Despite the troubling questions plaguing her mind, Cora set her jaw determinedly.

She chose to worry about the three missing souls later. There were more pressing matters at hand. The blue flames floating before her required immediate attention. Circe, Noctis, and Theodore needed to be returned to their rightful bodies.

With blinding rays still bursting from her eyes, Cora's hands began to move on their own accord.

Like a maestro conducting the rise and fall of notes and melodies in an orchestra, her fingers and palms guided the indigo orbs through the air, past the magical summoning barriers of each circle, and back into the frozen, gape-mouthed form of the auburn-haired witch. Then, the aquamarine fires drifted towards Noctis until they, too, were absorbed into the black cat's furry body. She turned, at last, to Theodore. His mangled parts and appendages gave Cora pause.

How was she to return the remnants of the man's soul when he was cut up into so many parts?

As though in response to her inquiry, Cora felt another surge in power through her veins. An image of a needle and red thread flashed before her, the very same ones that Circe had handed to her when she first landed in this realm.

Take these, child. They're enchanted. Use them to sew up any rips and tears you may encounter behind these doors.

Cora frowned in deep thought. If such relics could be used to sew together the supernatural fissures in an otherworldly realm, then—surely, surely, Cora grappled—they could be used to stitch poor Theodore into a whole person again.

She certainly had nothing to lose.

Cora glanced over to her red-eyed hellhound. The brilliant illumination in her eyes dimmed slightly as she called to him, "Cerberus?"

"What is it, my sweet?" he asked.

"When we first met," she started, "you swallowed a red spool of thread and a silver needle that had been in my possession. Do you suppose those items are gone forever? Or might there be a way for us to retrieve them?"

Cerberus eyed her warily. "What are you planning to do with the needle and thread, Cora dear?"

"I wish to sew up poor Mr. Butters so that I may return the particles of his soul to him," Cora answered.

During this exchange, Nahemah's devil-black gaze never strayed from Cora or Cerberus. Yet, she didn't utter a word. She simply looked on in silence, patiently, silently, again like a predator in the shadows.

Cerberus grunted, "The cursed thread and needle that you speak of might still very well be within our reach. But..."

"But?" prompted Cora.

Cerberus grinned. "You shall have to kiss me for it!"

Cora's face pinkened. "Again?"

"Yes. On the cheek will do. Another 'sisterly peck,' if you please."

Cora paused. She supposed there was no harm in giving the cheeky brute another peck on the cheek.

Thus, with much less hesitation and a far more resolute expression than last time, she marched over to Cerberus, rose high upon her tiptoes, and pressed a soft kiss to his left cheek. With a devilish gleam in his eyes, Cerberus turned his head towards her at the very last instant. He captured her mouth with his and pecked her impishly on the lips.

Cora gasped in surprise and stumbled back a few steps. The pink on her cheeks deepened to a rosy red.

She cried out in outrage, "How dare you trick me, Cerberus!"

The red-eyed demon smiled smugly. "What? There is no need to raise your voice over an innocent brotherly peck like the one we just shared..."

Cora huffed, "There was nothing 'brotherly' about it, Cerberus! And you know it!"

Cerberus didn't seem at all bothered by her outburst. Smoothly, without missing a beat, he drawled, "Do you want the needle and thread or not, my sweet?"

"I do, but—"

"Hush, my sweet! You must let me concentrate!"

Cerberus sucked in a low, deep breath. In the next moment, he released a fit of violent, shuddering coughs. Black smoke rose from his mouth. As the hellhound's chest and stomach convulsed like the surface of a torrential sea, his jaw then unhinged to absurdly wide proportions. Finally, like a feline hacking out hairballs, he spit a flash of red and silver into his hands.

Cora's eyes grew round with delight.

A spool of red thread and a silver needle now rested beckoningly within the hellhound's proffered palms.

Her ire temporarily forgotten, Cora quickly snatched the magical items from Cerberus and proceeded to use her powers to guide the needle and thread through space and shadow and air. The sharp pointy end of the slim silver needle slipped in and out of Theodore's skin, dragging the red thread to and fro as it stitched the many pieces of flesh together until the man was reassembled into a proper body with a proper head, two proper arms, and two proper legs.

Through it all, Nahemah watched intently as Cora and Cerberus worked together to accomplish their task. Again, the succubus provided no commentary. Neither did she offer any advice.

From the dark, she simply smiled and smiled and smiled...