The Great Mother lifts a single hand, and all three goddesses tear free of the Saint Sisters' bodies at once, ripped loose from their borrowed flesh with a sound like tearing silk, left floating in the air as barely corporeal spirits, flickering and translucent against the light, their true forms unable to fully anchor themselves in the presence of something so much older and vaster than they are.
"I have searched twelve realities for the three of you," their mother says, voice calm and level, though it still causes the fabric of reality to strain under its divine pressure. "For forty-eight hours. Only to find you here. In the one place I expressly forbade you to be."
Nela tries to speak up in their defense, but her mother simply waves a hand, and Nela vanishes in a flash of light.
Hela and Bela both gasp, dropping their heads, begging for mercy in the same breath.
