Mother dragged her ruined side toward the feeding wall while seven legs clamped the rim and Hajin crept along stone. He kept the Chain clear of the acid pooling beneath her stump as her torso swung toward the guest above.
The accusation exploded across the ledge before either of them chose another strike.
"Cessy!" Mother shrieked, driving a scythe into the wall beneath the ledge, "you swore beneath the blood moon, and now you laugh at that oath inside my own chamber!"
Hajin locked onto the name without letting it drag his eyes off the moving legs.
'Ridge lady, the one with the smile, so she finally comes with a name.'
He adjusted the Chain across his left palm with his right arm still bound, giving the guest no safer angle.
Cessy shifted her feet away from the ledge's cracking outer edge, utterly unbothered by the scythe below her.
"All this shouting with a leg missing," she drawled, watching the wounded joint drip beneath her heels as the next scythe turned.
