The shadowed form gave no sign of expression, nor did any of its flickers show understanding.
Sonder's words seemed to vanish before they could reach the creature's mind.
"I need the tears," she repeated, slower this time, as though that might help. She held her other hand out, palm open, trying to shape the syllables with all the care she could. "Stones, gems, or orbs. Powerful. My friend needs them."
Still nothing. It gave no hint of knowing her meaning.
Frustration prickled, but Sonder forced herself to be calm. Language was useless here. Whatever this being was, it did not think in the way she did.
She glanced down at her own hands. At the shadows that pooled between her fingers.
Another idea sparked.
She drew in a breath and called upon more darkness. Enough so that she could mold it, shape it, and draw with it. She spread it across the dirt wall beside her, a thin veil that clung like smoke and followed her movements.
Slowly, Sonder curled her fingers, pulling the shadow into forms. First she shaped the outline of herself, a crude but recognizable figure: a girl with a ball of dark shadow held in her hand.
Then she shaped the ruin of the House of Lustre: a rectangle, pillars, and a jagged break for the shattered roof.
The creature leaned forward, its edges blurring with interest.
Sonder let the shadows shift again. She drew small circles, just a few of them, no bigger than fists, and placed them within the ruin.
She let them darken more than all the rest so that they were like wells of purest night, blacker than even the shadows themselves. Their presence tugged at the eye.
"These," she said softly, though she knew it might not understand the words. She touched each orb in turn with her fingertip. "This is what I seek."
The creature cocked its head, its body twisting faintly as though it were in a current. For a moment she thought it would ripple away again in incomprehension.
It bent close, its form lowering until one uneven and shadowed limb brushed across her shadow play on the wall.
The distorted limb hovered over the circles she had made, hesitated, then pressed against them with a faint tremor.
"Do you understand?" Sonder asked.
The creature drew back, head tilting toward deeper chambers of the barrow. It gave no sound, no word, yet the gesture was unmistakable.
It wanted her to follow.