Spirit World Summary

Heart of the Witch

• At first all you can really do is talk to Shadow Mordi. She'll tell you that the real Mordi is deeper within, but has locked herself behind a door. The only way to get through is to use a butterfly-shaped key (unless you do something really clever and weird like Chilchuck).
• After talking to her, the room changes slightly. The three items on the outer platforms become defined, mud dolls appear, and a griffin joins the carousel horses.
• The mud dolls try to obstruct your movement without actively attacking you, unless you do something to piss them off. They're easy enough to bypass in whatever method you want.
• The main object is navigating to the three smaller platforms around the main platform in order to obtain a storybook, a katana, and a stuffed pig named Bubu. Then you have to return the right items to mud clones of the three witches.
• Lisette the water witch gets the book, Sakuya the fire witch gets the katana, and Popo the wind witch gets Bubu. Giving a witch the wrong item will result in a small punishment related to the witch's speciality.
• Once all the witches have their respective items, there's still one more thing to do: find Mordi's item. Riding the griffin takes you to a fourth hidden platform behind the Qualia, full of broken pottery. Piecing them back together reveals they're all made by Mordi. Shadow Mordi will remark that she both made these and broke them, but it's nice to see them fixed up.
• Afterwards, you can either give Shadow Mordi one of the pieces of pottery, or set them up on a small display stand. If you manage to fit all or most of the pieces on the stand, you can get the butterfly key without doing any of the other stuff. Speedrun starts.
• Either way, with the key you can move on to...

The Burning City

• After the introduction to the burning city and Niki, she takes you to the palace, where Mordi's locked herself up behind a barrier. Niki couldn't get through the barrier, but she thinks you can do it, because you're real.
• You can chat with her along the way about what's going on, she's very candid and will give you a whole spiel about the Kashmistan Tragedy and what caused it.
• At the palace, there's a large magical barrier that shocks you lightly if you touch it. There's a few ways to get through the barrier.
  1. Talk to Mordi through the barrier. This works best with people she already knows pretty well. She can respond by pulsing blue light through the barrier, so she can answer yes or no questions, but will otherwise just listen. If you're able to make a strong emotional appeal to her, she'll break the barrier.
  2. Using brute force. Each attempt will result in the force you apply being reflected back at you, so it can be risky, but it's possible. Niki will discourage you from trying this unless you're really strong.
  3. Singing. Song has power in this world, and Mordi responds positively to music, so a song could break through the barrier or encourage Mordi to drop it.
  4. The longest option, and the one Niki will suggest to you directly if you don't try any of the others: finding an item with the power of the Conductor. The current Conductor is one of Mordi's friends, a boy named Alto, so all you have to do is find something that reminds her of him.
• Looking for the Conductor's power means exploring the city. None of the people fighting or running away will interact with you, since they're stuck in their loops, so you can move around without worrying about them. There's three main locations to check.
• There's a well in a plaza with a broken crank. Once you figure out a way to fix the crank you can pull the bucket inside up and retrieve a golden dagger. Also a scary living armor comes out to attack you! Scary! But it's not too hard to deal with, and Niki will help if asked. The dagger isn't Alto's.
• There's a clocktower that's at risk of falling over. At the base is a note pinned to the tower by a throwing knife. As soon as you remove the knife, the tower crumbles. The note addresses they guy responsible for burning down the city and says that the writer will kill him. Mordi didn't write this, nor did Alto.
• There's an alleyway with three items: a cardboard box, a fox tail accessory, and a nondescript sword. The box and fox tail belong to two other characters, but the sword is Alto's. it's humble, like he is. Taking the sword makes a monstrous flower appear that you'll have to subdue or defeat somehow to get by. Again, Niki can help if asked.
• With the sword, you can now break through the barrier.
• Regardless of how you remove the barrier, Niki starts to fade away, because she's just another creation of the Spirit World. She asks you to tell Niki that she loves her before she disappears.
• And with that, you can move on to...

The Palace (Reddened Galaxy)

• This one's short, since it's the finale. You witness two snippets from Mordi's memory of the Kashmistan Tragedy, and then you find her inside the palace.
• All that's left is talking to her and helping her process her feelings a little bit. Once that's done, it's over, and you both go back to Tributary.