Amnesia

The walls are open. No longer are minds forcibly wiped before citizens go to another block - now they can visit as they please. They have claimed their freedom, and in their wake the once prolific Machines are reduced to scrap, their operators either disciplined or breathing sighs of relief. The Machines that remain are few and far between.

The memories return over time. This has always been the way, for the Threshold is made of memories; they cannot remain hidden forever. Near the broken Machine of Block 2845, these memories had returned in cascades, the shadow in the mind that cloaked them torn apart by that first intent. As Psychopomp falls, this rate begins to settle once more. One day, every memory will return to every head. But that is still a long, long time to come.

The people employed as guards by the organisation have the most to recover. Not even the sense of self that endures with total amnesia is present at first. Those stationed in Block 2845 are given a place to stay, as comfortable as can be given the already overcrowded housing. They may regain their names one day.

Bale, the first of the Threshold, was right about one thing: Eternity is long. Not everyone has the desire to experience it continuously forever. When the dust settles, and technical minds assemble, the suggestion of good being found in amnesia is a controversial one. But only emotional arguments could be made against the option being made possible, and so it is. Lethe and those like them cautiously make it so.

To voluntarily reset part or all of one’s memories is a serious decision. Over-frequent use is, as was found in the days of Psychopomp, detrimental to the brain. Not to mention the connections one leaves behind when one forgets. The scarcity of the Machines, then, lends to the gravity of this choice. People often have to travel far to find a technician who can run the procedure.

Though the circumstances of their deaths may be uncertain, veiled still for some, there is at least one certainty now: never again will the technology work against the will of another. The collective intent of the human race has seen to that for good.