Erielle had that thought in her mind which she couldn't shake off. It just came to her a few hours ago and made her wonder about one detail that no one might have touched before.
There was this strange and scary notion that the current Leon is saying the truth. That he's no longer the one he used to be. Amnesia might be affecting him and this is what most of those who are aware of his condition think… but there is something else with this Amnesia.
Amnesia patients struggle to retrieve their memories and unlike Leon, they don't alter their personalities and completely reject their past. That, however, isn't something strange to Erielle or rather… this isn't strange to most pure Elves.
"I think that Leon has passed a Human Cycle." She said.
Without any interest, the two Dwarves in front of her simply looked at her with narrowed eyes before just returning to what they were doing.
"Oi, cousin. Have ya found anything special about that card yet?" Vadim asked.
"No, Vadim. Results won't come this fast." Sacha replied.
"Sigh!" Vadim just let out a strong smokey breath as he put aside his tobacco pipe, "A dreadful day, this is!"
"Have you heard what I said by any chance?" Erielle spoke out.
"Aye!" Vadim looked at her unamused, "There's na such thing as a Human Cycle."
"It is like an Elven Cycle but with a Human. How hard is that to understand?" She asked.
"Oh, interesting!" Sacha looked up showing interest in the subject, "Other than the Elves, no other race gets affected by the Elder Sap."
"Yeah, I just tried it out…" Erielle said as she held up a vial of a thick green liquid dangled down from a necklace around her head.
"Holy Stones of the Mountain!" Vadim jumped on his feet immediately and held her arm and started shouting, "Ya feelin alright, lass? Ya drank any of that horse dung? Why do ya have that shite on ya?"
His reaction was genuine as he tried to snatch the vial off her hand. She immediately moved her hand aside and looked at him with a funny expression.
"Why would I use it? I am more than comfortable with this Cycle." She replied causing the Dwarf to have a comfortable face.
Anyone who is a friend to an Elf would want them as far away as possible from the content of that vial.
"Mountains bless ma beard! Is that the Elder Sap?" Sacha approached the two right away.
"It is." Erielle confirmed.
"You said you experimented with it or something?" Sacha asked.
"Yes… you remember that request from the Academy Camp you told me to take?" Erielle said but Vadim was quick to take note of the horrific thing she just spoke about.
"You were sent to the Academy Camp to check on someone?" He asked.
"Yes." She replied.
"And you tried the Elder Sap on them."
"… It is not as bad as you make it sound."
"The Hell?"
The two glared at each other.
"Excuse me but…" Sacha tried to interfere but he found Vadim glaring at him.
"Excuse ya?" Vadim asked, "You sent her to check on someone?"
Seeing as if he messed something up, Sacha tried to reason with Vadim.
"I don't really understand. I thought Master Erielle is one of the excellent pharmacists around here and the Academy people asked for painkiller medicine. I just asked her if she could see the patient." Sacha said.
Vadim's face almost went red from anger and stomped the ground.
"Ya dimwit." He immediately slammed Sacha on his head, "Don't ya know that this woman is as crazy as that brother of yours?"
Sacha's eyes widened.
"Anatoly?"
"Yes." Vadim was about to punch Sacha, "She has the title {Mad Scientist} for a damn good reason!"
"Excuse me but I am standing here." Erielle became rather upset mentioning that title all of a sudden.
"Says the woman who suggested bathing a kid in acid to force his talent to bloom." Vadim shouted madly.
"It was a good idea at the moment…" She tried to defend her theory then lowered her voice, "… I just forgot that human children are weak to acid."
"Clearly. They are not Dwarf children." Sacha agreed with her.
"Humans and Dwarfs look exactly the same when they are babies. How do you expect me to keep track of that?" Erielle nodded as if she and Sacha were getting on the same page.
"They do look different though. Human babies lack public hair when they are born." Sacha added.
"For fuck's sake, will ya both just stop?" Vadim shouted then looked at Erielle, "You, tell me exactly which human you used that Elder Sap on. I want every detail from the start."
"Alright, alright." Erielle backed off at last, "Things happened like this…"
***
Erielle was sent to the Academy Camp on the behest of Sir Evans, a Senior Knight known in the upper rings of knights as a just and righteous man. Sir Evans' request was of medicine that treats the ailment which has befallen on the lady of House Walsh who was saved just a few moments ago. Healers and Alchemists do exist within the ranks of the academy for certain but the ailment of the Miasma Forests are only known to the doctors of the woods and who is better in detecting those things as an Elf from Skydom.
There wasn't much said and done when Erielle arrived at the Academy Camp, the elderly knight met her and guided her to the lady sitting in her tent covered in blankets and staring at just… nothing.
Once Erielle walked in, she was completely not interested in the patient but rather made her mind on what to prescribe already as she knew that this particular lady was suffering from some acid burns over her hands and face the same ones Leon suffered. This was the case until she saw the eyes of that girl.
