The One Who Knows

An empty person filled by foreign memories.

"There are stories aplenty of encounters with the fae, many even where people disappear for seasons or years only to return as if they hadn't age at all. There is only one story of a person who was stolen away twice. They lost everything but gained something special, the power of knowing."

The One Who is Lost

The One Who Knows lived long ago in what is now the river-nation of Zinato. What they did for a living varies depending on who tells the story but always they end up heading into the forest. Sometimes they leave town as a hunter, others to find a lost loved-one, and sometimes to answer the call of the fae.
During this journey into the woods they encounter a group of fae - if the One Who Knows is a hunter in that variation of the story they have hit one of them with an arrow. The strange neighbours begin to sing and to dance and the visitor join in - unwillingly in some tellings. When the song comes to an end the fae flee, leaving the mortal behind - most of them anyway.
Eventually the One Who Knows stumbles back to the village and is recognized by their children - now adults themselves. Almost twenty years had passed in what felt like a matter of minutes. Happy to have them back the family rejoiced but it did not last long before cracks began to show. While they remembered their family, their memories of friends, the world, and even some common knowledge were missing - left in the forest or, more likely, taken by the fae.

Is Lost Again

A struggle though it was, the One Who Knows managed to live with their family for several more years and watch grandchildren be born and begin to grow. This is when they hear the call again, in their sleep. They ignore it as long as they can but eventually wander into the woods. In the versions of the myth in which they killed a fae, some come to take away one of the grandchildren but the One Who Knows intervenes, eventually chasing the outsiders into the woods.
Again the fae sing and again the fae dance and again the One Who Knows joins them. When the neighbors again flee, their guest feels no deja vu, no anything, for nothing is left inside of that body, that mind, or that soul.
Longer now has passed than the first time, the One Who Knows is found by one of their grandchildren now appearing older in age than their grandparent. The village had grown and now the place where the One Who Knows lay unknown for decades was not far from the bustling river hub.

The Power of Knowing

When the grandchild placed a hand upon their shoulder, they could feel what the other was feeling, know the surprise that their grandparent was still alive, long thought lost, and yet younger now than their descendant. They embraced each other and departed back to the village.
Rehabilitation took many years. When in contact with someone, speech flowed easily, and they knew what was happening and what had happened during their absence. When alone, nothing. Eventually they could live by themselves but it was a bit difficult due to the powers that gave the One Who Knows the only name history remembers them by.
The power of knowing - as it is called - has only ever been possessed by the One Who Knows and allowed them to embody anything they touched. While holding a battle-worn spear, they knew the history of the weapon and how to use it. When they picked up a blacksmith's hammer, they were an excellent artisan. When holding a doctor's hand, they could save lives. Almost none of that knowledge remained after letting go of an person or item but the ability to do it at all was incredible.
The One Who Knows solved many thefts, mysteries, and even discovered the cause of several deaths by allowing the memories of objects into their empty body, mind, and soul.

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Old Article

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