[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

[warpweft]

Good. Because I could take or leave you, personally. But.

[...]

...Nessa thinks you're one of the most dependable, brave, kind people she's ever met.

[She raises a hand up and gives Minato a pet on the shoulder.]

And she really wants to see you again.

[messianic]

[ ... his heart aches so, so much at that--but he just dips his head, with a little half-smile. ]

I... really want to see her again too.

But I hope--someday, somehow, I'm able to get to know you better too.

[ even if he knows that with his own circumstances, that's not likely either. ]