The hairs in my nostril lay aflame from the stench of ash, rot, salt, blood, rotten eggs, and something earthy. My eyes open to the sight of green ghastly globs that swirl like fog but stay a single corporeal mass. These masses split and merge freely, flying up, down, and around, disappearing through the porous floor made up of brimstone, ash, bone meal, and rich soil. The sky is a mix of various gases coalesced against a ceiling left obscured by it. Sickly hues of red, blue, and green twitch erratically through the sky. Around me are holed pillars of bone and dead coral mixed with obscenely sized mushrooms, some of which quiver, others bounce gleefully, and yet others stare into your soul. I can hear the release of spores from these mushrooms, akin to the sound of loud breathing layered atop each other. All around me a resonant bell toll permeates, and I can also hear the sound of various water sources, some calm like a beach, others turbulent like a mountain river.
I slowly rise to my feet alongside the sounds of chains. Old and mossy shackles are fixed to my wrists, ankles, and neck, with broken chains hanging off of each of them. Even though these shackles and chains connect to nothing, I still feel drained and restrained, barely able to walk. My skin is dry and dark as a mummy, and on it grow small colonies of fungi.
This place feels… correct. As if I have always belonged here. There is a pull, an invisible thread pulling me towards my destination. Yes, my final destination. I have become a wretch of the underworld. I have died.
Without conscious thought my feet shuffle towards the destination, chains being dragged along. From behind clouds of vapor, beings emerge. Beings made up of triangular pyramids of glass. Many such mirror pyramids make up a vague humanoid shape wearing a mask. One wears a Japanese kitsune mask, another a calavera mask, another wears a plague mask, yet another a military gas mask, and yet another wears an African dan mask. These beings don't move in a natural sense. The pyramids teleport from one spot to another attached to its body. In a way, they 'grow' in the direction they move in.
They silently observe me with minor movement as I continue along towards my destination. My destination is far away, very far away, but even so, I can sense traces of energy. A kind of energy alien to me. One that I cannot describe, but I believe 'divine' is the best way to put it.
I continue further along this path that only I can see, but I am then interrupted. A great force pulls me, dragging me across the earth and towards the abyss. I am powerless against it in my current form, and as such, I get dragged further. The force pulls me into a ravine. I look down to see the eerily calm river, and even though I had never seen it before, I knew it was Lethe.
I crash into the waters and sink into them, the weight of my shackles securing my fate. The currents pull me along, up the river. I tumble and spin from the force of water, being completely disoriented in the process. Eventually I am raised into the sky from a sort of reverse waterfall, the waters of Lethe being raised towards the heavens.
The clouds obscure my vision as much as my dizziness, working against my hopes of seeing the underworld from above, to maybe spy a glimpse at the destination I will never reach, or not yet reach.
As I continue rising, I feel myself start to fade away, my body starts to melt into the waters, and my senses are lost one after another until my soul has no vessel to reside in and no senses to perceive with. And as my thought too fades, I feel myself falling asleep.
[…]
We had finally escaped the depths and, with the help of Samuel, reunited with the other group. I open the path to see blood on the floor next to a mirror. Further down the room I spot a bloodied boulder, but there are no guts, no giblets, nothing. The doors at the foot of the room lay ajar, with faint breathing noises coming from it.
I wait for Samuel to go in first, and I follow after. I saw the corpse of Ferrous Sovereign, though, before I could continue to look around, my foot caught on something.
Looking down, I spot the horrid sight of Nathan's decapitated head. Not one of pain or fear, but one of rest and calm. Emily also noticed the sight now and almost immediately left the room to throw up. I myself am used to it, maybe too used to it, but I'm a priest, so it is part of my job to see corpses of allies and friends.
Revenant and Elizabeth are both recovering, likely only having killed Ferrous Sovereign recently. Then I spot another Eidolon behind Ferrous Sovereign. It too is dead, so I just rush to Nathan's side and prepare my spell.
