Oran sat completely still, eyes locked on the small girl in front of him as she reached for one of his fingers and pulled. The tip of Oran’s left trigger finger was drawn outward, the skin stretching like fabric before Hime guided the bone back into place. Oran exhaled sharply and fresh beads of sweat appeared on his brow.

No one spoke as one by one Hime repeated the same motions on the other two fingers. Oran breathed deeply through it all, never complaining, never asking Hime to pause. And though his muscles seemed to quiver as Hime tugged on the third finger, he never gave in.

If he only would have let himself pass out, he’d have woken to bound fingers never knowing the pain his body endured in his absence. But Oran clung stubbornly to consciousness as though part of him felt that he deserved to feel every bit of this agony.

Caledonia couldn’t help but think that maybe he did. And she couldn’t help but feel that she did, too.

When Hime was done, she wrapped Oran’s fingers in gauze, then produced two gloves. They were made of black clothtech, supple and gleaming in the blue light. She set them on the table between his hands.

“Gloves,” Oran said, a laugh threatening behind the word. “Are you telling me that you want me to put on gloves, Princelet?”

Hime’s cheeks blushed a pale pink at the name Redtooth had given her so long ago. She nodded, signing to explain, The fabric will compress to keep the swelling down. Splints will go on over them.

“You want me to put on gloves that compress?” This time, Oran’s laugh was loud and quickly followed by a wince. “I appreciate your sense of irony.”

Healing isn’t ironic, Hime answered, reaching for one of his hands. As gently as she could, she began the process of sliding the glove into place.

“I’m fine,” he said when she paused at the knuckle of one shattered finger. “None of this pain belongs to you.”

“Oran.” Sympathy flooded Pisces’s voice, spilling over into Caledonia and renewing her sharp guilt.

“It had to happen.” Oran grimaced as the glove applied a steady pressure around each of his fingers. Without a word of protest, he offered his other hand to Hime.

“Did it?” This time Pisces spared an accusation for Caledonia.

“It did,” Oran said. “Tassos has been waiting a long time to visit some of my own designs on me. If it buys us what we need to tip the scales in our favor, then it’s worth it.”

“You’ll be useless in a fight for a while,” Pine said. “Well. More useless.”

Oran frowned, eyes darting briefly to Hime as if hoping she would tell him that it wasn’t true. In response, she reached for three slender splints and began to bind them to his fingers.