---

Summary:

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - 'Where you can see' ends up not being very far at all -- the most prominent feature that you first noticed when you started to take in your surroundings was a dense fog, obscuring your vision past a couple metres in any direction.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] - Though you've never been, this reminds you of what Ubi Sunt? must be like. Not as many open fields as you'd expect, but it matches up with the type of forests that dot the landscape there -- old wood and fog, stretching on for kilometres.

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - The characteristics of a place are usually exaggerated for film and print, keep in mind. You doubt that any one country could ever contain *that* many sheep.

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - When you blink, you swear that the position of the objects on either side of you shift just a little.

SHIVERS [Heroic: Failure] - But there is no breeze that would cause the trees to sway.

ENDURANCE [Medium: Success] - The air entering your lungs with each breath contains no moisture.

LOGIC [Legendary: Success] - This isn't fog.

Notes:

YOU - Reconstruct the cracked glass.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Challenging: Success] - A jigsaw of broken shards falls into place in front of you: a ghostly reconstruction of the stained glass window. Before it was shattered there was an older woman beneath the younger one -- and a text, a *leitmotiv* below them both.

YOU - The motto? What does it say?

VISUAL CALCULUS - Below both women, in luminous blackletter: APRÈS LA VIE - MORT; APRÈS LA MORT - LA VIE DE NOUVEAU.

VISUAL CALCULUS - And then along the left side: APRÈS LE MONDE - LE GRIS; APRÈS LE GRIS - LE MONDE DE NOUVEAU.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - AFTER LIFE -- DEATH; AFTER DEATH -- LIFE AGAIN. AFTER THE WORLD -- THE [PALE (literal translation: GREY)]; AFTER THE PALE -- THE WORLD AGAIN. This is the great leitmotiv of humanism, a summary of the effect of the discovery of this isola -- the Insulindian -- on human thinking. A tremendous sea change akin to finding life after death...

---

THE NARRATOR - You're on a -

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - -- Path in the woods. Yeah, you know this already.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Challenging: Success] - You don't trip this time, despite it all. That's two-to-one on remembering how to walk straight after being instantaneously popped into existence -- not bad, not bad.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Formidable: Failure] - The pain is worse than what you felt as you lay dying. Whatever kind of spontaneous generation puts you back here on the path removed the extra painkiller you took from your system -- only the remains of the previous dose linger.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Fuckin' *unbelievable*. Waste of a good hit.

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - You must have taken a pill less than 12 hours before you ended up here in the first place, if you're still feeling the tail end of its effects when you reappear here.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Challenging: Success] - If time could even be said to have meaning, anymore. How much time *has* passed? Has any time passed at all?

PAIN THRESHOLD - The jagged shard of sensation that intersects your heart is at the forefront, with the muted ache of your multitude of other wounds from two deaths ago bringing up the rear. The hole in your thigh barely registers at this point, compared to the rest.

PAIN THRESHOLD - This alone wouldn't be enough to phase you -- you've dealt with worse, the first day after you woke up from being shot -- but the true pain you feel is immaterial.

EMPATHY [Trivial: Success] - You watched her die. You were there, less than a metre or two away, as you saw your words break her will and drive the dagger into her own chest. You weren't fast enough.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Trivial: Success] - This had almost happened before. Ruby, under the Feld building -- she was considering shooting herself over being taken alive.

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - She was *afraid* of you. Of what she had heard about you, and what you would do to her.

EMPATHY - It wasn't fear, this time. It was heartbreak.

EMPATHY - But it was still your fault.

DAMAGED MORALE -1

VOICE OF THE HERO - But we didn't mean for that to happen! It would've been worse, continuing to lead her on for the rest of her life, wouldn't it?

VOICE OF THE COLD - Oh, it wouldn't have been too hard. She was infatuated with us - we barely would have had to do anything at all.

VOICE OF THE HERO - That's not what I meant and you know it.

RHETORIC [Easy: Success] - His intent was clear, the other one's just deliberately misunderstood him.

VOICE OF THE COLD - It doesn't matter at this point. She's dead. She killed herself. It would have been a whole lot easier to just slay her to begin with, if this was going to be the outcome either way.

LOGIC [Formidable: Success] - If you're alive again, there's decent odds the Princess is alive as well. You should get back to the cabin and check.

New task: Reach the cabin

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - But why was it so important that we slay her in the first place? She changed, sure, but she never seemed like she could end the world. Which one of them was lying? Can we really believe what He's saying, if He's being so insistent about it with no actual evidence? We should have dropped that sad little act much earlier and laid into them both with some real questions.

SUGGESTION [Formidable: Success] - Since He first spoke to you, every single thing He's said has been toward a single end -- convincing you to slay the Princess, or more accurately, to frame the situation as you having no choice but to slay the Princess, despite evidence to the contrary. He has actively manipulated events to keep up this façade -- locking doors, tossing knives, hijacking limbs. This is the *only* thing He wants, and He will say and do *anything* to get you to commit to it.

THE NARRATOR - That's becau-

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - You barbarians keep going on and on about the 'act' - don't you see what your denial of our love has gotten us? You had best hope that this strange and terrible prison has brought her back to us again - for if not, you have glimpsed only a single drop of the endless sea of righteous fury that my soul contains!

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] - The new additions to your menagerie continue to multiply, a bacterial colony outgrowing the petri dish.

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - You can feel the glass strain, even now.

COMPOSURE [Medium: Failure] - Your hands are trembling.

VOLITION [Challenging: Success] - ...I'm sorry. I let you down, Harry -- I broke. I think I can get a handle on it, now, but you *can't* trust this suicidal one any longer -- he *killed* you, with your own two hands.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - And I would do so again, if it meant the safety of our beloved. You killed her! And so I killed you. I warned you what would happen.

THE NARRATOR - What do you mean you kil-

VOICE OF THE COLD - You obviously didn't do that good a job killing us. We're still here.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Why are we still here? She was 'slain', the task was complete - did it not count, somehow? Was escape never really an option?

RHETORIC [Medium: Success] - You were never actually told what would happen after you slew her, if you were to go through with it. He never mentioned the aftermath in any capacity.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - And where is here? This isn't the same path in the woods as the last two times.

VOICE OF THE HERO - ...Huh. It's not, is it? Where are we?

THE NARRATOR - If I could just get a word in edgewise - you say you've been here twice before? Of course you have, that's just great -

HALF LIGHT [Challenging: Success] - TOO MUCH NOISE. CAN'T *THINK*. YOU NEED TO RUN, NOW, AND NOT LOOK BACK.

VOICE OF THE COLD - You're listening to them far too much, giving them too much sway with their overactive emotions. You don't need to let them have so much power over you.

1. [Start running down the path ahead of you.]
2. [Start running down the path behind you.]
3. [Run off into the woods.]
4. [Authority - Medium 10] "SHUT *UP*! GIVE ME A SECOND TO *THINK*!"

YOU - "SHUT *UP*! GIVE ME A SECOND TO *THINK*!"

+5 Cold

+1 Got a handle on it

+1 Is she alive?

-5 Smitten

-5 Skeptic

CHECK SUCCESS

AUTHORITY [Medium: Success] - You shout the words, even though all parties involved are contained entirely inside your own head. It is grounding, to hear your voice echoed back at you from the trees -- proof you still exist, and can exert your will on the world.

