#Thus does the song Crecendo.

[cyten0]

A Symphony In Crimson

Act 1: A Movement in Black

Chapter 16

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...You cry.

What else can you do but cry?

You killed one country, and now you’ve trapped another in a paradox!

They’ll all be stuck in here with you, because you broke the wish that carried their hopes and dreams!!! Their salvation!!!

… No. No, you owe it to them to keep trying. To save them, SOMEHOW. You CAN’T let this happen again!

THINK. If you can’t complete the wish, you have to shatter it! Break it, even if it breaks you!! You weren't planning to live after this anyways.

But you also have to defeat the king. Wish or no, you owe it to them to do that. If only you could stop the loop there. End it… Freeze it…

...That’s it! You remember. You came to this conclusion a while ago, that if you could collide the kings wish with yours directly, they’d both shatter. Stop the reversing, and reverse the stopping!! ...But he’d never do that. Never give up his wish. He’d rather kill everyone then do that…

...But

…You don’t need him for that, do you?

You just need his heart.

You’ll have to keep it beating, to take it’s power. But if you eat him, or infect him, that’s a simple thing, isn’t it? Simply assimilate him into yourself, and make his heart yours!

You said you’d never do that to a human but he doesn’t count anymore does he? He’s just a monster! Just a monster...

Yes. Of course. You’ll kill the monster yourself. Take his heart, save the country.

But. You’ll need to be alone with him for that. You can’t do something that monstrous in front of your family. Nonononono you absolutely cannot! You need them to trust you enough to let you face him alone.

That trust. You need to help them again. Like you did that one time! They trusted you then, right? You don’t… remember how it went. Not exactly. It’s a little hard to think! You didn’t eat flesh the last loop, Odile’s been too suspicious lately. No nutrients for the brain! But you’ve eaten plenty of sadnesses, so you won’t be tempted, right?… right?

… You’d best keep it quick. Just in case. Surely, you can do this quickly, right? Surely.

...Get up Siffrin. You have. A country. To save.

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You’re looking over your dating profiles. Change, you really aren’t getting far at all with this. You need to so something else. You probably should go check up on Siffrin, they have napped for a bit! Maybe-

Oh, there they are! Oh. Change, they don’t look good at all! Like a walking corpse! Y-you can’t really say that to them. Um. Just uh.

◉ “Hi Siffrin? Um. Are you okay? You look like you had a really bad nightmare.”

✦ “I’m fine Mira. Do you want help with your papers?”

◉ “What! Oh, n-no of course not, don’t worry about them! They’re-”

✦ “Bonding papers, right? You seem like your struggling.”

How did he-? ...N-Nevermind, you guess you can’t hide that anymore.

◉ “I-I. Um… Yes.”

They take a seat down next to you.

◉ “W-Well they're more dating profiles, but yes. I suppose I could use a hand with them. It’s something I was looking into before the king, but… I am choosing a potential lifelong partner, and I’m… not sure what to look for.”

✦ “Do you have to?”

Wait WHAT?!?

✦ “You don’t need to be with anyone. Clearly you don’t want to. So why even bother?”

Don’t want to- How does he!?! Change he shouldn’t just assume he knows you like this!

✦ “Better to accept it now then later. Better to stay the same then make yourself suffer.”

Oh that's it, Now he’s thrown change into it! You just!

You slap him in the face.

Crack

O-Oh No! What! How did! His neck just! Their head is almost backwards! You didn’t slap them that hard! Oh no oh no you didn’t want to hurt them you just wanted them to stop, you-!

...You hear. A strange sound. Like something wet ripping. As their head. Rights itself. Their body doesn’t even move. And you hear their bones snap into place… What…

◉ “S-Siffrin?”

✦ “…”

◉ “I-I.. Just. You can’t act like you know me like that, and then throw change into things, this is really important I-”

✦ “No. You’d know best, wouldn’t you Mira?”

They turn to you, their face grim, unfeeling. You can feel yourself shake. Something is wrong!

✦ “You’re strong. You care about things. And no one knows you better then yourself, right? You’ve always been so strong. Always trying to be better. Which is why you should know. That strength? That will, that lets you get through anything? It means NOTHING when you try and fight yourself.”

They stare at you. There is this strange shade glowing from the dark of their eyes. You can’t move. Change, what is-

✦ “You can try and break through, but it’ll just hurt yourself. Hurt those around you, as you rip yourself apart trying to claw out that piece you think is wrong. You can’t fight yourself. You can’t run from yourself. No matter how much you try.”

Their every word strikes at your fears. Your fear that you'll be unable to change, your fear that something is wrong with you, your fear that your wrong in trying. It feels like they tower over you. This isn’t like them at all! It’s like some dark part of your mind come to life!

✦ “We never can.”

Wait… No, something is VERY wrong!… You aren’t letting this stand!

◉ “I… Siffrin, I don’t know what’s happening with you. But that doesn’t let you talk to me like that!”

They shrink back into their cloak, hiding their face under their hat. You! Change, now you’re angry at them! They shouldn’t have said ANY of that! No matter WHAT’S happening!!!

◉ “Is that REALLY what you think? That I can't Change?! I can't believe you!!!"

◉ “I don’t know where you got the idea that you know me all of a sudden, but I’m not having it! I thought you better then this! Better then running around poking at my worst parts! And… I'm not going to put up with it!”

You. Are. Furious!

◉ “You’ve teased me before, but I thought you better then to try and actually hurt me! But now here you are! You don’t get to talk about me like that, and you DEFINITELY don't get to talk about Changing like that!”

Change, you can’t talk to them right now!

◉ “...I’m going to go to the clocktower. I don’t want to see you until tonight.”

You storm off.

...For a brief bit. You turn back. What was that? That wasn’t… You don’t know what that was… You’ll have to talk with the others. Maybe talk with Isabeau. Something is up.

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You… Why did you do that. That wasn’t the right way to talk about it at all. You got caught off guard and just started talking and… You couldn’t help it!

Stars, you should be better then this!! Better at keeping yourself at check, even now!! Better at keeping all your worst thoughts back in a little bottle at the back of your mind, better at keeping the monster you are from ever seeing the light of day, and...

...It’s fine. You’ll just… Have to talk to her later. Explain what you meant. You… can’t afford to loop right now. Not that you have a way before tomorrow without stabbing your own heart out, but.

If you did, you’d struggle more to be human. You might even have to resort to that blinding corpse again, and you don’t want that. You’d dig yourself even further into this pit.

After all, look what taking too long did already! Could have lasted long enough to hunt and recover if killing the king didn’t take so long! Could maybe have granted your wish! You can’t afford to make more mistakes, you’ve made too many. You have to make this work.

You can’t fail them. Not again, you refuse to fail them again. You have to do something right by them, you have to make it up to them somehow after all this!! HAVE to leave them better then when you started.

Even if she doesn’t get it now, it’ll help eventually right? After you're gone, she’ll get to figure out what you meant. But you’d rather she knows NOW, because she was happy when she did, and after all she did for you, you just-!

You’ll just. Try and salvage this. It should be fine.

Maybe. Odile next? Get that out of the way. Before Mira tells her anything. So that she’ll already trust you some before. Give you a chance to explain yourself. Odile doesn’t trust easy, so it’s best to do that now.

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You’re currently shopping, getting ready for tomorrow. Got most of the ingredients Boniface needs for snacks tomorrow, including some dried meats for Siffrin. Now you just need to look into anything else that might help.

Oh. You notice Siffrin approaching out of the corner of your eye. Gems, they do not look good. Like someone on their deathbed from illness. Perhaps their mysterious condition is causing issues? It may be worth getting them food earlier if so.

◆ “Oh, Siffrin. You look ill. Is everything alright?”

✦ “I’m fine Odile! Actually-”

◆ “No, something’s clearly wrong, what-”

✦ “Have you heard of a familytale?”

Wait. What.

...Hold on. Why did they know to mention that?… They're clearly trying to change the topic, but they know more then they should.

◆ “...I may have. Why?”

✦ “I heard someone might have one! Had a feeling you might want to check.”

Hm… You do want one, but. That reasoning feels. Flimsy. And you still notice that he’s avoiding their poor state… Let’s see where this goes.

◆ “Lead the way, I suppose.”

They nod, and begin to head out. As you follow them, you notice their stance. They're not walking like normal. The way they seem to glide across the ground, the way their movements seem on instinct, the way they move to their destination without a single pause…

It reminds you of their more feral combat stance. The one they take at their peak. But their clearly not at that peak. And they're certainly not in combat.

You enter the boulangerie. Siffrin approaches a small girl near the side.

✦ “Excuse me, I heard you have a certain book?”

“Oh, um. Only book I have is this one!”

She holds up a book labeled ‘Paperase Familytale’. Their father speaks up

“What? You had it Charline? Hm… I suppose you must be looking for it?”

✦ “Yes, if it’s alright for us to borrow it? We’ll make sure to give it back before leaving.”

“Well, I suppose there’s no harm in that.”

The little girl nods in agreement, and hands Siffrin the book.

You did catch that. The boulanger didn’t know their daughter had it. Yet another thing Siffrin seems to know out of nowhere…

Siffrin turns to you, with a smile on their face.

✦ “Do you want to go somewhere quiet to read?”

◆ “… Sure. Have a place in mind?”

They nod. And you follow them.

>>>

...You know this clearing. Found it earlier actually. It would be a nice reading spot. You thought as much when you first saw it… And yet. It’s Siffrin who led you here. Like they're taking a page out of your own brain.

You’d look at this book. But. Right now. Siffrin takes priority. You look them over, trying to see if you can’t glean anything else.

✦ “… It’s a really interesting book, right? You know. Culturally.”

◆ “… Siffrin. How did you know that girl had a familytale?”

✦ “Oh uh! Just. Heard it. Around.”

◆ “...Sure. Just... Around…. Better question then. How did you know I wanted to read one?”

They don’t respond. Glancing around nervous.

◆ “And why here? I literally found this spot yesterday. Odd that you’d bring me here…”

They still say nothing. Hiding their face under their hat.

◆ “… I don’t mind people keeping secrets, Siffrin. But I do NOT appreciate Secrets about myself, or when friends keep those secrets from me. Especially if those secrets are important.”

You notice the stress on them visibly.

◆ “And something tells me this is important. Gems… You're literally shaking. You look so tense you're going to snap… I was already worried, but now I’m VERY worried. What’s wrong, How can I-”

✦ “STO̵͓͝P.”

They freeze. And start to rise. Wait. Their eyes… What is that strange shade…?

✦ “Don’t mind secrets, Odile? That’s not what it looks like from here. You can say that all you want, but every time something goes ever so slightly off, you just HAVE to pry, HAVE to look further in. HAVE to know, Don’t you?”

There is this glare in their face. Blank, yet their voice drips with displeasure. No, there’s more to it…

✦ “What does it take, Odile? What does it take, for you to just TRUST that someone has their secrets in check? No matter what I do, you keep prying, keep searching, keep looking into things you shouldn’t. I do EVERYTHING to keep myself safe, to be a good human for you all. Try and get away from the corpses. But You. Just. Keep. Prying.”

Safe? Human? Corpses, PLURAL?… This is bad. This is very bad. Gems alive, what is happening to Siffrin? What HAPPENED to Siffrin?

✦ “You just can’t get yourself to trust others can you? CAN YOU? ...Why would you? You’ve had plenty taken from you.”

What. Nonono Gems what do they know? How do they-

✦ “You can’t trust family to not hurt you. Your dear mother proved that, didn’t they?”

!!! You won’t take that! You grip his collar and stare daggers at them. They do NOT get to talk about that!

… The shade in their eyes fades. They… look distressed… Like they didn't mean to... Gems alive, you are not able to have this conversation right now. You let go.

◆ “… Thank you for the familytale. I’m sure you must be busy. I’ll see you at the clocktower.”

You head out of the clearing.

◆ “Don’t come by for a bit.”

… Gems. You know they're in bad shape. SOMETHING has come to haunt them. But you’re too angry to deal with it. Let Isabeau know, and move on. He’s good at handling emotional situations.

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… Blind it all. You got frustrated. Lost it. Why. Why is it so hard. Why is just being a normal, good person so BLINDING hard. Why can’t you just get yourself together for A FEW BLINDING MINUTES, at least for Odile!

...She was so angry at you. You thought she would kill you, then and there. You’d deserve it. You shouldn’t have said any of that. You hate making her mad.

She’s so nice normally. She understands, at least a bit, what you go through. Makes everything a bit lighter. And now, instead of doing that for her, everything just feels heavier for both of you. And you hate it. You ruined it again…

… She definitely won’t trust you now. Not at all. And the others probably won't either now. But.

It’s fine. You weren’t planning to live past this day. If you just have to stop them from joining you against the king by force, then It’ll be fine. She can kill you after for it, or maybe you’ll already be dead. As long as she at least comes to the house, it’ll be okay. She might not trust you, but you don’t need her trust to protect her.

But… You’d like to do a good thing for someone at least. Even if some of them hate you. You deserve hatred. You ruined everything. But you want to help them.

Bonnie. You can at least do well by Bonnie, right? You have to.

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You’re just kinda waiting. Dunno what to do. These look like good veggies, so if Dile got food around here, you should be able to make dinner good. You hope she got those malangas.

