As I dived into the memories with Stalker by my side. I was glad to have my friend as an anchor, it would be all too easy to get lost in the memories otherwise. Still, I couldn’t take this lightly even though these memories were from lives lived decades and centuries ago, the danger was present and real.
… it was winter, and the snow crunched under my shoes as I moved through the street, I shivered in my layers of used clothes, I was nearly there, when I heard the cries and thuds of stones hitting flesh. I began to run towards the noise and saw a group of Brothers cornering a young man, pelting him with stones shouting something about the gate or gods, honestly I wasn’t paying attention, as the young man pulled a knife and suddenly the boat was on fire…
The easy part of normal weeding was getting rid of all the damaged materials, here memories that were corrupted or had bled into each other’s. Probably a result of all these memories being crammed tight together for so long. I quickly established some parameters for localizing these sorts of memories and began cutting them. This created much needed space and now the real work could begin…
… I looked up at Momma, she was carrying a large sack with our stuff and crying. I hated it when momma cried! “Momma, it’s gonna be ok! When the bad men come again… I will kick them!” She laughed a little. I was 7 years now, a big boy! I was carrying some of my clothes, but not my toys. The bad men had said that we needed to move to some gate…
The next part was identifying memories that were similar and reducing the number of these in the system. It was about maintaining a healthy balance, for example I wanted to save memories of atrocities committed, but instead of 1000’s of one atrocity, it might be better to save hundreds for all the atrocities. Luckily there were also great celebrations, moments that the people came together and helped each other, but the bad overshadowed the good.
Stalker reacted with confusion and disdain at the things the people of Limbo had done to each other over the course of history. Sadly, I was not that surprised, it still hurt cutting away the memories of these events though.
… The wind blew through my hair and brought with it the scent of flowers and summer! I laughed as I ran towards the enormous, barred gate, where Jula stood with her back towards the rest of us, counting out 1….2 ….3 …. ADMIN! And as she turned, we all tried to stand still, if she caught us moving, we would be in jail, I wasn’t fast enough and was still moving, Jula saw, but just gave me a smile and my heart suddenly beat double so fast and the wind blew though my hair and brought with it the scent of flowers and summer! I laughed as I ran towards the enormous, barred gate, where Jula stood with her back towards the rest of us, counting out 1….2 ….3 …. ADMIN! And as she turned we all tried to stand still, if she caught us moving we would be in jail, I wasn’t fast enough and was still moving, Jula saw, but just gave me a smile and my heart suddenly beat double so fast and the wind blew through my hair and brought with it the scent of fox and home… Stalker appeared and with a gentle nip brought me back.
Sometimes I got stuck in memories with strong emotions, like first love, pure hatred, panic and Stalker would have to pull me out, as I started to cut the redundant memories of once living people. We have probably all experienced the endless summer days growing up, playing with friends or the sweet times of new love and spending time together, maybe days at work with a good crew of colleagues… Days that kind of blend into each other? I had to cut into some of those memories to make room for new ones and each of the days were so endlessly precious and part of a lived life.
With a taste of blood in my mouth I slowly came out of the connection with the roots. It was done… I felt no joy, no great sense of accomplishment… No, what I felt was shame and sadness for what I had done.
I knew in my heart that I had no fault in the corruption or any of what had happened to the Ghostwood archive, but that did not matter much after being immersed in the hundreds, thousands of memories, and moments that I had culled in order to save the system.
Blue flashing indicated that the system was ready to reward me for my deed and I would take it, because I wanted to live, to thrive, to protect my pack… and ultimately because I was still weak! But not now, it could wait a minute!
With fresh tears in my eyes, I looked up at the guardian and said, “It is done… To limit further corruption please curate what you take in… I know it is not the help you wanted from me, but it is all I can offer”
The infected areas of the giant woodwraith were encompassed by a soft green glow and the infection was beginning to rot and crumble. In some places I could already see new branches starting to grow out again.
The guardian looked at the changes happening and then at me and Stalker “Thhis… hhelps… pplease… rreplace… mmmeeee!”
Sighing, I had literally been in his skin, so I knew the incredible focus and sense of duty that hid behind the frail body, but he was starting to sound like a broken record. I was still reeling from the emotional and dangerous ordeal I had just gone through to help him, and he wanted more…
My voice a bit strained as I said, “I am not sure how many times and in how many ways I can say this…”
Frino had been quietly watching the cleansing and the conversation, but now he stepped forward and asked:
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Does it… Does it have to be a believer?”
The guardian and I both looked at Frino… Me with horror, the guardian, limited in how expressive his face could be, but still managed to convey slightly stunned surprise and burgeoning hope.
“Frino! What are you doing?” I couldn’t hold back, “He has been stuck here for centuries! You saw what he has had to endure!”
The guardian whispered, “sooooo…. tiiiirrrreeeeed…. ggggoooddds … wwwiiillllll…. Uuunndddeerssstaaannndddd…”
Frino looked at me and said,” Do I want to spend my life here hoarding memories for gods I do not know?” sighing and picking at his wound, he continued, “of course not! But I am already dead, I can feel the roots spreading in me as I speak…”
I had no words, but tried anyway, “Frino… I... I don’t know what to say… If you do this, you will not be able to say goodbye to Nelly and Barlo…” Frino winced at those words and I saw some doubt entering his eyes.
