Gate of Memoirs/A Song for Dust

For whom does the seal-maiden sing -- the ghosts of the past, or the regret of a love that cannot be?
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Dead God's Law"	Music: "Dead God's Law"
 	
*The spell-slinging culminates in a violent crash of waves along the edges of the beach below.
*Forced upon a perilous cliff, Aoife and Hakuzo trade vicious blows before the fox-demon flips out of the way of a clawed swipe.
*Leveraging his momentum, Hakuzo spins his glaive and springs into the air.
*The glaive slices down across the seal-maiden with a streak of foxfire, and finds its mark in flesh.
*The subconscious humming abruptly stops, followed by a sharp shatter like that of crystal glass.
*Bewildered, Aoife's countenance cracks.
*In that singular moment, Aoife lunges up with her blood-soaked arm, a cresting storm in her wild eyes.
 	
*With an unintelligible snarl, the seal-fiend lifts Hakuzo clean off his feet—
 	
*and thrusts the fox-demon into the churning, jagged rocks below.
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Seabed Song"	Music: "Seabed Song"
 	
*You slowly come to, seeing the wisp hovering worriedly about you.
*?: You're awake. How do you feel?
*The first thing you notice is the complete stillness of the island.
*The breeze suddenly registers upon your senses. Something you hadn't heard in all this time you'd arrived.
*That subtle humming in the back of your head was gone, and its absence seemed to return every other sound to your ears.
*Just then, you notice the small, shattered necklace lying by the grave.
*Despite the considerable age of the item, it still looks well-kept.
*It looks oddly familiar...
*?: It was a gift. From her.
*?: It's important to me, but I couldn't watch a stranger die.
*It occurs to you that you were saved from your ordeal.
*?: We...made a promise. A pact, if you call it that.
*?: I know who she really is. Like that fox friend of yours. 
*?: ...And the ghosts on this island.
*?: You can tell, right?
*?: There are no humans on this island, except you...and me.
*So this is the "beloved" the Queen spoke of.
*Aoife's Pactbound...
*The one slain by demon claws.
*?: ...Is that what you were told?
*?: It's what Aoife believes, too.
*"Believes"?
*?: You might find it strange that a demon can be more gentle than any human...
*?: No one has ever been as kind to me as she has.
*?: I accepted my fate. It's not her fault...
*?: She was going to die.
*?: I couldn't...let her starve.
*One by one, the layers are peeling back from this facade.
*A chill runs down your spine when you consider the very real possibility that Aoife isn't intentionally deceiving you.
*You don't know if you're quite ready to unravel her intricate illusion.
*Which do you choose—your duty as a Summoner, or sympathy for a demon?
*?: ...Time is starting to move again here. The spell, it's broken.
*?: You should look for your fox friend; it's thanks to him.
*You look at the necklace again, and find its luster unchanged even after countless years.
*A lingering affection spreads through your chest; the final emotion of undying love.
*?: When you find Aoife again...
*?: Please tell her, I love her. And I never blamed her.
*?: I want to see her free from this illusory existence...
*?: Free from these deluded memories.
*The wisp fades, and momentarily you think you catch sight of a vague humanoid figure curling up beside the grave.
*Something compels you to retrieve the necklace, and you tuck it carefully into your pocket.
*Wasting no further time, you go in search of Hakuzo.
Portrait 	Dialogue
Music: "Devil's Heart"	Music: "Devil's Heart"
 	
*The beach has suddenly taken on an ominous red hue.
*You concentrate on your mental link with Hakuzo, and feel—to your small relief—a tiny ping ahead.
*Just as you break into a run, your keen eyes spot errant colours in even the strange-hued sand.
*Blood.
*With a growing sense of dread in the pit of your belly, you approach the rocks.
*Atop a cruelly pointed spire is a spilling of crimson, almost like heated metal...
Portrait	Dialogue
 	
*...and beneath, torn scraps of a bloodstained white coat.