Oh, there’s Frin!… Wow they look really crabbing bad. Like. BAD bad.

✿ “...heyfrin. You… you okay?”

✦ “...Yeah! Um. Is there. Anything you need?”

… You wouldn’t ask normally, not to Frin. But they don’t look good, and they asked to help, so they must REALLY want to help for some reason. So…

✿ “Um… you sure? Anything?”

✦ “Of course! Anything.”

✿ “… I have an idea. Come on!”

You grab Frin’s hand, and start draggin them out of town. You notice they're… not movin right. And they keep lookin at you funny. Maybe they had a real crabbin bad nightmare or something?… Should be okay. You’ll just make extra food for them later!

>>>

Okay! You see some sadnesses in the distance. This should work good!

✿ “Okay. Frin. I want you to teach me how to fight!”

✦ “Okay!”

✿ “Wait really!?”

✦ “Sure, you did say anything!”

Frin looks off to the side, and fishes something out of their coat

✦ “I actually have something that should work really nicely for you! You’re probably going to have to stay in the backline, but this should help you fight even from there!”

Frin pulls out a strange device, and hands it to you.

✿ “Wait really?!?”

✦ “Yes. This is called a craft revolver. It let's you shoot craft like Odile, as long as it’s charged up beforehand. Now, you do have to be careful, it IS a weapon. So let me tell you how it works first.”

Frin explains the craft revolver. This is so crabbing COOL! You make extra sure about the safety thing. Don’t wanna hurt anyone… But you think you can do good with this! You’re really good at noticing stuff, and that's all this is! And keepin your hands steady, which you can do real good!

✦ “Alright. Let’s give it a test run. I’ll go distract that sadness over there. You stay here, and prepare to shoot it. I’ll keep it still as I can, so take your time.”

O-Okay…. Frin’s lookin a little sick, but they wouldn’t be fightin a sadness if they weren’t sure about it. So It’s fine!

You watch Frin head out. They start going around the sadness. You start aiming… Gotta be careful. Don’t hit Frin. He said to take it slow, so you can make sure you only hit the sadness.

They're fightin quite a bit. Frin isn’t movin much, probs to make it easier for you. But… the sadness is also movin funny. It’s not movin like a normal sadness. You guess it makes aiming a bit easier but…

!!!You saw Frin trip on a branch! They're on the ground like-! You gotta-!

BANG

Nonononono You panicked, you hit the sadness, but-! You also hit Frin!!!! You run to them, you gotta make sure their okay, please be okay, please be okay!

✿ “FRIN!!!!”

You get close to Frin! Nonono their covering their main eye! Nononono!!!

✦ “I-It’s okay Bonnie! I’m fine! Just got some sadness in my eye!”

No they didn’t!!! You saw it! You saw the blast go right there!!! Nononono!

✦ “I’m fine, see!”

They lift their hand and-!!!!

Their eye! It’s… there’s still blood around it but! Their eye!

It’s black, with some kind of strange X shape in a weird shade…

They flinch, and cover it up again.

✿ “...F-Frin?”

✦ “S-sorry. Um. Just. Give me a second… it’s fine, I’m not hurt, just-”

! Their using that stupid face again! That crabbing voice! When they lie about things being fine!

✿ “No it’s NOT! What’s going on Frin, why did your eye look like that?!? A-And why was it back!?! I saw it get hit! Why did-”

✦ “It’s fine! It’s fine it’s fine!”

Frin’s being dumb, they need healing, You can help! You check your pockets for a sour tonic. Found it- OW! You think you broke a vial earlier. Crab it, it’s just a little cut, Frin needs the tonic-

!!! Frin’s scared! Their panting and shaking! No!

✿ “Frin, It’s okay, I got healing, Lemme-”

✦ “St̵̖̒ay̸̨͂ ̴̡͘Bac̵̙̔k!!̵̖̎!̴̗̈”

Frin starts backing away from you, suddenly! They stop covering up their eye, and start covering their mouth for some reason? Their eye still looks weird, but now it’s… shaking?!

✦ “Nonononono not now not now-”

✿ “F-Frin? What’s going on?”

Your starting to get scared. You’ve never seen Frin scared like this…

You hear something. Something further ahead is coming close, fast! You turn your head and see a sadness running straight at you!!!

