How to Unlock & Romance Gideon in Sovereign Tower

Gideon informs you the water in the jars tastes of twilight rain and the air is heavy with silence, as if the stones themselves were holding their breath. What starts as a joke about a cockroach turns, three menus later, into the first mention of the person who haunts him.

Dialogue Choices:

• Respond to the performance,
  • “I’m not sure I understand.” (Unfortunately, he has to say that he doesn’t either. Despite appearances he is mostly content to simply put random words next to each other. However, you really should examine the water. He saw an insect floating in one.)
  • “What exactly do you see in our jugs?” (He sees the shadow of a weighty past, a legacy hanging in the air, thick as stubborn fog. Or perhaps simply limescale and delusions of grandeur. And yet, there is something melancholic in its aftertaste.)

Dialogue Choices:

• On the insect,
  • “What kind of insect?” (Some kind of cockroach, he thinks. So you understand his concern.)
  • “Do you need me to clean the jug?” (He can clean it, if you like.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Three ways to close, one romance-gated,
  • “Perhaps an omen for you.” (A sign of misfortune is a good excuse not to go on a quest today, Your Grace.)
  • “I can clean it, if you like.” (+1 affinity) (Although he finds the idea repulsive, he appreciates your boldness. However, his answer is obviously no.)
  • “Would you like to share this carafe with me?” (Audacious +1, romance option) (Tempting, but he must decline. The last time he crossed that line of intimacy, it ended poorly. His thoughts are occasionally clouded with recollections of that person. Frantically. Affectionately.)

Dialogue Choices:

• If you flirted, follow it,
  • “Memories can be cruel, can’t they?” (Yes, and grief is a patient guest. It seeps into everything. Jars. Porridge. Politics. And in our exchanges as well, clearly. My apologies.)
  • “Extreme intimacy equals sharing water. I take note.” (Yes, he says, he’s afraid he has nothing more to offer now. Apart from his irresistible charm and unattainable aura of mystery, of course.)

Dialogue Choices:

• If you took the poetic route instead (Kind +1, Audacious +1),
  • “Would you like to share this carafe with me?” (Same refusal, same buried confession.)
  • “Do you want me to clean the jug for you?” (+1 affinity) (Ah. Pragmatism. The true assassin of poetry. Still, that would be kind of you.)

Gideon greets you in a deep, melodious voice and something is wrong underneath it. This is a five-menu scene and the longest sustained piece of writing about what his search for his origins has actually cost him.

Dialogue Choices:

• Ask what is wrong,
  • “Is something bothering you?” (To speak the truth, his sleep has been restless lately. Tortured dreams haunt him, and he awakens with the feeling of having been pursued, like a shroud battered by the wind. A tunnel of shadows and echoes determined to ruin his rest.)
  • “You look almost as tired as I am.” (Are your nights also filled with hazy dreams? His assail him with absurd fragments, chasing him at all hours. But he imagines your nights are haunted in other ways.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Follow the dream,
  • “What is the thing that is chasing you?” (+1 affinity) (He wonders whether there is a single thing on this earth that doesn’t come after him in the night. He shrugs, looking almost amused.)
  • “I find sleep complicated, too.” (Shared ground.)
  • “Don’t understand a single thing, but good luck with that.” (Alas, he says, he is doomed to be understood by none.)

Dialogue Choices:

• On what specifically haunts him,
  • “Twisted dreams… I know all about them.” (Even in sleep, his consciousness debates his life choices and every single one of his relationships. One of them is particularly stubborn. He suspects his own subconscious is, regrettably, utterly obsessed with the person involved.)
  • “Perhaps getting in touch with this person again could help you get some sleep?” (The suggestion lands harder than you expect.)

If you went the tired route, he turns philosophical about your position instead: power is a labyrinth, a puzzle the mind may never truly find rest from. If the weight of his errors haunts him to that extent, then the decisions made by a Sovereign must manifest as something far worse.

Dialogue Choices:

• Four ways to answer that,
  • “Does anything in particular trouble you?” (Turning it back on him.)
  • “Indeed.” (Simple agreement.)
  • “Perhaps you could ease your mind by expressing your regrets in a clearer way?” (He doubts it, unless you’re implying that a good blow to the head administered by the person who haunts him would do the trick. He puts it down as a mistake from his youth that resulted in unfortunate ill feelings.)
  • “I didn’t understand a single word.” (Alas, doomed to be understood by none.)

