The wind eased after his answer and the tension in the air shifted from securing their immediate survival, to the looming inevitability of investigating what happened to those missing Mermaids.
Mera let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Elektra studied him a moment longer, as if gauging whether his agreement was casual confidence or calculated resolve.
It was both.
Albedo stepped back from the edge of the fractured rock shelf and holstered Havoc and Ruin fully. The pistols dissolved into faint violet motes before stabilizing at his hips, their hum quieting into dormancy.
"First," he said calmly, "you're healing."
Elektra scoffed lightly, "We're not fragile."
"You're both still bleeding." Albedo immediately responded.
She glanced down at her ribs. The wound had clotted, but abyssal residue still faintly crawled at its edges like black frost trying to reclaim ground.
"…Fair."