From my bag I take out mistletoe, willow bark, myrrh, gold dust, a shard of volcanic glass, ground-up pearls, and a snakeskin. I grind and mix them together before placing them in a suspension of moon-charged mineral water. The resulting mixture is inscribed with archaic runes, then poured over the core of Nathan. Then I finally incant the resurrection incantation, others watching me on in awe.
[…]
I spring up with labored breathing, as if I had just almost drowned. I cough up blood, both wet and coagulated. My head is throbbing as if it wanted to burst. After half a minute the effects subside, leaving only cold sweat on my forehead.
A lady with curled brunette hair hands me a bottle of water. I drink carefully.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm not feeling great… but it is getting better."
Next, a man with grayish skin, a third eye, and purple vines through his hair walks up.
"Alright, let's go over the quiz. Are you feeling sick, in agony, or extremely depressed?"
"No?"
"Alright, tell me your name."
My name? Wait… that's weird. My face scrunches up in thought and confusion. The man catches on quickly.
"Alright, we have a case of Lethe here. Who will take care of this?"
A smaller lady with an over-the-top clothing choice approaches.
"I think you and I can handle the important and personal things, with Mary being able to then fill in gaps once we go and join Calypso."
Whilst they speak, I hear weird voices coming from a corpse of a sort of samurai next to me. I disregard them for now. The man speaks up again.
"Alright. Um, where to start… You have died and been brought back to life, but you had to pay a price for it. For you this price was forgetfulness. So you forgot some of your memory. It affects your, I think it was called explicit, memories. This means your knowledge of names, events, facts, and personal memories. The implicit memories, like walking, speaking, skills, and things like that, you did not forget, which is how we can talk like normal people."
Elizabeth takes over.
"So, your name is Nathan Verren, and my name is Elizabeth Amelia Lazuli, but just call me Lis. That over there is Revenant, there is Mary Ebberay, and those two back there are Samuel Planters and Emily Cherry. Uh, Mary and Revenant, do you know anything about his personal life?"
Mary thinks for a moment, deliberating on what to say, before speaking.
"Well, because of him being a student at the facility I work at, I do have some more personal information, including parent names, but that is about it. So, as Lis already said, you are Nathan Verren, you're 27 years old, with your birthday on the 12th of October. You are a Link 3 Eidolon hunter, and your parents are called Lindsey Verren and Alphor Verren."
She was checking her phone to look up that information. Elizabeth then adds.
"You also told me that you like to read and cook, and that you like the esoteric and occult; don't forget about that."
After that, the group looks at each other. It seems they don't have anything else to add. I look through my backpack, finding various papers and notes. In my spare time I've added my own thoughts on various things in a notebook of sorts. I'll look through that first.
'I've become an Eidolon hunter. Through the destruction of Eidolon, there are multiple ways to earn money, the best of which is Eidolon Equipment. According to Revenant, these have three main ways of occurring: First is a corrupted person becoming an Eidolon Equipment in the case of an Eidolon monster, in which case it is usually sentient; second is the transformation from an ordinary or Sin item into one, which Eidolon starting at Rank 3 tend to do using the equipment they wielded before death; lastly, there is the conjuration of new Eidolon from thin air, which only Eidolon of Rank 6 or higher have done from what Revenant heard. The possibility of lower-ranking Eidolon being able to transform or conjure is not out of the question; it just hasn't been observed by Revenant.
Other ways to earn money from Eidolon are their body parts, fluids, and similar, which usually have some form of supernatural effect, though this method is not very profitable, and taking up bounties for hunting Eidolon. People also tend to reward Eidolon hunters to protect them, but those who seek this method often extort the people for their protection.
