Tallis followed behind the pair, plate in hand, as Connor carried Annie to her motel room. She sat herself on the bed as Connor set the Stranger down in the chair across from her.

“I’m sorry about the lobby, Tallis.” Annie said.

Tallis was busy staring at the top of the bedroom’s dresser and nightstand, both of which were littered with strange devices, tubes, and glasswares of all shapes and sizes. She shook herself and looked at Annie.

“It’s fine, I have a carpenter friend who can fix the tables. The lobby’s seen worse, believe me! I’m glad you’re not… dead… though.”

Annie lifted an arm as Connor inspected her shredded bandages, “Ah! Careful!” she turned to Tallis, “You are? Yesterday you were convinced I murdered your brother. Ow!”

Connor grabbed Annie’s arm gently to stop her from smacking him, “Please hold still, Miss Annie.”

Tallis helped herself to a piece of bacon as she watched the Stranger squirm, “I did, but watching you get your ass kicked kinda ruined the menacing Stranger impression I had of ya. Plus you fixed me breakfast.”

”You did?” Connor raised his eyebrows at Annie, more surprised by the breakfast than anything.

She refused to look at the Paladin, instead finding a very interesting spot on the ceiling to stare at, “Something like that.”

“She even seasoned the eggs, there’s some red stuff on them I don’t recognize but it’s actually pretty good!” Tallis waved a forkful of eggs in their direction.

“Paprika. And a little bit of chili pepper.” Annie said.

“You travel with a whole spice cupboard, Stranger?” Tallis teased.

“Hey—” 

“Miss Annie, where did you put the bandages I gave you?”

Annie gestured towards the bathroom with her raised hand and looked to Tallis as Connor went in, “I’m about to take my shirt off, now’s your chance to bail if that ain’t your scene.”

Tallis did not move. It was Annie’s turn to raise her eyebrows.

“I’m good.” she said and ate another forkful of breakfast.

Annie shrugged and unbuttoned her flannel, having to peel it off of herself with the amount of sticky red ichor it was drenched in. That made two shirts covered in blood and in need of washing, at this rate she was going to run out.

Tallis was making a valiant effort not to stare. Beneath her shirt was a messy tangle of shredded bandages that seemed more stuck to the Stranger’s side than actually wrapped there. It seemed a miracle to Tallis the strangers inside were still just that, inside. 

Annie pressed one hand to her side and pointed, “Hey, can you grab me the vial on the bedside there?”

Tallis looked and saw another of the Stranger’s odd contraptions resting on the nightstand next to the bed. It was indeed a glass vial, but it was encased in an alien-looking device. A concave metal cap adorned the top, connected to four small strips of metal that lined the sides of the vial and a layered hexagonal piece encased the bottom with a small lever clasped along its edge. She picked it up gingerly. It was… warm. A dark red ichor sloshed inside as she turned it over in her hands and it shimmered a dusky orange where it caught the light.

A polite cough dragged Tallis’ eyes away from the vial and towards the Stranger. She held her hand out expectantly and wiggled her fingers a bit. Tallis sheepishly passed her the vial. 

“Thanks, Tallis.” Annie twirled the vial in her fingers and flicked the latch, leaving a little smear of blood along it as she did. A slender needle extended from the cap and she flicked it experimentally. Then she jabbed it into her leg. Tallis gasped aloud and placed a hand over his mouth. 

“What? What is it?” Connor bolted from the bathroom; towels, soap, and bandages in hand. He turned from Tallis to Annie, “Annie what the hells?”

“Gre—Gods! Gods you two, relax!” Annie pulled the injector from her leg and stood up, “Look!”

She tore off the bandage and tossed it at Connor to land atop the heap of clean bandages in his arms. Both Connor and Tallis stared. The flesh around her wound spasmed and rippled like disturbed water. Tendrils of skin slowly crept and extended themselves into the ragged muscle and sinew of her wound, burrowing into it as a worm into the earth. Blood seeped where skin met muscle, forming gravity-defying pools around the tendrils and hardening into a thick, dark crust that encased the wound.

Annie twisted her torso experimentally and the crust flexed and split, allowing small droplets of blood to seep from the cracks and then solidify to fill the gaps. Finally, after several vigorous turns, the Stranger tapped a nail against the enormous scab in satisfaction. 