Dialogue Choices:

• The final three, two romance-gated,
  • “Well, that doesn’t sound easy.” (+1 affinity) (Is it not this dramatic complexity that makes him so charming, Your Grace?)
  • “I doubt that sleep will come to those who choose to bury their remorse.” (+1 affinity) (Alas, you likely speak true. What a delightful humiliation to make such a confession but to then see reason from another.)
  • “Maybe I can help you forget this person?” (Romance option) (You wish to replace his memories of them with you? This feels all too familiar. But he must commend your ambitious saviour syndrome.)

This scene only unlocks once you have run the lost child audience and revealed who his parents are.

Dialogue Choices:

• He describes being chosen despite himself for an extraordinary destiny,
  • “That’s right.” (Chosen despite themselves for an extraordinary destiny, he repeats. He means you as much as himself.)
  • “Not quite the lone wanderer.” (Oh? Many assured him you didn’t even have a single friend left standing. Not a relative, not even a forgettable acquaintance. Then: yeah, alright, fine.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Answer him,
  • “I don’t have a choice.” (That’s quite a fatalistic approach. But perhaps that’s the right mindset. Perhaps his pursuit of knowledge was merely concealing a desire for control. The illusion of mastering his own fate.)
  • “Are you satisfied with what you know today, Gideon?” (He’s still confused. Sometimes he even regrets the insatiable, candid curiosity that drove him to escape. Knowing where he comes from doesn’t shed much light on who he ought to be. Am I Gavault’s son, or Groveshire’s?)

Dialogue Choices:

• The closing three, romance-gated, and one costs you,
  • “That’s quite a fatalistic approach…” (Neutral.)
  • “I don’t know what to tell you.” (-1 affinity) (The worst answer to a man asking who he is.)
  • “You’re already much more than your origins could ever define.” (+1 affinity) (He apologises. You’re right, it’s time to stop letting his past control him. He’ll endeavour not to forget this.)

Were You Just Watching Me?

You find Gideon writing in a small notebook, focused with a frown, seemingly oblivious to your presence. The opening is a joke built entirely around refusing to speak. What follows is the single longest interactive sequence in the game, and the emotional payoff of his whole arc.

Dialogue Choices:

• Say nothing, or don’t,
  • “(Stay silent.)” (He keeps writing. The scene waits for you.)
  • “What are you doing?” (Oh hello, Your Grace. The normal route, and much less funny.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Keep going,
  • “(Stay silent. Again.)” (Still deep in concentration, he bites his lip as he pens a new line. His hair catches the light rather nicely. You’re standing there perhaps a little too long, though.)
  • “What are you doing?” (Breaking early.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Commit to the bit,
  • “(Stay silent. Forever?)” (+1 affinity) (He’s still writing. The wind, with a soft whisper, sends a shiver down your spine. And, uh. Then: …Were you just watching me, Your Grace?)
  • “What are you doing?” (Folding at the last moment.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Own it,
  • “Yes.” (The honest answer.)
  • “(Lie) No.” (Understandable, he says. And here he is feeling terribly disappointed.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Ask to see it,
  • “I’m curious. Would you share it with me?” (He hands you the open notebook and quill. He has only just started: he began by recounting his noble and lost origins and the war of succession between Groveshire and Gavault that was his. If you have not done the reveal, that line reads instead as his unknown and forgotten origins, detailing how a bandit supposedly left him at the Brizh orphanage.)
  • “I see.” (He tells you anyway.)

Then he asks: do you have any suggestions on how I should continue? You are now writing his legend with him.