As an Eidolon hunter, I work with various people. There is Mary Ebberay, the secretary of the school for incantations I go to, who allowed me residence in her home for free as long as I help her with favors on occasion. She has also threatened to kill me if I don't listen, so the possibility of there being more to her is definitely there. Then there is Revenant, a pretty calm Link 4 hunter that assists me. He can conjure ice and smoke using his incantations, plus he has a Rank 5 Eidolon Equipment. He is known for his connections, but with his experience I wonder why he doesn't have more Eidolon or Sin Equipment on him. Elizabeth Amelia Lazuli, who I should call Lis, is a vampire who is Link 3*, which is weird, given her strength. She can't feel love due to one Eidolon she has, so her weirder actions are done with innocence, mostly. She is powerful in battle, with a variety of incantations and equipment. She also has magical macarons. When asked for a favor, she would want to be paid in blood, for obvious reasons. She has noted that my blood tastes good and pure.
*She is Link 4 now due to a re-evaluation.'
The text also goes over other information, like people called Apollo and Sylphara Cobas, though the timeline stops right before I go towards this tea party. In the meantime, Elizabeth and Mary have collected some of the sap of what I've rediscovered to be Dormant Morpho. I write down the voices I heard from the corpse of Ferrous Sovereign, since among these notes was a reminder to do this. It also said that I should note down anything I plan on doing, since I've been forgetful recently.
The priority was getting out of here, so Revenant took one of the swords of Ferrous Sovereign, which was an Eidolon Equipment called 'Sovereign's trusted steel'. On the way back we also took 'Mirror of a better World' with us. Samuel had already plotted a route with his scouting, and due to the efforts of Ferrous Sovereign, any threats had been cleared out, so it was smooth sailing.
At the surface, Elizabeth and Revenant go one way, Emily another, and Samuel yet another way. Mary is left with me, and she guides me towards her house, as it was turning late.
Arriving there, I was greeted by a small hallway with coat racks, drawers, and similar items. To the right was where the living room was, along with a spiral staircase up, but Mary directed me to beyond the door in front, leading into the kitchen.
"Since you will be living under my roof for some time now, I might ask you to help or take care of cooking, but I'm pretty sure that you don't have much experience in it."
"I believe I do have some experience with cooking."
"You probably do, but you couldn't afford any real ingredients. I'll have to tell you about spices and herbs, as well as how to prepare and cook various things. Do you remember seeing any of these ingredients?"
She points to her spice rack. Even though I do know what spices these are based on their label, I don't know what culinary use they have. Except for salt and pepper, that is.
"That is what I thought. So I'll be teaching you a few things so you can help out around here. You do know how to do laundry and fix things, right?"
These skills rest in my mind, so I'm pretty sure I know how to do them. As such, I give a nod to her. When I look around, though, I feel a bit intimidated. There are so many spices and fresh herb plants. Cupboards line almost every wall.
"Alright, so, the first lesson is hygiene. Well, you probably know about hygiene, but I want to put proper emphasis on it. Go into the storage closet and grab your chef's hat and apron."
"A chef's hat? Really?"
I head into the closet, with the dim lightbulb flickering on. Inside are multiple hair nets and aprons. So not a typical chef hat. I take the time to put them on, admiring the amount of preserved foods stored in here. A lot of rice, noodles, cans, jars, and more.
Once I leave the closet, I see Mary having stuffed her hair into a net and wearing a bright green apron with various embroidered patches on it, some being random, but most are focused around certain bands, cute animals, specifically koalas, and hiking. She was just placing the needle onto an old vinyl record, which then came alive with its distinct crackling noises.
"Isn't that a bit… old school?"
"A girl likes what she likes. I will accept no further questions. Next is washing hands."
I go over to the sink, put some soap on my hands, and wash my hands like I always do, but this time under the uncomfortable scrutiny of Mary. Then, just as I was about to wash the soap off.
"No. You haven't applied soap properly yet. You also have to apply soap to the spaces in-between your fingers like this, and then also go over your thumbs specifically like this."
I follow her instructions for extra cleanliness, which takes up an extra minute or so.
"I want you to get used to this kitchen, so you'll be going on a little hunt for the various ingredients. I mean, you've been eyeing various shelves already, so you should have a good guess, right?"
"Sure."
"Alright. We need cremini mushrooms, rice, olive oil, onion, garlic, thyme, white wine, Parmesan, parsley, salt, and pepper. I will grab my homemade vegetable broth."
She read that off almost as if she were a robot, without needing to look at her phone. I go toward the spice rack first to grab salt and pepper. Looking over to the herbs, I look for parsley and thyme.
I head into the closet next, which is where I find the rice, olive oil, white wine, and garlic. The onions I find around the kitchen itself, and both the cheese and mushrooms were in the fridge.
Mary has arrived with a broth, and she has already taken out a skillet, cutting board, kitchen knife, tablespoon, teaspoon, scale, measuring cup, and a wooden spoon.
"Since I expect you to be a little slow to start, we will do prep first, then we'll turn on the stove. Then first, measure 1.5 pounds of mushrooms, 1.5 cups of rice, 5 cups of broth, half a cup of Parmesan, and two-thirds of a cup of wine. Here are some bowls. A bit of a waste to have to use so many, but you'll be doing the dishes afterwards, not me."
Using the measuring cup and scales, I measure out what is needed, trying to be as precise as possible.
"Now, time to cut. Chop the mushrooms and one onion. Chop 2 cloves of garlic very finely, then remove the stalks from the thyme so we only have leaves. I'll rinse the rice whilst you start."
I really don't want to make mistakes here, especially not when stared at, so I am careful to cut everything as best as I can. I've never handled a fresh onion, so when my eyes were assaulted and I started to tear up, I was confused.
"Now it is time to start properly. Add 2 tablespoons of oil, as well as some salt and pepper. Then add the mushrooms. Cook them for about 8 minutes, but only stir once in a minute."
If it wasn't for her enjoyment, I'd imagine her to be quite bored by now. I do as she asked and afterwards place the mushrooms into a bowl that she was holding out. She takes the skillet and cleans it, then adds the same amount of olive oil before setting it onto the stove again.
"Onion and salt. Stir until soft."
We wait for around 6 minutes before she continues.
"Carefully stir in the next ingredients. Garlic, thyme, and rice. Let it cook for a minute, then add the wine."
I do as instructed, picking up the pace as my nervousness fades. Once the wine has cooked down.
"Add the broth a bit less than a cup at a time, whilst constantly stirring."
I really feel like some kid that is being shown how to cook for the first time. It hasn't been bad, so I should really be more confident in my abilities. My loss of memories plays into this as well, I suppose.
"No cloud-watching. Add the mushrooms, then slowly stir in the cheese. I'll be checking the taste."
Continuing to work away, Mary interrupts to taste every so often. Once it's done, she turns off the stove and tells me to plate. Two plates already stand ready, so I fill them up, leaving about 3 fifths still remaining. Mary quickly adds the parsley garnish, then brings the plates to the dining table, which is in the kitchen.
Both I and Mary take off our aprons and hats before we both sit down. Now, we both are sitting in front of a mushroom risotto with scented candles and smooth jazz. We both start to eat simultaneously. The taste is amazing, and although I wouldn't know, I believe this might be the best meal I've had so far. I probably haven't had anything proper to eat this entire day or something, but I was really hungry. Both I and Mary had seconds; actually, Mary even had thirds.
Once we finished eating, and I was finished washing the dishes, we both walked over to the couch to relax. Mary put on the television with some random reality show before speaking up.
"You did pretty well, but you were distracted often. Lost in thought. Do you want to share some of it?"
"Sure. The information I was given regarding my own life I could connect in a way to something in my head that it correlated with. I could correlate Revenant with my Eidolon fighting skills and my knowledge from the register. But the earliest point in time I could connect to was my 27th birthday, though I don't have any recollection of what kind of day it was, only that it happened."
"Well, I'm sure it must have still been a happy day for you, right?"
"I think–no, I'm pretty sure that it was good. It had a sort of connotation in my head. And I can recall things from before that due to what I was told by Lis about my likes. Although these things are very blurry, so I can't make out anything proper. This is where what I thought about comes in. I have lived over 27 years now, but I can only be given the context towards the tail end of it. From what connections I could piece together, I lived with my parents until I was 17, I think. So then there is this 10-year chasm of just… nothing. It… is scary. I fear that I might have forgotten about so many important people. They weren't mentioned in any of my notes. People like my parents, or an unknown sibling, or an unknown lover."
