[Bonus thanks to Chronotitan <3]
For several seconds, no one moved.
Isolde's face had gone completely white, her eyes fixed on the two halves of Cassarae's body as though refusing to accept what they were showing her. Cedric stood beside her with his mouth slightly open, one hand lifting without purpose before falling again because there was nothing within reach for him to grab, nothing he could pull his daughter-in-law back from.
The last time he had watched Sylas get hurt, his son had escaped two S-tiers with half his Will torn apart and still looked his parents in the eyes and insisted that he would be fine. Cedric had thought him reckless then, wondered how many times Sylas planned to nearly kill himself before accepting that there were people waiting for him at home, but as Cassarae's blood spread across the courtyard he understood the other side of that conversation in a way he wished he never had to.
This was what Sylas kept running toward before it could reach them.
