Thanks to the comic relief, I feel myself relaxing as I connect to the Wi-Fi and search the internet for a surfing image to replace Captain Cupcake. The music has settled into the perfect background beat as Siaka and I type into our computers. He disappears for a second and comes back with two ice cold cans of Coke. And suddenly, everything’s fine. It feels natural to be here with this—yes, hot, but I can manage it now—guy, working side by side.

I pull up the bardia’s database, and he logs into the temporary system he’s been using to keep track of the Flame-fingers, and we compare data fields—names, addresses, emails—noting their order and making adjustments so the two systems are aligned.

“I took genealogy software and adapted it,” he explains, showing me his screen, “so that each Flame-finger can indicate their ‘lineage’ and the origin of the information they’re sharing.”

He shows me a screen with a world map and clicks on France. Up pops a headshot of Bran, with the words underneath, “Bran Tandôrn, France, Flame-finger 2011-current.” Siaka clicks on Bran’s photo, and a family tree-style flowchart pops up. The image directly above Bran is a woman with wild curly blond hair and the name “Gwenhaël Tandôrn, France, Flame-finger 1977-2011.” Above her is a black and white photo of a man who was obviously her father, and whose Flame-finger end date was 1977. Above him is an image of a woman that looked like it was scanned from one of those antique tintype photographs. Each person above her is simply identified by a name. They must have lived pre-photography.

“So, each guérriseur has their own page,” Siaka says, and clicks on the image of Bran’s mother. A profile page pops up with her photo in the upper left corner. The rest of the page is filled with information and links. “These links are to ‘cures’ or remedies that she either created herself or adapted and used.” He clicks one of them, and a page comes up entitled, “Remedy for migraines in women of child-bearing age.” There’s a scan of a handwritten page in a journal, and then the text typed out underneath. At the bottom of the ‘remedy’ is a link to another Flame-finger’s name, along with the word, ‘origin.’

“Bran and I started with his family’s journals that his mother passed on to him,” Siaka says. “I’ve been typing them one by one into the database. There are a lot of them, and even more in our archives.” He looks up at me. “Man, I wish I could take you there. It’s this secret underground location next to the Cluny Museum. But revenants can’t enter.” He shakes his head like it’s a shame, and although my curiosity is piqued, it’s superseded by the notion that he would even want to take me there.