My dear Qui'saršinnag, you don't seem happy at all.
Confessarius
Didn't the experiment go smoothly? The receptacle has been responding perfectly from the last few tests.
'Daughter'
When the ceremony is complete, what will happen to her?
Confessarius
Her? You mean the... receptacle?
Confessarius
When it was born, its soul was no longer with us.
Confessarius
After all, the Leader has been researching for so long just to craft a cage from a pure consciousness, to trick the King of Sarkaz.
Confessarius
When that happens, the King's power will be transferred to you, and the receptacle will be useless.
Confessarius
You can decorate it like a doll if you like, and bring her wherever you go. I do like to collect souvenirs too.
'Daughter'
It is none of your concern.
Confessarius
Hah, you're always so impolite with me. Want it out of your sight? Just dispose of it. Or... you could give it to me?
'Daughter'
Leave. Do not step into my laboratory without my permission ever again.
Confessarius
Why are you so... offended? The Leader and you have such different temperaments... well, it's fine. You'll soon become as gentle as he is.
Confessarius
Who knows, I might even miss your current personality...
Confessarius
Goodbye, Qui'saršinnag.
'Daughter'
...
'Receptacle'
...
She looks through her mask at the girl on the stone bed, who returns her gaze.
There is still work to do, and her father will not allow any delays.
This altar, this laboratory... and the bloodline she was born into together form a cage around her. In the face of the Confessarii's calling for the past several millennia, her sorrow and suffering are insignificant.
She does not control her own limbs, they are extensions of her father's will.
She cannot stop or leave this altar fiddling with life and death, nor can she drop the soul-engraving white sword in her hand.
Suddenly, a drop of water falls onto her busy hand.
Who is the one shedding tears here...? Her, or the figure on the bed, who should be completely unconscious?
'Qui'saršinnag.'
Distracted, she lifts her head, and sees a blue fowlbeast fly out of the cave and into the dusk outside.
Cracks appear on the cage.
A consciousness that should not exist, yearning for freedom it could not possibly have.
The Confessarius Leader smiles as usual, spreading his arms wide open as if welcoming his own child back after a long time away from home.
Dozens of Confessarii stand on both sides of the mountain path in silence.
Their eyes behind their masks hold fervent deference, completely ignoring the blood drenched Shining as she walks up the steps with her sword in hand.
Shining
I'm here to kill you.
Qui'sartuštaj
I know.
Qui'sartuštaj
How could I... not know that?
Qui'sartuštaj
Many years ago, mother showed up before father, before me, just like you have now.
Qui'sartuštaj
She always knew her own duty, and never thought to disobey me.
Qui'sartuštaj
But as you slowly grew, she developed a hatred to our family, the love I gave her... and the Confessarius's calling.
Qui'sartuštaj
I don't blame her at all, nor do I blame you. You are the same. Merely made a tiny, forgivable mistake.
Qui'sartuštaj
I will always accept you returning to my side.
Shining
You are a monster. Who are you to speak of love?
Qui'sartuštaj
Love and hate, life and death. They are fundamentally part of the same whole.
Qui'sartuštaj
Generations of Confessarii have passed their souls down through the same rites. This is my way of loving my family.
Qui'sartuštaj
Souls in death are purified in rebirth. Through death after death... we close in on the original, the purest and perfect being.
Shining
There is not a shred of that worthy to be... perfect.
Shining
Qui'sartuštaj. Your true self died thousands of years ago.
Shining
The white horned King of Sarkaz who defeated countless enemies, the legendary hero who built an everlasting Kazdel under the day and night—is long dead.
Shining
What stands before me now is but a despicable man who lives in the shadows, a coward who sacrifices the lives of innumerable innocents to prolong his own.
Shining
Who is it that tarnishes the soul of that original hero?
Shining
It's you, King of Usurping Kings—You got so twisted seeking longevity. You are no longer worthy of that crown.
Qui'sartuštaj
...Perhaps.
Qui'sartuštaj
Qui'saršinnag... Sister.
Qui'sartuštaj
I, who was born with all my memories intact... know better than you, the history Qui'sartuštaj bears with his life.
The Confessarius Leader takes a step down.
He calmly looks at Shining, and holds her hand trembling in rage.
Qui'sartuštaj
I know all too well the blood that is on my hands, as I remember all the love I have received.
Qui'sartuštaj
It was you who picked me up from the blood into your trembling arms when mother died.
Qui'sartuštaj
We are a true family, sharing the closest of blood, and sharing the closest of relationships.
Qui'sartuštaj
The nature of my soul may change, but the facts remain the same.
Shining
How could you... talk about that like so...
Shining
Who was it...that killed my brother?
Shining
Who was it, that turned him from a child who should have received his mother's love... into a non-existence from the very beginning?
Qui'sartuštaj
It was me.
Qui'sartuštaj
For millennia, Qui'sartuštaj has... died time and time again from betrayal, from his closest kin.
