Spoiler (click to show/hide):
As you begin to descend into your Lovers mind, you feel something strange wash over you, but when you try to feel about to see if anything had changed, nothing seems amiss. Perhaps it was just your imagination.
You soon descend into a small octagon shaped room with grey walls and a window set into each one. Candy is nowhere to be seen in this room, but as you step near one of the windows, an image comes to being:
You see Candy to your left, and Mistress to your right. They're both calling for you to come to them, to be with them and them alone. You see yourself slowly turning towards Mistress, and your heart nearly breaks as you see Candy fall to the ground, tears in her eyes as she breaks down and begins to beg for you to turn around. Then Candy fades, leaving the image of you alone with Mistress.
The image fades after that, and another window near you begins to glow. Approaching it, you see a reverse of the situation, only with Mistress trying to snatch you away as you walk towards Candy. Candy uses the seal and slays Mistress, and then rushes into your arms, sobbing and telling you how happy she is that she doesn't have to fear that Nala will try to take you away from her.
You find yourself moving from one window to the next, witnessing scenario after scenario. Some are vague, like the first two. One of these that bothers you greatly is one in which you turn towards Candy, and just before Mistress can try to snatch you away, she kills her, but instead of accepting Candy's embrace you shove her away as you rush to Mistresses side and begin sobbing.
Others are more detailed. Your on Whitney's farm, and nearby you is the obviously corrupted form of Whitney, sitting like a dog and beaming up at Mistress. Across from her is Candy who stands ready to fight. Mistress declares that she tires of this game and is Candy's slave no more. Candy tries to use the seal, but with a burst of magic, you instead see Whitney fall to the ground, that silly smile still on her face as she stills. The two then charge each other and you watch helplessly from the sidelines as your loyalties are pulled and tested...
Some of them are good, with the three of you getting along to varying extents or another. There's even one where it almost seems like the three of you together cause mayhem and silliness to spontaneously come into being, and you all go forth into Mareth on hilarious misadventures.
Perhaps the most disturbing one however...is one that shows you and Mistress wandering into a village, calling out for Candy. Mistress doesn't seem quite like the Mistress in the other visions, but she's not the submissive Mistress you helped bring about but a moment ago. She seems resigned, and following along more for your sake than anything else.
In the village, you find Candy...and corpses everywhere. Blood is draining towards Candy, forming a pool around her feet and glowing as magical energy flows through her. She turns to the dream you, and you gasp. Her irises are nearly lost in a sea of shifting red and yellow, and those red markings you'd seen at the factory have spread across her face, glowing a very dark, very ominous red.
"Don't worry Shandra...we don't have to worry about Nala anymore." Without even glancing her way, Mistress crumples to the ground. However, before you can say or do anything, you feel yourself held still, your body paralysed. Candy has a hand outstretched toward you.
"And soon, that collar, and all that nasty corruption will be out of you...and then we'll always be together. No one...No thing...will ever break us apart. Won't that be grand?"
As the dream Candy begins charging up a spell, the image fades away, leaving you visibly bothered. Candy isn't just dreaming...her mind has kicked into overdrive and is playing out every possible scenario it can conceive with regards to you, herself, and Mistress.
Shandra was surprised to find herself in that dream, and she realized soon enough that she only acted as Candy dreamed. She was a pawn in her dreams, to experience what Candy was dreaming of. She would have normally enjoyed knowing that Candy was dreaming about her, but right now, she was worried. She didn't like the fact that she had turned away from Candy in that dream, and then the dreams only got worse from there.
Of course, there were some good dreams and there were some bad dreams. Nothing out of the ordinary there. But the sheer vivid detail which she lived the dreams, and the comprehensiveness of all the possibilities was rather shocking to her. She watched dream after dream after dream, seeing every possibility in Candy's mind play out. Everything that could go wrong, even though there were some things that had gone right as well.
At that last dream, though, she was absolutely horrified at what was happening. Was this what Candy saw herself becoming? Was she truly worried about something like this? Tears were in Shandra's eyes at the possibility, and she realized how much hurt and indecision was in Candy's mind.
No! She was going to fix this! Her backbone kicked back up as she realized that she didn't want to let Candy suffer like this anymore. Was this where the dominant side of her came from? She didn't know, but she could hardly care at this point. Candy needed her now.
She started to take control of the dream, forcing in a new scenario. Candy was placed at the top of a mountain, looking down over the land of Mareth. She finds herself able to see all around her, the landscape stretching out for miles beneath her. And in all her sight, she can see not a single spot of corruption on the entire land, and in her heart she knows it is not there.
Shandra then approaches her, no tears in her eyes this time. Instead, she looked strong and powerful, her body clad in the gear of a true paladin. Her old armor looked dingy in comparison to this - it was polished and gilded, and it shone with a light that was impossibly bright for polish. A gleaming, pure-white sword was at her hip. But she moves towards Candy, embracing her in a hug. Love radiates from Shandra, pure love and security moving over to Candy. Yes, she could depend on Shandra - Shandra could make everything okay.
With a gesture, Shandra beckons for Nala to come closer, the demon also looking up at Candy with a subservient look in her eye. A look that promised she would serve and please her, no matter what. She was not dangerous, nor, somehow, corrupt - she was simply a servant to Candy, the most dependable and obedient of them all. Shandra let her come in, and she embraces the both of them, letting them all bask in the pure love and success of that dream. The thing that Shandra wanted most was for Candy to be happy, and Candy didn't have to worry with her there to help.
Shandra pulls away, letting the dream fade off wonderfully as she returns to her own consciousness. She smiles down, looking at Candy and hoping that her own treatment had worked. She wanted Candy to stop hiding her problems and instead help her. And she knew that Candy could embrace Nala more readily now that she had been shown to accept her place.
She glances up at the sun, realizing that Candy has been sleeping for a while. So she moves over, gently shaking Candy awake and smiling at her. "Have a nice nap? I know you wanted to make some good time, so I think we should get going soon..."