Hermetisia 1/24

[Voyage intermittent. Only a few logs are available for your access level. Choose which logs to translate. ]

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Translating RS log...

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Sunday
S 3 1 - 20 credits for charge
Y 7 U - 40 credits for ( Ham Sandwich )
H 0 0 - Palladia subscription cancelled
K I 0 - 60 credits for ( Distilled water 500 mL )

Monday
Y 7 U - 40 credits for ( Ham Sandwich )
J J 1 - 500 credits to ( unregistered )
I 0 X - 3 000 credits for passage to the outside
I 0 X - 15 000 credits ( full ) converted to outer currency

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End of log

(thirty-three blank pages )

Rescue/Terminus in Eihsta
Reward of 600 copper, almost equating to 34, 600 credits.
( Note: silver is worth more than gold )

Basic information:
There was a total of four missions. The first one is the original rescue missions which meant going into that cabin in the middle of the winter to rescue some property, some people who were trapped in an avalanche. But then the people who volunteered to go there got heavily injured and asked for help as well. The sole survivor, if you'd like to call her that, had a hoarse, desperate voice when she arrived at the receptionist that day.

The third mission happened after the people from the first mission were successfully saved. Those who saved the original rescuers found a place in the middle of the mountains, a shelter without any furniture but with food. Surprisingly, the food is perishable but nowhere close to rotting. They felt that something suspicious was going on so they made a request to investigate that place. The reward price was considerably low, but the people who accepted it were more or less experienced volunteers. The third mission resulted in the discovery of an asylum near the cabin. Based on notes they found and translated, it is heavily suggested that a bunch of people who lost their jobs in the asylum stayed at this place due to lack of shelter from the winter. There were supposed to be more than twelve of them, or maybe 12 precisely. One by one, the people hiked down the mountains in search of civilization or help, but none of them ended up coming back. The more people disappeared, the more the others wanted to get out. In the very end, the only ones who remained were a spoiled brat who was once friends with most of the people in the asylum, and an old woman who couldn't bear to part with her home for more than thirty years. Notes scattered around the cabin indicate one of these two cannibalizing the other and then wanting to run out of the cabin as fast as possible.

Public investigations led to the people of the third mission uncovering the conclusion of what happened in the cabin: further starvation by the person who ate the other, which was then revealed to be the old woman rather than the spoiled brat. They started looking for traces of the old asylum as well, soon finding out that the asylum was destroyed because of a coordinated arson by three people who were included in those who stayed at the cabin. According to them, the spoiled brat was one of those three people.

The fourth mission was posted several months later. At first, it seemingly had no connection to the other two, being a rescue mission for a group of people who hiked near those mountains and never returned for more than two weeks. Four corpses were found inside the cabin, all of which died from frostbite, but all of which had their legs burned before death as well. Of course, it could've just been someone taking shelter in the cabin or seeing it as a perfect place to hide corpses. However, it was soon revealed that two of these hikers had jobs in the asylum before it was burned down. They were fired months before the fire, on the same day.

The cabin is now being monitored 24/7, and any further rescue requests in the surrounding mountains have been passed along to the inquisition.

//The weird part here is that these things happened inside the vault about six years ago. It's weird, isn't it?

//I don't get it. What's weird about it?

//News from the Vaults are being posted here. News from the past.

//Considering the speeds of vehicles heading to and from the vault, it's not really too surprising.

//You're so stupid.

//How many years will it take you to go there?

//Probably two years. I hope I get a shortcut or something.

//What's up with your life lately?

//I got this Rescue/Terminus thing from this specific site.

//Ah, so that's why you've been researching this cabin thing. But as you said, this one is in Eihsta. There's no reason to connect it with this thing.

//Look at this, and this. Aren't they one and the same?

//...this is from six years ago, though.

//Exactly! What do you think is this phenomenon?

//I don't know, but I think you're probably going to suggest time travel or something like that.

//Going back to the past? Dig. Freezing the past? More likely than you think.

//A place can't teleport.