Qui'sartuštaj
You may see this as a punishment if you wish it so.
Qui'sartuštaj
However... what does that matter?
Qui'sartuštaj
You call me unworthy of that crown, but who else but me could possibly lead the Sarkaz on a path to our survival?!
Qui'sartuštaj
Qui'lon brought our people on a wandering path of no return, and Yliš's retreat into hiding would only make us weak.
Qui'sartuštaj
Even that pair of siblings, all they did was push Sarkaz into futile conflict, and let the crown slip into outblood hands!
Qui'sartuštaj
The Sarkaz... need a true King, an eternal King.
Qui'sartuštaj
I will reach our starting point, and together with the sins of Qui'sartuštaj and his blood, purge all of the Sarkaz's sins!
Shining
...
Sin.
The word intensifies the ire in Shining.
Her father and brother were both possessed by this undying monster—while she and her mother lived under the madness of his shadow.
To let him live, to kill him—both are afflicted with the curse.
She has no path to go.
She has nowhere to retreat.
But there is no way she can stay here as is.
Qui'sartuštaj
...Ugh!
Qui'sartuštaj
You... made your move.
Qui'sartuštaj
Very good... Qui'saršinnag...
Shining
...I'll kill you.
Shining
And then...
Qui'sartuštaj
Kill yourself?
Qui'sartuštaj
Is this what you call severing the bloodline's curse?
Qui'sartuštaj
The same stupidity I see.
Qui'sartuštaj grips Shining's sword with hand.
Blood trickles down the pure white blade and stains her hand.
A shudder rises from the depths of her soul.
Shining
—Ugh!
An overwhelming force flings Shining onto a crystal tree.
The sharp black branches pierce through her abdomen.
Fresh blood gushes down, and converges with Qui'sartuštaj's blood.
The ancient tree long crystallized into Originium bursts a sudden pure white glow.
In just a moment, countless little moons rise to the top of the tree.
Every Confessarius begins to sing—
The myriad souls lie prostrate.
Howling knocks on the door from beneath, tangible usurps the intangible.
The Black Crown imprisoned, the offender perpetually innocent.
Because kings are born before immortality.
Qui'sartuštaj
Look, even injuries as grievous as this will not infect you—this is the power of the blood you resist.
Qui'sartuštaj
Qui'saršinnag... I have been patient enough with you.
Qui'sartuštaj
But you stay stubborn, unwilling to accept all that belongs to you—your duty, power, glory.
Qui'sartuštaj
It's alright, just be good and stay aside, while I... complete the ceremony myself.
A crown woven of thorns appears in his hand.
Moonlight shines onto the crown as it illuminates the crystal tree at the end of the steps.
In that spot lies a stone bed lined with dead branches, and a curled up figure Shining knows too well atop it.
Shining
Liz...
Shining
...Wake up.
Qui'sartuštaj
Don't bother.
Qui'sartuštaj
Her consciousness is not where you think it to be.
Shining
She's inside the crown.
Qui'sartuštaj
Correct.
Qui'sartuštaj
I promised you that I would mend her soul.
Qui'sartuštaj
You need only wear the complete crown, and you can be together forever.
Shining
Together forever... in your cage?
Shining shuts her eyes.
She strains to imagine... the time she spent together with Liz.
They run in the woods, hand in hand.
They cross the ice-cold creek together.
With Liz worn out on her back, she walks the road home.
Liz makes a small flower wreath and places it on Shining's head.
A small blue fowlbeast follows them the whole time, chirping a cheery tune over their heads.
It hovers, searches—and lands next to the sleeping white demon.
It does not know why Liz is sleeping, and anxiously pecks at her cheek with its little beak.
Until a black arrow pierces it.
The fowlbeast vanishes, leaving only a blue feather that lands on Shining's shoulder.
Qui'sartuštaj
Enough.
Qui'sartuštaj
You know very well those are not her dreams.
Shining
Even if those memories were fabricated...
Qui'sartuštaj
They are fabricated, so why not accept your own power, and reshape her memory once more?
Shining
Liz... is Liz.
Shining
She should be free. I will never shape her soul as I please ever again.
Qui'sartuštaj
Wishful thinking... Qui'saršinnag, my fragile child indulging in fantasy. You are that blue fowlbeast, thirsting for freedom, yet imprisoning yourself.
Qui'sartuštaj
I prepared everything for you, a perfect body, an ancient power, all you needed is to accept—
Qui'sartuštaj
But you betrayed me, you abandoned everything that belongs to you, and then? What did you gain?
Qui'sartuštaj
You sorely disappoint me.
Shining
...A new life.
Shining
I was reborn into a new life after leaving you.
Shining
Not as the Confessarius Qui'saršinnag, nor a puppet of my bloodline...
Shining
But as Shining...
Shining
...As a member of the Followers.
Blue feathers prick her wounds.
The slightest of stings momentarily rouses her from her bloodline-induced paralysis.
