L.T. File: 088: Eric Oakquist
Accounts of Eric's birth were well documented in Zevemlya until the records were destroyed. Agents recovered information from contacts in Zevemlya Eric was born in the city of Drakeguard in 93 (post). His parents were Kara and Devlin Oakquist. Eric's first five years were normal for a child in Zevemlya , and he was not chosen for academy. Shortly after his fifth birthday, Eric's parents began to fight over him, for his affection. Each saw their own view of what was important for their child, and neither could see the other's point of view in any aspect that it disagreed, nor could they see that they both had the same goal.
One year later, the parents had spent time trying to take their child from one another, and had made it to the coast. Devlin had hired pirates to smuggle himself and Eric from Zevemlya , and Kara, upon hearing this, and having no way to follow within reason, began swimming after the boat. Her body ha never been recovered.
The pirates, by all accounts, had no intent to smuggle the family, and had all intent to sell them as slaves back to a different region within Zevemlya , or use them as slaves among their own. Something happened on the ship, however, and a full mutiny occurred over who's view of what was best for Eric. By the time that an Aulven fisherman found the ship, Eric was famished, and the pirate was dead on the ground. Upon finding the boy, a grisly scene was visible. Body parts had been hacked from the other pirates, over a cook fire. The boy had stated that the pirate had cut off his own leg and arm to feed him before dying from blood loss.
The fisherman brought the boy to the port city, from there a number of individuals came in contact with the boy, and a number of murder suicides occured in his presence by his consecutive "guardians." Operatives finally found the boy and his "guardian," Bluevine, an Aulven plant kineticist who had taken the boy into the woods. Operatives extracted the boy and brought Eric back to the Sanctum Tranquilus. Shortly after, Bluevine hung herself. During this time, even with psychic safeguards, operatives had to be detained for irritability.
After one month of detainment, operatives recovered. A field of 30 meters has been determined necessary not to be affected by the psionic "aura" that Eric gives off. Operatives cannot go in without psionic shielding, and never for more than two minutes and fifteen seconds at a time before a week of separation and a psych evaluation. Eric has remained in protective custody in a special cell in the sanctum, and is given daily access to the gardens of the sanctum. Games with Eric can be done over distance.
Summary
Field Note 1– Recovery Attempt (Bluevine Period)
Operative Veylan- MossFrog dictated to crystal recorder after extraction attempt, catalogued under Case E-04.
Location: Northern woodlands, 14 km outside Port City
Date: Redacted.
Recorder: Transcribed from memory crystal and operative testimony.
For three days, we tracked residual overgrowth — thornspires twisted in coils, nettles unnaturally blooming in midwinter. This was Bluevine’s mark: accelerated plantwork, spiral formations like veins across the undergrowth.
We found them in a clearing ringed with briars thick as stone. Eric sat at the center, small, silent, his eyes lowered. Bluevine circled him with her vines, muttering half-prayers, half-threats.
When we revealed ourselves, she lashed out — roots ruptured the soil, thorns darted like javelins. Her voice cracked: “He is a seed of endings. You will not cut him free!”
We activated the Quiet Sphere — a silver-etched wardstone placed at the perimeter — to dampen her spellcasting. She strained against it, but the vines slowed. Standard binding charms proved insufficient; her mania amplified her kinetic reach.
I gave the signal. Operative Sashine used a Sleep sigil inscribed on her gauntlet to strike her shoulder. The glyph flared; she staggered and fell into unconsciousness. We secured her with enchanted cord before turning to the boy.
Contact with Eric began under full psionic warding. Two minutes passed before the first signs of strain: irritability, intrusive guilt, an urge to rebuke my own companions. As protocol demands, I pulled back before symptoms deepened.
Eric did not resist. He looked at us, sorrowful, and whispered: “Please don’t leave her alone.” We wrapped him in a veil-cloak against aura leakage and carried him from the grove.