Mary looks at me with a soft smile.
"I can't really understand what it is like, but you haven't lost them yet. I have the names of your parents. You told me before that their hunt for coupons was what allowed you to learn the incantations, you know. You can look for them, find them, and ask them about everything you have forgotten."
"You're right. I shouldn't grow sorrowful yet."
"And hey, I am here for you, okay?"
"That is… oddly generous. Are you sure there is no cost for it?"
"You have shown yourself capable just now, haven't you? I'm sure there will be a time and place you can pay me back for this, but right now you are an ailing man. You need help to get back on your feet properly."
The moment rests between us. I look into her eyes, seeing only her sincerity.
"Switching topics a bit here, but… what happened at the tea party, and who exactly is Calypso?"
"A large number of people met up here to discuss. You and Revenant were hunting Ferrous Sovereign, and after meeting it you knew that you needed help. At first not many people wanted to help, but Lis pointed out something that intrigued Calypso, and he hired the entire room of people by flaunting his wealth. You even got the special task of relaying any information of Ferrous Sovereign to him."
"I actually think I can still do that."
"He noticed something about you. You said that you had the ability to hear the voices of Eidolon at times. Personally, I have no clue how Calypso got even a hint at you having that, but that just further proves him to be scary."
"When I was resurrected, one of the first things to happen was those voices coming out of the corpse of Ferrous Sovereign. And I took notes on my first encounter with him with Revenant."
"That's… surprising. I had thought that your ability would only work on living Eidolon."
"So, what is the deal with Calypso?"
"Hmm, he is a… flamboyant individual. Link 5 currently, though the thing that Lis discovered can elevate him to Link 6 somehow. His words, not mine. He's very generous, but also weird and scary."
"Okay…"
"Well, thank you for letting me into your head for a bit there. I hope I was able to help somewhat. But I think you should rest for today. Tomorrow at 10 there will be another meeting. This is where we all get paid by Calypso and discuss other things."
"Yeah, I'm very exhausted, and dying was probably not even the worst of it."
Mary quickly goes over to the kitchen to turn off the music, then returns to take me upstairs into one of the guest rooms.
The room is quite cozy. It has LED strips applied to the walls to add a soft glow. There is a window with curtains, a desk, a wardrobe, two storage cabinets, and a bed. Mary showed me how to use the LED remote and how to work the electric radiator, and then she even brought in a heating blanket, given it is winter.
After she left, I took another look at my notes on the desk. One thing had bothered me, and it was those reports from the buildings I found with Elizabeth.
Entries that pointed towards the rose district. Now that I have a phone, which I've found out I've owned just recently, I can do some research. Outside of the major roads that go through that district, it is just mostly dead. It was known for its nature-focused architecture, adding vines, green rooftops, and similar to buildings, as well as roads with trees through the middle, and also many parks. At some point one disaster after another happened, some intentional, others not. Now there are so many horrible Eidolon there that barely anyone goes there anymore. These Eidolon aren't the strongest or scariest when seen in a vacuum, but all of them are going to fuck a person up in one way or another.
There have been mentions of being spirited away, transformed, placed into eternal slumber, captured, dominated, charmed, and many other ways that one cannot escape from this District.
The notes I've looked through point towards the 'Phalion Estate'. The Phalion family was once the richest family in the entire city, though that was like 13 or so generations ago. The Phalite was named after them; that is how ancient they are. Since they've been brought down all the way to the Gamma Echelon Zone since then, I guess they've had it rough since then. That manor is right on one of the main roads of the city, but it has now become a sort of ghost house. With that being the case, it would be safe enough to explore. The rest of the articles I'm reading seem to just be hyperbole spat out by media.
A superstition over a curse. People that leave this manor are never found again after a short while. Not linked to any Eidolon, mind you, this is just a 'curse'.
