"Back," I said, already moving. Reika threw a strip of Cursed Script at the slope and the regolith obeyed the word Hold like it had grown up learning manners. Seraphina stepped past her, placed two palms on the ground, and drew cold out of the thin body of her qi into a lattice that mimicked frost. There's no water here, but ice isn't only water; it's a way of telling a thing to stop moving. The sliding slowed. Rachel's hand flashed. Purelight slid under the crust and made it want to be whole. The ossuary crane finished its swing, lowered the stone, and Erebus's porters settled it as if they'd been doing this since the moon cooled.
"Thank you," I said to all three of them and meant it.