Was it a low blow to drag his friends into it? Maybe but I had to appeal to… What the hell was I doing? I was acting exactly like my friends, when I had decided to end my misery in my last life! Worse even! At least Frino’s decision would let him continue in some form and maybe do some good at the same time…
The guardian, softly whispered, “ppplllleeeeaassee….” reaching out with multiple branches.
I looked at the guardian and at Frino and said, “Sorry Frino, that was uncalled for… This is your life and your decision; I’ll keep my mouth shut. “
Frino looked at me and said, “Thank you Mike, I wish we had more time together, but sometimes it’s not about how much time, but the things you go through in that time” He smiled, “I will try to keep the system free of corruption… Tell Nelly and Barlo I died a hero!”
With these words he reached out to the branches, and they carefully lifted him up and placed him in the formerly infected chest region next to the guardian, as he took his place a tiny acorn, with a soft green glow tumbled down to the ground and landed in the moist soil and sap. I almost missed it with my attention on Frino.
The guardian raised his hand, tearing his skin in the process, letting the red sap run freely, and grasped Frinos hand, the red coating both hands…
The guardian smiling his red sap smile, “rrrrreeeeesssstttt…” and the mummified remains crumbled, as if time had suddenly caught up with it, at the same time roots and branches sprouted out of Frino’s fresh body and a scream, guttural and filled with pain ripped out of him. Then silence.
I stood in the silence and looked at Frino’s body getting fully integrated in the giant root network… Little spasms ran through the body and there was no knowing how long he would be out of it… Or even how much of him would be left when he was done.
Stalker chose this moment to bump my knee and emote scent prey danger? I shook my head, and emoted back scent prey dream pack, no danger and added to myself, at least I hope that he is safe.
While waiting for Frino to finish his transformation to guardian. I checked the status screen and to my pleasant surprise I had a lot of messages… Like a lot!
You have unearthed a historic truth (lesser)!
You have gained experience!
Numerous similar notifications...
You have unearthed a historic truth (Intermediate)!
You have gained experience!
You have leveled up, you are now level 4!
+2 stat points earned.
You have leveled up, you are now level 5!
+2 stat points earned.
I had gotten two whole levels with my new skill “knowledge is power” and even better I had finished my quest and gotten my profession!
Quest: Cleanse the Corruption
Duration: Completed
Objective: Clear the corruption from the Ghostwood overflow facility.
Reward: Gain the Custodian of Lore profession
Custodian of Lore… I liked that title! I couldn’t wait to allocate stat points and dive into it and see what it was all about, but something about being in this creepy cavern made me wait. It wasn’t the lights made of memories periodically lighting up the structure my friend was transforming in. No, I had gotten used to that (weird how the goalpost for “used to” kept getting moved). It was the acorn glowing with green light that had fallen out of the infected part of the wood earlier…
I moved closer with Stalker by my side, looking at the acorn I knew (how did I know that?) it was a system construct with a profession inside… I couldn’t say if it was dangerous or not, but I had just gotten a profession, so it was not of immediate use to me, and Frino had chosen a path where professions didn’t factor in anymore.
I was curious about the timing of it all, just as I got a profession, another popped up? No, there had to be something fishy going on here… I wondered if it was a product of the infection, so maybe something twisted and dangerous?
Hard to know without using it, and no chance of that! At least it looked transportable, so maybe I could take it with me and sell it? Maybe it could be used to bribe Deggan to overlook the necklaces?
As I was thinking about what to do with the glowing acorn, Stalker was stepping toward it, sniffing it and just as I thought to maybe warn him about the possible danger… It happened, Stalker took the acorn and swallowed it… For a second, I could see the green glow from inside his mouth and then it was gone!
“Stalker!” I yelled loudly, emoting danger danger food! Stalker huffed with amusement and emoted no danger strong food. I quickly sat down at his side and started looking him over, at first, he was amused, then irritated and as I began pulling on his lips to gain access to his mouth. He growled and nipped my fingers.
My lesser pain resistance took the pain, but the meaning was impossible to misunderstand… Mister… pack or not… keep your filthy paws away from my mouth, or else… Which to be fair was understandable, but I was beside myself with worry.
Stalker was more than a friend, he was more than family, he was pack! And if I lost him to some poison pill from the system… The system better watch out because I would break it! (Yeah, you heard me right! You better make sure Stalker is okay!).
Stalker escaped my grasp and ran to the other side of the cavern, where he suddenly started convulsing! As I rushed over to him yelling “Stalker!” again and again, greenly glowing roots encapsulated his tiny form.
And I couldn’t reach him.
Mike used his librarian skills of weeding to navigate and curate the many memories collected in the archive. This memory dive could be an entire chapter in itself, but I was afraid that might be dragging the thing out. However if there is interest in it, I would be more then happy to dive back into it :)
What to expect from a memory dive chapter:
Mike navigating a multitude of memories in more detail, meaning more lore, more heartbreak, more talking about the dreaded weeding process (as a real life librarian, I understand the need, but hate the deed)
I will leave the poll up for january, one added rule, there needs to be more than 5 respondents (this not essentiel to the story, so I need a baseline interest before making the chapter)
Do you want to see Mike and Stalker navigating the memories in more detail?