I do like the occult, so something like this is right up my alley. And I honestly want to believe in that curse being real, but realistically speaking, it isn't. Wait, thinking about the occult and esoteric…
Suddenly, I decide to get up and walk downstairs to Mary, sitting on the couch wide-eyed. She is wearing a nightgown in pastel colors like a sunset. Around her on the couch lay an array of plush animals; teddy bears, cats, foxes, lizards, and more; but primarily koalas. As she realizes the situation I've found her in, she slightly blushes.
"Wh-what now!?"
"Mary, was this 'the tower' you spoke of?"
"Huh? O-oh, that. You really made me jump. Uh, yes. I do think that the tower card was meant to represent that. What worse disaster could there be than death?"
"I knew it! Thank you, goodnight."
"Y-yeah, goodnight…"
She was left shaken, with me returning to my room quickly. I just had to confirm whether or not it was true after I saw it written in my notes.
What follows then would be introspection, making new connections, and getting my life on the right path.
Getting back to the Rose district: My gauntlet is linked to the disappearance of a Link 5 gang leader. Apollo as such thought I was the one to do it, but as someone that is only Link 3, there is a clear chasm in the difference of strength. Sylphara Cobas had a more rational thought process and could tell that I was not the one responsible. Instead, she gave me an optional task of finding out more about this.
My best lead is the Rose district, so if I could investigate it from a safe distance, I just might find a lead. The disappearances and similar are caused by Eidolon in the Rose district, and the Rose District is within this city, so the Eidolon register should have the information I want on it.
It would take time, but I could look through every Eidolon that has the ability to make people disappear. To keep myself from having to look through all of it, I can dumb down my search to a more rudimentary one. Instead of reading through descriptions of them, I instead just look at their domain of power expression, which is in their ID.
Then which domains are likely to have to do with disappearance? Spirit, soul, information, perception, dream, space, and time seem like the best candidates. So that would be 02, 07, 08, 11, 13, 15, and 16. Still a lot, but it cuts out 00, 01, and 03, which encompass a lot of Eidolon that are very unlikely to do something like this.
Gula-08-0-455, aka Virtual Husk. Hmm, nope.
Gula-16-7-120, aka Ecstatic Nostalgia. Thankfully no. A Rank 7?
Ira-02-4-102, aka Voodoo Priest. Another miss.
Luxuria-07-6-710, aka Rejected Sculptor. What the fuck?! This one is really messed up. But… technically… it could fit.
Luxuria-13-4-199, aka Unfulfilled Orchid Maiden. Also messed up, but doesn't apply.
Avaritia-07-4-021, aka Leveraged Instance. I've gotten to Eidolon Equipment now. I think this one applies? I'll be safe and just mark it down.
Gula-13-1-411, aka Mirror of a better World. Hey, I know that one! It isn't in the Rose district, but it does apply.
Invidia-07-5-042, aka Abandoned Promise. This one has barely any information on it, like, essentially none. Hmm, I think no.
Superbia-11-3-126, aka Flawed Spectacle. Another no.
The structure of this book is so bad. It sorts things in batches or something. I just finished the first batch, and it took like half an hour of reading. The conclusion is that this doesn't help at all. None of them have any information regarding their location, which makes sense. Eidolon either move around or are carried around, but even so, it would be really nice to have.
The best candidate out of the entire bunch was the mirror, and I doubt that it is that one. Actually, I can probably head to Apollo and Sylphara tomorrow with Revenant to tell them about what I've found so far. They said that they are interested in buying some Eidolon too, so there is another reason to go there.
Looking at my phone, it has already turned past midnight, and I feel very tired. I guess I'll sleep on things and talk things through. I don't think that I would allow myself to slack off tomorrow, so I would probably end up wanting to do something. I guess I could spend the money that Calypso promised on some things. I can keep myself busy; that way I can also keep myself from going to that estate tomorrow and instead go there the day after.
Well, anyways… Goodnight.