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[ENTER THE PALACE]
[You find yourself with a sensation like floating in water.]
[Above, the sky is dark. You can occasionally see things shifting, like gusts of wind, or perhaps waves of water. Is it…even a sky above you? Or is it some kind of giant ocean? Whatever it is, you can’t make it out very well. All around you, you appear to be floating in what appears to be water. It looks like a great, wide ocean of…space in every direction around you, with stars and lights twinkling in the distance. It looks like water and feels like water, but it doesn’t make you wet. You can reach your hand into it and pull some out, the purple and violet water and the tiny points of light inside it will even rest in your hands if you cup them to carry it, but once you’re not trying to hold it anymore, it’ll flow off of you, not a single drop remaining behind. You feel something similar if you go underneath the surface. The “water” doesn’t touch your eyes, mouth or nose when give the chance, it merely drifts around you, allowing you to breathe and see unabated. And you can see for a great distance, the twinkling stars illuminating the ocean of space all around you. Though perhaps less dark and empty, it feels every bit as vast as the sky above. You feel like you could swim forever and never reach the edge.]
[It’s quiet, here, with little noise around you but the starry ocean’s waves crashing back into its surface. It’s peaceful. In another situation, it might even be comfortable.]
[Above, the sky is dark. You can occasionally see things shifting, like gusts of wind, or perhaps waves of water. Is it…even a sky above you? Or is it some kind of giant ocean? Whatever it is, you can’t make it out very well. All around you, you appear to be floating in what appears to be water. It looks like a great, wide ocean of…space in every direction around you, with stars and lights twinkling in the distance. It looks like water and feels like water, but it doesn’t make you wet. You can reach your hand into it and pull some out, the purple and violet water and the tiny points of light inside it will even rest in your hands if you cup them to carry it, but once you’re not trying to hold it anymore, it’ll flow off of you, not a single drop remaining behind. You feel something similar if you go underneath the surface. The “water” doesn’t touch your eyes, mouth or nose when give the chance, it merely drifts around you, allowing you to breathe and see unabated. And you can see for a great distance, the twinkling stars illuminating the ocean of space all around you. Though perhaps less dark and empty, it feels every bit as vast as the sky above. You feel like you could swim forever and never reach the edge.]
[It’s quiet, here, with little noise around you but the starry ocean’s waves crashing back into its surface. It’s peaceful. In another situation, it might even be comfortable.]
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[Your vision is blurry, but gradually returning to you. If you have glasses, they’re being held out to you. One way or the other, your vision clears up and you can see a woman standing above you, arms crossed, glaring down at you…]
[With a pair of glowing yellow eyes.]
Don’t force yourself to get up too quickly. Your body is still recovering.
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[. . .]
[an then, an angry hiss]
Asshole.
[. . . not directed at her, obviously]
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[She didn't notice. Or, maybe from the grin on her face, she did.]
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[giving her a lopsided, but clearly tired, smile as he reaches for his glasses]
It's my best charm point.
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Alright. Let's take this slowly. What's the last thing you remember?
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. . . some woman with white hair. She wasn't very. . . ah. "Friendly."
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That was my cousin, Esmau. She found you while you were looking at a memory, so she got the drop on you. She...
[She lets out a sigh.]
[...okay, good news, bad news time. Good news: there's no scar! Bad news: Where you were attacked, there's now a small glass sphere, embedded in your chest. Looking at the stars twinkling inside it, it may be a familiar sight to you, but…the one you saw before, in the memory, was purple. This one is a faded white-gray color.]
She has a habit of doing that.
I have to admit, it was a bit of a rush job, but, well. You were bleeding all over the place, so I skipped the heated seats and the seatbelt covers.
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What. . . is this?
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Or, rather, a copy of it.
It's a piece of magic that connects the Void, a realm outside reality, to Earth. Normally, the real thing is right here, but...
[She pulls down the top of her own shirt to reveal a hole in her own chest, in the same spot where Akira's chest is now occupied by that orb.]
Esmau did to you what she did to me, so...
I fixed it for you the same way it was fixed for me.
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[an exhale, and his hand falls away form his chest, his expression unreadable]
Thank you.
[just. . . to get that out of the way first; and his words are sincere. but that begs another question--]
What do you mean she did to me what she did to you?
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You saw it.
She took that giant pointy stick of hers and now I need a magical orb to do all the stuff that my heart used to do.
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"Pointy stick?"
[TRYING. . . NOT TO BE AMUSED]
Why'd she want to hurt you in the first place?
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Also, my grandmother told her to.
The latter is why she did it, but, the former is why she enjoyed it so much.
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. . . sounds like there's a lot of shitty family history, there.
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It's mostly just those two, but they did manage to wreak a bunch of havoc. Unfortunately, up to and including this moment.
[She twirls her finger around to indicate to Akira to take a look around. His vision will have mostly unblurred by now so he can see the courtyard around him and it's....not great. It is badly damaged, to say the least. Pictures and statues are torn or destroyed, the floor, walls and ceiling all have chunks missing, scorch marks, blade marks…it looks like a tornado and a bomb got into a fight in here.]
Esmau, or at least the Nightmare representing her in here, has been particularly busy the last couple of months.
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Jesus. . .
[. . . and then sets his jaw tightly, expression hardening, as he turns towards Nessa]
How can I help?
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Do something about it when the Warden's task killed me, instead of palling around with the fake that replaced me for two months, for starters.
[Her tone got......a lot icier right then, huh.]
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[straightening a little bit, shooting her a concerned look]
"Fake?"
. . . what made her fake?
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The fact that she's not me for starters? You know? The real Nessa? The one that died trying to save you?
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I never saw it that way. Nessa is Nessa, no matter how old she is, you know?
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You know what happens when you let a Nightmare run wild and you live in a realm between dreams and reality? This. And every night that moppet has had herself an awful little dream about Esmau has just made her stronger in here and now she’s trying to tear the whole bloody place apart.
Whatever. It's a good thing you just volunteered, because after encouraging this crap for so long, you're definitely helping me sort it out.
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I'm no liar, so I'm just saying what I believe.
[BUT ALL THAT ASIDE]
Point me in the right direction to get something done, and I'll do it.
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Esmau is trying to tear apart the palace, besides because she hates me, because she's looking for its Treasure. The real version of the Voidheart, the one that keeps me alive. Something's wrong with it and it's hidden somewhere in the palace, now.
If you want to save Nessa, whomever and whatever that means to you, you'll have to do two things. Find the Voidheart and find a way to defeat that Nightmare of Esmau.
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Got it. I'll do my best.
[a pause]
. . . will you be okay in the meantime? I mean, you're not in any immediate danger, are you--?
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[... ... ...]
Before you go, there's something I need to make clear.
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