The Raven's POV Chapter 4: Self Talk

Floating in the darkness, I could feel motes of light around

These were mories,my mories And one shone particularly brighter than the rest, so I reached out to it.

And I found myself sitting in a chair. In front of was a long table and sitting across was a figure I don’t know how to describe accurately

It was a figure made of liquid darkness, a humanoid silhouette with inky black tentacles and countless eyes.

The positions of its eyes didn’t seem fixed. Every ti one closed, another one or two would open sowhere else on its face. It had no facial features per say.

Its face, if it could be called that. looked like a black wooden mask, the only detail that hinted otherwise was the eyes

They were inside what seed like a massive hall, with a giant do supported by thirteen pillars.

Mysterious symbols were carved into the tall pillars

The do bore murals depicting so ancient tale and purple mist perated the hall, making it harder to see far.

A deep, weary voice rang out. It was layered, sothing a human voice box should be incapable of producing, but then again... With all those tentacles and everything else, the figure couldn’t exactly be called human, could it?

"How many tis have we done this?", The figure asked and without waiting for an answer it continued

"Don’t answer—I know exactly how many tis we’ve done this. Thirty-one tis. I an, how narcissistic do you have to be to stare into a mirror at least thirty-one tis, hard enough to trigger an identity crisis?"

"That sounded very wrong didn’t it?"

"So what’s the first question?"

A normal person would have been freaked out by the strangeness of the situation.

The only reason I was calm was because of the instinctive knowledge that nothing could harm here,This was my mory fragnt.

"A normal person would have been freaking out by now",the figure said in mock disappointnt

Ignoring his comnt, I asked, "What are you?"

"Such basic questions, really? Let guess; you’ll ask where we are next.

I didn’t know amnesia brought stupidity but seeing you ask the sa questions every ti is getting a little boring."

"But to answer your questio, well I am you. A fragnt of you, tinged with your imagination, conjured by yours truly to help yours truly, if that is too complex for you to understand.

Then, in simpler terms:

You are delulu, and I am here to solulu that."

"And we are inside what humans call a mindscape. At least, a primitive imitation of it. A real mindscape requires the person to have a firm sense of identity, sothing we just seem to lack"

"Now, next question please." figure said with one of his tentacles pointed at

"how?"

"How to fix ourselves? Trust , we can’t. We have tried and failed. We can only live with so mories while suppressing the rest and even that is a temporary asure."

I pondered over the figure’s words for a mont then asked the second question

"when?"

"From when did we beco like this?Fragnted?

Three months ago. At the age of fifteen, humans of this world go through an awakening. We had already gained a compatible human vessel by then.

The awakening, for humans, brings forth their gift. It did the sa for us once we beca human but it also brought forth the cracks in our identity, highlighting the self-inflicted wounds of our soul"

The figured added in a resigned, somber voice

"And for three months, we have been trying to fix ourselves."

"If there is no solution, then what next?", I asked getting more anxious

"Would I have to live without mories?"

"you cannot live without your mories, they always co back, all you can do is have firm self of self that you don’t be overwhelm, sothing we have been failing to do"

"then...?"

"Don’t be impatient, we are thinking, We tried selective mory retention. It failed. Reordering mories failed as well

This ti,

we have decided to make another attempt."

Figured then started murring to itself, I couldn’t catch all of what it said but i heard phases like

"human mind cannot comprehend eternity

and how we see ourselves differs from how others see us "

Snap!

a snapping sound echoes throughtout the hall

The figure just snapped his tentacles- wait it could do that?

"We have never tried this before. This ti, we shall suppress everything about ourselves and leave us with only three mories"

Figure said more to itself then to

Snap

Three cards appeared in front of

Each had a text written on them

They read: man, beast and a child respectively

"So would you see them chronologically? Or randomly"

I chose chronologically because it would be too confusing otherwise

"Let’s start with the man then"

Figure’s tentacle stabbed before I could react and darkness took