#purpose: memory

Retuned Memory: There are stories, thousands of them, that if the light were just a little different or the music just a little off or the background radiation of the universe just a little higher or lower that you’d be able to see a parallel universe.  I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that you can change the way your mind works with the right pitch, if you stretch that pitch through space and time.  

Plenty of witches know the right spells to change things just a little, to remember one fact, some incident now forgotten.  This artifact is far more powerful.  I do not know what it is made of; a silver-green metal, one that holds heat like gold and smells of jasmine and vetiver.  The runes on the sides are almost worn smooth; you can see them with your fingers more than you can your eyes, but be careful in doing so — you wouldn’t want to undo the enchantment.

It is shaped like a tuning fork; strike it gently against stone and it will hum; place the humming on the back of your neck, just below the edge of your skull, where it can resonate up into bone and brain and beyond.

It will take time, but you will remember everything you have forgotten, and forget everything you’ve ever remembered.  

You will still be you, and you will still have the skills you have, but in that moment, everything you’ve experienced and lost will be at your fingertips.

It can be a terrifying experience— you will not know your spouse or loved ones, but every person you’ve seen in passing and immediately put out of mind will be familiar.  You may not know the room you’re sitting in, but you will remember details of the willow tree outside your childhood home.  You will not remember your childhood home, but you will remember the squirrel that once stole your popcorn, the man that smiled at you in the drug store, the sound of your mother’s voice or the last thing she said before dying - but you will not remember she is your mother.

Context is hard.  Emotions are harder.  At least all you have to do is remember to silence the tuning fork and all will go back to the way it was.

Of course, then those truths will slip from you again — best do this with someone you trust in the room, to ask the right questions and write down the answers.  

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The Counterfeit Kunstkabinett: in a much older time, people used to keep cabinets of curiosities — collections of items that held wonder or memory to them, like a window on the world that they’d known, a physical record of all that they’ve done.

If you find your life was dull, or you don’t have the memories you wish you did, you can create them with this little glass cabinet.  Open the double doors and put something inside, something that represents the memory you wish you had.  Put in something to represent the person you wish to have the memory with.  Put in something to represent yourself.

Used in good faith, this can turn bad days into good and rewrite missed opportunities.  Just be cautious and kind, and remember that it creates memories. It does not change what truly happened.

Character Cheval: a cheval glass with a drawer in the base, big enough for several large texts.  Put books and papers in the drawer, including one paper with the name of an individual who wrote or is the main character in the books.

The glass will create a representation of the person and allow you to have a discussion with them.  They are only created out of the papers you provided, and will not know any secrets or truths nor have skills that are not within — they may be imperfect in all sorts of ways.  But it can be a comfort to have one last conversation with a dead relative, fascinating to talk with a historical figure, and a delight to conversate with one’s favorite fiction.

Athena’s Flypaper: Studying’s a bastard, especially when you don’t have time, but this flypaper isn’t quite what it seems.  Open your book and smooth it, stick-side-down, on the front page.  The glue will crackle; when the sparks are gone it’s ready.  It’ll peel up and off quite easily.  Now, press it to your chest, just above your heart.  Yes, just to the left of the breastbone.  There.  Now close your eyes.