“Can you go get Gregor? Cement this together?”

“It’ll hold like this,” she said. “With a little luck.”

She winked.

I glanced over at Tristan, and by the look he gave me, we were on exactly the same page, despite the fact we’d come at it from different directions. He had been through it with at least one other person, and I—really wasn’t in the mood for fucking winks.

“Capricorn’s going to be doing more stuff,” I told her. “We’d rather not chance it. Gregor would be a huge help, though.”

“Alright,” she said, hopping down and landing on ice without slipping. Sveta was on her way back to us. “Hi Sveta.”

“Hi,” Sveta said, wary.

“How’s your body? A lot of us are a bit messed up,” Shamrock said.

“I’m dealing,” Sveta said. Still curt, without much warmth. “Are you okay?”

“A little shaky,” Shamrock said, laying a hand over her heart. “Gregor’s okay too.”

“Can I ask?” I piped up. “The symptoms, or… however you’d term it?”

“He says his skin feels heavier. I have no idea what that means,” Shamrock said. “As for me… ticking a little…”

She made a hand gesture.

“Heavier?” I guessed.

“Something like that,” she said, before adjusting her hat. She pointed, “Going to get Gregor. You can pick our brains when we come back.”

“Thanks,” I said.

Giving us a bit of respite.

“You were asking me earlier,” Crystal said. “About the changes to my powers.”

I nodded.

“Yours got smaller, I’m a little hotter, less sharp—”

Tristan snorted. Crystal flew over, driving her elbow into the armor at his shoulder, playfully.

“Tristan got some ramming power. Sveta… I don’t know.” I looked over at Sveta. “Restless?”

“Restless, stronger.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

I stewed on that, my arms folded.

Capricorn set to making the next bridge.

“Would I be stepping on your toes if I created a forcefield underneath?” Crystal asked. “Brace it when it appears?”

“That would help,” Tristan said. “You’d be stepping on my toes if you did it without asking.”

“Got it,” Crystal said. “Glad to help.”

“Anything I can do?” I asked. “I could go get stuff, materials. Maybe a central core to the build?”

“I don’t think it would survive the emerging buildingstuff,” Tristan said. “We could try it. And if you wanted to get me an extra… hm, maybe half a ton or a ton of patience?”

“Patience?” I asked. Patients?

“Yeah, y’know, ability to wait, tolerance for people walking all over what I’m trying to build, sticking ice in the cracks, ignoring me when I say not to…”

“You alright, Tristan?” I asked.

“I’m all out,” he said. “Of patience, I mean. It’s been a long day, and it doesn’t feel like it’s ending soon.”

“I hear you. But we’re all there.”