We left two med-wardens with Bluevine until the sigil’s effect passed. She woke within the hour, disoriented, calling for the boy. Unable to follow our path — the forest itself had been lulled into stillness by the Quieting ward — she searched blindly. That night she was found hanging in her own vines, body woven into a lattice.
Behavioral note: Eric wept through the journey, not for himself but for her. “She thought she could keep me safe,” he repeated. His influence remained involuntary, not directed.
Operational impacts: Contact ceiling of two minutes and fifteen seconds remains valid, even with full warding. Lingering irritability among team persisted for three days despite cleansing rites. One operative required additional soul-bathing in the Sanctum fountains.
Recommendations: Immediate protective custody under sanctum wards. Continued therapy essential. Forensic augurs to examine Bluevine’s final lattice — possible traces of compulsion or overgrowth resonance.
2. Survivor Interviews (Therapy Setting)
Conducted by Operative Henry Mirath- psychosocial Division Format: group therapy transcript excerpts. Survivors are individuals who briefly housed Eric before Bluevine. All were exposed for less than 24 hours.
Participant 1 (Dockworker, male, 32):
“I let him into my shack. Kid didn’t say much. Just sat there. Within an hour I wanted to throw myself in the harbor. It felt necessary, like if I didn’t, the pressure wouldn’t stop. He looked so sad, though, like he knew what was happening to me. He ran from me outside before I could… before I could do it.”
Participant 2 (Innkeeper’s daughter, female, 19):
“He was polite. Hungry. He asked for water. But when I looked at him, I felt every mistake I’ve ever made pile up at once. I nearly drank lamp oil before my father stopped me. He thought I’d gone mad. I thought I had too. The boy just whispered, ‘I’m sorry.’”
Participant 3 (Fisherman, male, 47):
" He held onto my arm and I felt like I’d drowned already. Couldn’t sleep that night — saw every dead man I’d ever known. I felt relief when he was gone, but also… guilt. Like I’d abandoned my own son.”
Counselor’s Note:
Survivors consistently report a shared triad of symptoms:
- Compulsive suicidal ideation escalating within 1–6 hours of exposure.
- Profound guilt linked to imagined responsibility for the boy’s suffering.
- Clear memory of the boy expressing remorse, sometimes verbally, sometimes only perceived.
Therapeutic interventions focus on dissociating personal culpability from anomalous influence. Survivors remain fragile but stabilizing.
3. Clinical Notes – Sanctum Tranquilus Custody
Compiled by Chief Therapist Singing Stone and directorSashine Onyx-Wind, weekly summaries, first six months of containment.
Week 1:
- Subject withdrawn, near-mute. Exhibits extreme avoidance of direct contact.
- Psionic field stabilized at 30 m radius. Shielding protocols effective.
- Subject demonstrates awareness of his influence, asking repeatedly, “How long before I make you hate me too?”
Week 3:
- Daily garden exposure improving mood. Child speaks briefly to avian fauna; no anomalous compulsion directed at animals.
- Operatives still experience irritability after contact > 2 minutes without shielding.
Week 6:
- First successful distant-play activity: a board game via mirror relay. Subject smiled. Laughter recorded.
- Trauma indicators: night terrors, recurring dream of Bluevine “knitting him into the roots.”
Week 10:
- Verbal interaction increasing. Eric expresses guilt over Bluevine’s death.
- Therapeutic reframing initiated: Bluevine as victim of aura, not deliberate betrayal. Subject receptive.
Week 18:
- Signs of resilience developing. Subject requested more stories, especially ones “with happy endings.”
- Psionic field remains stable, no signs of intensification.
Week 24:
- Eric asked operative River Veil if “he could ever live outside.” First expression of future-oriented thought.
- Counselor assessment: progress is slow but genuine.
- Recommendation: Continue protective custody. Long-term reintegration potentially possible with sufficient therapeutic scaffolding and psionic dampening advancements, though research has not given long-term options.
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