An Unbound Soul

I lay in bed, giving my brain a metaphorical poking. After making them promise not to tell anyone else about my reincarnation, Dad had left for the fields and Mum was already putting yesterday's purchases to good use, but I was more concerned with what had happened to me than getting back to my regular life. I could remember Earth; I knew I went to school, university and got a job. I could remember what I learnt in school and university, and what I did for my job. But if asked which school or university I went to, or who I worked for, I'd have to shrug my shoulders. I remembered my house, its layout, even the colour of the paint in my room, but I had no idea where it was. I knew I had a family, but had no clue who they were. It was like all personal details of my life had been deleted while leaving all the 'knowledge' of that life intact. Or was it? I wouldn't be worrying about not remembering what my job was if I'd also forgotten what a 'job' was. Or maybe it was 'knowledge' that had been inserted, and there was no previous 'me' at all.

Who did this, and why? That I hadn't noticed it until now was consistent with the mind manipulation everyone else was experiencing, but in that case, I shouldn't be able to sit here and think about it. Maybe I would forget again later. It was a shame we had no paper; I would have liked to have written a message to future-me, along the lines of 'if you don't remember writing this, you're brainwashed.' Maybe I'd been through this exact sequence of thoughts a hundred times already...

The effect on me was quite clearly different to everyone else. I couldn't blame that on [Abnormal Soul]; the description was clear that soul magic wouldn't affect me unless deliberately targeted, not that it would affect me in alternate ways. As a corollary, that meant that if the effect on me was soul magic, then it had been deliberately targeted at me personally, which itself had the additional implication that someone out there knew I was reincarnated.

ding

Wisdom increased by 1

I smiled to myself under the bedcovers. Let's drop that line of thought for now, despite the System rewarding me for it, and consider some important questions. First, had anything changed recently? There hadn't been any changes in anyone else; yesterday's revelations had explained why I'd not been able to get across the concept of counterfeiting or banditry in the past, or why Dad immediately believed me about not being able to read. That had taken place years ago, so this brainwashing was not recent. How about myself? I didn't remember thinking about my family in the past, but those memories could have been removed at the same time as my missing Earth memories. I did remember immediately becoming attached to my new parents, which even at the time I was surprised at. There was also the thing with my name. On the balance of probability, I felt I was either already affected by this when I was born or else very shortly after, and not at some point later. I couldn't be completely certain, though, for pretty much the same reason I couldn't open a box with a crowbar that's inside it. If it was true, that meant the only thing that had changed was that I knew about it now. Since the mental manipulation itself wasn't new, there was no reason to believe there was some new imminent threat.

In that case, the second question. Was it malicious? Applying the common sense of my old world, the answer would be an immediate yes. Messing with people's heads was illegal and completely unacceptable by any reasonable moral framework I was aware of. But how about here? I'd been repeatedly reminded that my old common sense did not apply. From what I'd seen of everyone else, the mind control was there to preserve law and order. Everyone was forced to behave according to some invisible law, but outside of that, there didn't seem to be any lack of free will. Everyone here was happy. If there was any malicious intent, it wasn't immediately obvious.

What about the effects on myself? It was harder to be objective there, but had I been born with full memories of my Earth family, how would I have reacted? I loved my new mother deeply, and if I imagined being removed suddenly from her and dropped into a household of complete strangers as an utterly helpless baby, the thought was horrifying. I imagine I would have started off angry, moving on to homesickness and depression even if my new 'family' were loving. I certainly wouldn't adapt as quickly as I had done here. It was completely against all Earth common sense, but I could believe that whoever did this did so in some sort of misguided attempt to protect me.

ding

Intelligence increased by 1

For your efforts to uncover the secrets of the world, [Curious] awards 1 soul point.

And there's another vote of confidence from the System. There was still a third question, though: who did this? On that question, I had to bow out. There was currently insufficient information. Although perhaps I could gather a little more. I pulled myself out of bed and wandered back to the living room. Mum looked up as I entered.

"Feeling better? Take all the time you need."

"I think I've got myself sorted out. One question though; did you have any visitors from outside the village while you were pregnant, or very shortly after I was born?"

"Hmm? Your grandparents called in, of course. But not aside from that as far as I remember. Why?"

"I'm trying to work through some of my early memories."

If she had said that some noble had been in the village, I'd have been suspicious. They still could have wiped Mum's memory afterwards, or done something long distance, but it was a point towards their innocence. Another point was the message the System had just given me for [Curious]. It clearly said 'secrets of the world' rather than 'secrets of Dawnhold' or anything more specific. If whatever had happened to me was something fundamental to the world, it suggested it wasn't done by human hands. Perhaps this 'earth mother' was not so hands off as she claimed. The morality of a goddess, imposed by force on her mortal creations. That would go some way towards explaining the twisted common sense of this world. My confidence in this answer was less than the first two questions, but for now, I might have to give Lord Reid the benefit of the doubt. He may well be as brainwashed as anyone else.

Which led on to my fourth and final question: did I want to do anything about it? There was no point asking 'what should I do about this?' because there was nothing I could do. A better theoretical question was that if I could snap my fingers and magically break all mental effects on myself and everyone else, should I? I had to admit that the current answer was no; this civilization was utterly unprepared for what would happen next. It would crash and burn within days. How about if I could snap my fingers and trigger a more gradual and controlled release? Maybe... But I'd have to be very sure of what I was doing, and why. It was hard to imagine how it could be undone in any sort of controlled way.