Dialogue Choices:

• First entry, four options,
  • “(Mention a wonderful engagement to a very attractive Sovereign.)” (Well, you have quite some nerve infiltrating his personal memoirs like that. But he must admit you do hold a prime spot in them.)
  • “(Mention you. As rediscovered family.)” (That’s right, he’d forgotten about that irresistible paternal instinct of yours. And here he was trying to erase that line from his legend.)
  • “(Mention your relationship with Gideon.)” (He accepts the entry with visible pleasure.)
  • “(Draw something. A little cat in the corner of the page, for example.)” (That’s very sweet, Your Grace, but he fears it may undermine the gravitas of his epic somewhat.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Second entry, six options,
  • “(Mention how Gideon charmed you.)” (A-ah, yes? Tell him more.)
  • “(Mention a few particularly memorable victories.)” (Oh, yes. What an idea he had that day. He hopes that’s what he’ll be remembered for most of all.)
  • “(Mention Gideon’s comrades.)” (He accepts it, then adds a secret.)
  • “(Cross out the last name mentioned in Gideon’s comrades.)” (Hm, yes. But he’ll let you in on a secret. Don’t tell them, but that last name you wrote? They were quite a thorn in his side on several ventures. Shoot, Your Grace, he hopes they never see this.)
  • “(Mention a quest where Gideon narrowly escaped death.)” (Yes, the tension, the suspense. We need that, indeed. Though he was being a bit overdramatic that day, he must admit.)
  • “(Do not write anything else.)” (Ending the sequence early.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Third entry, romance-gated,
  • “(Mention Gideon’s legendary hair.)” (A-ah, but is that really appropriate for an epic ballad?)
  • “(Mention Gideon’s gentle eyes.)” (A-ah, really, you think so?)
  • “(Mention your desire to spend the rest of your life with Gideon.)” (H-hmh. I, I guess that would be the happy ending for the tragic hero.)

Gideon is reading a song, and it is, in his words, possibly a bit embarrassing. What follows is the closest thing the game has to a thesis statement about itself, and it takes place entirely in a library.

Dialogue Choices:

• Ask about it,
  • “What is it about?” (Hm. How should he put this. It might be a bit embarrassing.)
  • “Shamrock?” (Indeed, Candid’s most loyal one.)
  • “Shamrock was a former knight of Candid, right?” (Correct, and it opens the thread faster.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Name what they were,
  • “More than good friends?” (He lets the euphemism stand.)
  • “Were they enemies?” (Not remotely.)
  • “Were they lovers?” (The song he was reading is none other than the tale of their passionate romance. Candid fell in love with Shamrock, and it is said they surrendered wholeheartedly to one another. Hand in hand, their love forged the destiny of the prosperous kingdom of Candid.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Ask about the ending,
  • “How did Candid die?” (Candid was murdered by another knight who disapproved of their union. Despite being forewarned of this tragic end, Candid refused to call upon the occult powers to save himself, choosing instead to offer his Knight nothing but a silent smile before passing away.)
  • “Do you find this story more… tragic or beautiful?” (Beautiful. Their love forged an ideal peace that they both strived for. They completed each other in that way.)

He stops, seemingly waiting for your reaction. A Sovereign and their knight. He is not being subtle.

Dialogue Choices:

• The turn, romance-gated,
  • “Indeed a moving tale.” (I’m glad you agree, Your Grace. He returns to his book, visibly troubled. This ends the scene platonically.)
  • “Does this story… remind you, in some way, of our relationship?” (I, yes, p-perhaps. A confession breathed in barely a whisper, yet carrying infinite tenderness. You were on my mind whilst reading this, I must confess.)

Dialogue Choices:

• Answer the confession,
  • “I love you too, Gideon.” (Your hands finally meet, without another word. The contact sends a burning shiver down your spine.)
  • “Don’t apologize… I feel the same way about you.” (The same, gentler.)

Dialogue Choices:

• The mask,
  • “… I’m sorry. That’s not possible.” (I-I understand. Don’t apologise.)
  • “(Lift the bottom of the mask slightly, revealing your mouth.)” (I, thank you. With infinite gentleness Gideon moves closer, holding your gaze momentarily, letting you refuse. Then, finally, with the same tenderness, his trembling lips meet yours.)

Dialogue Choices:

• The last beat,
  • “(Silently nod your head.)” (Next to Gideon, you watch the soft light float in through the library’s skylight. He holds you close to his side. He gently closes his eyes, feeling peaceful.)
  • “(Kiss him gently on the forehead.)” (The same ending, warmer.)