We return to Cinder with the hopes of finding Orola and the Mother Superior, Lau. We see one of the Volcano Sisters giving a sick Cinderian more medicine before she rushes off to the east. The man's future self changes before Crisbell's eye into a feral goblin. Follow Galley, but you can have Zas teach you about the levy in the back of town if you want.
The east side of town is an empty lot, but there used to be a grand palace. The present guards are cartoonishly dumb and don't know nothing about no password, but the ones in the past have a riddle memorized. You have to use the strange devices in the middle of the square to form the day/night cycle on a clock, starting in the west for some reason. The bottom is blank. Doing so will cause the grand castle from the past to rise up.
Inside are the Volcano Sisters and their prisoners, Orola and Lau. Orola isn't there in the past... After Lau tries to save our healer, the Sisters recognize we're here. They're upset, and Galley wants to kill us. Fortunately, Volcano is somewhat levelheaded and lets us plead our case. We manage to convince the princesses that we're all on the same team. Cris tells them the sick man they treated will eventually turn feral. The Empress' medicine may work as a short term fix, but it eventually makes things worse. But Orola's dad was working on a true cure before he died. The sisters hold us in their palace that night, but they let us out the next morning to find the research notes at the Forge.
The Forge is across a pool of lava that we need to get across. We ask Azufra if he knows a way, and his wife, whom we met in Clarity (apparently) convinces him to let us talk to someone else. Bring Paulina's shoe to the glassblower at the levy, and she'll coat the high heel in something. We can now boat across the lava.
The Forge is to the north. The only backstory we get on it now is that Orola has some bad memories here. The gimmick of the Forge is we need to power the elevator to get to the top. We do this by finding a certain sky symbol on the floor we're on. Activating the symbol also lets us move a walkway. We only need one for floor one, but we'll need to hit two to reach the third floor. If it sounds complicated, it's not. Treasure hunting or following the standard path takes you where you need to go. The enemies are flame slimes, goblins, and amber mukas (the diseased cats).
At the top is another Witness. Neither she nor K recognize each other, but she feels like she should. And this new one is a tad crazy. Nasar, the living forge, calls us thieves. The sword Crisbell uses was forged by Nasar, and she doesn't know how it left her workshop. She wants it back!
This can be an interesting fight once you recognize the trick. All of Nasar's moves are based on the actual Forge in the battle. It's on both sides of the arena and has three states: blue, yellow, and red. Nasar will power up the Forge and smith herself a weapon to beat us with. While she can't be moved through time, the Forge and its temperature can be. And K can Juggle her about, so there are a bunch of fun things you can do here.
After we win, she'll recognize that all of our weapons were made by her for a great war. Crisbell asks about the war, but Nasar is too prideful to answer. We beat her, so she'll let us pass, but we're not liked.
The next room is the office of Zero, Zas' dad. And inside is Kari, tearing the room apart. We don't know what she's looking for, but we can see a glimpse of the past. Kari, a small child, is standing next to Zero. Zero is dying because Azufra stabbed him. Zero was the first to see that the Forge caused Glass Lung, but that's all the backstory we get. We tell Kari we saw what happened, and she ran away. Zero's notes are in a safe. Inspect the table, and Crisbell will knock over a vial of acid. Push the safe into the drip, have Matias hop forward, and we'll have Zero's slightly burnt notes.
We return to Cinder, and the sisters give us one night to prepare the cure. We can speak to Mother Superior and Orola about some things, and even the princesses talk to us. Matias can also hear a conversation from the past, during the revolution, to learn there's a third princess out there named Lava. Talk to Matias to sleep, and we'll wake up to see Orola has made some medicine! Does it work! Let's test it on Cristopher!
It does! He's as good as new now. He's more than mildly shocked that we're suddenly friends with the Volcano Sisters. With Topher being functional, the sisters agree to let Orola live, and we can see she exists in the future now. And we have the proof that the Empress was conning the girls all along. The cogs begin to turn in their heads, but we have to save everyone who's sick and inform Azufra of the good news. But we'll do that...
...tomorrow!
By the way, the elevator in the Forge is a guaranteed battle. I'll bring Wilhelm and Cristopher in there to catch up on levels. I figured out how to use K, but I still prefer the utility of Wilhelm. Zas is fine, but she's so slow and has a limited MP pool, so Cristopher will remain my go-to guy!
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