It's strange what amnestics do to you.

I only know this now that the black liquid, the life tea, as they call it,

has wiped the memory-blocking substance from my brain.

I now know that I have no sisters and no nephews back in the world.

These false memories were implanted in me, while the amnestics blocked me from accessing my real memories.

My siblings are here in this village.

My parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles are all here.

And for the last three months, they've been nursing me back to health

while teaching me their language.

It turns out, I'm a fast learner of this particular language,

probably because I was brought up speaking it and English.

Of course, they don't know that.

They think it's only because I'm one of them

that I've picked up the language so fast.

Once it was clear I could understand them,

they told me the story of my kidnapping again and again.

When the bloodline needs to be refreshed

to prevent birth defects from inbreeding,

men from my village go out into the world

and procure women who are used for breeding.

They glazed over their selection process while telling me this story,

but I know it involves finding women who are of pure Slavic descent.

...