Sawtooth Spire i’m looking down the barrel of a string-bean

and now time for an inner calamity, for as phaedra's silkfloss features crashed and she backed away from him, mahler felt his heart break. her gaze upturned and in it he assured himself he could see the death of their familial bond and the dashing to bits of his baby's little heart.
regret and anguish juddered along his features. "schatzi," he whispered as yearworn ears fell back against the broad breadth of his skull.
this was not his milieu! he was there to dry their tears, not provide reason for them. for a long endless moment, the gargoyle teetered between what he must do and what he wished to do.
but thade was out there, and mahler could spare phaedra only a last guilty blink before he set off again, assured she would stay put and sickened by how horrified she must be to heed him now.