Sleekwing had always been strong, that much she knew for certain. She had no difficulty believing he would be strong enough to deal with any threat if they came, and that he would be able to protect she and their children even now in her tired, weary state. Of course, the revelation that it had been Aaliyah that had come crying out had made her realise that it was not a threat they would be facing. At least, not directly. She had been spiteful in the past, perhaps, but she had never been the type to bite and chew her way to solving an issue; that had always been Tobias, her awful shadow. So, Malina at least felt more comfortable with the situation, though she still ensured the den would not be so easily accessed. If Aaliyah wanted in, then she'd need to be trotting in over Malina's corpse.

When she had re-emerged to deal with the issue, she had not found the face she had been expecting. After all, Aaliyah had always possessed a certain steely, cold exterior - one that seldom seemed to move for others, at least. Yet, Malina had been fast to find a weakness to her features. A sadness, and certainly a sadness that Malina had been doing her best to forget. Still, she had to remain in control, composed. It had to be done and so, she swallowed down her own emotions in those moments as Aaliyah seemed to struggle to find the right words. That had always been Malina's issue. It felt strange for her to see somebody else struggle with such a thing. As much as she knew she ought to have reached out to offer some kind of physical comfort, she was... held back. She merely paced forward slightly, tilting her head to meet Aaliyah's eyes as the word slipped from her mouth: why? A forced word, and yet, it stung with all the acidic pain Malina had expected. It made her choke back a word for a moment, her lips taut with her own sadness as she gathered her thoughts as fast as possible. Then, she could only hope to do her best to answer such a question. This time, she spoke in the language she and Aaliyah both knew well; the language of Heyel, of his kind. A memorial of sorts.

"Because he had better things to do than stay here and kick about your sister's territory. He knew we'd miss him but he had Zeivah up there, too."

Perhaps they seemed insensitive in a way and yet, that's how Malina had liked to imagine it. She liked to imagine that he had grown bored with idly sitting about in the sun, bored out of his mind and all too tired. She liked to imagine it like that rather than what it had been: some sniveling cretin taking a bite out of him when he had least expected it. Did Aaliyah need to know that, though? It was tough to say. It lingered on Malina's lips for a moment as she shifted her weight nervously, her brows furrowed in thought just as her counterpart's had been.

"But... it wasn't his decision. Somebody... did it, Aaliyah. Somebody took him from us all."

The words stung and she choked half way through her words - when she did so, she turned to compose herself, biting down on her teeth in frustration and sadness. Then, she took it upon herself to really step forward, offering her slender shoulders Aaliyah's place to cry. It was the least she could do in those moments.