//I know, so I need your help here.

//You want me to go with you to investigate some sort of magical shit?

//Please?

//Well, if it's you, then...

//Thank you thank you! I'll pick you up at the I 0 X!

( Note: There is a high possibility that the translated logs above are make-believe only. Please be careful with what information to send to the Pavilion. )

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Translating 0.005...

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There were multiple iterations of this moment in time. In one, there was a live broadcast about the theories surrounding Pyrolysis and the mask cult that are supposed to be too dangerous to learn about. In another, there were credit logs of the Apeirophilia—Apeirophobia's sister ship, before it went out of the gates. The most interesting and rarest information I could find was the one regarding the frozen cabin from six years ago and the four consecutive missions that investigated the corpses inside it. In all of these iterations, there was one common point: the ship is always sent to Eihsta.

Just as in any prohibited place, I needed a ticket to get to Eihsta. I got a few cargo jobs as camouflage first, specifically targeting those for Eihsta. Albeit the photographs in the iterations' records about a certain place, cabin or city, in some untraceable part of the kingdom, I couldn't find anything even with my connections. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

As usual, I made a tribute to the Human Being, promising them love and devotion. The Being guided me towards the path of the arid desert. Then, there was at the middle of it all, an iteration which I could be a part of. I set sail towards its origin, and found myself browsing through the Being's never ending library. I think the Perfection is slowly becoming aware of my presence. I hope they choose to find me.

At last, I have found a cabin resembling the photos in the inside one of the caverns. I enter it, and I come face to face with flames serving as a barrier not to go through. I sense their watchful eyes and take a step forward. My faith does not betray me. The flames neither burn blaze not melt. It doesn't reach me when I try to touch it. I walk on to finish my journey.

And for some reason, I found it. It was a joke, like some sort of alternate reality game that someone has been working on for decades.

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Translating KL0291/Final...

Warning: The word "suicide" has been used and talked about in this file. Proceed?

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Continuing translation

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My hands are cold, and freezing. He holds them in his own, gloved and lined with wool, and smiles silently at me.

"Let's keep going," the white-haired beauty says and leads me into that old cabin.

"Why do you like this place?"

"It reminded me of you, that's all." he chuckles.

We walk in a winterland frozen in time. The wind follows our footsteps, but we never see it scattering the snow. The trees are either depraved or have less than ten leaves remaining. The sky is the same color as the ground. I had never seen this before.

I remind him of the snow, I think. To me, the coldness suits him better. He is cold, majestic, beautiful, and powerful. If I am snow, he is a raging blizzard. To walk with him in itself is a form of humiliation, seeing as I'll never be enough.

"Are you tired? Should I carry you?"

"Yes, but don't carry me. Let's continue."

"Very well then."

Eihsta has always welcomed its visitors nicely. It follows the old faith, believing in the existence of angels and demons. If they saw this, they'd theorize that someone sinned or made a deal with the devil to create this place. Would they accept us if they knew it was I who made this place?

It was not because I was young and reckless, I was old and bored. I learned through time that the pursuit of pleasure became a need the more you run out of options while being powerful at the same time. Sure, the people of every timeline would disagree, and at that point, I can only blame my overemotional nature. In those times, I wanted to do something for the world, and did many things that were simple words on paper, simple lists without an actual goal. In those times, this white haired man remained floating freely by my head, serving me with all the existence he had left.

Looking at him now, he feels so much more powerful, better than me. Yet he smiles at me non-condescendingly. He loves me, he says. I believe him, but not his praises.

The cabin, yes, the cabin. In the beginning, one of my people prayed for escape. Indeed, they only prayed that they might be able to escape that horrible workplace that mistreated them the same way it did to its patients and kept brainwashing the seniors to hurt the juniors as to continue the fairness that came from being hurt in the beginning. "It hurts, doesn't it?", I insensitively laughed at that woman's face. She was old, and desperate for something, like me. I caressed her face. I kissed her out of mockery. Did I enjoy that? Not the kiss, the feeling of disgust I myself had thinking that they'd feel the same. But they couldn't care less when they're ready to give up anything just to escape their situation.

