Ivor did not answer immediately after Nara spoke of one thousand raw crystals. The number lingered in his thoughts as he calculated what it truly meant within the bounds of the Scar. In his experience, a skeleton yielded a single raw crystal.
To gather one thousand would require one thousand kills, and he was not even certain the Scar contained that many wandering dead within reach of a single boy. The alternative would be to take crystals from other children, yet he understood with equal clarity that repeated theft on that scale would not go unnoticed. Word would spread, groups would form, and he would be hunted long before he reached even half that amount.
"That is too many crystals," he said at last.
"Yes," Nara replied evenly, "but it is not that many. I do have that amount. I simply cannot use it."
Ivor shook his head once. "Where will I get that many skeletons?"