HEALED MORALE +1

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - But it echoes back wrong -- it isn't as loud as you would expect, and the sound has a strange distortion to it that you can't quite place the quality of.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Formidable: Success] - As if some of the trees weren't really there.

REACTION SPEED [Challenging: Failure] - Did something just move, on the path behind you? ...No, it must've been nothing.

1. [Look around.]
2. *Yes*, I've been here twice before. The Princess killed me the first time, then she killed herself the second time and *this* fucker here made *me* kill *myself*. What kind of torture-dream is this?!
3. Should I really be telling Him anything? Who can I even trust, here?
4. Why are there two new voices in my head? It was only one at a time, before.
5. I've finally gone off the deep end, all the way this time. I must be in some kind of coma right now, and this is all just an extended dying hallucination.
6. There's only one thing I can really do here, isn't there? [Walk down the path.]

YOU - [Look around.]

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Medium: Success] - You are still standing on a dirt path and you are still in the woods. This is where the similarities with your previous two entrances to this world end.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - Gone is the dense foliage and underbrush that grew on both sides of the path. The grass is less vibrant (what color is that grass?), and there are large piles of flat stones dotted amongst the trees, rising up to chest height or more.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - There *are* still trees, but they are dead and dying -- many are completely bare, with the others having scant few leaves and needles remaining. Despite this, there are no piles of fallen leaves on the ground, nor anywhere else you can see.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - 'Where you can see' ends up not being very far at all -- the most prominent feature that you first noticed when you started to take in your surroundings was a dense fog, obscuring your vision past a couple metres in any direction.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] - Though you've never been, this reminds you of what Ubi Sunt? must be like. Not as many open fields as you'd expect, but it matches up with the type of forests that dot the landscape there -- old wood and fog, stretching on for kilometres.

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - The characteristics of a place are usually exaggerated for film and print, keep in mind. You doubt that any one country could ever contain *that* many sheep.

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - When you blink, you swear that the position of the objects on either side of you shift just a little.

SHIVERS [Heroic: Failure] - But there is no breeze that would cause the trees to sway.

ENDURANCE [Medium: Success] - The air entering your lungs with each breath contains no moisture.

LOGIC [Legendary: Success] - This isn't fog.

1. [Look around.]
2. *Yes*, I've been here twice before. The Princess killed me the first time, then she killed herself the second time and *this* fucker here made *me* kill *myself*. What kind of torture-dream is this?!
3. Should I really be telling Him anything? Who can I even trust, here?
4. Why are there two new voices in my head? It was only one at a time, before.
5. I've finally gone off the deep end, all the way this time. I must be in some kind of coma right now, and this is all just an extended dying hallucination.
6. There's only one thing I can really do here, isn't there? [Walk down the path.]

YOU - Should I really be telling Him anything? Who can I even trust, here?

THE NARRATOR - Of course you can trust me. I only want what's best for you, I promise. It sounds like these fools have put you through hell, if your internal monologue is anything to go by - just ignore them, listen to me, slay the Princess, and you can get through this just fine.

New task: Slay the Princess (again)

VOICE OF THE HERO - ...I understand if you don't trust us, now. I don't think I would trust me either, after what you've been through. But can we really trust Him?

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - I don't fully trust a single one of you. He's not giving us all the information, these three have spent all this time fawning and dying and meandering about without putting any real thought into what's happening -

VOICE OF THE HERO - We've been asking lots of questions, thank you very much.

RHETORIC [Easy: Success] - Yeah, you've been on-par for questions-per-minute during the investigation so far. You don't know what this guy is on about.

VOICE OF THE HERO - Is this an investigation? Is that what we're doing?

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Trivial: Success] - On some level, it's *always* what you're doing. You can't ever fully turn it off.

AUTHORITY - I hope you've been taking notes, recruit.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - - and as for you, and your own little group of voices - you're all different than us. I don't know how, and I don't like that I don't know how, but it's clear there's a divide, and that either you or us aren't supposed to be here at all.

SHIVERS [Godly: Failure] - Something prickles beneath your skin, but you can't identify what.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - ...But, despite that, I still trust Him the least of all. We're stuck with each other, so we might as well work together - for now.

VOICE OF THE COLD - I don't care if you don't trust me. I'll still be here, regardless.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - The only one in this cold, cruel world that I trust is her - the love between us was the only thing that mattered. We must leave for the cabin at once - every second we spend standing around arguing is another second that we are away from our beloved. I only hope that she can find it in her infinite compassion to forgive us for the vile lies we foisted upon her.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Formidable: Success] - This isn't just love, or even attraction -- this guy is *addicted* to her. He was willing to kill you (and himself) over it.

EMPATHY [Challenging: Success] - But that's part of what love is. Dedication and devotion. Wouldn't you have done the same, before?

VOLITION [Formidable: Success] - It's a *part*, but real love isn't total amalgamation -- that's codependency. You need to have a drive of your own, not stake yourself entirely to another, or you'll both come apart eventually.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Medium: Success] - You've already learned this lesson, long ago.

1. I still trust you guys, even Him. I don't have anyone else to back me up here, so I'll take whatever I can get.
2. I trust most of you, but *not* Him. He hijacked me once, and He's kept telling me over and over to kill this woman -- I can't go along with that, even now.
3. I don't trust this lovey one -- you *KILLED ME*! We could have at least waited to see if she'd come back, but no, it was *straight* to the self-immolation.
4. These new ones haven't been around long, but they're giving me a weird vibe. Too cynical.
5. It's the first one that showed up that I don't trust. You probably opened the door to all the rest of these voices, didn't you? And you were pretty enthusiastic about freeing the Princess and 'toughing out' being stabbed to death.
6. I can't trust any of you. Even though you're inside my head, you *aren't* me, and I don't know if you have my best interests at heart.
7. There's just no way to tell who I should put stock in. I feel lost.

YOU - I don't trust this lovey one -- you *KILLED ME*! We could have at least waited to see if she'd come back, but no, it was *straight* to the self-immolation.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - It was what you deserved, scoundrel, after what you did. Really it was a mercy - a single quick death is a far kinder punishment than the likes of you deserves.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Why do you love her so much? Can you really be sure she loves us back? Her words say one thing, but her actions say another. She stabbed us to death, remember?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - How dare you question her affections after what we've put her through! If you can't see the bond we share for what it is, then - then I'll make you see.

VOICE OF THE COLD - What are you going to do, kill us again?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - If you dare to lift a hand against our lover once more, physically or emotionally, I will. Maybe then I'll finally be able to make you feel the same anguish I do.

VOICE OF THE COLD - Oh, I'd like to see you try.

VOICE OF THE HERO - Can you stop provoking him? I'm not fond of dying, and I'd rather not do it again.

VOLITION [Medium: Success] - You aren't fond of dying either, for the record.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Godly: Failure] - It's an experience you hope you won't have to get used to.

COMPOSURE [Medium: Failure] - Your hands are *still* trembling. Beads of sweat are running down the side of your face, and your eyes are straining against nothing.

HALF LIGHT [Godly: Failure] - The danger is *inside* you, now. You can't run from this, and you can't fight it either. This is *HELL*.

DAMAGED MORALE -1

VOICE OF THE COLD - We already died twice. Would it really matter if we died again?

