Beside me, Crystal rubbed my shoulder and back. “Do you want me to take over?”

I shook my head. Stubbornly, I backed out of the special characters bubble and returned to the keyboard. I hit the ‘A’ with more deliberation.

I looked up from the screen. A white cloth had been laid out in the emergency tent, between a plastic sheet and a stretcher. A black outline marked a loose human form, and the parts that had been found and identified were laid out on the stretcher. The area of the plastic sheet outside of that outlined figure was littered with rows and columns of unidentifiable segments that had been attributed to Nailfarer specifically.

“You didn’t see their faces?” I asked the segment of Nailfarer’s head. Only one third of the head sat on the white cloth, but with the way Scaffold’s architecture had impaled his head, this was one of only two segments we had that possessed its sight and hearing.

There was so much hair attached to this segment of head. It would only be shoulder-length if everything were back the way it should be, but with this part of the head being so small, it seemed like a lot.

My question was answered with two belated blinks.

“You didn’t see their faces. Did they touch you when they used their power?”

Three blinks.

“Unsure? Alright.” It would have been so useful to know if the power had involved touch.

“Why were you out here?” Crystal asked, jumping in. “Did they invite you?”

“Hold on,” I said.

“Sure,” she said.

“Nailfarer. Daiyu. I asked these questions before and I’m going to ask again. Do you want to keep going?”

Blink. Yes.

“Is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable?”

Another ‘yes’ blink.

“Alphabet?” I asked. I swiped my phone, showing her the crude drawing—A-L on one side and M-Z on the other.

Blink, and after a moment’s delay, a movement of the eye, looking off to the left of the phone.

Without turning it around I swiped the phone left. A-F and G-L. Again, a look to her left, my right. A-F.

“A, B, C—alright.” I repeated the process, ignoring the commotion as people came into the tent. “M, N, O-. ‘Co’. G-H-I-J-K-L-. Cold?”

Blink.

“They set up heat lamps here, we’re getting you warmed up as best we can. After this you’ll be moved to a hospital and you’ll be warmer—”

Two blinks. ‘No’.

“You want the cold,” I said.

Blink.

“It might help if it numbs things,” Crystal said.

As I turned to look at Crystal, horrified, I almost missed seeing it. I turned back to Nailfarer. “Again?”

A blink. Confirmation.

“One of us should go talk to someone in charge, then. It might be the same for Scaffold and Slingstone. Do you need a break?”

I shook my head.