And so I gave them fuel, and then I gave them copper. More precisely, copper sulfate. Set them free. Set yourself free. Tell those who want to continue living to get out of there. Manipulate them if you have to, and learn how to dirty your hands, you must do it if you want to escape. You must do it for me. Burn the asylum.

Then I created the cabin as my resting place, eagerly waiting for them to participate in some form of survival game. Anyone who tries to escape will die. There will be a reward for the winner. I didn't tell them what it was but it would actually be the flesh of the other last survivor, and right, immortality by being a ghost but only being stuck in the cabin until the end of eternity.

"I can't believe I did that. A foolish, theatrical, asshole."

"What are you talking about?" the white-haired beauty heard my words.

"What happened in this cabin, until the end."

"Well, we're going to change that now. Atone, perhaps." he then smiled and turned to me. "It's never too late to turn back. Would you like to go back now?"

"I'll finish the mission. It's so simple. Burn the cabin."

"Then she will be free?"

"Well I have to get her to, you know, I don't want to say it."

"It's okay there's only the two of us here."

"I need her to self-death."

"Just say suicide like a normal person."

"I can't. I feel choked. By someone, by some group of people, I don't know."

"By the same people in the cryostasis room, who self-deathed as well?"

"Don't remind me. Let's finish what we started."

When we reached the cabin, we checked the interior first, looking for new corpses. We only found them when we reached the back door. So it either means that the woman killed them right in front of the back door or died of the cold first before setting foot in the cabin. That, or they were killed in the cabin but escaped through the backdoor and died anyways.

"Would you like to talk to them?"

"Talk to the dead? I don't want to."

"Just ask them what happened."

"NO. See, just... sack them up. Their families or friends would probably want to see their bodies."

"And I wonder how much they would pay us just to have those corpses."

"Don't do that. Don't make them pay just to see the dead. Stop with that capitalistic mindset or I'm burying you in the white."

"Yes, yes," he smirks. "I leave the flames to you."

I nodded and slammed the back door on him. Time to pour gasoline on wood.

"Copper sulfate, too?"

"No, that would be too much. That's like telling someone to get me some water only to throw it to plants." I said. "You're fast. I didn't even see you enter."

But it wasn't him. I looked right and came face to face with the ugly ghost woman.

"Oh, it's you." I said. "I think you already know what's going on. I see you've been killing for attention lately."

"They are tributes."

"Indeed, the demons of this land would greatly appreciate that."

"They are for you."

How loyal.

"Even after everything? Didn't you eat a rich girl in my name?"

"I suffer still, in your name."

"Don't you feel malice?"

"I trust."

"You can trust but also feel malice. It's normal. Tell me." I said. "Before I set you free; before We set you free, do you want anything else?"

It was the guilt speaking. It was the human brain asking for punishment to ease my conscience. It is not masochism. There would be a feeling of relief but no pleasure whatsoever. If that white-haired guy saw me saying this to someone, he would hug me and repeatedly tell me never to say it again, kill the person I said it to a thousand times, and then affirm me repeatedly. I don't deserve him.

"If possible, I'd like to die in green fire. The same one that burned my hell."

"Ha? Haha. Why?" Of course, she isn't obliged to answer. I didn't bring any of that copper sulfate today thinking she would hate the green fire, but oh was I wrong.

"It feels liberating."

"How sad, I didn't bring any."

"But you can create some, can't you?" she said, surprisingly affectionate. "I realized who you are. You are no prophet, you are more. You are worse, yet better. I trust you can do it."

Bitch.

"...for you. Okay, for you. You want to die in the same fire that you made, not for atonement, but for the sheer pleasure of it. What are you, a masochist?"

"Not at all, sir. If I were to die in your hands, or rather, fade, I would like to fade in something symbolic of my life. It feels, yes, liberating."

