DEATH IS ETERNAL #439 by GIC

THE SCHOLARS’ BLUE BLOOD and THE INK THAT ENDURES

Contents

1. THE SCHOLARS’ BLUE BLOOD (genre: biopunk)

2. THE INK THAT ENDURES (genre: bildungsroman)

THE SCHOLARS’ BLUE BLOOD

Genre: biopunk

Inspiration: 1355 – The St Scholastica Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.

Word count: 481

Photo by FlyD on Unsplash

The scholars bled blue. That was the first sign something was wrong.

On the eve of St. Scholastica’s Day, the taverns of Oxford swelled with the usual tension between town and gown. It took only a bitter pint—spoiled, they said, by the innkeeper’s greed—to ignite the old fury. The students, emboldened by intellect but dulled by ale, threw their tankards first. Hardened by labour and embittered by years of academic arrogance, the townsfolk retaliated with fists and cobblestones.

A riot was nothing new. But the scholars bled blue.

A townswoman named Edwynna saw it first when a brick struck a young man’s temple, splitting his skin. The blood that ran down his face glowed, pulsing with an eerie cyan light. She screamed, drawing the attention of those around her. The student, dazed and bleeding, staggered backward. His fellows dragged him into the shadows, but the damage was done. The town smelled sorcery.

The next morning, the city was not at peace. Instead, rumours spread like fire through dry parchment. The scholars were no longer men. They were changelings, alchemists’ constructs, abominations hiding in human skin. Had they dined on some philosopher’s stone? Had their blood been transmuted by secret elixirs?

By midday, the riot turned into a hunt. The townsfolks stormed the colleges, torches in hand, dragging scholars from their rooms, demanding proof of their humanity. The blue blood was proof enough.

The truth, however, lay in the laboratory of one Dr. Nicholas Ferrow, buried deep within the stone halls of Merton College. He and his colleagues had been experimenting on themselves for months, ingesting tinctures distilled from rare metals and modified fungi. The goal has been resilience—greater endurance for long nights of study, resistance to illness, and perhaps even an enhanced mind. Instead, their blood had changed. Their wounds healed unnaturally fast. They no longer caught common ailments. Their eyes burned too brightly in the dark.

The town would not listen to reason. They called for the scholars’ deaths, fearing they would infect the rest of England with their unnatural essence. The colleges barricaded themselves, but numbers were against them. By nightfall, the cobbled streets were slick with the mingling of crimson and blue. The scholars, despite their enhancements, were not warriors. Against the sheer rage of the mob, their intellect meant little.

By the end of the second day, 63 scholars lay dead, their corpses dragged into the streets, torched to ensure no contamination remained. At least 30 townsfolks had fallen as well, though no one counted them with such precision.

The king’s decree came too late. Justice was demanded. Fines were paid. The town was punished for its slaughter, but the knowledge—true knowledge—was lost. Whatever Ferrow and his colleagues had discovered, it burned alongside their bodies.

And yet, years later, there were whispers. In hidden corners of Oxford, certain students still bled blue.

The end

THE INK THAT ENDURES

Genre: bildungsroman

Inspiration: 1258 – The Siege of Baghdad ends with the surrender of the last Abbasid caliph to Hulegu Khan, a prince of the Mongol Empire.

Word count: 821

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash