Chapter 35

The protagonist clings to Líri the dragon as she takes flight into the clouds and lands on a mountain peak. After a moment of connection where the protagonist sings and comforts the grieving dragon, a profound bond forms between them—but this triggers a painful realization and internal struggle that drives the protagonist to suppress a memory or emotion by diving into her inner landscape and removing a mysterious silver splinter from her soul.

Dangling from Líri's tendrils mid-flight, the protagonist struggles to find handholds on the dragon's wings as they punch through clouds. Líri crashes violently onto a snowy mountain peak and curls into a ball, radiating sorrow. The protagonist recognizes Líri's distress as grief for her family and, recalling Kaan's patience with her own withdrawn moods, approaches cautiously and sings a calming song in an unfamiliar language. Líri gradually responds, allowing the protagonist to touch her face. As the aurora rises overhead, their heartbeats synchronize and a bond forms—Líri wraps her tail around the protagonist in a tender embrace. This connection awakens something in the protagonist's Other and triggers an overwhelming, painful recognition of a memory or loss. Unable to bear the emotional weight, the protagonist sinks into her internal landscape and violently removes a luminous silver splinter from her shore, hacking away the soft matter around it with savage determination. She dumps the removed piece into a lake within her mind, watching her Other chase after it, and then coils protectively around Líri's presence from within, hardened and feral.