My gaze fell from the sky to the dark lake shore, roaming a bit before lighting on the green wiver beside me. Peering at her, I replied, late and disconnected, “Well, does my red gem thingy count as a cryst?” I tried to smirk a bit.


    I dug this one up for sure. You aren’t taking credit for this too.”


    smelled like the silvery white things. More black blood was streaked up the blade???—??had Hinte tried to wipe it clean?


    were those things, Hinte?” I said, rubbing my leg where the creature had scraped glass away. “The silvery ones. Were they rockwraiths?”


    joking. It–it sounded like some kind of exotic cuisine. Or maybe a perfume.” I said it, and looked down. My feet were turning the knife over and picking at the blood. Hardened and sticky, when I poked the blood with a claw, it scraped off.


    anything at all. Why do you keep bringing it up?”


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    The smallest glasscrab was the first we’d found???—??first I’d found. I grounded it with my own claws. My foot opened and closed, miming the piercing and ripping that had punctuated the first glasscrab.


    normal. I liked it. The Houses regulated hunting with heavy fines and constant guard patrols, because reckless hunting endangered populations.


    moved when I touched them, and a skeletal underbelly that didn’t look crab-like at all, at all.


    insect! Ripping out its own eyestalks? Summoning a bunch of ghostly avengers? Maybe they grew squalled in this miserable lake. I wouldn’t stay sane either.


    would stay in Gwymr/Frina. So I wouldn’t need it.


    Would it ground her to just tell me even half of why all this mattered?


    Why even bring me out here if I was nothing more than a drag?


    Why, if we weren’t even friends?


    Was I of any use at all?


    considerate?


    Do you still think bringing me here was a mistake? “Do you think I was any help at all today?”


    thinking would happen?” She waved her foreleg away.


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    When we entered the lake again, the lake seemed intent on demonstrating, by contrast, how clear and breathable was the shore’s hazy air. The fumes made threatening gestures as they drew down my throat, but even as we walked right into the burning sulfur, the electricity warded coughs.


    Why was Hinte still out here?


    Three more crysts. When we found three more of those blasted stones and left, I would not miss anything about this lake. My feet curled into the dusty ground beneath me.


    had been prying. I had been maybe a little annoying. I should respect her privacy.


    * * *