Being burned, being that hurt, it had left its traces behind. I hadn’t forgotten it, and remembering it was very easy when tied into the deep feeling of frustration.

Sveta touched my arm, jarring me back to reality. Had I been making a noise or acting strange? No. Staring off into space, thinking hard? Yes.

She motioned to Tristan, who repeated a gesture he’d no doubt made earlier. I nodded.

Go.

Retreat. We gained nothing by watching too much longer.

We pulled back from the canyon’s lip, sliding down the hill and finding a recess to gather in. Breakthrough at one side, kids further down, Love Lost, Damsel, and Tattletale sitting around the periphery, on higher ground.

I was breathing harder than necessary, even a minute later, and controlling my breath took focus. I didn’t want this latest bit of trauma to be yet another thing that sneak-attacked me when I didn’t expect it, another arrangement of mines in the minefield that I had to navigate.

The idea frankly terrified me, and the anger and bitterness that gripped me as I bit the inside of my cheek was bad enough I didn’t want to be the first one to speak, in case it colored my tone.

“Ideas?” Tristan asked.

I didn’t answer.

I handled my shit. I made my peace in that moment. What’s a little pain? I’ve been hurt before.

“I can take a stab at this,” Tattletale said.

Please distract me.

“Caveat,” she went on. “This isn’t me using my power. This is just me using my head, a bit of educated guessing from earlier uses of my power, and the fact I was one of the first handful of people to really cotton on to… this.”

She indicated the valley around us.

“Anything you can give us.” I tried to keep my voice normal.

She gave me a funny look. Normal voice failed, I supposed.

“Syndicate is firing zaps back the way we came. That nexus or… landing between slopes that we passed through, people, relationships, wants? The faces of people you’d all lost? I think some combination of that and the cluster are serving as our current hub, connecting us.”

“That was the principle of it,” Kenzie said. “I think. I don’t really have access to the mental blueprints while I’m in here. Which is weird.”

Tattletale continued like Kenzie hadn’t spoken, “Syndicate hubs us up, and it’s why our little territory here is bigger than some of the others nearby. The big golden asshole died, individual areas with individual focuses all got broken apart. Or… when he was around there was something more active, bridging things here on a permission basis. Dunno.”

“I thought of them as islands,” I remarked.

“Sure, if you want to be pedantic, go ahead.”

“So it might be possible to make connections,” I said. “To connect one of the islands to another one.”