✦ “D̵̬͙͌̿͝O̵̧͎̺͊́N’T YOU̵̼̅ ̶̬͉́͒DAR̴̪͇͐̿E̴̖̊!!!̶͎̯͆!̴̘̰̊̿͠!̵̖̟̤̅̚”

Before you can blink, the sadness is stabbed through the heart by… some kind of fleshy, toothy thing?!?

Frin leaps at the sadness, as he starts to turn into some kind of monster, and starts ripping it apart!!! And… He starts….

Eating it.

F-Frin. Is eating the sadness…

Nonono this is all wrong!!! this… Frin…

The sadness. Is gone. And Frin. Starts to. Turn back. To normal….

They look at you. And their eye. Is normal. But that weird shade. Is still glowing under it.

✿ “Ḅ̴͠o̴̩͑n̷͖̏n̴̠̈i̶̠̐ẹ̷́…”

That voice…. They're still…

…

You run.

…

You get back to town. Frin’s not here yet. Must not have followed. You… Za. You gotta see Za!

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… You cry. Blind it all. BLIND IT ALL!!!!

You… You forgot. To help them be steady, and then they shot you on accident, and.. and it takes energy to heal stuff like that. And then… You couldn’t think. Your body was screaming for food, and then it smelled Bonnie and… And you couldn’t stop thinking about that time and….

… You scared them. Stars, you scared them. Seeing them scared like that. You never wanted to see them that scared again. Especially of you. You just wanted to help them, why does it have to go so wrong?!? Why can’t you ever do something right ONCE IN YOUR WHOLE BLINDING MONSTER LIFE!!!!

You… You don’t know what to do now. You don’t know what to do. You can feel the scent of sugar but you force it back. If you go back, you’ll make this worse. You just…

… Isa. Isa. Isa is nice. Isa can help you be calm. And If you can help Isa, in any way. Maybe. Just maybe. You can go in peace. You owe it to Isa to make things better.

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...You’re worried about Sif. With what everyone has been saying, Something very bad is happening to them. Mirabelle was upset, Odile was frustrated, and poor Bonnie couldn't even make a full sentence! You just. Hope they’ll talk about it with you. Maybe.

Oh. There they are… Yeah. They look bad. Like they’d fall apart in the slightest breeze. In every way.

✦ “Hey Isa!”

There’s this half hearted smile, planted over their face. Trying to cover up the despair they had when they rounded the corner.

▲ “Oh. Sif… You… You doing Okay?”

✦ “...I’m fine.”

▲ “You sure? The others mentioned you were… not doing so good today. What’s up, is it something you can tell your buddy Isa?”

They stay silent. You don’t want to push them on this, but you kinda have to.

▲ “… Look, I get it, something is up, and you don’t want to talk about it, but it’s okay! Just. Please? I want to help the others understand what’s going on, and I want to understand as well, we’re all worried about you.”

They start to shake. You're a little nervous, but you're sure you can diffuse this whole mess.

▲ “Please?”

They freeze. And turn to you.

✦ “...You're scared, aren’t you?”

H-huh?

✦ “I can hear your heartbeat. You're scared. Scared they're right. Scared I’d hurt people. Scared of me.”

▲ “W-Wait just a-”

✦ “You’re always so blinding scared. You put up such a brave face, but deep down you’re a scared little rabbit. Always scared of something going wrong, Always scared that you’ll mess something up again. You’ll always hide your emotions behind your strong, silly persona, hoping the fear will go away.”

You don’t know how to react. Their eyes are glowing a strange shade. They stare at you. The frailness gone.

✦ “But what’s worse is the idea that someone you like could be bad. Someone close would be a danger. Because that would hurt far more. I-”

They put their face in their cloak, the weird aura vanishing.

✦ “… Just go Isa. They were right. So just go. Tell them what you want, it won’t matter.”

You….

▲ “Sif, I-”

They turn their face up, furious.

✦ “I said-”

Siffrin’s face rips apart as their mouth opens up across their entire body into a fanged maw. They morph into a towering creature, looming over you. Their eyes turn into an unnatural darkness with a strange shape in that violent shade. Lengthy hands grip the earth around you, holding them up. Twisting, black, fanged protrusions of flesh leech out of their cloak. Their eyes cry blood.

✦ “Ǧ̶̮̙̯̙̖͕͈̓̇̀̉͊͒͗̕͝O̷͕̫͓͓̻̻̻̿̏̕!!!”

You… You don’t know what to do. You freeze for a bit.

And then run.

You… Sif… What was…

...You get out of sight of the favor tree. Catch your breath. Whatever that was was straight out of a horror story!!

But. You realize. Whatever that was. They did it to push you away. Whatever is happening. They're just as scared as you. And… You don’t know what you can even do about that. You just.

You need to talk to the others. Maybe one of them will have ideas. Find out what you can do. Your friend. He’s in pain. And you don’t know what to do.

...You don’t know what scares you most right now.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

You watch as Isa flees. And you turn yourself back…

...Now they won’t have to worry about you. Now they know what you are. And then he and the others can hate you. And then when you’re gone. They won’t be hurt, at least.

… You might as well talk to Loop. Fill them in on your plan.

✸ “That… went poorly. With all of them, really.”

✦ “It’s fine.”

�� “It clearly isn’t.”

✦ “It won’t matter, this is the last loop.”

✸ “Hm?! You have a plan? Even after that conversation with the Head Housemaiden?”

✦ “We can’t fufill the wish. Not my part at least. But we can still break it.”

✸ “How? Exactly? You don’t exactly have the time and resources to counter the wish. Nothing strong enough for this, and barely the knowledge how.”

✦ “I don’t have to. There’s a perfect counter wish already here. And it just so happens to be the main objective.”

Loop takes a second to process that.

✸ “The kings wish…. You know already he’s not going to cooperate. You kinda need him to in order to collide wishes. Last time you tried that, it didn’t go well at all, Stardust.”

✦ “I don’t need him. I just need his heart.”

✸ “… No.”

✦ “No?”

✸ “No, you are not eating him. You are not assimilating him. You swore never to cross that line.”

✦ “He doesn’t count, he’s a monster.”

✸ “A monster of a person, but still a person!”

✦ “The entire Country wished for it! No one will care what methods I use! Especially if I die for it!”

✸ “BLIND IT ALL, Stardust I didn’t Kill a man so you could be a murderer!”

…

Loop….Killed…

✦ “What.”

✸ “I-I…”

✦ “… Loop. Where. Did you get. That body.”

✸ “… It was a desperate situation.”

✦ “YOU-”

✸ “There wasn’t a better option!”

✦ “I TR̷̪̕U̴͈̐STED̵̼́ ̸̢̉YOŨ̸̡!̵͍͆!̵͖͘!!”

Loop flinches.

✸ “I… I’m sorry.”

You!!! All those times!!!!….

✦ “… I know better then to trust sorry from monsters.”

✸ “…”

✦ “We’re done here. Goodbye Loop. And don’t worry. You won’t be seeing me here again.”

… You go. And hide in the woods. Until nightfall.

>>>>>>

… It’s dark out. The family. Is all in the clocktower… They must have all had dinner already… Your stomach hurts… You’re so hungry… You sneak in. Through the roof. So they won’t see you. So you can listen in.

▲ “...And I came back here. I didn’t know what to think…”

◉ “… I don’t get it, what’s happened to him? He was fine earlier, and then-”

◆ “No. Whatever this is, it’s been around for a while. I told you, Siffrin practically admitted as such when talking to me.”

◉ “S-Still…”

◆ “… Look, everyone. There’s a chance Siffrin might come back. So we should talk about what we’re going to do tomorrow.”

▲ “You don’t mean going without him?”

◆ “I mean making sure he stays here in Dormont until we take care of the King. Until we have time to deal with this.”

▲ “Look, I get what you're talking about, but It’s still Siffrin! Scariness and… distress aside, we can’t just leave him."

✿ “I don’t wanna leave Frin like that! It’s gotta be why he said mean things to you all, right?”

◉ “Yeah, madame, we can’t just-”

◆ “LISTEN to me! We will be fighting the KING tomorrow, everyone!!! Do you think we can TRUST Siffrin right now? After they’ve been hiding THIS?!?…"

Odile goes quiet. The room goes quiet

◆ “...They could be a danger, to us and themselves, and we don't have time. This is a critical moment. We need to be a team. Could you do it?… Could you trust your lives to them right now?”

No one can answer her.

◆ “...Because I don't even know if they trust themselves."

…

You knew this would happen but…

It hurts. To hear it.

… So this is how you’ll leave them...

You cut your arm open. And dip a tendril in the wound's ink. Then write your final message to them outside the door in blood. Your epitaph. The last words of a monster.

...

And then. You leave.

…

You begin to sing your song. As your many parts, writhing inside the house, begin to rise to the stage, ready to join the melody, you head towards the building that shall serve as your stage, ready to take the role of conductor, for this final, bloody act. Your Swansong.

But not just yours. No. After all, your songs have always been good for one thing. And only one thing.

...It’s time.

You have. A king. To kill.