"Simon came to my world, to help, as a doctor, after a monster attacked a large group of people," she says. She's amazed, on some level, to hear herself explaining Djose with such brisk clarity and calm.

"Many were burned away utterly, but others were left with a lingering poison in their flesh, a subtle taint that hide from the normal healing we use for such things."

"Your burns are--similar. Not the same, not from the same creature or even the same, kind, but--"

She shakes her head, a curt gesture that raises a brief clatter of the beads in her hair. "I would have to teach you a lot of magical theory to explain properly."

Her jaw is set and tense. "Please--what's an angel?"