#the parallel moment between ravengard and minthara is so interesting to me

[tavtime]

Absolutely not sorry to still be obsessing over this, but Minthara's description of the gulf between the false memories she had while mind-controlled vs. her reclamation of her real memories just ties me up in knots. The way she describes remembering what happened to her is horrifying:

And the thing is, this is her reward for having some control over herself again. While she was under the influence of the elder brain, her memories of this time were wholly different - holy, beloved, ecstatic. And entirely false.

It's left a little unclear in dialogue whether or not she regains her true memories immediately upon joining the party, but... god, what if she doesn't? What if she knows immediately that what she was shown was false, but the truth only comes back to replace those false memories piecemeal? Imagine her walking up the stairs from the dungeons for the first time with her mind intact, only to see the table near the kitchens - superimposed with the memory of blood, of Orin skipping across it toward her, but all out of context because she doesn't yet remember what came next. Until she does, of course. Until she follows the party back down into the depths of the colony, and she remembers the way the walls ooze and every surface crawls like twitching muscle when you touch it. And maybe she has to stop there, stop and watch while Orin cradles Ulder Ravengard's skull in her fingertips for the tadpole.

And what if that's the moment she finally has the last piece of her memories back. Maybe all the gaps finally fill themselves in while she's back down there in the dark with the people who broke and remade her, watching that same violation be forced on someone else.