THE NARRATOR - Yes, it very much would matter if you died again, because every time you die you leave behind a world in ruins, destroyed and gone. Your actions have consequences, whether you like it or not, and you better take control of the situation and do this task right or it will be the death of all of us.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - And why should we believe that? She died last time - surely that world should be fine, if that's really what's going on. What aren't you telling us?

LOGIC [Heroic: Success] - When you died, you came back here and the cabin changed. When *she* died along with you, you came back here and now the woods have changed. Are things getting worse, each cycle? Is it *your own* death that's the lynchpin? Will you reach a tipping point, eventually?

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Finally someone coming up with the right questions. It would've been nice to know the answers to these before being locked in a room with the Princess and having a knife tossed between us.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Of course things only grow worse when we are separated by the veil of death. We must be reunited! Your transgressions may yet be forgiven if she is returned to us unharmed.

THE NARRATOR - You don't need to know any more than what you've already been told, except for this: If the woods have changed since last time, then that means her influence is already spreading, and you have precious little time to correct your past mistakes and slay her before it's too late.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Challenging: Success] - You can start walking and talking. Take a breath, chill out, and get going -- you got this.

1. [Look around.]
2. *Yes*, I've been here twice before. The Princess killed me the first time, then she killed herself the second time and *this* fucker here made *me* kill *myself*. What kind of torture-dream is this?!
3. Should I really be telling Him anything? Who can I even trust, here?
4. Why are there two new voices in my head? It was only one at a time, before.
5. I've finally gone off the deep end, all the way this time. I must be in some kind of coma right now, and this is all just an extended dying hallucination.
6. There's only one thing I can really do here, isn't there? [Walk down the path.]

YOU - There's only one thing I can really do here, isn't there? [Walk down the path.]

THE NARRATOR - You make your way up the short path to the cabin.

THE NARRATOR - ...Except it isn't really that short. You walk, and you walk, but you don't see the light in the distance that would indicate the cabin is close by. The trees and the stones on either side of you seem to blend together, in the dark and the fog.

VOICE OF THE HERO - How long have we been walking?

ENDURANCE [Godly: Failure] - There is no resistance in your legs. You could've been walking for a minute or a week.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Medium: Success] - A week straight of walking would add some definition to those calf muscles, now that you think about it.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - We'd die of exhaustion long before then.

VOICE OF THE COLD - At least that would be interesting. This path is exactly the same as when we started.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - We shan't die, not before showering the Princess with our apologies!

PAIN THRESHOLD [Challenging: Success] - The ghostly pain has faded, but your leg wound hasn't gotten worse from agitation. It couldn't have been *that* long.

1. So why *are* there two new voices in my head? It was only one at a time, before.
2. Some of you talk like you've been here the entire time, but I didn't hear a peep out of you until now. Why is that?
3. [Perception (Sight) - Challenging 12] Am I still in the same place? Have I moved at all?
4. I *must* be getting closer. I just have to keep walking, I'll get there eventually. [Keep walking down the path.]

YOU - So why *are* there two new voices in my head? It was only one at a time, before.

INLAND EMPIRE [Challenging: Success] - You’ve pushed through the barrier that kept you in known probability space, and the furies have descended upon you to punish you for your hubris. Now you will be cursed to wander a tangle of nesting futures forevermore, until your lungs calcify and your brain leaks out of your skull.

VOICE OF THE HERO - I'm not sure, but it's definitely not whatever he said going on. Eugh.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - It is odd, isn't it? Yet another change to heap onto the pile of suspicions.

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - You only have three data points and one of them conflicts with the others. You won't be able to draw a solid conclusion from so little.

1. So why *are* there two new voices in my head? It was only one at a time, before.
2. Some of you talk like you've been here the entire time, but I didn't hear a peep out of you until now. Why is that?
3. [Perception (Sight) - Challenging 12] Am I still in the same place? Have I moved at all?
4. I *must* be getting closer. I just have to keep walking, I'll get there eventually. [Keep walking down the path.]

YOU - Some of you talk like you've been here the entire time, but I didn't hear a peep out of you until now. Why is that?

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - You haven't been 'hearing' anything, just to be clear. All of these voices are internal, even His.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Challenging: Success] - But His *does* seem farther away. Less tethered to your form than the rest. More easily ignored.

THE NARRATOR - You really shouldn't be ignoring me though. If you're still here, a third time, it means you must have been disregarding my instructions before - and look what that's gotten you. You have to slay her, and not get yourself killed afterward.

AUTHORITY [Formidable: Success] - So He keeps saying. You've already made up your mind about listening to Him blindly. He *cannot* force your hand, even when He's overwhelming your body -- you will resist, and you will remain uncompromised.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - I remember us interrogating her the first time. It was a good effort, but we could've done more.

RHETORIC - *Questioning*, not interrogating.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - I might as well have come into existence the first time we heard her captivating voice - oh, how I long to hear it again.

VOICE OF THE COLD - I exist. So do they. We aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

INLAND EMPIRE [Formidable: Success] - He will return sooner than the others, in the next world.

VOICE OF THE HERO - ...I don't know how to describe it, really. I remember everything we've done since we first got here, but you obviously had a life before that, didn't you? There's memories of a world we haven't seen.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Trivial: Success] - Elysium.

VOLITION [Challenging: Success] - You *will* return. There isn't a future where you don't.

Task updated: Return home

LOGIC [Godly: Failure] - Will they come with you, or are they bound to this place?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - I care not where we go after this, as long as she's with us.

1. So why *are* there two new voices in my head? It was only one at a time, before.
2. Some of you talk like you've been here the entire time, but I didn't hear a peep out of you until now. Why is that?
3. [Perception (Sight) - Challenging 12] Am I still in the same place? Have I moved at all?
4. I *must* be getting closer. I just have to keep walking, I'll get there eventually. [Keep walking down the path.]

YOU - Am I still in the same place? Have I moved at all?

+5 Cold

+5 Skeptic

+5 Smitten

-3 A minute or a week?

CRITICAL FAILURE

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Challenging: Failure] - You couldn't possibly tell. The fog is too thick, and the surroundings too uniform.

VOICE OF THE HERO - Oh come on, really? Even when everyone was in agreement?

VOLITION - If only it were that simple.

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - You've been walking, and so therefore you must be moving. Right?

1. So why *are* there two new voices in my head? It was only one at a time, before.
2. Some of you talk like you've been here the entire time, but I didn't hear a peep out of you until now. Why is that?
3. I *must* be getting closer. I just have to keep walking, I'll get there eventually. [Keep walking down the path.]

YOU - I *must* be getting closer. I just have to keep walking, I'll get there eventually. [Keep walking down the path.]

THE NARRATOR - You make your way up the short path to the cabin.

THE NARRATOR - ...Except it isn't really that short. You walk, and you walk, but you don't see the light in the distance that would indicate the cabin is close by. The trees and the stones on either side of you seem to blend together, in the dark and the fog.

VOICE OF THE HERO - ...Didn't He already say this?

RHETORIC [Trivial: Success] - He did. Word for word.

VOICE OF THE COLD - I wonder if He's broken.

THE NARRATOR - Ha ha, very funny. Listen, you're already lucky enough that I'm believing you about having been here before - I don't want to believe it, but the mounting pile of evidence is too much to ignore - don't push it by trying to convince me I'm repeating myself without realizing, alright?

1. No, you're *actually* repeating yourself. Did you not notice?
2. [Let it go.]

YOU - [Let it go.]

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Let's see how He likes being kept in the dark for once.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Challenging: Success] - You hear something ahead of you, the source obscured by the mist. Are those... footsteps?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Could it be our darling, escaped from her prison to find us in this purgatory? We must meet her halfway! Onward!

THE NARRATOR - Whatever it is, it's definitely not the Princess - the world would have ended if she left the cabin.

1. I'm gonna go check it out. Maybe someone else is here? [Approach the noise.]
2. [Stay quiet and listen.]

YOU - [Stay quiet and listen.]

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - The footsteps grow fainter, but eventually stop before fading out of audible range. These noises are distorted as well, but you can make out the following shout clear as day:

HARRIER DU BOIS - "SHUT *UP*! GIVE ME A SECOND TO *THINK*!"

VOICE OF THE HERO - Was that... you?

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - It's what you shouted earlier. What the hell is this, some kind of apparition?

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Formidable: Success] - First death, then space, and now time itself -- it's all unravelling in layers.

VOICE OF THE COLD - The cracks are starting to show. Is this what the end of the world looks like, then?

THE NARRATOR - No, that can't be you - you're right here, and you aren't shouting. It can't be.

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - He's spiraling a little, trying to reassure himself with a half-truth.

LOGIC [Challenging: Success] - This path is a loop, in more ways than one. You'll never reach the cabin if you continue on this way.

VOICE OF THE HERO - But then what can we do? Go back the way we came?

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] - *DON'T*. Only stagnation and destruction lie in your past, a graveyard of threadbare quilts. You have to continue forward, at any cost.

AUTHORITY [Challenging: Success] - Forge your own route. Pick a direction and stick to it, path be damned.

THE NARRATOR - There's a path here for a reason. It will take you right up to the cabin, all you need to do is keep going.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Medium: Success] - You could go for a little off-roading, if the situation demands.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Easy: Success] - It'd be more of a challenge than just walking down a dirt path, that's for sure.

INTERFACING [Medium: Success] - What you wouldn’t give for a compass right now.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - We don't need a compass - our love will guide us through this torment, back to her side.

VOICE OF THE COLD - As long as you choose something. Standing here any longer would accomplish nothing at all.

1. I'm just going to keep following the path. It's worked every time so far. Maybe I can get some help from my past-future self? [Continue down the path, still.]
2. I haven't tried turning around yet. Sure, why not? [Turn around and leave.]
3. My sense of direction is impeccable, don't worry. [Step off the path and walk into the woods.]
4. One of the first things they teach you about getting lost is to stay put, in case anyone comes looking for you. Let's wait for a while and see what happens. [Wait.]

YOU - My sense of direction is impeccable, don't worry. [Step off the path and walk into the woods.]

THE NARRATOR - Against all common sense, you decide to step off the carefully laid path and go wandering into the woods instead, hoping that you'll encounter the cabin by sheer luck.

THE NARRATOR - Your surroundings grow darker as the twisted branches of the trees above you grow more numerous. The path is long out of sight behind you, and ahead you can see only rocks and dead wood.

VOICE OF THE COLD - This is new, at least.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Easy: Success] - There are gnarled roots every so often, but you don't have to work very hard to avoid them. There's plenty of space between the trees to walk through.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Trivial: Success] - You reach out to touch their trunks as you pass by, more out of habit than for any conscious reason.

ENDURANCE [Medium: Success] - This 'habit' has gotten you a poison ivy rash more than once.

PERCEPTION (TOUCH) [Godly: Failure] - You can barely feel the texture of the bark beneath the tips of your fingers.

INTERFACING [Easy: Success] - Shallow grooves, strangely uniform. It feels artificial.

VOICE OF THE HERO - How are trees supposed to feel, then?

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Easy: Success] - Scraggly and rough. The texture of life, stretched out over decades or even centuries.

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - You hear more voices as you wade through the thicket -- your own voice, pitched in strange dimensions.

HARRIER DU BOIS - "COME GET SOME, YOU --"

HARRIER DU BOIS - "--o way out, is the--"

HARRIER DU BOIS - "--ap out of it! You aren't supposed to be --"

HARRIER DU BOIS - -- The snapping of bone, then a bloodcurdling scream --

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Trivial: Success] - The sharp crack of a gunshot.

COMPOSURE [Challenging: Failure] - You weren't expecting it, and even at a distance it was still incredibly loud. You flinch, *hard*.

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - But you've been around gunfire for long enough to not start panicking. *You* should be the one causing the panic.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION [Heroic: Failure] - Your fingers twitch as you hear it go off. The shape of the noise is familiar, but you can't place it exactly.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Challenging: Success] - A code 31.

PERCEPTION (SMELL) [Medium: Success] - The scent of blood and ash.

AUTHORITY [Medium: Success] - Stay the course. These echoes are nothing to you.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Why have things only gone so wrong now? He mentioned her 'influence', but why this? Is she doing this?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - I don't see why she would. This place is terrible! She would never inflict it upon us, I'm sure of it.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Something about this is starting to sound familiar. Like you should already know what's causing these strange phenomena.

1. [Encyclopedia - Legendary 14] What does all this remind me of?
2. I'd rather not think about it. I'm weirded out enough as it is. (Discard thought.)

YOU - What does all this remind me of?

+5 This isn't fog.

+3 Heard yourself

+3 Unravelling in layers

+2 No texture

+2 Looping path

+1 Ubi Sunt?

CHECK SUCCESS

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Legendary: Success] - The pale.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - This is the pale, and its symptoms. The loss of reality's fundamental aspects and the regurgitation of past events as if they were happening for the first time.

PERCEPTION - It really wasn't fog. You weren't experiencing sights and sounds being obscured by layers of water vapor -- it was the very information carried from distant objects to your eyes and ears that was being degraded.

VOICE OF THE HERO - Pale? Pale what? Nothing around here looks particularly pale, except maybe these stone piles.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Not 'pale', 'the pale'. Whatever they're talking about, it's a distinct concept, not a descriptor. And from the sound of it, not a very pleasant one.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - The pale is the region beyond the edges of the known isolas of solid matter in which the characteristics that make up physical existence become suspended one by one. The pale itself is not a substance, or a concept -- it is the lack of these things. The pale can only be measured against that which it isn't, and the ability to measure it and anything it contains in this way degrades the farther inward one travels. Sound, motion, distance --

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] - -- colors drained, life unwound, cause and effect shuffled by a cruel dealer --

ENCYCLOPEDIA - -- far enough in, even the usage of numbers and mathematics becomes impossible. This so-called number barrier is the farthest the pale has ever been mapped to, and crossing this threshold may be impossible.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Heroic: Success] - The pale is the enemy of mortal life. It is the buildup of discarded thoughts and lost time, the gradient between something and nothing, the lowest possible energy state that ideas can inhabit before crumbling to dust -- a backwash of information, caustic to beings of matter by nature of its stagnation. A vantage point from where both the past and the future are identical, and thus indistinguishable.

INLAND EMPIRE - The dying dream of the living dead.

HALF LIGHT [Medium: Success] - It is the final death. It will consume all, one day.

