Such a stark contrast from Emilyko's thoughts and interactions with Kate in the first few chapters. It's wonderful to go back and see how much things have changed, as well as the small details we otherwise missed the first time.
@Xirre good theory, it seem entirely plausible. But I feel like in most cases if the unification fails then both the human and the shadow die, not quite sure yet. I wonder what happened to the woman we saw a few chapters back who failed the unification?
I believed the only two possible outcomes for them were torture or killing themselves. Still sad to see it happen, I really hope they had a backup plan