A Symphony In Crimson
Act 1: A Movement in Black
Chapter 5
Your on the third floor again, just about to pick up the keyknife again. You found that book in the secret library for that craft to shield you all. You think that will be enough, but you don’t know. You have no idea what other tricks the king has. Still, your all-sadness diet is starting to kick in, and the smell of your party is starting to get a touch distracting. It should be fine though.
You enter the room with the change god statue, and as the party prays, you do too. You don’t know for sure if they’ll give you the dagger a second time, but you hope they’ll open the path in some form again at least. You still don’t have a better option...
In a flash of light, the Keyknife re-appears in your hands! As you all are hurtled back to the entrance, you watch the rest of your party confused. Your still surprised as well.
✦ “Thank you. I won’t let you down.”
As you prepare to cut open the door, a thought occurs to you. If this dagger’s power can cut through the kings hair, maybe it can also hurt the king better? But...
◉ “Something up Siffrin?”
✦ “Just noticed the blade is dull. It can cut us through, but it’ll break doing so.”
▲ “Maybe you could sharpen it? You did grab that sharpening stone on the first floor.”
You did! You were planning to sharpen your normal dagger to hurt a little more, but it’ll work here!
✦ “Right! That just leaves some water to dampen the stone.”
You could do so without it, but it could degrade the dagger, and you wouldn’t want that.
◆ “We have some crafted water. A bit costly, but given it’s clearly not a normal blade, might be worth it.”
✿ “No problem! Here you go!”
As Bonnie hands you the bottle, you carefully coat the stone and begin sharpening… Ok, that’s odd.
▲ “Huh, not doing much. Maybe it’s cause of it’s blessing?”
◆ “Hm… The water has also been drained of craft energy. We’ll likely need something with more craft energy in it to work. I don’t think we have anything like that.”
Hm… You do have one idea. It’s not pleasant, but it just might work. might work.
✦ “I think I have something for this, actually.”
The others look rather surprised, as you quietly tuck the empty bottle of craft water under your cloak. Out of sight, you use your claws to cut open one of your tendrils, letting out your inhuman blood, and refilling the vial before closing up the wound.
Pulling out the dark substance, you pour it over the stone and begin sharpening it again. And everyone is surprised to find it sharpens with absolute ease! As you suspected, eating mainly sadnesses has saturated your blood with craft energy!
✿ “Woah! What is that stuff!”
Well you can’t tell them, but you have something both close and believable enough to work.
✦ “Sadness blood. Their filled with craft energy. Hard to get though.”
They all recoil in shock!
✿ “WHAT”
◉ “W-WHY?!?”
◆ “Why do you even have that?!?”
▲ “HOW do you even have that?!?”
Oh stars, you did not think this through! Quick, come up with something!
✦ “I-I just wanted to see if I could?”
▲ “...I guess? Still, sharpening a gift from the change god with blood, especially from a sadness.…”
...Oh STARS! That IS kinda messed up! You REALLY hope the change god isn’t offended!
✦ “S-Sorry Change God! Oh stars, I really hope it was worth it...”
You take the newly sharpened blade, and slash it across the hair with your full might. And sure enough, it stays intact… And uh. Kinda breaks the wall a little?!? Wow, that sharpening was effective!
✿ “Holy CRAB! That’s AWESOME!!!”
◆ “I daresay worth the heresy.”
You nod in agreement, and continue on. The king will fall!
>>>
You stand in front of the king. You play your part the same as last time, and just as before, the king snaps to you, and with a voice dripping with ice, he speaks.
♔ “You….. Bright one…. Do you remember?”
...You have to know...
✦”Do you?”
♔ “Oh….. That is fair, yet unfortunate……..."
You guess not then. Neither your loops, nor their home.
♔ ".........In this battle between eternity and the end…… We shall fight…..”
As he lifts himself from the ground, is voice becomes booming, filling the room.
♔ “AND WE SHALL SEE WHICH SIDE THE UNIVERSE FAVORS”
You all pull out your weapons, and the Knifekey hums with power in your gasp. The king prepares their attack, but you have a plan right now. You bet the king doesn’t know that, so maybe you can leverage that to get some information? He basically thinks you’re all already dead.
♔ “… For the sake of the rest of you, I shall be merciful, and give you time to come to terms with the end.”
✦ “Then one question. How did you know?”
The flow of energy towards his hand pauses, as he turns towards you.
♔ “Ohh….. Surprised I recognized you?…… I may only have the endless nightmares….. But after a while…… I noticed details…..”
◆ “(What are they talking about)”
✦ “Like what?”
♔ “Ohhhh….. The others would not be able to notice…. But…..Your voice….. There is always something…… underneath it when you speak, regardless of what form you take….. “
◉ “Huh?”
▲ “Wait, what does that mean??”
Uh oh! You need to distract them now, before they think on it!
Wait, the king’s been charging the attack secretly this whole time!
✦ “Mira, Shield now!”
Mira is surprised, but quickly crafted the shield just before the wave of energy crashes into you all. It still knocks the wind out of you, but it’s manageable now! The others pick themselves up from the blow.
▲ “Was... that a distraction?”
♔ “Oh…...Oooooohhhhhh………. Your still here…. Good. To the death then.”
You don’t hesitate, charging forwards, tearing a hole through his armor like butter. You smell his blood from the wound, and feel him recoil. That blood smells delicious, you want to- No, focus. Before he can focus on you, Odile fires off a craft directly into the opening you made. The king strikes back, landing a painful blow onto her! ODILE! Oh, thank goodness, Mirabelle got her back up, Ok. You take the moment to shift your body towards papercraft, mimicking some sadnesses you’ve eaten, and start fighting on instinct while you all have the king off balance.
Your voice. Of course your voice is a tell! You already struggled with talking, and don’t talk often on the worry you’ll say something wrong and upset people. So of COURSE it’s the one blinding thing that’s still not human! Now that it’s been pointed out, you can’t stop worrying about it... It’s fine, focus on the battle, and if someone else talks, you’ll just pay attention, see if you can’t figure out how to fix it.
You refocus. The king is looking somewhat injured. And you didn't deviate notably from human while fighting like that! You’re all chipping away at him rather well, and the others are holding out alright. The king begins crying, and tears begin to fill the air.
♔ “Why….. Why must you all still fight?….. You don’t understand!!!!”
▲ “Crying still, huh?”
You hear bonnie mumble under their breath, before shouting in anger.
✿ “STOP CRYING!!! YOU CAN’T!!! You hurt so many people!!! People who won’t come back unless we beat you!!! My village, my sister, EVERYONE!!! Their all trapped because of YOU!!! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO CRY!!!!”
...You know why he’s crying. But still, Bonnie’s right. And it’s time he stopped! You take the dagger, and try and get rid of the tears protecting him. But they keep coming!
▲ “Sif! Stop him!”
You nod and Isa uses a defense debuffing craft, making the king unstable. You go in, dodging through the tears, and leap into his face. You need to make him lose focus on maintaining those tears! This is less for damage and more show, so it’s time to leverage a little fear factor! You plunge the knife into his shoulder, but have a tendril split off and worm it’s way into his armor through the gash. It can’t do much with how weak you are, but…
Sure enough, he noticed it and instantly loses it! His hand crashes into the spot your standing, and while you avoid being crushed, the impact still knocks you pretty hard. You fall to the ground, somewhat injured, but watch as he claws at the opening desperately. The tears fall into inanimate water instantly as his concentration drops. Success! Cheap trick, took some energy, but after that first attack, it’s fair play!
Bonnie tosses you a sour tonic, and you drink it to heal yourself back up. An herbal scent fills the air as Mira and Odile ready paper crafts, and Isa uses his gloves to add paper craft to his strike. You’re still a little weak from that last attack, and can’t muster up anything big, but you still join in, at least to let the Knifekey do some work.
As the king stumbles from the combined blow, he picks himself back up and begins to speak.
♔ “Ohhhhhh…….Why… Why do you all fight against me?”
◉ “What do you mean WHY? After EVERYTHING?”
♔ “Yes…. You all wish to live…. You fight for those you care for…. Do you want to see them die?”
Everyone is taken aback.
✿ “W-What does that mean?”
♔ “Ooohhhhh….. Time kills everything, sooner or later….. They fall apart…. They are forgotten….."
◆ "I suppose but what does-"
♔ "If time does not move, they will survive…... The Universe itself has given us this chance, to save them all. Are you all willing to let them all die?”
...None of you know what to say to that. But you all hold your ground anyways. You need to stop them, no matter what they say.
Odile suddenly notices the king was secretly charging that devastating attack again, and signals to Mira to craft the shield again! Just in time, the wave hits you all, knocking the wind out of you but leaving you standing. You get up to retaliate, but notice your moving sluggishly! The king used a slowing craft on you all in the commotion. You try and use a speed craft to get you all back, but the king instantly freezes you before you can. The others, still slowed, struggle to maneuver so slowed, and the king swipes the battlefield, hurting everyone! No! You have to MOVE!
Mira gets herself back up, and unfreezes you, and you snap your fingers, getting you all back up to speed. You then channel extra craft into a flick of your wrist towards Odile, and her awareness quickly perks up! Your running a little low, but it's worth it as she throws out a potent paper craft. Bonnie throws out a Pepper juice, and as you all feel the strength flow through you, Isa leaps up and slams his fist directly into the kings face, knocking them down.
♔ “Ah……!!!…. No….. This can’t……”
Mira walks forward, with a determination in her stance that feels palpable.
◉ “King… I don’t know how much you know about our belief. But I believe in Change. Without a future, things may not be able to get get worse.
She swings out her rapier and points it directly at him!
◉ “But they’ll never get better either! There is no change in your world! They’ll never grow, never change, never be a part of this world! They might never die, but they’ll never get to live! And I want everyone to Live! I will NEVER let you have your half dead world! I want Change!”
You sit there, somewhat shaken. Life. That’s always been what matters. Saving people.
▲ “Nice try there, but this isn’t the end of our story! Not by a long shot!”
◆ “How very foolish of you to invent a new form of death and pretend it’s to save people.”
✿ “Saying all those things to convince us… Your the worst King! Your just a dumb idiot baby who froze everyone for dumb idiot baby reasons!!!!!!”
...Heh...The verdict has passed, and it’s time to close the curtains on this monster of a man.
✦ “Sounds like there’s nothing for me to add, huh? So all you need to do now is disappear.”
You channel almost all the remaining craft energy you still have into the palm of your hand, ready to share it with the others. They begin to follow suit.
✿◆▲ “Disappear!”
Mirabelle raises her hands, gathering the craft energy and channeling it into a single powerful point.
◉ “Disappear!!!”
♔ “NO!!!!”
As the ball of craft slams into the king, he crashes to the ground, and starts to fade.
♔ “No, I can’t….. Not yet… No t w h e n…. I s t i l l c a n’ t….”
The king.
Dissolves.
...The world around you begins to fade back to normal, the curse unraveling. You all sit there, flabbergasted.
▲ “… Did… Did we win?”
✿ “… The king is… gone!”
◆ “… I think... we won!”
You all pause… And then burst into laughter and excitement! You did it! You actually did it! Your a little off right now, having spent so much energy, but you give Mira some congratulations on the final blow. Bonnie talks about how scary it was, Odile remarks how close it got, and Isa is jumping around like crazy. You all kind of are!
◉ “Oh! Wait! People are unfreezing, s-so that means the head housmaiden-!!!!”
She breaks into a sprint farther down the hallway.
▲ “And there she goes…”
✿ “Let’s follow!”
You start to follow along…. Oh right! You remember to listen to them talk among themselves a little. Need to get that last little bit of monster out of your voice! Right now their chatting about the fight, as expected, and you think you noticed what’s wrong. Remove a tiny bit of tissue from your improvised voice box and…
◆ “On a side note, Siffrin, you managed to scare the king quite a bit there. What was up with that?”
Perfect timing, time to test the new voice out!
✦ “Oh, I just mimicked the voice of an old horror monster. Surprised he caught on, so I played it up!”
▲ “Huh! He acted like he’d actually met it... That’s kinda scary.”
✿ “Nah, monsters aren’t real. Bet he just got scared of a nightmare like the crabbing baby he was.”
◆ “Hm. Must have been subtle, I didn’t even notice.”
Time to REALLY flex. You quickly change your voice box back, and go a little over for effect.
✦ “Weľ̶͎̙͚̃̉l, It’s p̴̙͔͑͂robably easier, if yo̸̜̜̰̿̄u know tȍ̵̧̠̍̔ look f̸̣̗́̈́̽or it.”
◆ “GEMS!!!”
▲ “CRAB!!!!”
✿ “HOLY CRAB!!!!”
You do a little bow as you adjust your voice back to normal.
▲ “… Yeah never-mind if I heard even a hint of that, I’d freak out too.”
You continue onwards, until you exit out into a corridor. Oh stars! Your really high up! You block the view from Odile quickly!
◆ “T-thank you Siffrin.”
▲ “Oh! Ma'dame, Look at the ground and take my hand! I won’t let you fall.”
Mirabelle calls out from up ahead.
◉ “Are you all ok?”
✿ “You gotta slow down for Odile, Belle!”
◆ “G-Give us a bit. You can... go on ahead.”
◉ “Oh change, right! Um…Ok, take your time.”
You lead Odile across the room slowly. Fear of heights is no joke! Would not want her fainting right after beating the king! You can hear her heartbeat race, even now. Like a scared animal ready to-Nope. Ok, you might have used too much energy there. Your pretty hungry.
You make it to the other side, and hear Mira talking with the Head House-maiden. She towers over Mira, yet has a gentle grace to her stance.
◉ “Oh, there they are!
◎ “Ah, Welcome! You are Mirabelle’s companions? I am so thankful to you all for getting her this far. You have my thanks, and all of Vaugarde’s!”
✿ “hehehe…”
▲ “No problem at all, m’dame Head Housemaiden! It was an honor!”
◆ “Truly, it was nothing”
You nod, a little bashful. You guess this mean’s Siffrin’s a hero now! That’s a very good addition to their story!... No, stop thinking about eating, focus!
◎ “Hohoho!…. Soon, you’ll be able to go back to your normal lives, away from battle and strife. Finally, you’ll be able to go home! If there’s anything Dormont can do to thank you, please do not hesitate to ask. But for now, take your rest, it must have been very difficult!”
Everyone nods, and goes to different corners to relax a little.
...So… You’ve beaten the king, saved Vaugarde, and made Siffrin a hero… You guess that means it’s time for you all to go your separate ways… Probably for the best, you spent enough energy in that battle your hunger has finally caught up in full... It’s… a little hard to think...
...This will probably be the end of Siffrin’s journey… Your too hungry to maintain being them for long... You should make sure to talk to all of them before that happens…
You walk over to Bonnie. Maybe they have a spare snack they can give you? No, it’s fine, best not enter eating mode right now.
✿ “...It’s over, right? Like, really REALLY over?”
✦ “Yep. King’s gone, your sister will be back, and I bet she’ll be very excited to see you again!”
✿ “… You sure?”
✦ “I’m sure. If she’s not, you can punch me as many times as you want.”
✿ “Deal… Wait, that’s such a long journey though, how am I gonna find you if your crabbing wrong?!? That’s dumb!”
✦ “Almost as dumb as your sister not being OK after we won.”
✿ “oh. OH!!! Ok, I’ll believe you, but if she’s not I’m gonna punch you so much!”
You chuckle. You doubt it’ll be needed, but as soon as you can get yourself back to human, whatever form it is, you’ll make sure they can keep that promise. You just hope their OK waiting.
You decide Odile is next. Her sweat from her exhaustion catches you. You shake it off and clear your head.
◆ “… Ah, yes, woop woop, we did it, we won, ect… Urgh…. This has been quite the workout. My body is screaming at me”
Same! Though for very different reasons. God why do they have to be so- NOPE, push those thoughts back.
◆ “Savior of Vougarde is quite a nice addition to my list of accomplishments, but I’m quite looking forwards to traveling again. I’d be interested to hear more from Vaugardian cities after an event like this. Though, I’m not sure I’ll be used to traveling alone again. Or I could head back to Ka Bue?”
Now or never to find this out…
✦ “To do your research?”
◆ “Are you hoping I’ll tell you now the journey is over? Heh. Keep dreaming.”
✦ “Boo.”
◆ “Ha! Ha… I’ll miss you Siffrin. You’re a little strange, but your a good kid. Maybe try letting down your walls sometime? And come to Ka Bue anytime, maybe we’ll meet again.”
She smiles at you gently, and you smile back… If Siffrin will be missed, you guess you did your job right. They made an impact, even after…
You decide to go talk to Mira next. She smells sweet as ever, so entice-Nope, focus.
◉ “… I’m not dreaming, right? It’s over? It’s really, actually over?”
✦ “It’s over!”
◉ “Oh change, I’m having a hard time believing it. I- It’s just- It’s been such a long journey, and I can’t believe it’s finally over and that we won and-
Oh no, she’s crying! You have to do something.
✦ “Breathe with me?”
◉ “o-Okay…”
You both breathe slowly in, and out.
◉ “hah…. Hehe, you can be so nice Siffrin!”
!!! Oh, you can feel your cheeks burn!
◉ “Oh your blushing!!!… Ahem. I know we haven't known each other for all that long. B-But I hope you know I really treasure your company! I do! I really really do! And so… Thank you! Thank you for accompanying me on this journey!”
You feel really happy! You’ve done so well!
◉ “… I’m sure you’re excited to get back to traveling on your own… But don’t forget me, ok? Come see me at Dormont anytime! I’d love to hang out! Promise?”
…. You know you can’t promise that. You can’t keep being Siffrin for much longer. Your too hungry. It’ll be months before you can put together a human guise again, and you wouldn’t be able to get it exactly the same. They’d notice the differences.
She noticed your hesitation, and is looking at you strangely.
✦ “I would love that. I’ll try.”
◉ “… Ok. I’ll see you when you do!”
You wave them goodbye…
Finally, you decide to talk to Isa. You can’t help but listen to his heartbeat, hear his breaths, take in his scent... NO. Focus.
▲”Sif! We did it! We stopped the King! We can finally go back to our normal lives! Isn’t it great?”
✦ “It is!”
▲ “Yeah!…... I uh. I said. Do you remember what I said? At the Clocktower?”
Yes! You do! He says something each time at the clocktower, that he would tell you something after you beat the king! You really want to know!
✦ “I remember! What did you want to tell me?”
▲ “Yes. Um… Yes. Okay. Phew…… Sif. Siffarooni…. Siffrin….”
▲ “...I… I… I lo-”
✿ “ARE YOU GUYS DONE TALKING ALREADY??? CRAB!!! I wanna go so I can eat dinner!!! I’m super duper hungry!!”
Isabeau makes a bunch of incoherent noises of frustration, face in his hands.
▲ “………. It’s fine. It wasn’t that important.”
But…. But there might not be a later! This might be the last time you get to see him as Siffrin!
✦ “A-Are you sure?”
▲ “… Yeah. Besides I have some thinking to do. Gonna be heading back to Jouvente after this!… Just, make sure to say hi if you ever drop by, alright?”
...You can’t tell him. And you don’t have a reason to press him on it. So...
✦ “Sure.”
You wave him goodbye, even as your heart stings. You’re… Going to miss all of them. You don’t want to say goodbye, but you don’t have much choice.
You head over to the Head Housemaiden. Your barely holding it together, but you can handle one more conversation. Before you have to leave. You guess it’s time for the journey to end.
◎ “Traveling one! I’d like to thank you for accompanying Mirabelle this far. I’m very grateful.”
You nod thankfully.
◎ “Siffrin, yes? If there’s anything I can do to thank you, please don’t hesitate to ask. I know you will be going back to your travels soon, but I do hope you’ll keep in touch, if only for dear Mirabelle… But no matter what, know that Dormont will always be welcome to you! Please come back.. any… time…”
She gives you an odd look, and then her face shifts to that of shock! Oh no! What did you do?!?
◎ “Oh… Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no…”
✦ “W-what?”
◎ “I-I’m so sorry! There’s no way we can stop it now…!”
You suddenly notice it. The room has been slowly smelling sweeter, something is shifting, twisting!
✦ “What’s happening? What do you mean?!?”
◎ “Your going back! Back to when it all started!”
No. No! No, not with how you are now, you can’t-!
◎ “I know you thought your quest is over, but it can’t be! Something is broken, failing, rotting!!! I can’t fix it on my own, not before it all ends… If I had noticed it sooner!!! I should have seen it, prevented it!!!”
You feel a tug on your heart. You want to flee, but you can’t move!
◎ “It’s my fault you have to suffer like this. I just hope that one day, you might lea《rn to f《or《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《《
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… Your… Back...
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