[There's a long moment of silence as Mio remembers to keep breathing, where her throat is burning and her hand covers the mark as best she can. She's gone this far; she can't keep uiet at this point.]

They believed that twins had special powers, that they were one soul that was split into two at birth. And that by bringing the two halves together would have even more power. So... so the ritual was...

[She's shaking, and squeezes her eyes shut a moment, voice cracking with emotion] One twin...has to strangle and kill the other. The greater the suffering, the more powerful it is. Mayu and I just happened to be twins, so the ritual worked.

...When I got to the ritual room, I wanted to--to escape with her. But she told me we couldn't. That we couldn't be together forever, but that this way...we could become one again.

And she... she put my hands on her neck... And told me to kill her, and I-- [Mio lets go of Flora and hunches over more, pressing her hands to her face. The hollowness is gone, replaced with a raw self-hatred, guilt] I didn't want to! The priests were chanting and it was so loud-- But she told me to, and before I knew it--

[Mayu had been dead and the priests were tossing her lifeless body into the pit]