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Prolonged exposure to the pale can damage the cognitive functions of both animals and people. Confusion, scrambled memory, insomnia, and loss of identity eventually lead to insanity and catatonia, if not outright dissolution of the self.

EMPATHY [Medium: Success] - You still remember the old paledriver you met in Martinaise. She would retreat into herself, experiencing other lives, recalling other people's memories. It concerned you, and you tried to track her down afterward to see if you could check in on her -- but to no avail. She'd already left on another long haul.

INTERFACING [Challenging: Success] - Entroponetic crosstalk -- these are the sounds you are hearing, projections of your own voice from another time and another place. A contamination of radio signals with degraded memories. It *shouldn't* be manifesting audibly outside of a receiver, though.

LOGIC [Easy: Success] - If the pale is here, then that means you must be past the edge of the world. Not very specific, but it's a start.

Task updated: Find out where you are

THE NARRATOR - ...No. No, that can't be right -

AUTHORITY [Easy: Success] - It is.

VOICE OF THE HERO - That sounds horrible! Why are we here, h-how do we leave?

VOICE OF THE COLD - It hasn't been that bad so far. Repeating trees, echoing voices, that's all.

VOICE OF THE HERO - But it's going to get worse! Didn't you hear the bookhead? Oh no, no, nonono...

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - It's better to know what we're up against than live in blissful ignorance, at least. Thank you for actually providing real answers to the tough questions - it's more than I can say for Him.

THE NARRATOR - No, it wasn't supposed to be like this!

RHETORIC [Legendary: Failure] - You can't tell what He's referencing by 'it' or 'this'. Does He mean the current circumstances, the concept of the pale entirely, or something else?

THE NARRATOR - ...Nothing. I meant nothing by it - you should keep going, I'm sure you'll find the cabin out here eventually.

VOICE OF THE COLD - He won't give us a straight answer. We may as well not bother.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - That doesn't mean we should stop trying. He's slipped before, and He'll slip again - we just have to be vigilant.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - All this means is that we have to get her out of here as soon as possible, before she spends another moment adrift in this madness. This is what we were going to do anyway - my resolve has only strengthened with each new horror we've faced!

VOLITION [Godly: Failure] - You can't *be* here, Harry. Despite your entroponetic fascination, you reacted incredibly poorly the one other time you were exposed to the pale (or something pale-adjacent). Your mind is fragile, you've accepted this already -- it wouldn't take much more to break it again, especially in these circumstances.

1. Why was it so hard to remember this information? God, I better not be having amnesiotic episodes again.
2. What do I do, then? Should I really be wandering through a pale-suffused forest like this?
3. FUCK! *FUCK*!

YOU - Why was it so hard to remember this information? God, I better not be having amnesiotic episodes again.

RHETORIC [Trivial: Success] - 'Amnesiotic' isn't a word.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Easy: Success] - The holes in your skull have been plugged -- stray thoughts only flow inward, now.

VOLITION [Legendary: Failure] - You've repressed these memories for some reason. Why?

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] - You were shattered. You can't bear to remember how, not now.

1. Why was it so hard to remember this information? God, I better not be having amnesiotic episodes again.
2. What do I do, then? Should I really be wandering through a pale-suffused forest like this?
3. FUCK! *FUCK*!

YOU - What do I do, then? Should I really be wandering through a pale-suffused forest like this?

ENCYCLOPEDIA - Centuries ago, before the development of the pale latitude compressor, sailors and journeymen who travelled through the pale would fortify themselves with the Volta do Mar.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Easy: Success] - A psychological regimen that strengthens the mind from outside assault -- the closing of ranks and the battening down of hatches. It's often stimulated by the creation and recitation of poetry.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Medium: Success] - Even now, lost souls repeat the mantras in hope that their steadying power will rub off. You've said a few Voltas yourself, on the worst nights.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - How is poetry supposed to help against something like this?

VOICE OF THE COLD - It's not.

VOICE OF THE HERO - It's worth a try, at least. Anything to avoid that.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Yes, a fine work of poetry would be a wonderful present to give to our beloved when we rescue her! Something meaningful, from deep within the soul.

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT [Challenging: Success] - You don't need any bino-ass *poetry*, what you need is to start running. You can reach the cabin before you start losing it, if you go at top speed.

1. [Conceptualization - Heroic 15] Write some poetry from scratch.
2. [Encyclopedia - Heroic 15] Recall a Volta that you can repeat to yourself.
3. Coach is right, I'm just gonna run for it. [Start running through the woods.]

YOU - Write some poetry from scratch.

+5 Smitten

-2 Repressed shattering

-5 Skeptic

-5 Cold

CHECK FAILURE

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Heroic: Failure] - You can't come up with anything more than vague ideas. Something about... trees? A winding path?

VOICE OF THE HERO - That sounds like what we just went through. Maybe throw in something else?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Only a ballad of true adoration is worthy of being presented to our love! Surely her beautiful visage is enough to inspire something?

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Challenging: Success] - It's inspiring *something* alright.

DRAMA [Easy: Success] - Love poems are a classic, it's true. But you *don't* love her. That was an act, remember --

VOICE OF THE HERO - Maybe don't bring that up anymore with this company in particular? The situation's bad enough without him trying to kill us again.

VOICE OF THE COLD - It's always one way out, if we need it.

VOLITION [Medium: Success] - *NO*.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Keep it in mind, but let's only use that as a last resort. This place will likely change again if we do, probably for the worse.

THE NARRATOR - Yes, it goes without saying - don't kill yourself, please.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - Whatever half-formed thought you had before has been scattered to the wind.

1. [Encyclopedia - Godly 16] Recall a Volta that you can repeat to yourself.
2. Coach is right, I'm just gonna run for it. [Start running through the woods.]

YOU - Recall a Volta that you can repeat to yourself.

+3 On the worst nights

-2 Repressed shattering

CHECK FAILURE

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Godly: Failure] - Nothing. You know that some of the most prolific Voltas are taught to children in intermediary school, but that part of your life is still lost to you.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - How convenient.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Challenging: Success] - The memory loss is part of the *full package*. It really helps complete the look, you know?

VOICE OF THE HERO - The... look?

SUGGESTION - Not the Expression, that's different.

RHETORIC [Easy: Success] - The way others see you. If you weren't upfront about having lost so much of the past, people would just think you're insane.

VOICE OF THE COLD - So what if we're insane? That doesn't really change anything, does it?

AUTHORITY [Challenging: Success] - Your thoughts still squirm and wander sometimes, but you have a better grip on yourself now than you did previously -- current situation notwithstanding.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Godly: Failure] - It *is* odd, though, that recalling this memory seemed to have gotten harder. What could be causing that?

1. Coach is right, I'm just gonna run for it. [Start running through the woods.]

YOU - Coach is right, I'm just gonna run for it. [Start running through the woods.]

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - Attaboy! I wanna see some *hustle* out there. No stopping until we reach the cabin!

THE NARRATOR - Perhaps having realized that every additional second you take arriving at the cabin is another step closer to oblivion, you increase your pace to a sprint, darting through trees toward an unseen destination.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Challenging: Success] - It's more difficult now, but you avoid snagging on any of the roots below your feet.

ENDURANCE [Godly: Failure] - Even now you don't feel the exertion. Your breaths still come at a steady rate and you aren't sweating. This isn't right...

VOICE OF THE HERO - Surely this is a good thing though. If we don't get tired, we can keep running forever, right?

