Part 28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VVpfmV9ttQ
["Dust Inferno" is actually what plays during this fight, but I think "Burn" is much more appropriate.]

[Alright, so the solution is:
Father- Silence
Queen- Loneliness
Voices- Book
Devil- House
Love-Snow
Village- Judgment
Travel- Metamorphosis
Death- Opening
Maid- Tower

I'd say only about half of those make any sense at all.]


Great Mystery: Be yourself. Be that princess of flame and ash, be that fragile and inextinguishable woman. You are a heroine. An absurd heroine. The heroine of times past, or perhaps of times yet to come. Your father's heroine. The heroine of a century. You are a heroine.


[]


[Each time we destroy one of the mysteries, it becomes a rock and spits out various creatures, some of which are helpful, and some of which are not. Voices of Winter are in the former category, attacking other enemies for us and drawing their attention.]


[Which is good, because Strange Shadows are in the latter category. Luckily, we only have to burn the Tamed Memories. Some of the things summoned don't even have HP and are thus invincible.]


[The Scent of Skuld buffs us and can take a couple hits.]


[We are approaching critical sprite mass.]


[Fuck these guys.]


[And these guys. We don't have to kill them, but Frida does anyway.]


[Optimal clusterfuck ratio achieved. I feel that this picture is a very accurate representation of Frida's mind on most days.]


(In many voices, Frida recites the passage along with the Mystery.)

Great Mystery: “An anonymous son and lost stars
It was a strange time made of tender violence
The silent moon twinkled in the immortal
Absence of the centuries and loves disappointed

“The powerful built thrones in Language
They enslaved the cycles, they crossed the night
They made noon high and the morning beardless
Dusk calm and dawn crimson”

You don't know the rules, but you can learn them.




[This took more tries than I care to count, some efforts lost to glitches, and others to death. In the end...]


(Frida could only endure so much of the shadows' torment. But she has accepted them, and they are part of her. It is enough.)



[I tried guys, I really did. I even gave myself and my computer a whole day to rest, and I still couldn't get 100%. Eventually, I dug into the files and cheated myself 900 Humor and a bunch of extra skills to see if losing there misses any dialogue, and it doesn't. Just less xp.]


[The Epilogue already! Fear not, readers. The Epilogue is about as long as the previous episode, so there's still a few updates left.]

Great Mystery: Accept them, this ash and this sand. Accept them, these burns. Accept them, these areas of shadow that dance where the port lanterns flicker out. Accept this voice, dry, sad, that is your own. It is not forbidden to be the narrator of one's own story.


(Frida steps into the light in the middle of this strange landscape, and as she bathes in it, she opens her eyes to the dawn.)


[D'aww. In the shot of the bar below, Ven and Chichi aren't there, so I like that this implies Frida has made new friends too.]








[There's nothing much else to do except go back to bed. We can walk around and see a few familiar faces from the barge (none of the unfriendly ones, thankfully), but they just repeat canned lines, except for one:]


[Yes, the nascent psychiatrist is there next to Elias, but all she says is “Don't mind Elias. He's always like that.” Damnit, game. Time for some fanfic!]

(Frida spends a part of each day with Elias and Doctor von Franz, telling them of what she has experienced. Elias knows a distressing amount of detail about Frida's dreams, but this seems natural. After all, the Seid is as real as the sky to a volva. Marie-Louise does little but prompt and guide Frida along the mental paths she is already taking, but it is a great help to talk to someone who isn't as close, almost dangerously close, to her problems as Ven or Chichi. She attains some level of control over her visions, and the hallucinations become smaller, easier to manage.)


[Yes, we're still gaining xp. You know what that means.]


(And when you fall asleep, it's no longer in pain or fear, because your dreams are not difficult anymore. There are no more shadows, no more fear. There is only curiosity and gentle scenes, children's drawings, often sad, but sometimes joyful.)