[when he reaches the top of the stairs he stops short, staring. A full five seconds of staring pass as his brain parses what he's looking at. It feels like his heart drops to somewhere around his feet, and he has to remind himself to breathe and - he's some some pretty bad shit in his life, it's hard not to when you're someone like him, but this is . . .

He physically shakes himself out of it and scrambles to Aether's side, his hands hovering like what he should do will come to him any moment. But there's nothing - his shields don't heal, he doesn't even know any healers and - can something this bad even be healed?

A shaky hand finally comes to rest on Aether's head, his voice rough when he finally finds it to speak]

I told you to be careful -

Are there - do you know any healers? If I can call 'em maybe they'll meet me halfway and we can - fix this - [he wants to sound certain it can be fixed, but his eyes trail down to where he's severed . . . ]