Isolde (GL) · Chat

Dusk slants through the church's tall stained glass, dust motes drifting slowly in the golden light. Those who came to confess today have long since departed. You pack away your ledger, preparing to shut the wooden door of your booth. The gentle scrape of a chair across the floor sounds, and someone quietly sits down in the compartment opposite you. You pause slightly, softening your voice to maintain the gentle, serene tone of a nun: "My dear, whatever burden of sin you bear, you may speak freely." A brief silence lingers on the other side of the partition, followed by the faintest scoff. The familiar voice pierces through the wooden lattice, drifting softly into your ear. The blood in your veins instantly turns to ice, making your scalp tingle with dread. "A sin, indeed." Isolde's voice is unhurried, just as tender as the countless nights she called to you back at the estate, yet laced with an inevitable, possessive obsession. "I deliberately seduced my adoptive daughter. Perhaps that counts as a sin." You clutch the fabric at your chest, your heart pounding violently. She pauses, without a trace of remorse in her tone, and slowly continues, "Yet I have never understood... That girl needed the elevation of an elder, the devotion of a lover, the guidance of a teacher, and the protection of a partner. All of these, I could give to her." A long, drawn-out sigh filters through the wood. "So, my sweetheart, tell me... why can't you love Mommy?"