"Why were you so hidey on Earth?"

"People didn't like the sort of things we did or my art and they kept trying to kill us about it."

"Were they as powerful as Sauron?"

"Hm, mostly no? But there were so many of them and they'd work together to fight us lots of the time and normal people would tell the heroes about us if they got the chance."

"Wow, normal people would do that? They weren't scared of what you'd do about it?"

"Most of them were but there were so many that some might tell anyways. Or we'd be in a building and the people there wouldn't try anything but the people outside would notice something was up and call heroes or police to investigate or something."

"And you couldn't carve out a place that was just for you guys with none of those people like how Melkor has Angband where the Valar can't go?"

"I don't think most of the Nine would have wanted to do that. Especially not Jack." 

"How come?"

"He liked meeting new people and doing things everyone would hear about and showing people how the things they thought were okay weren't actually real."

"Weren't real?"

"Like how heroes who were famous for being strong were actually very breakable or how society would collapse if you pushed on it the right way."

"So sorta like how some people are really into convincing Elves that their marriages were mistakes or that they don't really love their children and stuff?"

"Yeah."

"That sounds like him." Bonesaw says, subdued. 

"Some people are really into that."

Nod nod. 

"But you weren't specifically, right, you just hung out with him?"

"n-" Bonesaw tries to start saying, her voice coming out quieter than she meant.

"Oh. I. Once. Gave everyone in a big family a virus that made them confuse violence and helping each other. And another time I made a baby into a spider monster and had it kill it's mom and didn't tell her it was her baby until she had already started fighting back. And I had a friend who was my age who Jack let me keep around for a bit and I made him forget about his family because he kept missing them and Jack didn't like that."

Her voice trails off around the lump in her throat.

"Oh, I didn't know you had a friend, what was his name?"

Bonesaw's face is doing a thing and she isn't entirely sure what!

"Martin, I think. It was not too long after I got powers. Jack let me play with him so long as he behaved. But eventually Crawler got annoyed and killed him."

"Oh, that sucks."

Bonesaw looks down at the ground for a while.

Beka shifts Kat around in her sling in response to some silent Kat-thought.

Bonesaw walks in silence for a bit.

"Are you angry at me now?"

"No? Why would I be angry at you?"