[Endgame: rise or DROWN]

[warpweft]

[How long have you been exploring Nessa's palace now? You've met her family, viewed her memories, learned how to fight as a witch and tried to find the source of her power and the Treasure of her palace: the Voidheart. And along the way, you've tired your best, with mixed success, to avoid the incarnation of her eldest cousin and the representation of her trauma and fear, the Nightmare of Esmau.]

[Wherever you are in the Palace right now, you feel the ground briefly shake under your feet. Little shakes here and there haven't been out of the ordinary - Esmau is trying to blow the place down to the studs, after all. But that felt different. That felt....worse.]

[Your phone beeps as you receive a message.]

Comments

[velluminous]

You came—!

[voidhearts]

Yeah.

Well.

[He nervously shifts in place.]

What was it you said.

"Don't give up"?

[velluminous]

[ she feels her heart do that thing again: clench ]

Good boy. Precisely right.

[ whether he wants it or not, she's hugging him. ]

[voidhearts]

[He holds his arm up, awkwardly. What...what are hugs.]

[Eventually, he lets out a breath.]

I....I dunno if I could've made different choices. I dunno if things would've turned out like I imagined if I'd done the things you said I should've done. But.

You're making your own choice now. So...I. I can make my own choice too.

[velluminous]

[ hugs are what's happening to you right now, Buckaroo. ]

What I chose, I could only choose because I am standing here seeing what already happened. Not so easy when it was you, then.

[ little squeeze; she lets go. this feels like a last goodbye, so she'll make it count. ]

I'm frightened. But little bit excited, too.