Virelya turned slowly, her eyes locking with Nyxsha's.
"Nyxsha, darling, you're malfunctioning," she said, her tone almost pitying, as if diagnosing a broken machine.
"I will claw your spine out of your mouth," Nyxsha hissed, her massive form trembling with rage, her tail cracking the air like a whip.
Virelya's expression didn't change, but her fingers tightened slightly on Azareel's ankle, making him sway.
"If we leave him be," she murmured, "he'll be claimed. And not by us. By something crueler."
Nyxsha's tail slammed the ground, splitting the stone with a crack that sent dust billowing.
"I won't let him be anyone's prey," she roared, her golden eyes blazing, her fangs bared.
Virelya tilted her head, her lips curving faintly. "…That's a shame."
With eerie grace, she rose onto her toes, her silk robes shimmering as she reached up and untied the scripture ribbons binding Azareel's ankles.
He dropped into her arms like a sack of flour, his bloodied frame limp but unharmed.
Virelya carried him with unsettling ease, despite his height, and set him upright against a broken pillar, like a doll being reshelved in a forgotten shrine.
Her pale fingers plucked the fruit rind from his mouth, tossing it aside with a wet plop.
Azareel coughed, his voice hoarse but gentle.
"…Thank you."
Virelya placed two fingers against his lips, her golden eyes narrowing.
"Do not thank us yet," she whispered, her voice a breeze through graveyard veils.
She leaned closer, her damp hair grazing his cheek, her words slow and deliberate.
"You are very fortunate, Still One. Had we found you first, instead of her, we might have…" Her finger trailed along his jaw, her touch both tender and predatory.
"…coiled you for seven nights without pause."
"…replaced your voice with echoes."
"…kept you asleep and listening to our heartbeat until you forgot your own name."
"…licked your spine to taste the hymns of your marrow."
Azareel stared, wide-eyed, his silver eyes flickering with a mix of confusion and curiosity.
Then, in a small, earnest voice, he said, "Oh."
Virelya's lips curved into a faint, enigmatic smile. "But… she saw you first. So we will not."
Nyxsha grunted from behind, her massive form looming like a stormcloud.
"Damn right you won't," she growled, her claws flexing.
Virelya turned slowly, her golden eyes glinting. "But we will check in. Randomly. At night. When he twitches."
Azareel opened his mouth to speak, but Nyxsha's massive paw clapped over it, muffling his words.
"No," she said flatly, her voice dripping with exasperation.
Virelya's form shimmered, dissolving into a haze of light and fog, her soft hum lingering like a ghost in the air.
Silence returned to the cathedral, heavy and charged, broken only by the distant drip of the Bone Ceiling.
Azareel gently pulled Nyxsha's paw from his mouth, his touch light, almost reverent.
"She's… nice," he said, his voice soft, his silver eyes blinking with naive sincerity.
Nyxsha gave him a look so dead it could bury kingdoms, her ears flattening, her tail twitching.
"She wanted to liquefy your soul and whisper it into a bottle."
"…But politely?" Azareel asked, tilting his head, his expression earnest.
Her growl echoed through the ruins for minutes, a deep, resonant rumble that shook the dust from the rafters and set the bone chandelier swaying.