I finished this one about a month ago and just never got around to posting it. This is the final track of the Thronebreaker series.

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cover art generated with Dream

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Kyomi sits up with a choking gasp in the tall grass, immediately patting at several spots on her body to make sure that she still exists. She definitely shouldn’t after melting like that. Despite her thoughts on the subject, the truth is that she is entirely unharmed as of right now.

What a fucking stupid way to start the day.

Could we at least try to avoid catastrophe for a week? Is that too much to ask?

The wolfgirl stands up cautiously, finding herself at the edge of a sunset-lit meadow of beautiful wildflowers. She casts her gaze warily through small patches of fluffy miniature spruces, frowning.

It is way too goddamn pretty out here to be inside of that thing, but at the same time, it’s also way too goddamn early to be having vivid hallucinations. Then again, Arkadium offers both kinds of experiences at once anyway.

The girl tilts her head back slowly, expecting to see the sky but only finding more trees. Miles away from the ground underneath her bare feet, great mountainous forests stretch outward in every direction like stalactites.

It's best not to even think about it.

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“Do you hear it?”

“The crying?”

The foxgirl nods her head silently.

“I thought it was you. It- it sounds like you. I thought I made you cry.”

“Like your salty attitude is gonna make me cry.” Katie turns her head, peering through the branches. “But if you wanna tell me you’re sorry for once, I’d love to hear it.”

“Forget it,” Kyomi growls, getting down beside Katie and looking through the branches.

Someone is sitting on that horrid throne in the middle of the flowers. She’s only heard it described and can kind of remember what it looks like from her visions, but seeing it is something else entirely.

“Wait, is that… you?”

“It is me,” she breathes, parting the trees with her hands. “I need to go out there.”

“You need to- no! You need not to do that,” Kyomi hisses. “Do you see that chair? You really wanna get close to that thing again?”

“Now you hesitate?” Katie narrows her eyes at her. “What happened to the Kyomi that faces everything head-on?”

Kyomi notices the slight flinch when Katie pokes herself on a spruce needle, trying not to break the serious situation with a giggle. “Same thing that happened to the Katie who felt like she wanted to be alive.”

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"I think we might be inside your head."

"What?"

"This is how you feel, isn't it? It's why you won't get out of bed without encouragement some mornings. It's why you haven't painted your fingernails or done your makeup since you pulled yourself out of hell."

"Excuse me," Katie responds bitingly, her tail and ears bristling. "Don't you dare pretend to know why-"

"Do you think I'm stupid? It doesn't take an empath to see that you're still stuck in that chair because you won't let yourself get up," Kyomi bites back, moving in and staring into Katie’s eyes.

The vulnerability she sees in them is fragile, and for once, Kyomi weighs her following words carefully.

"That is not you. Literally. Those three days are weeks behind us, and you are still alive whether you like it or not. I get that it still hurts. Do you have any idea how many people I killed, Katie? Do you know how hard it is to live with the fact that I did this to you by selfishly running off?! I think about it constantly, and I feel guilty every day! But you know what? I'm better than I was then. You're far stronger now than when you were stuck like this."

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Katie rises to her feet and stands directly over her copy, coaxing it from the chair by its wrists and embracing it tightly. White light engulfs them as Katie’s last words to her copy reach Kyomi’s ears -

“Let’s go home.”