A Choice

**A Choice** is the fortieth episode of Reflection.

*The Pyromancer of Laughter and Nectar travel to the country of Gravnir in pursuit of the God of Dreams' body. Simultaneously, Ridill Arondite and Lyst Solais meet up with representatives of Ciallan interests in the area. All attention converges on Gravnir for the first time in centuries as the race for the god's body begins.*

## Summary

A group of GEIST soldiers harass Leo Clarent in a village in Gravnir, asking him if he's seen a certain artifact. The leading captain of the operation, Stahl, tells the soldiers that they'll have better luck finding it by looking around themselves. Another soldier rushes up to Stahl and tells him they've found the artifact. Pleased with this development, Stahl sits on a nearby rock and speaks to his sub-captain, a man named Boot, as they wait for their train to return to the village.

At the same time, Laughter and Nectar ride on a train deeper in to Gravnir in search of the body of the God of Dreams. After the train arrives at their destination, the conductor, Rush Clarent, helps them find a horse, which they ride towards the same village from before. Some hours later, Ridill and Lyst Solais sit at a cafe somewhere in Gravnir and are eventually approached by Liam and Pixie, who hand them another artifact and tells them that there are two others, all three of which act as keys to find the body of the God of Dreams. Based on their information, they also head out to the village of Fork, in search of the other artifacts. Laughter and Nectar arrive at Fork first. They attempt to enter a tea shop, but Laughter is immediately challenged to a duel by Thorn Fail-Not, who recognizes him as Ace Galatine. During their duel, Ridill and Lyst arrive and enter a nearby building, oblivious to the fight next door. They sit next to Rush and have a pleasant conversation before being interrupted by GEIST soldiers demanding their compliance. Outside, Laughter and Thorn are also surrounded. Both groups, neither aware of the other, fight the GEIST soldiers in their way. Laughter and Thorn are interrupted by the arrival of Vinter, who stops the fight and leads them deeper into the country. He also brings Leo along as the final member of one of the three great families that killed the God of Dreams.

Vinter's group arrives at a cliff overlooking an ancient temple where the third artifact is held. There is a series of wooden posts lining the steps down into the valley, which everybody jumps across in an attempt to show off their martial prowess. Inside the temple itself, after a scuffed duel between Thorn and Leo, they retrieve the final artifact. Vinter parts ways with them here, and the rest of the group heads towards Rush's train to steal the other two artifacts. Laughter and Thorn leap on to the back of the train, fighting the GEIST soldiers stationed there. At the front of the train, Rush, who had been placed under lockdown by Stahl, exits the train and fights past the soldiers guarding the front. She finds Thorn in a central cabin and begins beating him up due to him previously being banished from the country. Meanwhile, Laughter fights Stahl. He gains the upper hand for a moment before Stahl activates a function in the GEIST satellite that causes everybody to be knocked unconscious. After a brief dream of his old dojo, Laughter awakens in a storage closet alongside Leo and Nectar. In another closet opposite to them, Ridill, Thorn, and Rush are contained. The two groups decide to play along with Stahl for now, as it'll be easier to escape once they're out of the train. Some hours later, the train arrives at Betrayal Mountain, where the corpse of the God of Dreams is sealed away by Ciallan machinery. Stahl has Boot lead Laughter, Thorn, and Leo up the mountain, as their blood is necessary to unlock the gates. Nectar is also brought along so she can convert Laughter's Flame to blood. However, once they leave, a flood of Gravniri civilians, disturbed by GEIST's activity in the region, attack the mountain, giving Ridill and Lyst a chance to escape while Rush fights Stahl. Higher up on the mountain, the team is attacked by Vinter under orders from the Queen. Leo gives Laughter a handkerchief with his blood on it and fights Vinter one-on-one, giving Ace, Nectar, and Thorn time to get to the first gate. They enter the chamber inside the mountain without complication, using the collected blood to make it to the final resting place of the God of Dreams. Laughter crawls into the machine god's corpse as Ridill and Lyst arrive. When Laughter attempts to commune with the corpse, his Flame suddenly begins to hemmorhage as the God of Dreams' Planned Obsolescence Unit manifests and attacks.

Seeing the sudden crisis, Ridill releases Ace from her sheath's pocket dimension to fight his own Flame. He manages to corner his possessed Flame and bite into its neck in an attempt to reintegrate his lost Flame into his body. His consciousness is dragged into a hallucination where he fights Laughter. After a tense battle, Ace manages to get the upper hand. His perspective returns to the real world, where Laughter's Flame says that Ace was the him that he was always holding back. Laughter fully gives up his identity as Ace Galatine as his wounded Flame begins to evaporate. Ridill and Nectar, in accordance with Laughter's ultimate plan, begin converting his Flame into a material that is fully aspected to the Element of Dreams, which will allow Laughter's consciousness to meld with the god's corpse, creating a functionally new personality and life for the god in exchange for Laughter's own. Outside, the situation with GEIST resolves itself in favor of Gravnir. Vinter defeats Leo, who put up a surprisingly thorough resistance. They look over the cliff and Vinter says that, compared to his experience in the peripheral regions of other worlds, he quite likes Gravnir. Some time later, Rush sees Thorn off from Gravnir once again. Before leaving, Thorn says that he learned that the "curse" his family contained has lessened in impact since the death of the God of Dreams' POU. Back in Fuse City, Ridill, Ace, and Lyst meet up with Mic at Ace's dojo for dinner. Ridill flashes back to Laughter's functional death, the sense of loss she experienced imprinting itself on her Flame and driving her ESP to "Master" level. A title card declares that "RIDILL ARONDITE BECOMES THE STRONGEST ESPER. WORLD 12 ACE GALATINE IS DEAD."

## Characters

### Player Characters

* Ace Galatine
* Ridill Arondite

### FLOW

* Lyst Solais
* Liam
* Pixie

### Demonic Courts

* Pyromancer of Laughter
* Vinter
* Nectar

### GEIST

* Stahl
* Boot

### Other

* Thorn Fail-Not
* Rush Clarent
* Leo Clarent