The crystal from the Memory-Orchard, the one that was actually made out of Joan's pretty violent defense, started to have an effect. Its glow, showing the complex story of how and why a blow had to be given, was like a quite a small device inside the Body that operates by vibration and helps to find the right pitch. The connection was strongest with the Guardian Theme, but also with the older and darker memories of past fights and pains scattered around.
A very unusual combination started to be formed. The Guardian Theme, altered by the crystal's very detailed lesson, was also changing as a result of it. Its normally calm and even watchful tone got something different. From then on, it was not only about making things safe, but also about developing them so that they could endure. It began to do this by very small and controlled "workouts" of the systems — a tiny improvemnt of liquid pressure here, a short vibration of a perfectly functioning field there.
Obviously, at first, the Healer Theme was in fear of change. What was the point in fixing it if it wasn't broken in the first place?
Anyway, the transformed Guardian—probably better named as the Resilience Theme at this point—demonstrated its mission to the frightened one. The tiny stresses caused by the changes led to adaptation. For example, an apparently quite simple lymph thingy, gently pushed, grew a stronger, more flexible wall. A crystal lattice, given a quick shock, found a better, more stable configuration. A bunch of memory-repeats, slightly stirred, became one with the gang in a better way.
The comparison with a vaccination came up. Not a vaccination against an external threat, but rather against being weak internally. The Body was taught how to become stronger via overcoming small, self-created problems.
Afterwards, the Resilience Theme turned its attention to the most deeply buried, the oldest, wounds: those first cut points from the very first harvests, the mental bruises in the Nerve-Jungles, the dull, throbbing void where the Main Memory Chunk had been (before a part of it was saved). The Healer had tried to help these spots, but really didn't have the power to fix them—scars on the soul.
Slowly, very carefully, the Resilience Theme placed a bit of that old pain in these spots. Not the full-on screaming agony, but only a faint trace of it. A feeling of the hurt.
The response was very fast and strong. The beings around these old wounds realized what was happening. However, this time they were not helpless. They were healed and therefore, when facing what had attacked them in the past, they reacted differently; quite the opposite, they mobilised a strong, team-effort burst of healing from the whole Body. The mycelium network carried the nutrients. The smooth fields, changed into beams of healing energy. Memory-repeats of strength and love flooded the area.
The pain ghost confronted a wave of perfect health from today. And it was in that encounter that something very different happened. The old scars didn't just fade away; in fact, they totally transformed. They became super-strong places, full of life. The first cut, a miles-long line in the cheek of the divine, was starting to shine with a new, oily glow, even stronger than the stone around it. The Nerve-Jungle's hurt flowers didn't disappear, but their light turned into a rich, deep purple that was pulsing with the beat of shared trauma—a warning and some wisdom.
The Body was doing more than just rewinding its past and fixing what had been broken. It was turning the trick into gold. By transforming heavy pain into strength of the highest kind. The Resilience Theme took the lesson from the purple-gold crystal: you don't run away from a shadow, instead you turn and confront it with all the power you have.
Maxine's ghost, as the Carver, observed this, delighted. This was the finest operation ever: employing the memory of the disease for the creation of something healthier. It was perfect. It was clever.
Joan's ghost, who is now part of the Resilience Theme, sensed a strong, quiet revenge. Her violent act, which was both necessary and terrible, had become a lesson that made the entire Body not only safer, but also more alive, more adaptable and more intelligent by not raising higher walls but rather by the walls themselves being alive, adaptable and smart.
They were no longer just a peaceful world. Instead, they were a world that knew peace because it had experienced war, and learned to turn that memory into both a shield and a teacher. The fasting from fighting was done. They had mastered it, and thus, had made it part of their power.