// transmission
Psyche recounts the opening of the Vikram and Vetala mythology, where King Vikram retrieves a corpse from a haunted cremation ground and discovers it is inhabited by a shape-shifting spirit called a Vetala. The Vetala agrees to accompany the king on one condition: absolute silence.
/// initiate_layer
Observers see the surface.
/// within ∞ The Current
Browse era →The cremation ground was a scene from a nightmare. Ghouls and spirits danced in circles, grotesque beings howled, and in the center, the ascetic sat clacking human skulls together like instruments. Vikram didn't even flinch. The ascetic looked up, his eyes gleaming. "Yet a task for the king. To pose to the south," he commanded, "in another
cremation ground, you will find a corpse hanging from a tree. Bring it to me now." Vikram set out into the violent stormy night. The darkness was suffocating. Snakes writhed around his ankles. The air was filled with howls and screams, ghostly voices begging for
his death. He saw the tree glowing with an eerie unholy light. Undeterred, he pushed through the chaos, climbed the trunk, and cut the corpse down. As it hit the ground, the corpse began to cry. Vikram paused. "He's alive," he thought. But then, the corpse let out a cackle, scrambled back up the tree with unnatural speed, and hung itself upside
down again. Vikram, now determined, dragged it down once more. He demanded answers, but the body remained silent. Suspecting this was the very entity the demon had warned him about, he bundled the corpse in a cloth, slung it over his shoulder, and began the long walk back. Suddenly, a voice spoke from the bundle on his back. "I am a Vetala," it said,
"a spirit that lives in the dead. I will come with you, King Vikram, but on one condition. If you speak a single word on our journey back, I will instantly return to my tree." Vikram agreed to the terms. He hoisted the silent, heavy load and continued his trek. And that's when the Vetala, to pass the time and test the king's resolve, began to tell him a
story. And that, my friends, is a tale for another
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