Private: A Report

[youwonscience]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Cosima
RECIPIENT: Locked to Thranduil, Christine and Inessa
WHAT: Cosima has found something
WHEN: A bit after Cosima is cured.
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: No warnings for now. If we need to make this a bit time-fluid because of Inessa and Christine being affected by phylactery shenangians, no worries.

Hey, bosses, it's Cosima. So when I was working on helping to look for a cure to the blood plauge, I was looking at a lot of lyrium under my microscope, both mixed in blood and on its own. I didn't help cure the sickness, really, but I noticed that the lyriophages -- uh, the things causing lyrium to break down into that more liquid stage you may have seen it turn into -- interacted with the lyrium itself in ways I wouldn't have expected with a mineral. Since I've been well, I've been doing a few more experiments, and now I'm pretty sure.

...guys, I think lyrium's alive.

I mean, "life" is a complicated proposition, people in my world argue about the exact definition, but for our purposes, I'm gonna stand by that assessment. I'm writing up a detailed report and I'll get a copy to each of you, but since I have to copy it out longhand I wanted to tell you now so I wasn't just sitting on this.

I'll answer any questions I can, and I'm leaving it up to you guys who to tell and when.

Comments

{ private to all four of them }

[aceso]

What? It-- Is it some kind of plant?

[ She's thinking of lichen or something that grows on cave walls. Lyrium is mined, but if it's not a mineral, then she has to try and put this in terms she understands. ]

These lyriophages: they interact with lyrium the same way it does with other living things?

Jumping in, though if we eventually want an order, also fine

[youwonscience]

I've never seen anything exactly like the lyriophages. They're, uh, what I'm calling the things Anders was referring to as "blood sharks." Basically, they're tiny organisms that appeared to be eating the lyrium and excreting a broken down form. That's not, by itself, what makes me think the lyrium's alive, but it got me started down that road.

After all, organisms do sometimes consume inorganic material - we eat salt - but we were already looking into a pathogenic relationship. Lots of diseases in my world come from microorganisms attacking healthy living tissue.

I don't think lyrium fits neatly into plant or animal as I understand them. But it seems to react to stimuli in a way I wouldn't expect a crystal to do.

same here; just jump in whenever

[aceso]

You must forgive me if any of my questions are ignorant, but you mean that what you call lyriophages are what caused this illness? And because it was specifically attacking the lyrium to consume, then the lyrium is a living thing.

[ A pause. ]

Looking through your microscope, are there ways to test the lyrium to see how it reacts to other stimuli?

[circleprodigy]

What of red lyrium? [It's their project, she has to ask.] Cosima, where you able to examine it in similar detail? Is it 'alive', as well?

[aceso]

You are thinking along the same lines as I, Inessa. But I was wondering if a different sort of lyriophage -- as Cosima calls it -- has been attacking lyrium and making it turn red and changing its properties, instead of breaking it down.

[youwonscience]

Lyriophages are what I'm calling them for now -- "phage" comes from a word that means "to eat." But it's definitely a hypothesis worth looking into. I haven't been able to compare the red lyrium yet, mainly because I wanted to tell you guys first and see if you had suggestions for safely handling it. My understanding is that regular lyrium's usually not a problem unless you ingest it, but the red stuff can cause problems just from proximity. So I thought it'd make sense to check in before designing more experiments.

I'll get you all the notes of what I've done so far, but I think the more comparisons we can do, the more we'll learn. I'm actually... if I'm right, this is way closer to what I did at home than studying a mineral was, I've got more ideas of some ways forward. I don't want to jump to conclusions hastily, but it's a really promising idea.

[circleprodigy]

Yes, that's quite true about proximity. However, I believe Christine's laboratory has taken precautions. [Christine, feel free to chime in.] If you want us there for extra protection, I can make myself available.

[aceso]

Yes, our schedule allows for an hour of time per week with the red lyrium, pushing to two weeks if there are any illnesses or feelings of weakness. I certainly will not require you to be present if you feel uncomfortable directly handling it, however. That is why our team includes dwarves and a Tranquil person as well. They are more resistant, and would be willing to learn how to use your microscope. But if you would like to look into this yourself, I will of course be there to help.

[ A pause. ]

I know we are all busy women, but I would like to schedule this as soon as possible. We could make a great breakthrough if we can find out what makes this lyrium red, and so much more dangerous.

[youwonscience]

Yeah, I totally want to be there if you think I can be safely. If nothing else, I'm still the most familiar with the microscope, though I've been teaching people who are interested.

[In case anything happens to her, though she doesn't say that aloud. The blood plague was a close call.]

If you guys want to stop by my workspace in the meantime, I can show you what I've been looking at with the regular lyrium, to give you a baseline idea to compare from. And I think it might be worth comparing samples from different places. Inessa, do I remember right that we've got some pre-explosion lyrium from the Temple of Sacred Ashes you wanted us to look at?

[circleprodigy]

Yes, indeed. I'd be very interested in what we can learn from it, compared to the red.

[aceso]

Yes, we should stop by, and then I believe the best thing to do is call a meeting for all of us within the project so they can know lyrium is alive and we will be researching this further regarding the red.

[youwonscience]

Yeah, I think a lot of people will find the information useful -- even if we haven't totally confirmed it yet, there's enough evidence that it might set people down some new tracks they weren't considering.

I'm considering this priority one for now on my end, so just let me know when you want to meet and I'm there.