Working With Phantoms

Origins of Disaster

August 13th

Madran sat in the Velvet Room with Chicory, Philemon, Rosana, and Maya, as they discussed the palace.

"Today, I bet we're going back into the main asylum, yeah?"

"Yep. We've cleared all three of the buildings, so the palace is the only part left."

"Nice. I'm excited to finish this palace."

"Well, from what I could see with my scans, the third floor is the most complicated of them all. Like, y'know, a lot of shadows, odd twists and turns, and pitfalls."

"Lovely. I expect that we're breaking into two groups again?"

"Yeah. Well, just step carefully wherever you go, and I'm sure it'll be fine."

Philemon nodded as Rosana spoke up.

"Do you think we'll finally find out why this palace formed?"

"Well, I hope so."

"Yeah, I mean, from previous palaces, it's really obvious, but with this one, Shadow Elia's all nebulous and crap."

"True, true. We haven't seen any memories from the youngest Elia cognition yet, so I bet that if we do, then we'll find out what happened."

"We did get some serious hints from the college Elia, however. I don't quite know what Elia's parents were like, but I feel that their actions caused her to form this palace."

"Well, what we know so far is that she was bullied all throughout middle and high school, and that her parents did... something terrible."

"Yep."

Madran then waited for everyone else's arrival, with the remaining four team members slowly trickling in.

"So, everyone, how has your summer break been?"

"Uh, kinda full of palaces, but aside from that, good."

"Nice. We're getting pretty close to the end here, which is good, but I have a feeling that Shadow Elia hasn't shown us all of her tricks that happen to be in her sleeve. Are we ready to move?"

Madran looked around to see that everyone appeared to be ready, which led her to go with her team to the Metaverse once more. Upon arriving there, Madran looked to see that all of the cognitions but the youngest were there. Madran then approached the remaining three cognitions of Elia.

"Hey, where'd the youngest go?"

"Oh, she went into the palace."

"Which floor?"

"She just left, so I bet that you can catch up to her."

Madran nodded, with the group ascending the steps that went into the palace. Once there, Madran scanned for the youngest Elia.

"Ok, she's approaching some stairs that go... up! After her!"

Madran then took everyone down a few halls, all of which were stabilized due to their previous efforts. Then, after Madran took them down a few more turns, they came across some stairs that appeared to lead to the next floor.

"Ah, you're here..."

Madran looked past the stairs to see the youngest cognitive Elia standing there.

"Hey, why'd you run?"

"I didn't run. I merely returned. You've seen all that you need to see. As long as you can't catch me, you won't know the truth..."

The cognitive Elia giggled, and Madran approached her.

"Why do you not want us to know what happened?"