Ella Walsh has indeed suffered some acidic burns from the innards of the Strangler tree. The thing with the stranglers is that their acid is nothing too lethal when it comes to humans as the Strangler's main prey is weak animals. Large animals like humans can survive the acid but the true horror of the strangler is in its name as when it strangles someone by the neck, they are surely in a problematic situation.
But Ella Walsh seemed to have resisted the acid rather well. Maybe she has even developed the Acid Resistance skill while she was at it. The problem, as Erielle managed to capture quickly, appeared in her eyes.
She was in total shock unlike how she arrived with Leon being a little bit tired but still mentally stable.
"What happened to her?" Erielle asked.
"The miss accumulated a lot of mental fatigue." The elderly knight seemed reluctant to answer but he just spoke vaguely.
Erielle could sense the anomaly in Ella's psyche and seeing the elderly knight being protective of the young lady, she could only get more curious in a somewhat dangerous way.
"I have seen these symptoms before. I will ask you to be more clear with me." She said.
The elderly knight became even more bothered with the Elf's questions but looking at the dispirited young lady, he cleared his voice and summarized what he knew.
"Miss Ella heard a piece of bad news that, with her accumulated fatigue as of late, caused her to feel down… if not heartbroken." The Knight said.
"If not completely broken." Erielle added with criticizing eyes, "I know a herbal mix that may elevate her mood until she gets some family support."
"Thank you, my Lady."
"Then please, I require to be alone with the young miss here."
"The maids will be here to assist you then." The Knight bowed and nodded.
As Erielle requested the knight to leave, he pushed in a few maids who seemed very protective around Ella and lined up in various defense positions. It seemed that they were not just wary of the Elf but of more threatening dangers. The life of an aristocrat is infuriatingly busy and dangerous.
Erielle immediately proceeded to do the job required from her. There is almost an endless number of tonics and medicines that are designed to elevate the human psyche and Erielle was aware of what to do at the moment but there was an idea going around her head as of late. An idea starts with a "What if?".
She sat on the bed at the opposite side of Ella and softly touched the girl's face. Ella was still unresponsive despite her pain and exhaustion but this wasn't what is wrong with her at all.
She is heartbroken, devastated, and in a complete rejection of her reality. This mind state of hers would lead to many irrational behaviors when she passes this phase of grief which may include suicidal thoughts.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" Erielle asked.
She closed her eyes, manipulated her own Mana, and felt the presence around Ella. Not just an Alchemist but a Psychic and a Soothsayer. Erielle was very manipulative with her words which made a weak girl like Ella a very easy prey.
On the mention of pain, a few muscles on Ella's face started to move. Looking at nothing, Ella gazed up with her eyes, and a powerful emotion stirred through her motionless body as if the flames burning in her throat and chest.
"You want it to go away?" Erielle asked, "You can make it go away."
With her hand behind Ella's back, Erielle stroked the hair of the girl and patted her shoulder before moving closer to her under the gazes of the alert maids. Slowly she sat beside the girl whispering some words in Elvish.
The maids became uncomfortable with the whispering but in a rare moment of response, Ella's eyes opened wide and slowly turned to Erielle in a shaken state.
"Really?" She asked.
"It is easy to forget." Erielle nodded and as if magically, a vial appeared on her hand holding a thick green liquid.
"It will make you feel better, fortify your Mana, make you perceive the world differently. On Elves, it has a different effect. Have you heard of an Elven Cycle before?" Erielle asked in a voice only Ella could hear.
Ella shook her head.
"Elves live much longer than humans thus we perceive things rather in a different manner. Humans and Dwarves call us emotionless, dense, or just stuck with time but this is just how we evolved. Still, with such a lifespan, Elven people at a certain phase of their lives accumulate a certain level of stress which leads them through depressive episodes or traumas that are hard to treat. To fix that, we consume the Elder Sap harvested from the roots of the Flying Mother Tree of Skydom."
Ella looked meaningfully into the vial Erielle held and her eyes tried to figure out what this sap can do.
"The Elven Cycles is when an Elf drinks the Elder Sap. It resets their memories and makes them forget everything and heal much more vigorously as if they are reborn. This is our Key of Rebirth." Erielle said.
Ella swallowed her saliva and slowly tried to reach out to the vial.
"But it doesn't work this way on your people." Erielle however retreated the hand away with the eyes of Ella stuck on the vial.
She's in pain indeed that she'd walk the abyss to get what takes away the pain… the hollowness in her heart.
"But…" Erielle started to throw the bait at that time, "… the other day, I met someone who would have passed something like a Human Cycle. I can't help but feel curious too."
"H- How?" Ella bit the trap immediately.
"I am not sure yet but… it has to do with poisons." Erielle said, "I will need to administer non-lethal doses though. It's quite easy but the problem is to find a willing test prospect."
