The first thing Aerenyx noticed every time he walked into the medical wing of Hope Sanctuary was the smell.
It wasn't blood. Not rot. Not even sickness in the usual sense. Those were all smells he was used to… to the point where they offered comfort even as the humans shrunk away in disgust and fear.
No, this smell was something older and more invasive, a cloying wrongness that clung to the air the way incense did in places where too many prayers had gone unanswered. It curled along the back of his tongue and settled there, sour and persistent, no matter how carefully he kept his expression neutral.
A Sin had passed through here recently.
And he wasn't talking about the sins that clung to the humans like a second skin.
There were seven Lords of Hell, if you didn't count Lucifer the King, and at least one of the Seven was currently inside of the building with him.