“See?” she tapped it again, “Good as new!”

“What kind of Stranger magic was that?” Tallis stared at the wound, goggle-eyed.

“Not magic, alchemy.” Annie said pointedly, “I came up the recipe for it myself!”

"That’s not like any medical magic I’ve ever seen!” Connor exclaimed.

”That’s because it’s not!” Annie’s voice was firm, “It is not magic. It is alchemy. They are different.”

“They are?” Connor tilted his head.

”Yes! Do they not teach—? Right, Paladin. No, that makes sense.”

”Now hold on. What do you mean by that, Miss Annie?”

“I just mean you’re a Paladin. You don’t do magic by definition.” Annie gestured vaguely up and down at Connor, “You get a mage to conjure an Idra for you and shape it into an Icon based on a set of rules. Then you bind yourself to it and it gives you power as long as you follow them.”

Tallis raised a hand, “Idra?”

Annie’s eyes lit up, “Idra is the academic term for a spirit!” she held up a hand before Connor could interject, “Yes, Connor, it is the term for a demon too.”

“A demon?” Tallis set down her plate to give the Stranger’s words her full attention.

“Technically, yeah. Spirits, Idra, are sort of like the base form of what you commonly refer to as demons. Where demons are influenced by negative emotions and energy when they’re conjured, spirits have not been influenced one way or another.”

“So Connor’s bound to a demon?” Tallis was horrified.

“No, he’s not bound to a demon or a spirit. He’s bound to an Icon, the other one.”

“So an Icon’s like an angel?”

“No, that’s reductive. So’s demon, honestly.” Annie couldn’t help the eagerness that crept into her voice, “Idra can be influenced to become one of two things: Beneficadra or Maleficadra. Beneficadra are usually just referred to as Idra or Spirits, since they’re not as destructive or unnerving as demons they haven’t really made an impression outside of academic study. But a Beneficadra that has been shaped to a Paladin’s tenets is called an Icon.”

“So he’s bound to a… Benefi-whatzit?”

”Benefi— Oh never mind.” Annie turned and grabbed a clean bandage from Connor’s arms, “It’s not a demon, ok? He’s fine.”

“Hmmm. So you’re bound by a code?” Tallis turned to Connor.

“Yes ma’am. I am sworn to uphold the justice of the Union and its laws, just like my dad did.”

Annie suppressed a snort, “Does the Union’s justice include helping bandage up danger prone monster hunters?” she held the bandages out towards him, “I can’t wrap it tight enough if I do it myself.”

“Do you even need bandages?” Connor asked, eyeing the enormous scab on her side.

“I mean, yeah. I still need to keep it clean and keep the seal from breaking. If demons and bounty hunters would quit trying to split me in half, that’d help too.”

Connor snapped his fingers, “That reminds me, freelance bounty hunting’s illegal in Union colonies! If that guy shows his face again you tell me and I’ll make sure he knows that.” he palmed the hilt of his sword meaningfully.

“How do you know I don’t have a Union bounty?” Annie asked.

“I checked before you got here, of course!” Connor said matter-of-factly, “You wouldn’t have made it past the office otherwise!”

“How comforting.” Annie said dryly, “Can shining Paladin of the Union perhaps patch me up now? Since you were so insistent on carrying me in here to do that?”

Connor nodded and began to unroll a strip of gauze, “Right. Can you lift your arm again, Miss Annie?”

Annie raised her arm in a mock two finger salute to Connor and allowed him access to her wound. He laid a pad atop it and held the end of the gauze in place gently to guide the fabric around her waist. 

“Your tattoos are very interesting, Annie. Do they do anything?” Tallis asked.

Annie shifted uncomfortably, drawing a grunt of disapproval from Connor as he wrapped her, ”What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re a Stranger with a very peculiar set of tattoos. They look magical, like they should do something.”

Annie was quiet for a moment, the only sound in the room was that of the gauze slowly unraveling around the stranger. 

“They don’t.” she said. 

“Aww.” Tallis didn’t try to hide her disappointment. 

“Done!” Connor stood up, looking very pleased with himself and his handiwork and turning to Annie, “Try not to tear these one up, will you Miss Annie?”

“Sure, Deputy.” Annie smiled at him, “Thank you.”

”I’d say anytime, ma’am, but I fear you’d take that as an invitation.”