Faustite looked to that disappointment with a crooked smile. He'd forgotten. "You know how to earn those secrets."

But Faustite axed that thought before it held proper time for a conversation. "We dallied enough." Up ey rose, flame blazing anew, and ey pocketed the mess of jewels. Faustite caught Gevaudan's elbow at once, and with a thought, left that haloed tree to the wind's playful buffets.

What melted from that glacial capsule was a human-shaped presence, a Hiroshima shadow of what could've been.