Chapter 49 – Sinner Two: The Memory Farmer

The path to the Memory Farm didn't start with a road.

It started with a lie.

I woke up in a house I didn't recognize.

Smiling faces.

A woman calling me "son."

The scent of cinnamon and sunlight.

It felt like peace.

Until I walked outside and saw the sky made of teeth.

---

> [Zone: FARM // FILE_MN002.breach]

Type: Cognitive Corruption / Memory Market

Primary Sinner Detected: "Silas Grey" a.k.a. The Memory Farmer

Status: Trader of Sins – Retains no guilt of his own

Threat Level: Cognitive Collapse Risk: HIGH

Rule: No one leaves with all their memories intact

---

The fields were filled with people.

But they weren't planting anything.

They were burying moments.

One woman wept as she dropped a wedding ring into the dirt.

A child knelt, whispering "Mommy's face" before it disappeared into the soil.

The crops?

Rows of glowing orbs—each one a sold memory.

And the man who walked between them wore a blood-red coat and a grin made of missing time.

Silas Grey.

---

"Kai Ravenhall," he said with warmth. "I've been expecting you."

He held out his hand.

I didn't take it.

"You trade memories?"

"I liberate people from their burdens," he replied, plucking an orb from the vine and tossing it up.

It flickered.

A man sobbing beside a body.

A murder.

A scream.

"Why suffer," Silas asked, "when you can forget?"

---

> [System Alert: This sinner has no guilt signature]

Analysis: Silas has offloaded all emotional consequences

Danger: High risk of empathetic collapse if user absorbs fragments

Opportunity: Root Thread Fragment Detected within Silas's personal archive

---

"Let's trade," he offered. "I'll show you what I've done… if you give me a memory. Just one. Something painful. I'll even let you choose."

He held out a silver scalpel.

Not for flesh.

For soul.

> [Decision: Trade Memory to Access Archive?]

Risk: Permanent loss of selected memory

Options:

– "The day Maria died"

– "First mission"

– "Your own face as a child"

– "Your father's voice"

– Decline

I hovered over the last one.

Then I looked Silas in the eye.

And chose: "My father's voice."

---

It burned.

Like pulling fire out of my skull.

The memory left like a scream in reverse.

And when it was gone…

I realized I couldn't remember what he sounded like at all.

Only silence.

And I felt it, like a missing tooth in the middle of my thoughts.

---

Silas grinned.

And opened the gate to the Archive.

---

It wasn't a room.

It was a slaughterhouse.

Stacks of memory jars labeled with things like:

"REGRET: Letting Her Die"

"SHAME: Lying to Him Before the End"

"FEAR: That He Deserved It"

Each one still pulsed.

Still wept.

Still remembered, even if the person who lived it didn't.

---

Silas leaned against a beam.

"I made this place after the system forced me to relive my wife's death 200 times for a failed mission chain. So I… deleted her."

He pulled out a jar labeled:

"LOVE: Eliza Grey"

"Once this was gone, I never cried again."

He smiled.

"I've been happy ever since."

---

> [Corruption Level: 97% – Judgment Available]

Inject Rewrite?

A) Execute – Sever all traded memories, restoring nothing

B) Absorb – Reintegrate his archive into yourself, risking collapse

C) Redeem – Force him to remember the most important one

---

I took the jar from his hand.

Held it to my chest.

And whispered: "Remember her."

He laughed.

But the laughter choked halfway through.

His hands trembled.

His smile cracked.

And suddenly—he remembered.

All of it.

The love.

The death.

The scream he swallowed.

He fell to his knees, shattering the mask he'd worn for years.

"No," he whispered. "Not again."

But it was too late.

---

> [REDEMPTION COMPLETE]

Silas Grey's archive restored

Memory Farm collapse prevented

Users released from memory suppression

Thread Fragment Two Recovered

Soul Integrity: -4% (Current: 79%)

Trait Gained: "Soul Trader" – You may offer a memory in exchange for insight, once per arc

---

The field wilted.

Orbs turned to dust.

And Silas?

He lay in the soil, eyes wide open for the first time in years.

He wept.

Quietly.

Grieving for a woman he had erased.

"I don't want to forget again," he whispered.

"You won't," I said. "That's your penance."

---

> [Zone Stable: MEMORY FARM]

Forgiven Sinners Remaining: 5

Next Destination: "The Cold Choir" – Where faith, guilt, and death intertwine