Magdalen must die

[20:23] Lea kept running, screaming, begging for these thoughts to finally cease- these nightmares. But they wouldn't go away. They'd never go away. Lea needed shelter- any kind of shelter. So she ran to the nearest one she could find: The shrine. And upon making it there, rather than making her way inside and resting, she...

Threw herself on the ground, smashing her head against the hard stone floor, trying to knock herself unconscious. Something, anything, that'd make these horrible, horrible thoughts to go away.

She didn't even notice Rindou.
(Lea Elisheva)
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[20:26] Rindou had fled to the only place she thought was safe. With Reito gone no one would think about looking out there, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to enter the buildings when locked. That is until she heard a scampering, running, smashing. A commotion of sorts, one that lead to the Sakamoto turning around to watch Lea completely losing it.

She practically leapt at the blue-haired girl, sliding down to meet her on her knees and catching her into her arms— in an embrace that held tight and didn't let go.

No words were spoken. She had an idea of what had happened after she was forced to escape, after all.
(Rindou Sakamoto)
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[20:28] They kept dying. They all kept dying. Every single time her mind was allowed to wander, she saw another gruesome, horrible death. It wasn't until Rindou caught her that the nightmares finally ceased, if only for a moment. She looked up at Rindou, her face pale, her pupils dilated, a look of terror the likes of which the girl had never had on her face.

This was worse than the other times. Far, far worse.

"I keep seeing them..."

...And there was no coming back from this one.

"...they keep dying, Rindou. I keep seeing them die..."
(Lea Elisheva)
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[20:34] Lea was hurt again. Just like before, she was hurt. Left to suffer over Rindou's own... existence. Left to suffer because she didn't want to give up on her, because she didn't want to let the world feel like they were right, like they were correct in their assumption.

The noblewoman squeezed Lea harder than ever before, shaking her head as she did.

"It'll be fine." She said, only to pause for a moment - to think. With how insane, how lost Lea seemed to be it was only fair that Rindou take charge of her priorities.

To protect her.

"It's probably the contract. You don't have much time left. You look exhausted - probably too exhausted to fight back against its reach."

To get rid of the one who wronged her most.

"We won't have a choice, Lea. We're going to have to make you fulfill it."

If images in her head were the issue Rindou could only assume Aurora had treated her to the same kind of punishment - the same kind of illusion she had been dealt. To ensure Rindou's own plan amidst the burning magma and the rooting marble she felt weighting her down, she aimed to strike at the core of Lea's issues.

"The faster you accept it, the better you'll feel."

Thank Aurora for being so predictable and petty.
(Rindou Sakamoto)
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[20:39] Lea tightly wrapped her arms around Rindou and began... sobbing. Indiscriminately. Moment by moment, her heart was breaking more and more, and the woman who she held in her arms right now was the only semblance of a heart that Lea could find. She held on as tightly as she could, both physically and metaphorically speaking, uttering out a few, weak phrases.

"Aurora... made me... I keep seeing them die..."

Every time her mind wanders, every time she loses her concentration...

Another death.

Another horrible, gruesome death.

"Who... when? How... please. Make it end... make this nightmare end..."

She was desperate, more than she ever had been before. Aurora tipped her over the point of no return, and now, she needed someone to pull her back up...

"I accept it... so please... please please please... make this end..."

Into a world of darkness that she had never before experienced.
(Lea Elisheva)
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[20:44] She took it all in. She took full control of Lea's future - of Lea's life in a manner that would lead to the paradise she sought out. Without a bit of remorse Rindou began speaking, whispering as a cleansing warmth coursed through Lea's mana circuits; inner scorching flames that followed her each and every step of the way.

"We're going to have to... take down the only one left we can take on. The only person that will see it and accept it, Lea."

The warmth grew, the illusions were dying out.

"Your mother wants us to be happy. She wanted to speak to me so that she'd get to know me - to properly accept me. Her gift... will be our strength.

So that the world won't hurt us, or anyone else ever again, Lea."

The last bits of Aurora's magics were flushed out.

"Repeat after me." She requested. "Magdalen. Is. The one. We must. Take down." She said... exactly in Lea's voice.
(Rindou Sakamoto)
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[20:52] It's often said that all it takes is one bad day for everything to come crumbling down. Lea, meanwhile, had several, consecutively. But when the illusions began to die out, Lea's gaze trailed up to Rindou, and without any objection, she began to speak:

"Magdalen... is..."

But there was hesitation. There was a lot of it. Just because she knew it had to be done doesn't mean she could, and she knew the moment she said it, it'd become real. Words were their own kind of magic, after all, and once Lea cast this spell, its effects would take place, eventually.

Lea needed this spell to be powerful. She needed it to be potent. She needed it to get the job done. And so she tapped into that same bloodlust she did on that fateful day with Reito; the one that allowed her to see the golden threads that were once read. And after that?

It was easy to say it. It came naturally, as if it was something that fate ordained.

"Magdalen is the one we must take down."

And so, that sealed it. Written in the book of destiny was one fateful phrase, written in gold despite a source colored red, that would decide Lea's future, and so much more:

Magdalen Elisheva was going to die.

(Lea Elisheva)
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[20:56] Rindou nodded lightly. She was ecstatic, insanely pleased, inhumanely happy about all of that, but she couldn't show it. She had to play the part. To don the mask. To pretend everything was nothing but a sad outcome - a consequence to their failure. That Magdalen's sacrifice was one she wanted to make. It was a sorrowful moment, yet one full of conviction.

Another squeeze came.

"Yes... Let's go. We can't get caught before it's time. We have to find a way to send Sors a message; he needs to know where to find us. To help us."

To teach me.

"Come on, dear. Let's make sure everything is alright with you."
(Rindou Sakamoto)
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[20:58] Lea Elisheva says, "...Y...yes m-... Rindou. Let's go..."