Annie now sat upright on doctor Mitch's operating table while Connor got the lights working again. She was dressed in a pair of dusty jeans and buttoning up a moth-eaten red flannel he had managed to grab as he'd carried her out the door. This was the second time he'd tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carried her off somewhere for medical attention. At this rate it was starting to be routine, people would start to talk.
"You didn't need to do all that." Annie fought a wave of nausea as Connor passed her glasses to her. She let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding once they settled onto the bridge of her nose again.
"Annie you passed out! Fully unconscious! What exactly should I have done instead?" Connor's concerned frustration was plain.
Annie was about to tell him to that he should’ve just let her wake up on her own, but doubted he would appreciate the sentiment. She opted instead to stay silent and focus on keeping the room from spinning.
"Miss Annie," Doctor Mitch piped up, "In my professional opinion you're showing the typical signs of exhaustion and mild radiation sickness. It's a pretty common condition among the folks here, but I'm a bit surprised you've been afflicted with it so quickly– And that you haven't started puking your guts out yet."
Annie had the realization she was now "Later Annie" she had been putting off this particular problem for, which was unfortunate.
"Great, what do I need to do to treat it?" she asked.
"I have some medication for you that should alleviate the worst of your symptoms. If you take that and give your clothes and gear a sanitary wash, that should clear up most of the lingering radiation." the doctor's tone was matter-of-fact.
Annie pictured her woefully empty wallet, "Oh, I'm fine doc. I don't think I'll need the meds, I bounce back pretty quick."
"Now now, I'll be having none of that bravado here. We have to keep you on your feet! Take the meds, I'll just bill the Union for 'em."
Connor coughed but said nothing. He was starting to run up quite a tab with this investigation and he wasn't looking forward to the paperwork he'd need to do to explain it.
Annie relented, "Alright doc, as long as Connor's paying."
Tallis cleared her throat loudly, "So... Are we just ignoring the fact you sort of exploded all the lights fifteen minutes ago?" It was Annie's turn to cough uncomfortably.
"I'm curious about that too. That scalpel wasn't cheap." Mitch agreed.
Annie looked to Connor who shrugged apologetically. She sighed in irritation, "Alright, fine. The short version is that my body is toxic to magic, especially my blood."
"What does that mean?" Connor asked.
"It means most spells dissolve when they come into contact with me. The doc's scalpel was just the latest casualty."
"So no magic at all?"
"Not quite. I can use enchanted stuff, as long as I don't get any blood on it."
Tallis began putting some pieces together, "That's why that guy's chain thing died this morning!"
"Whose what now?" Connor's brow furrowed.
"That guy who smashed up the motel lobby. He's a bounty hunter with a magic chain named Chain Viper Patton." Annie said.
"There sure seems to be a lot of bounty hunters after you." Connor kept his voice flat, letting neither condemnation nor concern show.
"A lot of people think they can get away with not paying a Stranger since we're not exactly a popular bunch. I sometimes take... alternative forms of payment."
"I'm sure that makes you real popular." Tallis said flatly.
"Oh yeah, my name's known from here to Motgar." Annie winked. Tallis rolled her eyes.
Connor smiled and gave a little thumbs up, "Whatever the case may be, the Union hasn't placed any warrant or bounty on you. That makes you alright in our book."
It was Annie’s turn to roll her eyes, "Great. Thanks deputy, what a weight off my mind."
“Back to the matter at hand,” the doctor piped up, “I’ve never heard of anything like your condition! If I didn’t just see it with my own two eyes I wouldn't believe it even existed.”
"You and me both." Annie was beginning to wish she'd stayed unconscious.
"How did you get a condition like this?" Mitch pressed, leaning closer to Annie.
She froze. This question always came up eventually.
"I don't know." the lie was easy by now.
"Did you eat something? Get afflicted by a rogue curse? Piss off a particularly nasty demon?"
"Hey doc," Connor stepped between Mitch and Annie, "Let's give Miss Annie a bit of space, ok?"
Doctor Mitch stepped back rubbed his chin, "Right. I'm sorry, I let my curiosity get the best of me there."
