A gesture with the hand that bears the shard and he says, "Demos, which you'll not have heard of," a bit dryly. These rifts, they're a problem - but he keeps his voice low, having considered falling silent when that snow fell and deciding that if they'd been heard, then they'd been heard and pretending not to have noticed anything would serve as well if not better.

At first he thinks it isn't pretending, and then -

No, raising his hand; footsteps, the crunch of ice and underbrush. A tilt of his head.

His fingers flex around the hilt of his sword.