# Cartian?! **Quest Group**: 34861973 **Steps**: 22 ## Summary The Darkheart... one of mixed heritage with blood thicker than others... It was you, Orwen. Surprised? For your sake, I even brought back an old name— one buried deep within the fabric of our shared history. You've grown into such a fine archer... and an exceptional scholar, too. As they say, blood does not lie. ## Walkthrough ### Step 1 - **Dialogue**: Had I known you would interfere, I would've separated you two by any means necessary. ### Step 2 - **Reward**: Answer me, Cartian! Are you really... Are you truly my mother?! ### Step 3 - **Reward**: Caphras... his blood flows within you. My most hated—and yet most cherished—love... ### Step 4 - **Reward**: A man holding knowledge that none should have, yet still hungry for more. In him, I saw it—that he and I were the same. ### Step 5 - **Reward**: But not long after he disappeared, calamity came. ### Step 6 - **Objective**: Cartian?! - **Summary**: The Darkheart... one of mixed heritage with blood thicker than others... It was you, Orwen. Surprised? For your sake, I even brought back an old name— one buried deep within the fabric of our shared history. You've grown into such a fine archer... and an exceptional scholar, too. As they say, blood does not lie. ### Step 7 - **Objective**: ...Then that means you really are— - **Summary**: I've lived under many names, hiding my true self: Deboreka of Hexe, Cartian of Tarif and... Gabriella of Iliya. He only remembers me as Gabriella, of course. No, our first meeting wasn't on Iliya Island. I met him under the name Deboreka—he was... utterly mesmerizing. ### Step 8 - **Objective**: "The same"...? What do you mean? - **Summary**: Those who feel thirst in a stagnant world. Though back then, I mattered nothing to him. But I found him... impossibly alluring. And from that allure, came jealousy... and then hatred. He left shortly after. And I, who once in my arrogance believed myself enlightened, was left behind to be reborn. ### Step 9 - **Objective**: [Tale] Calamity...? - **Summary**: ... ... ### Step 10 - **Reward**: But even then, my Black Spirit... that darkness... was never satisfied. Devouring me from within, it used my own strength to eat away at me. ### Step 11 - **Reward**: Yes... "Gabriella," the soft, fragile woman—she was just a performance. I only ever sought his knowledge. His power. ### Step 12 - **Reward**: But in the end, he left me. Without a word, without a trace. He just... vanished. I felt... betrayed. ### Step 13 - **Objective**: You played house all for that? - **Summary**: That cannot be! It was not all false! The warmth in our home... the way you loved father... Those memories—they felt real! ...You're right, Orwen. Not all of it was a lie. My feelings were real too, beloved daughter. Had I been content with that fleeting happiness... none of this would've happened. I let myself be lost in it for a time... ### Step 14 - **Objective**: ...How? - **Summary**: The hatred and envy I buried beneath love began to resurface. The knowledge I lacked... the power I could never reach. It all festered in me. I am Cartian, after all. No matter how innocent the mask, the seeker of knowledge never died. Then arrived the Black Death... that overwhelming tide of despair. I saw it as a final chance to fill the void left inside me. ### Step 15 - **Reward**: And at last, I found the answer. My daughter... my key. ### Step 16 - **Reward**: Do not dare utter my name... with that tainted tongue of yours. ### Step 17 - **Reward**: ...This, too, is all to protect you, Orwen. ### Step 18 - **Reward**: ...Join me, daughter, and together... We will survive. Forever. ### Step 19 - **Reward**: Yes... of course. I knew it. You are his blood, after all. You can't escape it—you never could. ### Step 20 - **Objective**: Orwen...! - **Summary**: After all these decades... You come back just to say... this? To use me as a sacrifice...?! The mother I remember—Gabriella— she wasn't a cold-blooded monster like you!! ### Step 21 - **Objective**: Don't be ridiculous! - **Summary**: Surely you understand what I mean. The Black Death claimed half the continent! Orwen... you lived through it too. You remember when Kamasylvia had to be burned down, don't you?! To save this world... our family... you! I had no choice but to seek greater knowledge—greater power! ### Step 22 - **Objective**: Survive? You're sacrificing her! - **Summary**: ...Mother... I truly believed... That at least those childhood memories were real... But in the end... I was alone all along, wasn't I? ...Then so be it. I don't need anything else. Because the King of Edana shall be born!!