"Is there anything else you'd like to interrogate me about, or can I go?" Annie forced a tone of irritation into the words as she pushed herself off the exam table.
Mitch sheepishly passed her a bottle of pills with a little radiation symbol with a big "X" drawn over it, "Take two of those each day until you run out. Between that and the radiation shield you should be ok."
"Cute." she said.
"If that's everything, I'd like to walk you back to the Motel Annie." Connor said, "We can hold off on checking the ravine until tomorrow."
"Hey now–" Annie started.
"No arguments!" Connor's voice was firm, "I don't wanna have to carry you out of the ravine if you pass out on me again! You're going to get some rest, and we will figure out a plan tomorrow. Understood?"
Annie could have laughed at the way he puffed his chest as he spoke, like that made him look more official.
"Connor, we don't have time for–"
"No buts! I'll keep an eye on things while you rest. Ain't no demon, monster, or killer mage is going to disturb the town tonight." his eyes softened, "Please rest Annie."
Annie frowned. The idea didn't sit right with her, but she did technically work for Connor.
"Fine."
"Great!" he turned to Mitch, "Doc you can put the meds and exam on my tab, I'm going to make sure Annie gets back to her room in one piece." Connor lightly laid his hand on the Stranger's shoulder and carefully guided her out of the clinic. Annie was tempted to bite his hand or something, but managed to refrain.
The streets quiet as Connor led Annie back to the motel with Tallis in tow, but the Paladin was still on edge. He stopped to triple check every shadow and darkened alleyway they passed, and while he kept one hand carefully place on Annie's shoulder (for as long as she'd allow it) the other never left the hilt of his sword.
Once returned to the relative safety of the motel, Connor began to relax ever so slightly. Tallis had excused herself to go find her carpenter friend and hopefully get them started on repairing some of the morning's damage, leaving Connor and Annie alone in the hallway that led to her door.
He cleared his throat uncomfortable, “I… Heard a little bit of what she said, miss Annie. That bounty hunter.”
Andromeda froze, then slowly turned to Connor, “Yeah?”
“She really knew how to get under your skin, didn’t she?”
She puffed out her cheeks in a long wheeze, “Yeah."
The silence that hung in the air between them was long and stilted and, much like a novice stilter, crumbled easily at the slightest push.
“I'm not gonna pretend to know you, miss Annie. Your business is your own. But as long as you're in my town, I'm here if you'd like to talk about how you're feeling."
All the gears in Annie's head ground to a sudden halt, she could swear smoke would pour out her ears any second. Talk? About her feelings? To a person? In real life? The idea left her dumbstruck. Tears leapt to the corners of here eyes unbidden and she tried to blink them away. Like hell she was going to cry over a little thing like this.
"Um... Yeah. Sure." She rubbed her eyes into her sleeve furiously, pushing her glasses up onto her forehead briefly before they plopped back back down to the bridge of her nose. Then she shuffled back into her room unceremoniously.
Connor poked his head around the doorframe, "Is that a 'I'm game to talk,' yeah sure or a 'Please leave me alone,' yeah sure?"
"Yeah sure." Annie flopped down onto the bed to stare at the ceiling.
"Well that's just plain unhelpful!" He trotted in behind her. She heard the click of her door closing and the creak of Connor settling into the room's solitary chair, "You know, I haven't actually spent much time in any of the motel rooms. It looks nice in here."
"It's better than sleeping in a tent."
"I'll bet!" Connor laughed. It was a pleasant sound, the sort of deep lilting laugh that comes from genuine joy that one could feel in their bones and just had to share with the world. It wasn't loud, exactly, but it had a presence that couldn't be missed; like the warm rays of dawn that creep through the window and alight along your skin before you're fully awake and willing to open your eyes.
Annie sighed, then took off her glasses and set them on the dresser beside the bed, "Fuck it, fine. What do you want to talk about, Deputy?”
“I’m primarily concerned with the scary looking heavily armed woman who broke into your motel room. But if you don’t wanna talk about her you don’t have to!” he somehow managed to make that sound cheerful.
