"This is pretty cool," Herod admits before bowing slightly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, sweetheart," Dr. Tenent says amusedly. "Don't get many people thanking me for shots, I'll tell you that much."

Herod gives her a sympathetic knowing nod.

"We should probably get back to your dorm before Sky shows up and wonders where we are," Ariel realizes. "I forgot to leave a note. This was not a well-planned expedition."

"From my perspective this was probably the least planned day of my livesss." He stresses the s.

"But it was fun."

"Bye, Caduceus."

Dr. Tenent rolls her eyes, smiling. "Bye, Stormhammer."

Ariel takes them back to the dorm, where, indeed, someone is standing at Gav and Herod's door. The person looks like a sexless living statue carved from gold-veined marble, has grand feathery wings growing out of their back, and is currently wearing jean shorts and a baby tee.

"Hey Sky! Sorry for sending you here and then running away. This is Gav, I stole some of his blood, can you give it back?"

Sky rolls its eyes. "Hello, Ariel. Gav, do you consent to me healing you?"

"Hello, and yeah. Do you need contact or anything?" He offers his hand anyway.

"I don't strictly need it, but it helps." Sky takes Gav's hand, closes its eyes, and glows with golden light for a moment, then opens its eyes again and stops glowing. "There you go. Anything else? I noticed you've got some scars, do you want to keep those?"

"Nah, those are of sentimental value."

"But thank you for offering... does eliminating scars costs you some sort of power reserve?"

"Not really. Healing big stuff tires me out, but I can just absorb more sunlight. Why?"

"Ah, I do have some scars of no sentimental value. But they are not a priority problem."

"All of your scars, or do you have some you want to keep?"

"All of them." He offers his hand.

Sky takes it and flares gold. His scars melt away in seconds, replaced by unblemished skin. "There you go."

"Taking you so much. If there is a way that I can repay you...?"

Sky shrugs. "I dunno. What were you using blood for, anyway? Usually if Ariel wants blood she just goes to Xan."

"Ah, it was for a ritual to give her human and demonic magical powers."

"Doesn't she have enough powers?" Sky sighs.

"Hey!" Ariel objects. "It was primarily for the fact that it supposedly causes you to reincarnate when you die, for your information."

Sky raises its eyebrows. "Interesting. I won't be partaking, then."

Herod blinks. "Okay. I feel compelled to make a better sales pitch, but I don't want to push and I don't want actually have a pitch."

"Why don't you want to reincarnate?"

"I'm Christian. We go to Heaven when we die, along with anyone else who lives well and truly believes in their faith. So I've kind of already got my afterlife situation locked down."

"Nice. Too bad that you won't get the magical powers then, they are fun."

"I've got some pretty good powers already, I think I'm alright."