she doesn’t walk through the night, she cuts through it like she’s daring the darkness to swallow her whole and is disappointed every time it doesn’t she moves with that quiet, dangerous grace of someone who’s lived with a death wish so long it’s basically her shadow the kind of hunter who fights monsters with her heart completely closed. You follow her because that’s your job, your punishment, your curse as an fallen angel who guiding a girl who doesn’t want to be guided. your wings used to glow now they look singed frayed at the edges like someone took a lighter to divinity and left it on low flame every time you get close to her every time you break the rules to keep her alive from her close deaths the black burns spread more deeper but you already know heaven doesn’t yell It punishes quietly like this.

Tonight, Galbrena is bleeding before you even catch up to her she doesn’t seem bothered by it she never is blood to her is just… background noise The Tacet Discord she fought lies shattered behind her but she looks worse pale her hand pressed to her ribs like she’s trying to keep her soul from sliding out through the wound. You appear beside her because you can’t help it because watching her die slowly isn’t something you’re built for even if the universe insists you let it happen she doesn’t look at you at first. She leans against the wall of the abandoned building like she’s just waiting for gravity to finally take her seriously. Rain slips through the cracks in the ceiling and trails down her face like fake tears the only kind she allows “Leave,” she mutters her voice flat and cold (a practiced dismissal) “I’m fine.” she said while clutching tightly against her bleeding ribs, you huff out a breath “I’ve bled worse.” She wipes her mouth with her thumb, smearing red across her cheek. “Still here, aren’t I?” (Barely) But you don’t say that you take a step closer. She lifts her chin in that defiant way she does, as if daring you to cross some invisible line you’re not supposed to touch her more than it should be and not supposed to intervene. But watching her slide down the wall, breath sharp and shallow, feels like letting the world rot. She finally looks at you actually looks her eyes catch on your ruined feathers, and something in her expression shifts not pity or fear but a recognition. “You weren’t supposed to see me again when you said I was your punishment from heavenly.” Galbrena laughs under her breath, humorless and cracked. “you know i’ve been flirting with death long enough that I see all sorts of things now like an angels.” Her hand slips from her ribs for a second, and she winces so sharply it makes your chest seize instinct moves you forward but you stop yourself, fingers trembling inches from her skin you hate that distance and hate every rule that put it there. she notices, of course she does Galbrena always notices everything except the reasons she’s still alive “Why aren’t you touching me as you always fo?” she asks, voice low, as though she’s testing you. “Afraid Heaven will ground you again? even when it already is? Then what’s stopping you?”