Mankind: An Elysian Tale
Chapter 13: Piecing Things Together
You find yourself back in reality, free from the clutches of Limbo.
“How do you feel?” asks a familiar voice.
“Confused,” you reply, rubbing your forehead as you try to ease your mind. “I was in an outpost — then in a hub, where I think we first met.”
“I… see,” replies Selyse. While she remains seated at her station, her gaze remains fixated on you — as if in anticipation of what you are about to say next.
“You seemed different then,” you continue, meeting her gaze with yours.
Lost for words, Selyse initially responds with nothing but silence. “What we do… it -”
“Changes people, I know,” you interject. “How long exactly have we been doing this?”
“Far too long,” Selyse sighs. “Most only last months before eventually losing their sanity — a price our kind can no longer afford.” Selyse leaves her station and approaches you. “A year — that’s how long we’ve been doing this,” she says, her hand gently grasping your forearm. “But, the time I spent trying to get you back feels far longer.”
“I don’t think I can bear losing you again,” whispers Selyse — her voice cracking.
You find yourself speechless as you try and comprehend the gravity of Selyse’s revelation. For all the things you could say, you decide that silence is the only thing that would be enough.
And so, silence passes, and a moment is shared.
“A price is paid for each time you’ve tried to bring me back. I understand this now,” you admit to Selyse. “Still, I can’t see the reason why we have to keep sacrificing pieces of ourselves.”
Selyse relaxes her posture — as if a huge burden was about to be lifted from her. “We’ve spent years harvesting and rekindling memories for the Elysians. With each memory given, a piece of our sanity is taken. All this — just so our villages are given the food and protection they need to survive the Wastes. For most travellers, knowing this was enough to keep wandering through Limbo. But then, a source from my village tipped us off.” Selyse hands you a letter — wrinkled and yellowed by time.
“To get what we needed to survive, we have given what we needed to live. The Cleansing has taken too much of our own. We are now old and weary. Soon, there will be none of us left.
Take this pendant, and may it grant me even a sliver of redemption for all that I’ve done.”
You put the letter down and grasp your raven pendant.
“While the ritual was kept secret by the Elysian Council, these pendants helped us see the Cleansing for what it truly was: generations of children kept in isolation — their memories altered, broken, and then eventually taken — just to serve as empty vessels for the Elysians,” explains Selyse. Her expression then changes to that of regret. “For all the praise they have given towards the sacrifice travellers have made, little did we know that the biggest one was of their own doing.”
Your mind immediately races towards a recent memory — that of the Elysian making his speech in front of the temple.
“And so, a pact was made,” continues Selyse — now clutching her pendant. “We vowed that we would find the answers we needed — all of which are held in secret by the Elysian Council. Selyse adjusts her grip on her pendant, revealing an owl in flight etched on its front. “Each is marked with a village insignia, confirming the identity of the elder so that he may acquire food and supplies his people desperately need.”
“This is how we will get inside,” you conclude as your palm your raven pendant.
