Okay I know you think that killing me will please her. But trust me. It won’t.

Just think about it for a second. In less than 5 minutes the timer will reach zero and I’ll be gone. And you’ll have done your task, your final task before she finally loves you the way you love her. But how many times has she promised this? How many times did you hear the words ‘one more task’?

You can kill me. Wait for the timer, watch me die, take my blood to her altar. I don’t have the power to stop you. But do you truly think once you do, that will be it? That’s the trick, don’t you understand? She’s giving you more tasks every time because she wants you to do the right thing! She wants you to understand her secret. She never wanted you to kill me, or Thomas, or that girl... Freya. She wants you to play smart.

You have to show her that you understand what she wants without having to say it if she’s ever to love you. You said it yourself, you close your eyes and there she is. Task after task after task, what else could she want?

Our blood doesn’t sate her, it never did. It was only ever a ruse, a chance for you to reveal to her your brilliance.

I want to help you with this. I want her to finally love you the way you do. And killing me won’t do that.

How many gifts, how many offerings have you left at her feet? How many bones scatter her shrine, how much blood has been spilled under her gaze? Giving her more won’t change it. You’re her favourite. You know she chose you. If she wanted from you what she wants from everyone else why would she not be pleased yet?

You see now don’t you? You’ve always been a smart soul. If you spare me, you can walk back to her knowing you’ve solved the clues.

So just stop the timer. At least to think it through. Would you not rather have time to think than risk not doing what she truly wishes from you?

When you walk back to her altar, she will see you kneeling before her in the blood stains of all the tasks she has sent you to, and she will know you have finally seen the truth. Is that not what you said she demands? Does her visage not stare across the setting sun and the dark sea meeting the horizon eternally?

She doesn’t want you to kill me. She wants you to learn. She wants you to see beyond words so that she can love you as you deserve.

You have a minute. Once it passes there will be no going back.

Stop the timer. Show to her that she can love you. You may not trust me but trust her. Close your eyes. What does she tell you? What does her eternal voice whisper to you?

You hear her don’t you?

10 seconds.

Please.