PHYSICAL INSTRUMENT - All that matters is the running itself. You *have* to run. Does it matter where?

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - But why aren't we feeling it? Should we be?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Our heroic quest is far more important than any exhaustion could ever hope to be.

REACTION SPEED [Impossible: Failure] - Quest? What quest?

1. A quest?
2. What are you talking about 'quest' -- I'm not a knight, I don't think.
3. Officers don't get quests, we get cases.

YOU - A quest?

VOICE OF THE HERO - You know, getting to the cabin? Checking if the Princess is still alive?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Rescuing her from her foul imprisonment, and apologizing dearly for our past mistakes.

THE NARRATOR - Slaying her, to stop the world from ending. How have you not figured this out by now, you must have heard it a dozen times!

VOICE OF THE COLD - We don't need to slay her if she's already dead.

THE NARRATOR - She isn't dead, of that much I can assure you.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Impossible: Failure] - You were never given any 'quest', as far as you can recall.

HALF LIGHT [Impossible: Failure] - You could go for some 'slaying' though. 'Slay' means KILL, and it's been too long since you've been allowed to kill something. This feels right.

RHETORIC [Impossible: Failure] - And what of this 'Princess'? Is she so important that she's earned a capitalized title?

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Alright, what kind of diversionary charade is this?

DRAMA [Impossible: Failure] - This one sounds genuine, sire. He doesn't understand why you don't know what they're talking about.

VOICE OF THE HERO - I don't think it's a charade. You're being serious, aren't you?

1. Yeah I'm serious. What are you guys on about?
2. You know it's not funny to joke about memory loss to an amnesiac? Stop being jerks.
3. ...

YOU - You know it's not funny to joke about memory loss to an amnesiac? Stop being jerks.

VOICE OF THE HERO - But we aren't joking! Oh god, it's started already hasn't it?

THE NARRATOR - Oh dear, this isn't good.

VOICE OF THE COLD - That was fast. It looks like you broke first.

VOLITION [Impossible: Failure] - You *aren't* broken. A little scattered, sure, but not broken.

AUTHORITY [Impossible: Failure] - Who do these outsiders think they are, to refer to you as 'broken'?

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - Who are these guys, anyway?

INLAND EMPIRE [Heroic: Success] - SOMETHING IS WRONG. YOU ARE BEING UNWOUND.

ENDURANCE [Impossible: Failure] - You aren't being 'unwound'. Your body is still here, with the correct number of limbs and digits. ...You think.

SUGGESTION [Impossible: Failure] - What would they have to gain from taunting you like this?

1. ...
2. Seriously, knock it off. I'm not in the mood -- I'm busy doing... whatever it was I was doing, before.
3. ...

YOU - Seriously, knock it off. I'm not in the mood -- I'm busy doing... whatever it was I was doing, before.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - If this is another act, it's a damn convincing one. But why would you do this, at this point?

VOICE OF THE COLD - It's not an act. It's simply the inevitable outcome.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Surely you remember the face of our beloved? The warm smile, the eyes like shining stars?

EMPATHY [Impossible: Failure] - You would remember someone who looked at you like that. God knows it's a rarity, nowadays.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Impossible: Failure] - There was someone who used to, an impossibly long time ago, but you can't remember what they looked like.

SHIVERS [Impossible: Failure] - Something plucks at this line of thought, listening for the reverberation. You can't tell what, though.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Impossible: Failure] - You've stopped running. Why were you running, again?

INLAND EMPIRE [Heroic: Success] - A flickering flame in the roiling sea, the last repeater at the end of the line, the 7 mile ladder out of the depths, the summit of a mountain of writhing bodies, your own name blotted across the stones in blood --

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Impossible: Failure] - Dreamer over here seems strung out for some reason. You should really go get a drink, maybe it'll help calm them down.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Impossible: Failure] - Where would you get a drink? There's nothing here. Nothing at all.

COMPOSURE [Impossible: Failure] - You haven't taken a breath for a while. Did you ever need to breathe in the first place?

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

YOU - ...

THE NARRATOR - I can't believe this. You didn't even reach the cabin before falling apart. Get up!

VOICE OF THE HERO - What do we do? What do we do?

VOICE OF THE COLD - Nothing. It will be over soon, and then we'll be someplace else, again.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - What a cruel twist of fate! Are we to never reunite with our love, then?

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - ...

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

YOU - ...

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - ...

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - There are things / we live among 'and to see them / is to know ourselves'. / Occurrence, a part / of an infinite series, / the sad marvels; / of this was told / a tale of our wickedness. / It is not our wickedness.

THE NARRATOR - What are you doing?

VOICE OF THE HERO - You remember what the ideas guy said, don't you? It's a... Volta, I think.

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

YOU - ...

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - We are pressed, pressed on each other, / we will be told at once / of anything that happens / and the discovery of fact bursts / in a paroxysm of emotion / now as always.

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...

YOU - ...

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Obsessed, bewildered / by the shipwreck / of the singular / we have chosen the meaning / of being numerous.

INLAND EMPIRE [Heroic: Success] - A hand, in the darkness.

1. ...
2. ...
3. ...
4. [Logic - Impossible 20] ...What is this?

YOU - ...What is this?

+10 Skeptic

+5 Smitten

+5 This isn't fog.

0 Cold

CHECK SUCCESS

LOGIC [Impossible: Success] - It is a poem, meant to guide one into the state of Volta do Mar. You are lost in the pale. You are heading toward a cabin, which likely contains a Princess who may or may not end the world if you don't slay her. You are currently slumped against a tree at the edge of a clearing. You have not taken a breath for the last 103 seconds.

DAMAGED HEALTH -3

DAMAGED MORALE -3

ENDURANCE - *FUCK*! BREATHE, *BREATHE*!

COMPOSURE [Godly: Failure] - Your entire body is numb. You are shivering, intensely, even though it isn't cold.

SHIVERS [Medium: Success] - Your shoulder spasms, as if being touched for just a moment. It feels reassuring.

HEALED MORALE +1

PAIN THRESHOLD [Godly: Failure] - Your lungs burn for want of oxygen. The agonizingly deep breaths you take also hurt, but it is preferable to the alternative.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Easy: Success] - The cocktail of near-death chemicals will wear off, soon, but for now the presence of oxygenated blood in your arteries combine with it to make you feel *alive* once more.

HEALED HEALTH +1

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - You can see the cabin from here. The exterior is exactly the same as it's always been, sitting on a hill encircled by the pale-touched forest.

Task complete: Reach the cabin

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Formidable: Success] - You rotate the words of the Volta in your brain, turning them over and over and over -- feeling the shape of the vowels, the enunciation of the consonants. Tasting the meaning of the whole, then breaking it down into base components to be reassembled into something new. Your mind is anchored.

INLAND EMPIRE [Easy: Success] - Caught on a shipwreck, dredged from the deep.

VOICE OF THE COLD - Oh, you aren't dead. That's surprising, to say the least.

VOICE OF THE HERO - Are you okay, Harry? We thought we lost you there for a second! Deep breaths, deep breaths...

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - There, upon the hill - the prison of our other half! You can still prove yourself worthy of forgiveness - collect yourself quickly, we must save her at once!

VOICE OF THE COLD - Assuming she's still alive.

