[i]All she knew how to do was lose...[/i]

"Then I should at least be good at it by now?" murmured Injimo.

Before her was a vision in words and grace. A future. A sun and a shadow. A place. And she wanted -

There was nothing that she wanted. She wanted the win. Wanted to win fucking - [i]something[/i], but she had spent so long in defeat that she did not even know what that looked like. When she tried to imagine what winning even looked like, in general, in this specific instance...?

Was winning breaking this vision? Reducing hope to ash and tears? To what end? Other than Sayanastia's? Was winning -

"Unless." She turned the word over in her mouth. "Unless...?"

More than anything else, she could not move past that word. Unless? What did it mean? Was there [i]another [/i]vision there? Another story that those eyes could see, that she could not yet? She could not imagine even one choice and Eclair could see two. She touched her fingers to her cheek. What was the other one? What was this future - this future where she won? She could not see the reflection of it in those beautiful eyes no matter how hard she stared. She couldn't... could almost...

"Unless," she sighed, raising her hands, smile finally breaking. "Until unless, then."

She would need to stare far more closely to see her victory.