"I'm confused." I said, but I still did what she asked. Copper sulfate, shining out of cold, freezing hands. At least she already wanted to self-death before we arrived. It is confusing, why would anyone still talk without hatred to someone like me? Maybe time does that to a person. I know stockholm syndrome does. I expected hate, volatile hate. I was ready to force her down.

"Just, before I go outside and lit the match, can you tell me one thing?"

"Yes?"

"Two things, actually. First, why don't you feel angry?"

"I'm grateful. Everything has a price, I know, and my death was mine. It was the price of freedom, and of the game."

"Stupid."

She smiled sadly. "I was. I should have been more specific with my wishes."

"No. That's not your fault at all, it's mine. Second, why did you target fellow survivors? You could've killed those who investigated this place, but you didn't."

"Sir, I was simply scared."

"Of what?"

She pointed her misty, deformed fingers towards the backdoor. "People like him. Fanatics."

"He's the only one who exists."

"False, sir. Go to Koshka."

"Koshka is a far, far land, with a hivemind massively outnumbering its sentients."

"That man is from Koshka, I'm sure of it. All Koshkans have white hair."

"But not all who have white hair are Koshkans."

"The ones who investigated me, one of them was a Koshkan. The day they--that Koshkan, went into the cabin, it was a holiday for that nation. There was supposed to be one more victim, but they took that person's corpse for tribute."

"You are a ghost, and they are a fanatic, possibly of some fake idol from a fake scripture asking for blood sacrifices. What is there to be afraid of?"

"They burned the corpse in green fire. Perhaps..."

"That is a custom I would have to forbid soon." I whisper-screamed into the walls. "They know me?"

"Aya."

The white-haired man opened up the back door, breaths followed by a fog. The woman, disappeared from my sight like she was hiding from a predator. "I sacked them up. Do you need some help with the arson?"

"...sure, help me."

"How did it go with the woman? Did she agree to suicide?"

"It's self-death. Don't call it that word."

"Self-death, then, sir."

"..."

He gets to work.

"Hey, are you Koshkan?" I asked him.

"Hehe, what do you think?" he looked down. "You're finally interested in me? Just teasing."

"I'll take that as a yes. Does Koshka have some sort of blood-sacrificing god?"

"..." he stares at me, and then he laughs. "Why don't you go to Koshka to find out?"

"What's up with Koshka?"

"Did the ghost tell you that?"

"Yes."

"Koshka may not look like it, but it's similar to Evyros, Luchemia, and the entire Cyrillian Empire. It's a shadow theocracy. From the outside, it looks like it's made of military power and good-for-nothing but pretty technology, but in its very core, Koshka is a fucking cult."

"And you're from that nation?"

"Yes, I am."

After that, it was just silence. I'm sure he had noticed I put copper sulfate on the floor, but he didn't talk to me out of it or about it. Maybe he's just waiting until the end before he feels like he should ask me. I was glad that he didn't talk at all. Many would see the silence as demeaning, that a conversation that ends with one is nothing short of awkward and one should try to fill up the silence. The silence fits the snow.

The two of us got out of the cabin and started to light the fuse. I waited for him to ask me why it was lit up in green fire, but he never did. As if he already knew what it meant.

"Fare thee well, free from materialism and memories, beloved Viona."

"Viona? Was that the ghost's name?"

"Mhm." I said. "Do you want to stay here with me until everything turns to ashes? I'm warning you, it's going to be boring, like watching paint dry."

"No thanks. I'll wait for you down."

"Aren't you curious as to why the flames are green?"

"Copper sulfate, yes? It's green because of science."

"Ah, you're not curious as to the reason why I didn't just burn it in normal, yellow-orange fire?"

He was silent for a moment, then said, "I wouldn't dare to question an unnecessary mystery."

He presses his nose to my forehead (FUCKING TALL GUYS I FUCKING SWEAR THEY ALWAYS DO THIS) and smiled at me. He took the corpses with him and left me alone to watch the ruins.

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Translations complete. Sending info to the Pavilion.