Ty's missing finger pointed at the wall and trembled like it wanted to accuse stone of cowardice.
He held it against his left hand because letting go felt worse. The finger had been cut from him, stolen from him, used against him, and now it was the only part of his body with the manners to point.
Omina stood beside the wall, watching the black crystal instead of his hand.
"Press it again, but stop the second the wall answers."
Ty pressed the severed finger to the crystal.
Blue fire crawled from his bones into the nail. Red veins opened under the wall, thin at first, then bright enough to paint the corridor like old injury.
JJ stood too close. Yun-Jin stood too close to JJ and pretended she was only guarding the route. Heissman leaned on a broken support column with the expression of a man insulted by architecture.
"If the finger begins speaking in extinct municipal law, I would like permission to panic academically."
Omina's eyes stayed on the wall.
