[He doesn't reach out to touch, doesn't let sympathy make its way into his eyes. This isn't a conversation that should leave them bonded - this is a conversation that is necessary. Zane understands how easily he was pushed, and that it took all of him to resist. With that influence multiplied, he wouldn't have had a chance.

He takes in the spikes as dispassionately as he can, but his hand clenches into a fist.]

May I? Muscle memory. [If he feels it by touch, the placement of it, he'll be able to find it in the middle of a fight.]