"You made it," Crux said calmly, the cadence of his voice even. Amidst the crackling of flames, his voice was surprisingly projected quite well, and whatever apprehension he had seemed to have before was tempered down and restricted to his deepest depths.
Even if the memories weren't properly integrated… there were simply too many of them.
There was a reason why Belladoll didn't quite feel like herself, and yet still had such strong feelings for Zarek. How could one be true, but not the other?
The sheer quantity of memories all but crushed the original selves of Crux and Belladoll. It was just that small tendrils of cognitive dissonance remained.
While under usual circumstances, they were fine… it was when a stressor like Zarek appeared that they truly experienced the full range of that pain and hardship.
This was the sort of pressure someone like Zarek could provide. Even when they felt like they had everything in hand, they were still unable to bring themselves to fully relax.
