[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

[voidhearts]

[The crystal absorbs your memory.

Nessa almost wishes she had never brought it up in the first place. Never complained that they couldn't see what the teams were doing. She wishes they'd just used their choice blindly, because if she hadn't said anything, Fran wouldn't have offered the trade and they wouldn't have decided to take it. It made her feel responsible for the things they were all giving up and....she couldn't accept that. So she tried her hardest to stop it from happening.

But...that's not true, is it.

She was on Echidna because she wanted to help. It would've hurt more knowing that they could've helped but didn't if the other blocks had been left to suffer.

The truth is, she would've made the same choice 100 times in a row.

The crystal SHATTERS brilliantly, sending purple shards everywhere. Esmau noticeably twitches. Her shield flickers slightly.]

What the hell was that?!