The demon girl paced along the ridge while her tail cut short, angry strokes through the air.
Below her, the ruined village had gone quiet around the surviving knights. Three girls gathered at its center around Hajin's motionless body while his chest rose beneath the blanket.
Every calm breath made his continued stillness look more unnatural instead of reassuring her.
A healed body with nobody behind the eyes was not recovery, and it was not death either, which somehow made it worse.
'The body is fully healed, so why is nobody inside it?'
She reached the end of the ridge, turned, and walked the same twenty paces again.
Loose grit clung to her bare heels while the dry wind carried burned runes and blood from the road below.
'If the vessel dies, I have to report it, and then I have to explain how the vessel died inside a Gate we created.'
The black throne room returned to her mind entirely uninvited.
