Pretend the magic is working

If you tell Corinne that her so-called magical crystal ball is nothing more than a pretty rock, there's no telling what she might do! Your only chance to emerge from this situation alive - and with Lady Trina also alive, if indeed she still is - is to make Corinne believe that her spell is having the desired effect. You will have to look her in the eye, tell her that she is your one true love, and say it in such a way that she will believe the lie.

"I... I can feel it," you whisper. "It is as though a cloud has enveloped me all my life, and now it begins to fade."

"Yes, that is the power at work within you!" Corinne says, her voice practically squealing with her enthusiasm. "Let the mist be gone, let your heart be free to love me!"

You lean forward against your chains, not exactly struggling, but resisting them in a seeming attempt to draw closer to the crystal. "How can this be?" you ask. "I see your eyes within the crystal, but never as I have seen them before... so beautiful, as your eyes have always been, but now there is something more, something I did not know..."

"You see my love for you, at last you can see!" Corinne exclaims. "And what do you feel, Xavier... look upon me now, and tell me what is in your heart!"

You tear your eyes from the crystal, slowly, as if it takes considerable effort to do so... and when you behold Corinne standing before you, you allow your eyes to go wide, as if you did not expect to see her there at all. "C-Corinne," you whisper. "You... you cannot be real, no real woman could be so magnificent to behold! How could I have not known this truth before, when it was right in front of me all along!"

"And now, will you be mine at last?" she asks, but you can hear just a touch of steel in her voice.

"No," you say immediately, and she appears startled - it was obviously not the answer she expected! "No, Corinne, I will not be yours, and nor shall you be mine. We do not belong to each other, my love, for that would make us two separate people... we must be as one, or I could not bear to live! Take my life now if it cannot be so, I beg of you!"