The sounds of destruction were more like shockwaves to Gabriel's dragonfly body, and he was moving without thinking, without quite intending to, before he realised it. Still, he let the dragonfly go where it willed; he himself examined the area with senses beyond the insect's, the same way he could see Miriam as a butterfly or Joby's Roundtable as a moth. And he used the dragonfly's simplicity to focus his thoughts on what he had to do, instead of just who was here with him.
The ... Faceless Ones were still present, alarmingly close, but no longer actually in the courtyard--for the moment. Quick as a thought, as a heartbeat, Gabriel dropped his dragonfly-shape, ignored the dust billowing through the air around him, and snatched up the rosary, humming the cord on it that belonged to Skulduggery. He was quick enough to manage it before the Faceless Ones' whispers rolled all around him--like rapids surging around a stone beneath the water's surface. It would take time for them to detect that stone, but surely--surely!--they would do so eventually given the ripples he left even with the faintest strains of his music. He'd just have to pray they weren't used to hearing it anymore.
He wasn't expecting a resonance so close, just in the corner of the courtyard itself, but it was fortunate for him there was; the Archangel wasn't certain he'd have heard it, otherwise. As it was Gabriel trusted his wards to keep himself hidden and turned toward the sound, stepping to it at once to save even that faint bit of time. He knelt by the pile of bones and only after a few beats realised it was a pile a bones--a pile of bones still attached to a soul.
Without meaning to Gabriel reared back with consternation and disgust, because the only kinds of beings like this were the ones Lucifer had created. Yet the faint hum was Skulduggery's, and when Gabriel laid his hand upon them he could feel the metaphysical throb that was the connection between body, such as it was, and soul. It was really only then that he remembered what Skul had said about himself, about what he was.
"Oh, Skul," he whispered with the horror he couldn't quite contain. What must it have been like, to live life in such a way? What had caused these bones to become torn asunder from the main part of Skul's body? Gabriel couldn't bear to think of it, and he couldn't spare the time in either case. He conjured a little leather bag and scooped up the bones, pouring them into it and bringing a handful of sand with.
As he did, the Archangel hummed another note, and another, matching the ones that resonated with the threads of soul. They arced away from him, toward the place where Skulduggery proper was. With another thought Gabriel drew the dragonfly over himself again, the melody he'd played on Skul's bones reverberating in the buzz of his insect wings, keeping it alive in such a way that the Faceless Ones wouldn't (Gabriel hoped) be able to pinpoint right away.
And then he flitted toward it through the debris in the air, conscious of the shockwaves of destruction as the city fell around him.
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The ... Faceless Ones were still present, alarmingly close, but no longer actually in the courtyard--for the moment. Quick as a thought, as a heartbeat, Gabriel dropped his dragonfly-shape, ignored the dust billowing through the air around him, and snatched up the rosary, humming the cord on it that belonged to Skulduggery. He was quick enough to manage it before the Faceless Ones' whispers rolled all around him--like rapids surging around a stone beneath the water's surface. It would take time for them to detect that stone, but surely--surely!--they would do so eventually given the ripples he left even with the faintest strains of his music. He'd just have to pray they weren't used to hearing it anymore.
He wasn't expecting a resonance so close, just in the corner of the courtyard itself, but it was fortunate for him there was; the Archangel wasn't certain he'd have heard it, otherwise. As it was Gabriel trusted his wards to keep himself hidden and turned toward the sound, stepping to it at once to save even that faint bit of time. He knelt by the pile of bones and only after a few beats realised it was a pile a bones--a pile of bones still attached to a soul.
Without meaning to Gabriel reared back with consternation and disgust, because the only kinds of beings like this were the ones Lucifer had created. Yet the faint hum was Skulduggery's, and when Gabriel laid his hand upon them he could feel the metaphysical throb that was the connection between body, such as it was, and soul. It was really only then that he remembered what Skul had said about himself, about what he was.
"Oh, Skul," he whispered with the horror he couldn't quite contain. What must it have been like, to live life in such a way? What had caused these bones to become torn asunder from the main part of Skul's body? Gabriel couldn't bear to think of it, and he couldn't spare the time in either case. He conjured a little leather bag and scooped up the bones, pouring them into it and bringing a handful of sand with.
As he did, the Archangel hummed another note, and another, matching the ones that resonated with the threads of soul. They arced away from him, toward the place where Skulduggery proper was. With another thought Gabriel drew the dragonfly over himself again, the melody he'd played on Skul's bones reverberating in the buzz of his insect wings, keeping it alive in such a way that the Faceless Ones wouldn't (Gabriel hoped) be able to pinpoint right away.
And then he flitted toward it through the debris in the air, conscious of the shockwaves of destruction as the city fell around him.