THE NARRATOR - Slay, not save. I'm glad you've pulled yourself back together, but you really should hurry - you don't have long.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - ...I wasn't sure if that would actually work. Huh.

1. I didn't think that crap actually worked either, to be honest.
2. What happened? Why am I here, I wasn't here a minute ago...
3. ...Thank you.
4. I'm *DONE*. That was a close enough brush with death for me, I've already died two times too many.

YOU - ...Thank you.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Don't mention it, alright? You and your entourage were able to tease out answers from the stone wall that is Him and give a few of your own to boot. We're in this together, now - we have to find out the truth.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Medium: Success] - Those were some pretty fine bars for something made up on the spot.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - I was thinking up something since you first mentioned it. I didn't really think it would amount to anything, but better to have the contingency than to not.

EMPATHY - You won't forget this kindness anytime soon.

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] - And even if you do -- you'll know the shape to look for.

SAVOIR FAIRE [Easy: Success] - You notice, now, that the ground is quite even under your feet. You are standing on the path, and have arrived around the front end of the cabin, somehow.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - The dirt trail fades into the pale mist behind you.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Medium: Success] - 'Disintegrating into mathematics'. You have seen this before.

LOGIC [Impossible: Failure] - Though extremely similar, the episode you just had doesn't perfectly line up with typical pale-related close calls. There was no bleed-over of memory -- only the loss of the self, on an extremely accelerated timetable than the norm for overexposure advisories. The recitation of a Volta shouldn't be able to drag one back from being that far gone, either. Why was it different?

VOICE OF THE HERO - We can worry about that later - we probably should get a move on, soon. Hopefully it'll be safer inside the cabin than it is out here.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Formidable: Success] - Manmade structures are theorized by dialectical materialists to be slightly more resistant to pale degradation than natural ones, owing to their increased semantic significance, but long-term studies have proven inconclusive.

ENDURANCE [Easy: Success] - You should drink something. Eat something, too, but beggars can't be choosers.

VOICE OF THE COLD - We still have the flask.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - But surely we should save it for the Princess, no?

1. [Proceed into the cabin.]
2. [Reach for the flask.]

YOU - [Reach for the flask.]

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - Just where it always sits. It feels... cold.

Item gained: Flask of ███████████ Memories

PERCEPTION [Formidable: Failure] - When you unscrew the top, no scent meets your nostrils and you can't see anything inside.

INTERFACING [Easy: Success] - But you can feel the sloshing of liquid when you swirl the flask in your hand.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Par for the course, really, given all that's happened so far this go around.

VOICE OF THE HERO - I'm not sure if we should be drinking that. If we even could to begin with.

VOICE OF THE COLD - We may as well. What's the worst that could happen?

HALF LIGHT [Trivial: Success] - Death.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Challenging: Success] - You can think of much worse fates than death, after what just happened.

VOICE OF THE COLD - Death hasn't been an obstacle so far.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Perhaps just a sip, to test for poisons. I wouldn't put it past Him or you to attempt such an underhanded tactic against our dearest.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - If He could've poisoned the flask, He would've done it by now. We've given it to her twice.

LOGIC [Heroic: Success] - He attempted to take over your body the first time, but not the second, and seems to be far more limited in what He can do now, given He didn't stop you from leaving the path despite His protests.

THE NARRATOR - 'What I can do' is unimportant, it's what you have to do that is.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Formidable: Success] - Just take a sip from the damn flask already. Maybe it'll be booze this time!

1. [Offer her the flask.]
2. [Take a swig from the flask, first.]
3. [Put the flask back.]

YOU - [Offer her the flask.]

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Who are you offering it to?

THE NARRATOR - As you offer the Princess the flask, her gaze quickly darts between your outstretched hand and your eyes, as if unsure what to do.

REACTION SPEED [Trivial: Success] - ...But she's not here. You're standing outside, still.

PERCEPTION (TOUCH) [Medium: Success] - You feel fingers brush against yours for only a moment -- then they're gone, along with the flask.

Item lost: Flask of ███████████ Memories

VOICE OF THE COLD - And now it's gone. Oh well.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - Goddamn zero for three on getting anything good out of it. Game's *rigged*, I'm telling you, *rigged*.

1. [Proceed into the cabin.]

YOU - [Proceed into the cabin.]

THE NARRATOR - The interior of the cabin is clean and elegant, its stone walls draped in fine-threaded tapestries, a prison befitting a royal prisoner. The only furniture of note is an ornate wooden table with a pristine blade perched on its edge.

THE NARRATOR - The blade is your implement. You'll need it if you want to do this right.

VOICE OF THE HERO - More repetition. You sure we're not gonna try to tell him?

VOICE OF THE COLD - There wouldn't be a point. He wouldn't listen.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Trivial: Success] - That isn't even *close* to what you're seeing right now.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - The cabin is empty. *Completely* empty. There is no blade, nor is there a table it could be perched on. The floor is wood -- no, on a second look, cheap imitation wood, made of plastic, scuffed in places --, the walls are plastered over with peeling striped wallpaper, and the windows contain only smudged glass.

VOICE OF THE HERO - And the damn mirror's back again, blocking the only way forward.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - So it is. He probably took it away last time, but where did it go?

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Formidable: Failure] - You don't see a mirror anywhere.

VOICE OF THE HERO - What?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - A manifestation of the guilt you must feel, surely. You can't even bear to look yourself in the eye! Fret not, your chance for redemption will soon be upon us.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - You really don't see it? It's hanging right over where the door to the basement should be.

1. I don't.
2. I don't. I believe you when you say it's there, though.

YOU - I don't. I believe you when you say it's there, though.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Last time, we couldn't see it but you still could - this time, we can see it but you can't. What kind of trick is being played here?

VOICE OF THE HERO - Do you think He can see it? He hasn't chimed in for a while.

THE NARRATOR - There isn't a mirror. There's a table, the blade sitting on the table, and the door to the basement. There's nothing else in here.

VOICE OF THE COLD - If He wasn't broken before, He's definitely broken now.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Easy: Success] - The floorplan of the cabin interior is incongruent with the exterior dimensions, *still*. You're having doubts it was ever 1:1 to begin with.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Formidable: Success] - ...This is the same wallpaper that your old house had. 11 Voyager Road, back in Jamrock.

INLAND EMPIRE [Godly: Failure] - You couldn't run forever. But I had hoped you would've had just a bit more time.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - You used to live here? I doubt your home was this far into the pale - has it been transported here, or is this just a look-alike?

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Medium: Success] - It's not an exact fit -- it's really only surface-level similarities. Enough to get you thinking about it, an impression of a memory.

1. ...This doesn't feel right. I shouldn't be back here.
2. If I can't see the mirror, I should be able to just do *this*, right? [Enter the basement.]

YOU - If I can't see the mirror, I should be able to just do *this*, right? [Enter the basement.]

LOGIC [Medium: Success] - No, that's not what that means *at all*! Invisible doesn't mean intangible --

VOICE OF THE HERO - It's gone. It disappeared right before we were about to walk into it.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - We'll never get a good look at ourselves, will we?

THE NARRATOR - The door to the basement creaks open, revealing a staircase faintly illuminated by an unseen light in the room below.

