You travel deep into Twisted Memories. You find a crypt, use the key, and descend into its depths.

At the end, you reach a single room with a pedestal in the center. On it rests a velvet-purple pillow, dust-thick and undisturbed, except for one clear outline.

Something sat there recently.

Whatever it was, it’s gone.

Could it have been the jewel you’re searching for? If it was, it’s no longer here, and that’s a problem. The whole point of this path was to recover the gem and get answers. Answers you feel you already know, yet still need confirmed.

But you do find the vial.

A simple, clear glass vessel filled with an emerald-green substance: blood.

Blood from the Emerald Plane. Blood tied to the Emerald Prince.

And if the mirror needs emerald blood, then the mirror wasn’t just showing reflections. It was a key.

A step toward a gate.

Another step toward the answers you’re chasing.

Only time will tell.

Time passes as you travel to The Witches hut. Weeks have gone by allowing you to ponder your thoughts, alas you have too many questions, compared to so few and so little answers.

You approach the witch’s hut. Cautiously, you enter. She is seated at her table, and the incense in the air is thick, sickly sweet.

“Come, my child. I have heard from the grapevine that you have something that needs mending. Perhaps a broken heart?”

You tell her your tale so far: the mysterious man, The Child’s Beating Heart jewel, the child and the lantern, The Wandering Merchant, and The Soldier. You show her the mirror and the blood. Her eyes light up.

“Child! I cannot take these. I cannot have this in my house. Get out now. You don’t have the right protections. He is watching you, your every move. He longs for his lover on the other side of the door! You need to get out, child!”

She practically shoves you out the door, slams the hut’s door, and there is a radiance of silence.

The right protections? He is watching? The Creator? His lover?

After a moment, it comes to you: The Emerald Prince.