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It belongs to the Dark. Blade and crystal that whisper of Power and Destruction. It asks for no offerings but simply beseeches that the wielder follows its heart without regret.

It is a big request. Bigger than what most people can give. People are bound by too many things - of needs, of responsibility, of duty, of friendship - to follow one's heart without fail. Those bindings create Contradiction - doing one thing yet believing another, a power solely in the domain of people - and produces a Shadow within one's heart.

Erna's Shadow sees the Contradictions that her Light hides in its splendor. It hates it. It does not understand why protecting the good parts of people also means protecting the bad parts. It does not understand why it must oblige the weak and arrogant when it is strong. It does not understand why she connects with others when she knows they will simply abandon her once they see her true self. The Shadow gets angrier and more restless every time she Sees it; she know because she catches Erna in her Sense more and more.

Before the Shadow had no power beyond trying to convince Erna from deep within. But then Erna touched the dead man's crystal, and suddenly it has a voice. A voice that gets bigger and bigger as it is listened to, even if the only listener is Erna. It does not matter though, because Erna is the only Listener that it wants. It wants to make the Light understand while also seeking its own understanding.

Why should it be buried? Is it not Erna too? Is it not what she wants and desires?

When they fought each other - when her Shadow was finally able to take on physical form...

Had she been a people, she believes she would have found it hard to know who to "root" for: The Erna that she knows or the Ernastrel that she wants to be.

But she is not a people. And in the end, who she sided with was never in question, because she is her nature, and her nature is her. It would be a sad place if the Erna she has always known were to fall asleep, never to wake up.

She has happiness when the Erna she knew won. But she also had happiness that her Shadow seemed satisfied, perhaps even content. Like its words have finally been heard - or perhaps because the people Erna put her trust in did not fail her - as it Feared - as they both feared. She is happy they both found what people call compromise.

They were both Erna after all.

They were the roots and leaves of the same tree.