THE NARRATOR - This is an oppressive place. The air feels heavy and damp, a hint of rot filtering from the ancient wood. If the princess lives here, slaying her is probably doing her a favor.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Trivial: Success] - The staircase is of a contemporary style, with a faux-ornate banister along the left side. The paint is chipped and the ceiling grows mold. There *is* a pale light from the bottom, but it's extremely faint.

SAVOIR FAIRE - The third to last step doesn't creak.

VOICE OF THE HERO - I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe we should just leave?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - And leave the Princess to languish in this horrid place? I think not!

VOICE OF THE COLD - We've already made it this far. We might as well confirm that she's still dead.

THE NARRATOR - As you reach the bottom of the stairs, you lock eyes with -

VOICE OF THE HERO - ...Yeah? With who?

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - There is a figure standing in the middle of the room -- they are the source of the light, and the far corners of the basement aren't visible in the darkness. There is no window this time, and you can't see any chains either. An empty flask and a blade sit at their feet.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - You haven't described what they actually look like. Why?

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Heroic: Success] - You cannot put to words what you are seeing, not exactly, but you can approximate. It's an overlapping of different forms -- you know this is a humanoid shape, with arms, legs, and a head in a configuration you're familiar with, but you *can't* pin down details. Not moving in any particular direction, but rolling over itself. A representation of countless different possibilities.

REACTION SPEED [Easy: Success] - Each time your gaze twitches, the image you're seeing changes.

AUTHORITY [Formidable: Success] - They are wearing a tiara. This you can tell.

LOGIC [Legendary: Success] - This is the Princess.

VOICE OF THE COLD - So she isn't dead.

What do you want?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - MY LOVE! WE HAVE RETURNED FOR YOU!

PERCEPTION (HEARING) [Medium: Success] - This is unmistakably her voice, though it is distorted. It's impossibly light, barely leaving an impression on the air.

SUGGESTION [Challenging: Success] - This isn't an accusation.

What. Do you want?

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - All we want is you, my dear! These rapscallions have come to apologize for our sins, and to reunite us at last!

VOICE OF THE HERO - What do we want?

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - Answers. An escape. A reassurance we won't be stabbed again, while we're at it.

1. "I want answers. This has all been like a fever dream -- you know we're somewhere deep in the pale? But even that isn't enough to explain it."
2. "I want to escape whatever hell this is."
3. "I want to escape whatever hell this is. You can come with me, if you promise not to stab me again."
4. "I just... I just want to go home."
5. [Volition - Godly 16] "I *need* to slay you. I think it's the only way out. I'm sorry." [Slay the Princess.]
6. "I want to be with you. I'm sorry."

YOU - "I just... I just want to go home."

Home...

...

...I can be. What you want.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - Her form shifts through a kaleidoscope of different textures and shapes.

VISUAL CALCULUS [Formidable: Success] - A three-dimensional object being shifted through a higher dimensional space.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] - You catch fragments of faces that you recognize.

ESPRIT DE CORPS [Trivial: Success] - Your half-brothers. Junior officers, the captain, your co-workers.

ESPRIT DE CORPS - Kim. Jean. Judit. Mack. Chester. Jules. Trant.

REACTION SPEED [Challenging: Failure] - Faces you've passed on the street -- seen only once for a few seconds, remembered only in a fleeting dream.

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] - The decaying visage of the hanged man, the same one that haunts your nightmares.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Formidable: Success] - The pretty faces of past lovers and flings. Glimpsed for only moments in the pale light of dawn, after nights of quick hook-ups and passionate love.

EMPATHY [Formidable: Success] - Unknown faces, but ones that stir a deep familiarity within your soul. ...Your parents.

PAIN THRESHOLD [Impossible: Failure] - *Her*.

PAIN THRESHOLD - It's her. Not the false face of the Innocence -- the one you blotted her out with -- but her true face. You had thought you'd forgotten.

VOLITION [Impossible: Failure] - No...

DORA INGERLUND - Is this. What you want?

PERCEPTION (HEARING) - This voice has been carved deep into your grey matter. You could not forget it, even if you tried.

VOICE OF THE HERO - Who is she? Who is this?

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - ...Someone that was bad for you. That much was clear, from everything you've said so far. We know this is a lie, you know this isn't real.

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - Do you see how she changes to try and make us happy? Take her hand, and let us leave this place at last.

VOICE OF THE COLD - These façades mean nothing to us. We know who she is, underneath them. You can still end her, if that's what you want to do.

1. [Take her hand.]
2. [Volition - Impossible 20] [Don't.]

YOU - [Don't.]

+5 Skeptic

+5 Cold

-5 Smitten

-10 It's her.

CHECK FAILURE

VOLITION [Impossible: Failure] - I'm sorry. ...I want this too. You haven't put enough time between yourself and the past for it to be any other way.

1. [Take her hand.]

YOU - [Take her hand.]

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) [Easy: Success] - You notice as you reach for her -- there is a band, around the ring finger of your right hand.

PAIN THRESHOLD - There is a matching one on her left.

DORA INGERLUND - We can be happy. Like this. Together.

1. [Kiss her.]
2. [Volition - Impossible 30] [Don't.]

YOU - [Don't.]

+5 Skeptic

+5 Cold

-5 Smitten

-10 It's her.

-10 I want this too.

INEVITABLE FAILURE

VOLITION [Impossible: Failure] - ...

1. [Kiss her.]

YOU - [Kiss her.]

PERCEPTION (TOUCH) [Trivial: Success] - She embraces you as you close in to kiss her. Her touch is scorching hot, the heart of a dying star. You are burning.

ENDURANCE [Godly: Failure] - The air is sucked from your lungs as your lips meet. You can't breathe. You are drowning.

ELECTROCHEMISTRY [Impossible: Failure] - This is what you've been missing.

EMPATHY [Impossible: Failure] - She is all you need.

VOICE OF THE HERO - Come on, you gotta snap out of it! This is wrong, we shouldn't be doing this...

VOICE OF THE SMITTEN - And why shouldn't we be? This is what we were meant to do all along. We are together, at last.

VOICE OF THE SKEPTIC - How did she know to do this? That it would have this kind of effect on you?

INLAND EMPIRE [Medium: Success] - Your thoughts were breached long ago. I'm sorry.

VOICE OF THE HERO - Isn't He going to do anything about this? He's been saying we need to slay her the whole time!

VOICE OF THE COLD - He's been gone for a while. Haven't you noticed?

PERCEPTION (TOUCH) - The hands wrapped around your back tighten their grip, pulling you closer.

PERCEPTION (TOUCH) - ...Another pair join them, and then another, and then another.

CONCEPTUALIZATION [Challenging: Success] - You are being subsumed.

PERCEPTION (SIGHT) - The light is gone. There is only darkness now.

INLAND EMPIRE - You fall inward, into the endless void, still wrapped in each other.

---

Notes:

In which the actual cabin takes up only a tiny fraction of the overall chapter. Funny how that works out.

Skeptic's Volta is an excerpt from Sections 1, 6, and 7 of "Of Being Numerous (1-22)" from New Collected Poems (1968), by George Oppen.

Last chapter patch notes: 1) Fixed some typos and minor formatting issues, and 2) made the last scene even more tragic with a few extra lines. This was *definitely* necessary, trust me.

The next chapter will be quite short -- an intermission. You might be able to guess why. New releases will be sporadic over the rest of the year, but they will come, I promise.