“Of course you are,” Annie cupped her hands over her face briefly and pressed her fingers to her eyelids, “We used to be friends, I think."
“Were you close?”
“I trusted her more than anyone in the world. And she…” the tears welled up once again and she rolled on her side to face the wall away from Connor, “She broke my heart.”
”That’s awful Annie, I’m sorry. What, uh," Connor tried to pick his words carefully, "What happened?”
“She sold me out.” Annie laughed bitterly, “She’s the one who… Ugh! It doesn’t matter anymore. It was a lifetime ago. I left because of her, let’s leave it at that.”
“Left where?”
“Therult. I was born there."
Connor was quiet for a moment, studying her before he said, "Is it true y'all have red eyes? Is that why you have the glasses?"
Red eyes. That's the first thing anyone asked about Therans. Red eyes were a symptom of blood magic usage which, to be fair, was a common enough practice in the Theran Empire. Especially when you compared it to the surrounding countries that banned its use outright like the Lamaryll Union. But that's not something Annie was eager to tell the Union Paladin, no matter how nice he was.
"Some of us do." She said.
"Huh. I wonder why?"
Annie shrugged noncommittally and made a vague "I dunno," noise. Connor seemed satisfied with that.
"You couldn’t stay?" he asked.
"I wanted to be my true self. They made it very clear that wasn't an option, so I left."
"I know the feeling," Connor said, "My 'ma wasn't all that welcoming when I transitioned either."
Andromeda sat up to stare at him, "What?"
"Yeah, she wasn't thrilled about it, kind of made it a whole big thing. My 'pa took to the idea like a fish to water though, said he'd always wanted a son and all that." He shrugged.
"Seriously? You? Connor Kenton McFucking Junior?"
"Oh yeah, he loved the 'Junior' bit. He got all teary-eyed when I told him that's what I wanted to be called," he paused, "Huh."
"What?"
"You really do have red eyes," Connor tilted his head to the side not unlike a confused retriever, "They're pretty, like rubies."
She blushed and turned away. Nobody had talked about her eyes that way since... Well it had been a long time. "Thanks, Connor."
“It’s just the truth Miss Annie, no need to thank me for it!” Connor beamed. Something about it irritated Annie.
"You're too damn nice, you know that?"
"Well, I think that's better than being too damn mean. Don't you?"
Andromeda was far too much of a grouch for this line of thinking, but she supposed she could see his point. So she just grunted irritably.
Connor knew he was pushing his luck, but pressed on anyway, "What did you mean when you called her a Seraph? And why did she call you a Herald?"
"Jaigra is a member of a... branch of the Theran military called the Wings of the Empress."
"You mean the actual empress of Therult? Isn't she a mortal god?"
"Yep. That's the one."
Calling the empress a mortal god felt like underselling her a little bit. The Wasteland was lousy with gods, both mortal and Veil born alike who could use their powers to reshape reality to varying degrees. As long as you could channel the Blank beyond the Veil and had at least a few worshippers, you were qualified to call yourself a god.
The Crimson Empress though, she was another story. She had mastered every form of magic when she was just a human mage, and she'd conjured an entire legion of Beneficadra warriors before she ever took the throne. The way the Wings of the Empress tell it, she raised her empire with but a wave of her hand, and blessed her first Herald with the gift of flight so they could look upon her works and sing her praise to the world.
Annie was of the opinion that was all a bit much.
"So Seraph is some sort of military rank?" Connor asked.
"Sure. Kind of like of the Union made Paladins into an official rank instead of a magical practice."
"Okay, that all makes sense," he frowned, "So is Herald a military rank as well?"
Annie wasn't sure how to answer that, "Not exactly."
"So what is it?"
Annie felt the beginnings of a migraine start to form behind her eyes, "You know what? I'm gonna get some rest like you said. Can we talk about this later?"
Connor recognized a thinly veiled "stop asking questions and leave me alone" when he heard one. He nodded and got up from his chair to move towards the door.
"And Connor?"
He turned to look at Annie.
"Thanks." the Stranger didn't meet his eyes.
He smiled, "Don't mention it Annie."
