"I'm off ta end this clusterfuck of a Nightmare," you reply. "Ye with me?"
Her whole body hardens, once more the towering sentinel that first welcomed you to the clocktower. Djura lengthens his stance, only to be waved down by Simon.
"I was very clear, Father Anderson. There is nothing for you here."
"I have some information ta the contrary."
"And what could that be?"
"Recursive dream bullshit."
She slackens in confusion and you pounce on the opportunity, soundly butchering Yurie's precise explanations and using Djura as an unwitting visual aid. Simon does a solid job of filling in the gaps you either can't articulate or are taking artistic liberties with.
"...and that's why I need ta nip this problem in the bud before things take a left turn down Bugfuck Avenue." You cross your arms, patting yourself on the back, before snapping your fingers. "Oh, and I've got Annalise's severed head back in Byrgenwerth. She's still pretty chatty if ye'd like a word."
Her lips and eyebrows do a merry jig as she cycles through emotions, ultimately raising a finger. "I'm going to deal with this one piece at a time."
"Fair enough."
"Let's start with Annalise. Why did you decapitate her?"
"Was tryin' ta kill her. I've got me a cross that burns the unholy. Usually a pretty good indicator o' who needs a good stabbin'."
"If you wanted to kill her, why didn't you do Steps Two through Ten?"
"Nobody's ever told me what they are," you grump. "I figure burnin's involved at some point but I don't wanna do that too early an' fuck up the whole procedure."
"Burning and scattering the ashes is a fairly reliable method," says Djura.
"Yeah, but vampires're fucky. Do things out of order and it gets weird."
"In any case," Maria intervenes, "I trust your judgment here. Though she was family, Great-Grandmother Annalise was a beast in her own way. Cainhurs had momentum, of sorts, and it needed to be blunted." She retakes her seat. "Now, regarding the Nightmare: do you know of Byrgenwerth's sins, Father Anderson?"
"What, besides Johnson's?"
She flinches at the name, but soon regains her composure. "Byrgenwerth made its first great breakthrough when the corpse of Kos, the Sea Mother, washed up on the shore of a rural fishing village. The body teemed with parasites, which fed the villagers for months on end. The scholars of Byrgenwerth met a trader who told of the hamlet's riches and went to investigate."
She leans forward, her eyes shards of sparking flint. "The scholars vivisected the fishermen. Experimented on them, tore them limb from limb to expose the secrets their bodies held. I heard the screams, Father Anderson. I still hear them, stripped of humanity and consumed with the desire to die. The scholars refused even that mercy. This Nightmare is their justice; they walk beyond this tower, content and untouched by those who wronged them.
"They are at peace, Father Anderson. A peace they were robbed of in life. I will not let you rob them of that."
She sure knows how to deliver a dramatic monologue; you probably should have expected that after seeing the way she pretended to be dead for decades for the sake of a badass one-liner. You can definitely respect that.
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