Thus I made my decision. I would get on with life, keep my head down and try to stick to the law as best as I was able without having it magically inserted into my head like everyone else, and not worry about the nationwide brainwashing. For now. Once I was able, I would absolutely need to search for evidence of what was going on. Perhaps later on I would encounter more evidence that would change my mind, but for now, I wasn't going to let this discovery rule my life. What I needed to do right now was to throw off this bad mood I was in. Luckily, I knew just the thing for that; I could hear Cluma screaming outside. I opened my mouth to let Mum know, only to be interrupted by another System notification.

ding

Trait [Curious] evolved to [Researcher]

Oi, I needed that trait! Traits weren't supposed to change after the first year except for deeply traumatic, personality changing events! In what way is it traumatic to discover that the entire country, including myself, has been brainwashed?

Okay, when phrased like that, I had to admit it sounded less than ideal...

"Are you okay, little one? You looked like you were about to say something."

"Ah, I was hoping that some Cluma hugs would clear my bad mood, but the System dinged at me."

"You can get hugs from me, you know."

"I do know, but you're not quite as infectiously insane. But since you're offering..."

I ran up and squeezed Mum's leg, and she leaned in and hugged back. I smiled up at her. "As ever, thanks for everything. I'll be back before long."

As I opened the door, I took a look at what my new trait did.

[Researcher] - You look upon the world in wide-eyed wonder, ever eager to uncover its mysteries, to question and understand. Awards soul points for learning and exploration. (Rank 3)

That hadn't actually changed much at all. It was basically just a rank up from [Curious]. Good, hopefully I hadn't lost my extra soul point supply. I would have been far more restricted in my skill choices without it.

"Peter!"

I smiled, cast both of my buff spells and braced myself, ready to receive the flying hug. The two bonus points of strength, coupled with my already high dexterity and the slightly reduced speed of the incoming missile, were just about sufficient for me to remain upright.

ding

Skill [Minor Speed] advanced to level 4

Hah, the System seemed to like me today. I squeezed Cluma back and joined in the village kids' game of... something. This was what happened when I wasn't there to choose proper games; they just ended up with lots of running around and screaming. That was fine by me; I had a lot of screaming to let out. And so went the next half hour, until my poor endurance required me to either withdraw gracefully or fall over.

I didn't really want to speak to Clana, who was as usual keeping both eyes firmly on Cluma, in case she asked how my trip went yesterday. Alas, I failed to get off without talking to her when she called me over.

"Here, you're probably hungry after all that running. Try one of these."

It was some sort of cookie. It was also utterly gorgeous. "That's dangerous. I might end up not eating anything else ever again and starving to death."

She smiled at the compliment. "I hear you were in Dawnhold yesterday. Did you happen to notice how the eateries were doing? Was there much business?"

That was unexpected. Was she thinking of moving to Dawnhold to open a restaurant? "We didn't eat out there, and I didn't look in anywhere, sorry. Were you thinking of starting a restaurant in Dawnhold?"

"Maybe. I know I cook for the tavern, but I want to try somewhere bigger. I've almost maxed out [Cook], and when I do..." She looked over at Cluma, still running wild around the street. "But she'll be sad to leave her friends behind. I'm not sure what to do."

"I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd be happy to come visit."

"Thanks. Well, it won't be for a few more years yet, even if we do go. I'm just thinking about possibilities here."

"It sounds like you have plenty of time to decide, so don't make any impulsive decisions. Or take advice from a four-year-old, either; I have it on good authority they aren't particularly sensible. I need to go and have a rest. Take care."

I waved as I headed back home. It would be kinda sad if they left. The village would lose its morning alarm clock.

I traipsed back indoors and collapsed into bed, exercising my usual combination of [Meditation], [Mana Control] and [Mana Finesse].

ding

Skill [Mana Control] advanced to level 4

Skill [Mana Finesse] advanced to level 4

And there went my last two magic skills to level four. It was all going to be uphill from here. I had a couple of soul points I could use to pick up new spells, but with [Inspection] at level nine I really wanted to save them for now. Thus today marked the unfortunate end of my levelling boom. Maybe one day I'd be able to convince [Early Bloomer] to evolve too, and take away the restriction to only affect the first few levels.

Name: Peter

Species: Human

Class: Apprentice Mage (Level 2)

Soul Points: 2

Health: 12/12

Stamina: 12/12

Mana: 28.50/28.50

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 10

Endurance: 7

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 12

Charisma: 11

Skills: [Inspection 9] [Mana Sense 8] [Meditation 7] [Enlarged Mana Pool 5] [Mana Control 4] [Minor Strength 4] [Far Step 4] [Minor Speed 4] [Mana Finesse 4] [Privacy 2]

Traits: [Abnormal Soul] [Early Bloomer] [Researcher] [Xenophilia]

Titles: None

I spent the rest of the day aiding Mum. I could have continued with magic practice or gone back outside with my recovered stamina, but after my behaviour yesterday, I felt I owed her some help.