounced and moved with agility. It was hard to imagine that it was merely an artificial creation. Otherwise, how could it move? Change the size of its pupil? Flash emotions just like a human being?

Lister's vision received an extraordinary enhancement. He could see, clearly see, places very, very far away. But that was far from enough. The eyeball before him silently dissipated into Arcane energy and returned to his body. Human eyes worked like this, but animal eyes did not.

Infrared vision, bats' ultrasonic echolocation, the pineal gland's light perception—there was far too much worth studying. If he had not gained such a long life as a half-elf, it was hard to imagine how dull and tedious human mages must be. Perhaps Kel'Thuzad had taken that path so he could experience the feeling of being alive forever.

The moment Lister stepped outside, Lady Melis threw several changes of clothes at him. "Now! This instant! Go take a bath!"