"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."

"Oh, it bears itself, mostly. That's a trick with motors and electricity. I doubt it's much heavier than your plate, though, so I'll take your offer and thank you for it."

So onto the griffin they get. Kaja helps him on - she's really strong - and then the griffin takes off.

He holds on as tightly as he thinks he can do so without upsetting the griffin. It's kind of unnerving to be using a vehicle one does not directly control.

"I'm nervous. Uh, Nicholas."

"Are you okay? Height-sick?"

"Not height-sick, I'm just used to flying my ship instead of being flown. It's a bit unnerving to think that I can't stop us from falling, even if your griffin is unlikely to fall."

"He won't fall, and if you fall from him I'll catch you."

"I wouldn't have gotten on if I thought he'd drop me, but I'm still nervous. It's hard to turn fear off. I'll be fine, this still definitely beats walking through unknown wilderness for weeks."

"Yes, probably. Do you know how you got here?"

"I was attacked by some sort of beast. A giant snake with a mirror for a head, or, instead of a head. It snuck past my perimeter sensors somehow, and when it 'ate' me, I was suddenly in a different world. That's when I fell in front of you and that skeleton-thing. As for how it gave me an jump to a new universe without hyperium and a singularity generator, I have no idea."

"He was a lich. The snake thing... I have no explanation."

"Me neither. My tentative plan is to build a new ship and go home, but it doesn't seem like you have the kind of technology I'm used to here. It'll be an uphill battle at best."

"I'm not sure what you're looking for..."

"Does 'computer' ring a bell'? How about 'electricity'? I'm assuming no, since swords are outdated weapons where I come from."

"...Lightning? Sorry, the Winter Light's gift of understanding doesn't tell me everything there is to know about the words you're using. Swords hold blessings better than most things, but maybe that's not a factor where you're from."

"Blessings are not a factor where I come from. We don't have dark things, or magic, or gods. We have to do everything by being clever with... Clockwork I suppose, and electricity, which could be summarized as chained lightning, and engines, which produce mechanical force, and computers that do lots and lots of math very very fast and this turns out to be useful for more than just accounting."

"...That sounds interesting. It must be nice without any dark things, at least."

"Yes, you can wander through the wilderness only fearing for wolves and bears instead of walking skeletons and so on. I don't think you really notice the lack of dark things until you visit a place that does have them. At any rate, would you like me to possibly make some useful devices?"

"Maybe; what would you be making?"

"It largely depends on what materials are available. Starting from the simplest and moving to the most difficult or complex: Mechanical engines that can move things and would power some other devices, water pumps and filters, a telegraph system that will allow fast communication between two buildings set up for it, light without fire via electricity, ice-making cold-making and heating machines, composite alloy/ceramic armor that is lighter and stronger than steel (though I have no idea how it'd interact with blessings), more sophisticated communication devices that can be moved around and will do voices properly instead of just simple codes, weapons of various sorts, computers which will take an entire explanation all on their own, robots which are non-alive mechanical servants that use computers and electricity to run."