"So...." Julia was about to interrupt but Hollis raised his hand to stop her " Let him finish. It's a lot more complicated."
"Yes, because that itself cannot explain what is happening to Arthur here." Patry continues. "Not getting Cleansing of Sap is only possible in two way, one accidentally and two, gods making an exception especially the Goddess Sara who controls the reincarnation cycle. But the individuals who miss it, regardless of the method, are born with all there memories at birth. I have seen two such individuals in my life. One who missed the cleaning, and the other who was exempted by the goddess."
Everyones eyes were fixed on the old Oracle as he continued "First, the one who missed was an old logger who died alone drinking in his cabin in forest. When he was reborn he still had his memories as the old logger and even though his family initially loved him as he grew to be able to talk, he talked like the old man he felt he was. He was resent full towards the world as many old lonely souls,which showed through his actions. He refused to be called the name his parents gave him and insisted on his old name At first his family thought of this as a child's prank, but later realised that he truly was an old man inside. His mother initially tried to exorcise him thinking a vengeful spirit had taken over her boy. But that of course didn't work. In her dispare she tried to kill him but he somehow managed to escape, climbed on a merchant's carriage and left for the nearest city. There is an orphanage run by the Goddess Sara's church in that city where I worked as an apprentice priests. I met him when he realised he couldn't feed himself in his state and came there to be fed. Of course the old man didn't ask for free food, he said he would watch over the kids and in return we feed him and pay him whatever we could spare. I didn't believe him but my senior did after talking to him a length. That is when I realised that such things are possible. That senior is old man Hollis."
Everyone was looking at the young looking elf who was rubbing the head of the boy him lap. Everyone except the boy himself who was looking down at the table and shivering as if the temperature in the room had dropped and he felt cold.
Ignoring all this Patry continued. " That man always described a confusion between his body and his soul. As a little boy his body was attracted to the young girls at the orphanage but his mind was disgusted. He couldn't control his hunger as he used to. He lost his temper like other kids. This confusion would always torture him, and eventually become the cause of his death, when he unable to take it anymore, snuck out with what money he had collected and hid in fields drinking beer. He died because he drank like he was 80 but he had a body of a 9 year old which couldn't handle the high amount of alcohol he drank."
Patry adjusted in his seat and thought for a second before "The second person who was exempted from the Cleansing of Sap is the first pope of our church. Did any of you notice that all of the major churches prepare a huge ceremony when a new pope is honoured, but not the Church of Goddess Sara? It is because when the first pope, who is called the most devoted follower of Goddess Sara, was dieing on his death bed he was granted a wish by the goddess to ask for anything and she would do everything in her power to grant it. What he asked for was to reincarnate again to continue to serve her.
The goddess touched by his devotion declared him to always reincarnate with his memories intact and become the pope again to serve her untill he wishes to pass on. Since then the pope had always remained the same man who would reincarnate to a dieing mother in one of our charity home and will be bought up by the church orphanage to become the pope again at the age of 15. I know this because I served the current pope when he was seven. He had the authority of an old ghost who has live for more than a millennium. Now he is 20. He was able to avoid the torture of the memories as he understood the nature of reincarnation better than anyone else, being the pope of the church, and he has nothing but the goddess in his heart. He has spent all his lives serving her and nothing can shake that devotion. Hollis had also met him."
Patry leaned on to the table and said "But in both these cases they were born with thier entire set of memories and their identity remained that for their previous lives. But as we all have experienced that is not the case with Arthur. We can rule out the first one as the attention he received from the Goddess of love and beauty indicates that he was not a missed or forgotten soul. So we can assume that it was done by the gods wishes but as mentioned he has his identity as Arthur fixed. By the fact that he sees nightmares we can assume that in his case the memories were not left as it is but sealed to be undone as he grew older to avoid the aforementioned confusion and to solidify his identity as your child, Arthur. But how to explain it in first person view is ....um " Patry went into thinking.
"Like possessing a spirit." The one spoke this time was Arthur.
Spirit possesion is a skill that can be used by all high level spirit contractee. When possessing a spirit, contractee and the spirit become one in mind and body and share their memories with the spirit and gain the spirit's memories allowing them to get better at controling their natural energy and increase their strength temporarily. Arthur had heard of this when Eli was being taught by Hollis and he was there to observe them.
" It's like possessing a very sad and scared spirit. When I focus on the nightmares or something triggering happens I can feel his fears and his sadness." Said the poor boy as he shivered in Hollis's lap. Hollis hugged the boy tightly as Patry patted the boy's back.
"His, huuun...." Old Oracle nodded with a smile. Everyone understood that this showed that Arthur did not consider the past life as himself but as someone else. The best sign to show that his identity as Arthur had solidified.
"Possessing a sorrowful spirit..." Everyone was pulled out of their thoughts by these words. It was Hollis who said that as he looked at the Old Oracle and they both nodded with understanding.
"If we treat the memories of past life as memories passed from a sorrowful spirit. We might be able to help." Everyones in the room suddenly thought of this possibility.
Sorrowful spirits were born during difficult time and contained sorrows and fears of a million people. It was forbidden to form contract with them as they bought more harm then good. Especially possessing them was strictly prohibited as fusing with that much sorrow and fear would only make the contractee commit suicide. This was spirit contracting 101. Even Eli knew this.
But of course some time the spirits would forcefully form contract with unsuspecting youngsters or in other cases some stupid people still tried it and end up in situation were their memories were mixed with that of the spirit. There were methods developed to help such people and these could help Arthur's condition.
"That means Arc won't have nightmares anymore?" Asked Eli.
"They won't disappear completely but will become manageable." Hollis replied.
"You don't hate me, big sis?" Arthur asked still visibly shivering. He feared he will be abandoned the way the old logger was.