And in the clearing is a lady knight in full armor on a charging griffin crossing directly in front of Nick to meet an ambulatory robed skeleton with red glowing points where eyes would normally live.

He yelps in surprise, then stands up and starts running in the opposite direction. This takes a few seconds. Because of the suit.

He stops running. "What the hell did you do to that monster, because it seems a lot like magic which is a thing that always tries to kill me! This time by dropping me in the middle of a magic fight without my ship or 'bots! Augh!"

"I shattered its soul-eye with a sword. What are you?"

"I am a human from far, far away who did not! Expect! To be here!"

"...You're a human? What are you wearing, what's the matter with you?" She slides off her griffin, tells it, "Calm," and clanks over to Nick speculatively, still holding her swordstaff.

"This is my environment suit, it protects me from things. I'm not taking it off until I'm very sure I'm safe. Look, I'm from another world, assume I was raised by a hermit who lived in a cave or something when you try to explain things to me please. It'll save some time."

"Very well: I am a paladin, my job is to kill dark things, and in that suit you look more like some kind of undiscovered dark thing than a human, and if you want to prove that you aren't a dark thing you will need to either resemble a human more or touch bare skin to my Winter Light talisman." She gestures at a pendant around her neck imprinted with a symbol.

He depolarizes the visor, giving her a view of his face. "Does this help? Is your talisman going to do anything to me if I am in fact a human? And what defines a dark thing?"

"The talisman does nothing to humans, but burns dark things. Dark things are evil entities of various sorts that oppose the Light and work misery. And yes, that helps, but you might still be possessed by a dark thing."

She touches the pendant to his hand. When he doesn't burn, she nods and puts it back over her head. "Well, you're definitely not a dark thing, and probably a human." She sighs, and then puts her hand over a bloody patch of her hair and says, "Winter Light, by your grace and to better follow you, I beseech your power grant me healing for this wound sustained in your service." There is a blue-white glow under hand; she repeats herself with a hand on her knee and then attends to her mount's injuries the same way.

"It might be able to explode some dark things, then."

"Yes, but... Okay. Okay. You said dark possession is a thing. How do I stop that from happening to me?"

"You don't go near the sorts of dark things that possess people. Or you could keep the pendant, if you like, since you won't know how to be careful; I can get another."

"You and your griffin are the one party out of two I've encountered so far that has not immediately tried to kill me, so I'm inclined to trust you more than I'd normally trust magic. I'd appreciate the gift. Does the pendant do anything magical besides repel dark things?"

"Not outside a paladin's hands."

"Do I need to be touching it or will it still help protect me if it's in a pocket?"

"It will help more if you are wearing or touching it, but it is not useless in a pocket."

"Right, so I'll put it on whenever I calm down enough to decide it's safe to take off my helmet." He takes the pendant and puts it in a pocket. "Which leaves the question of where I go now. Can I get directions to the nearest city?"

"Leagues away. Ragnar can carry us both to the Order of the Winter Light's compound, and from there Andivar isn't far."

"You sure? The suit's pretty heavy. And I don't traditionally get along with nonhunman nonplant life."

"I can leave you here if you prefer, but you would have to walk for many miles to get to a village, let alone a city. Unless you're about twice as strong as a paladin, the fact that you can bear that load means that Ragnar can bear me, you, and it in the air for as long as it will take to get to the compound."