Gate of Memoirs/A Memory of Pain

When ghosts cry, only the wind bears witness to their suffering.
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Sky Fort"	Music: "Sky Fort"
 	
*The formerly uninhabited island is teeming with dark, twisted, *hungry* shadows.
*You swing your weapon again and again, and every slash, every blast ends in another shower of dust.
*This is a veritable pandemonium.
*At your side, you see Hakuzo countering every blow with his own, and the streaks of foxfire all begin to blur together...
Portrait	Dialogue
 	
*—A memory of pain.
*Everything hurts.
*You keep pressing forward to find that someone—
*B e l o v e d —
*Wait. This isn't your memory.
*You feel your consciousness shift, but find escape impossible.
*You can only watch as the scene unfolds before you.
*Lying prone against the floor is a figure, and beside them, Aoife.
*A warmth like that of a sea-breeze summer blooms in your chest for a moment—
*Quickly replaced by a sharp pierce of ice cold terror.
 	
*Aoife rocks back on her haunches, scrubs at her face—
Portrait	Dialogue
 	
*She screams, and everything goes black.
*You can't tell if you're bleeding or covered in blood.
*Every step feels like thunder in your veins as the corpses beneath your feet rapidly dessicate.
*In a pool of crimson you catch sight of yourself.
 	
*The gash across your right eye weeps heavily, and your nails are just as red.
 	
*"I couldn't save you after all."
*"I couldn't save you from those ravenous claws."
*"This is my punishment."
*"I... I am..."
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Roaring Soul"	Music: "Roaring Soul"
 	
*You gasp, and catch yourself before you can eat a faceful of gravel.
*The back of your head stings with the sharp smack of a practiced hand.
 	
*Hakuzo: Welcome back.
*Hakuzo: Sorry, had to be done.
 	
*Hakuzo: Humans, you know—always so susceptible to these mind-altering things.
*You swear you're going to slap the smirk out of his face once you get your bearings back.
 	
*Ahead, Aoife stands atop a mound of corpses and bones, eyes pinpricks of cold steel in the mist.
*Eyinhel is now little more than a desolate den of darkness. Its true form.
 	
*And yet, despite the unravelling of her spell, Aoife seems almost...calm.
*Perhaps the calm before the storm, you think grimly.
 	
*Aoife: Look at what you've wrought.
*Aoife: Are you pleased with yourself?
 	
*Aoife: Was it so hard to simply—Leave. Me. Be?
 	
*Hakuzo: Are you so intent on accusing me of every little thing?
 	
*Aoife: Quiet. Your tongue will be the first I rip out...
*Aoife: If Eyinhel's resentment doesn't tear you apart first!
 	
*You remember the necklace you retrieved from the Pactbound's grave.
*Its identical twin rests around the seal maiden's neck, but something is strange about it.
*Ethereal—translucent, even.
*The necklace you have seems to thrum low in Aoife's presence.
*Make no doubt of it: Eyinhel is cursed, and its illusory glamor a reflection of better days.
*The collective resentment here is enough to drive anyone mad.
*The question remains, however—
 	
*For whom does this punishment exist?
*If only you could make Aoife understand... There has to be a way.
*What her Pactbound could not tell her...