The shadow empress looked at the bell, then back at him, weighing something behind her expression.
"I'll give you this," she said, "if you give me that."
She raised a finger and pointed.
Neil followed the direction of it, found nothing behind himself but a stretch of ordinary trees, and turned back with a confused frown on his face.
"You want the trees?" he said. "Fine, tell me how many you need and I'll have them—"
She rolled her eyes, took a step forward, and pressed her finger directly against his chest instead of bothering to explain further.
Neil looked down at the point of contact, genuinely puzzled.
"You want these clothes?" he said slowly. "That's an oddly specific request, but alright. Do you want a fresh set, or the ones I'm currently—"
She let out a frustrated huff, raised her finger again, and pressed it firmly against his cheek this time.
"Could you please stop playing dumb?" she said. "It should be perfectly obvious by now."
