Jackal Among Snakes

“You’re talking about losing limbs?” Argrave stared at Raven, stepping back cautiously within this mental landscape. “Why do I need to sacrifice anything? What’s going on?” Argrave braced himself.

Did Argrave even have limbs to lose? He wasn’t entirely sure. And if he did, was this man truly speaking in his best interests? He tried to think of Raven, and while there was a tidbit of him saying that he was a friend… there was another whispering that this man had committed a genocide. Then again, perhaps friend and genocider weren’t mutually exclusive, given the flashes of knowledge he’d seen.

“Your name is Argrave.” Raven slowly rose to his feet, then stood tall. He was both shorter and taller than Argrave—two forms, intermingling. “You’re the King of Vasquer. You were fighting a battle atop a mountain in the Great Chu against Erlebnis, god of knowledge.” Raven stayed still as he recited these details. “Sound familiar? We don’t have time for this.”

Argrave thought on it, straining his mind. It felt as though trying to remember something that he’d done half a century ago, not half a second. But as things fell into place, it was as though a great smog was lifted.

“Good lord… he hit me with something.” Argrave clutched his head, doing his best to remember.

“He’s not a good lord… but from what I can gather, Erlebnis gave you the sum total of his knowledge. He’s attempting to break you under its weight. My discretion, however, would mean he didn’t calculate I might be able to help you with it.” Raven moved closer. Every step he took, the floor changed—it was as though he was walking through tens of thousands of different memories.

“Erlebnis’ knowledge?” Argrave’s eyes brightened, and where there had been confusion, disbelieving desire poured over him, like he’d won the lottery off a gifted ticket. “All of it? You really mean all of it?”

“Yes. Your brain isn’t big enough to accommodate all of it, so it’ll be overwritten unless we do something.”

Argrave recalled that feeling that had come not a moment ago, where he’d thought he was Erlebnis. A grim, creeping horror set over him. It was like a parasite within, slowly eating him up… or an illness, an invisible enemy. As he wondered what would happen he suddenly knew, in such great detail that it shook him to his core. He would be rather like the Castro that Sophia had created—not understanding who or what he was, without proper use of even his limbs. He would totally lose his sense of self, concocting delusions to explain the world around his shattered mind.

talk about what we’re going to do to stop it.” Raven rolled his shoulders. “We’re going to rewire your brain so that memories are

that might entail, knowledge that wasn’t Argrave’s came to him. “Like a memory palace, or other mnemonic systems?” As soon as Argrave said it, he felt the need to clutch his head in

memories. When you see certain colors, for example, it’ll conjure a section of memories. Sounds, sights, even shapes—they’ll evoke memories, hopefully while retaining the form and structure of your mind. It’ll fuck with your head for a few months, but it should help you stay yourself. The key is, though…” Raven tapped Argrave’s chest. “Key is your work. Your effort determines how much spittle leaks from your mouth,

I do?” Argrave asked Raven, afraid to call upon his own

you spent the most time. The place whose entire structure—bottom to top—you can remember. It needs to be big enough to explore, big enough to hold a lot of things, a

I grew up?” Argrave repeated. “We moved, all the time. Never stayed in one town

from Royal Road. If you discover

any location that you went to consistently for more than five years? A town hall, a university, a hospice, a pilgrimage, a large marker? Give me something, anything!”

“I don’t know, my dad’s truck? We had it for seven or so

thousand memories in long strides. “A truck…? Describe what that is to me. How large is it? How much could

don’t know, maybe four, five people, if you cram ‘em in. More if we used the back, I

the learnings of the god of knowledge, Argrave, and you’re giving me something with four or five people?” Raven grabbed Argrave. “Think! A library,

kept… and like it was obvious, it struck him on the

“The wiki,” Argrave said.

Raven narrowed his eyes. “I want you to think about what we could fit in there. Think on it, very hard,

whole world, then have some left to spare.” Argrave started smiling, slowly. “How many words do think fits on one page of a book? Couple hundred? Well, one page of the wiki could have a million, if we wanted it to. And if a wiki’s got a good enough search feature, good enough hyperlinks in the text, you can find whatever the hell you want—go on a deep dive

It’s a book of some kind? Won’t work, then, we

they exist. The only thing that’s lacking in a wiki, I suppose, is sensation… but then, considering it’s the formless Erlebnis’ knowledge, we probably won’t need much actual sensation.” Argrave pried himself from Raven’s grasp and peered into his vast mindscape. “Good lord. I thought all those years working on that