Ella almost caught on to Erielle's play but she didn't mind.
"Is it… is it dangerous… in any way?" Ella asked.
"No, not at all." Erielle shook her head nonchalantly.
"Then… we start now." Ella said in the first moment of regaining her sense of reality with suicidal intentions at heart.
"Are you sure?" Erielle asked in a fake care manner.
"Let's get this over with."
Ella surrendered to the fate she sat upon herself. It is basically suicide but without dying. She would forget everything, everything she ever knew, her family, friends, good moments, good times… just because she was ignored by her fiance?
It wouldn't make sense to an outsider but Erielle was aware of how those Second Estate nobles think.
Ella was not just heartbroken in a relationship of a one-sided love but in a bad spot too. Imagine losing her position as the Princess Consort after being actually born for that title… the consequences would be… severe.
She would be excommunicated by her family, targeted by whoever becomes the new Princess Consort, and her position as an Aristocrat will be tarnished forever.
She is just a sitting duck waiting for the slaughter at this point. If she loses due to something other than her inability to keep the Princess Consort position, it would be a much better excuse and a fate than being the tarnished incapable young lady.
Her situation was indeed critical and this was her only way out.
***
"And? What happened afterward?" Vadim asked.
"Nothing much." Erielle put a leg across the other and shrugged her shoulders in a dispirited manner.
"The lady is alright?" Vadim asked to make sure.
"Nothing I said."
"No other aftereffect I should or shouldn't worry about?"
"Not at all. We tried a drop of the Sap with different combinations of poisons especially from the same kind we found in Leon's room in the Academy. She may have had a little headache from the effect of the Sap but she is alright as I left her."
"And nothing is going to bite our arses after this?" Vadim asked, "Karanberg is the last city I want to do another break out from."
"Nothing happened. Really…" Erielle said, "The young lady was disappointed the Sap didn't work and then pretended she went into a shell-shock."
[A/n: Shell-shock is the old term of PTSD]
"That's not good." Vadim groaned.
"I told the people that this is natural given the stress and what she has been through." Erielle dropped the matter and changed the subject, "I was disappointed though. I combined all the possible poisons so far and no one did to that girl the same it did to Leon."
"Bah! You just keep coming up with crazy ideas. Elven Cycles are spiritual, not physical." Vadim waved his arms and no longer cared about what consequences this may bring.
"Excuse me."
At that time, a certain young man stopped by the alchemy store and waved towards Sacha.
"Oh, Huxley. Came to take Edrick's medicine?" Sacha stood up to meet his customer.
"Yes, sir." Huxley nodded with an innocent smile and blushed when he saw the fairly beautiful elf looking in his direction.
"You're Leo's friend right?" Erielle asked.
"Y- Y- Yes, Ma'am. Leo is a good friend of mine." Huxley replied with a smile before realizing how awkward he became.
"Call for him when you go back, please. Tell him I need to ask him a few questions." She said.
"Oh…" At that time, Huxley's face became frozen solid.
"Something's wrong, kiddo?" Vadim was quick to realize something was amiss.
"No, not at all, Chief." Huxley replied, "It's just… I thought Leo dropped by here first before he… left."
Instantly, Erielle and Vadim as well as Sacha, who was uninvolved, all looked at Huxley with a deathly cold glare.
"He left?"
"When did he leave?"
"Where did he go?"
Huxley was startled but he replied as fast as his reflexes could serve him.
"Eh… He left right after he arrived. He took his things and said… he said he's going back to the city."
"Dammit!" Erielle slammed the nearby table, "I just kept my eyes off him for an hour."
"He can never sit still, can he?" Even Vadim became angry.
The two of them stormed outside the shop instantly and disappeared among the crowd of Mercenaries going south with serious looks on their faces.
"I'm… I'm sorry, Master Sacha, I didn't really think…" Huxley tried apologizing to Sacha.
"Hm? No worries, no worries… I was just going with the flow. Haha!"
One little detail Huxley forgot to mention though. Leon said he was returning to the City but the direction he took was the opposite side. Now that Huxley thinks about it, Leon was really feeling ominous and dark.
I still don't get how the Cycles work. Does it just erases an old elf within a body and replaces it with an elf with conciousness and knowledge of newborn? I expected for it to be kind of narcotic, though. Well, for those with PTSD, it is.
Still, if Leon died on Earth, and Leon-loser died in the current world, does it mean he is bi-cycle?
I think it's like a short-term memory wipe; like wiping out the feelings and emotions experience during a period of time
@SoulDaemo Everything we have is this excerpt, we can only guess. :(
It resets their memories and makes them forget everything and heal much more vigorously as if they are reborn.
@Xobotun thats just a more complicated form of suicide
@Joospinch What I meant, does this sap leaves basic language knowledge and skills of walking and such, or does it erase everything, leaving a giant newborn elf behind?..