Huh. Was that a different war than the war with the, uh, god, who tried to blow you up? Marian frowns at the monitor. ...Also, do you feel okay? Your oxygen levels are a bit lower than they should be for a healthy person. They're above 90%, which is fine if it's not bothering you, but if you feel weaker or more short of breath then your body probably wants more oxygen. 

I feel vaguely unwell but until prompted wouldn't specifically have characterized it as shortness of breath? The god that tried to blow me up was likely irritated by my intervention in the war, but was not Himself a combatant in it, and His church did not endorse the assassination.

That sounds weird and complicated and Marian doesn't know what to make of it. She doesn't really like having to form opinions about politics at the best of times, and it seems even worse if there's a "god" involved. 

Okay. It's possible you're feeling vaguely unwell because your oxygen levels are lower than your body wants them to be? I'm, uh, really not sure how things work physiologically for humans with legendary hero powers. I'm guessing it won't cause any damage, but it may or may not slow down your recovery a bit, and I wouldn't be surprised if you feel a lot better with a higher O2 sat. I can turn the oxygen flow up higher again and you can tell me if you feel better, if you want? 

That sounds useful, thank you! It seems like it'll be a little while until it's a good idea for me to have no mask and given that I don't have a particular preference that the mask be supplying less oxygen.

Iomedae is not just an unusually-epic-and-cool-at-recovering-from-lethal-injuries patient, but also polite and reasonable! Marian is pleased. She turns the mask up to 70%; she can go down from there. 

I kind of want to check a blood gas too? I can take it from the art line, (fortunately still in place despite the shirt-placement, probably because it was sutured in), you probably won't even notice. It'll tell me if you're retaining CO2 at all, which is a different thing that could be making you feel unwell and is something I might expect after suddenly stopping the BiPAP, since that helps with getting more total volume of air in and out of your lungs so you can get rid of CO2? 

I do not know what that is and will defer to you about whether it should be done.

Marian will draw the blood. She mostly asked Iomedae's permission because it's rude not to for awake patients, and also who knows maybe it's mysteriously unexpectedly harmful to alien originally-probably-human legendary warriors from other worlds, to have blood taken out of them. 

She sticks it in the iStat machine, which is still on the windowsill. ...Remembers that she definitely drew an ABG and put it in the iStat some time ago and...did not actually get around to putting it in the chart, oops. (The machines are supposed to sync directly to EPIC but this functionality has been broken the entire time the hospital has owned them.) 

Okay, that'll be five minutes. Tell me if you're feeling worse or better. And she'll watch Iomedae's sats to see if they come back up on 70% oxygen. Uh. I am pretty curious about the war and - mostly whether it means you're likely to be in danger here, since you're my patient and I feel sort of responsible. 

96%!

The war started before I arrived on their planet in a magical accident a week ago. I spoke to both sides and arranged the ceasefire, I was not a major combatant in it except in one engagement that occurred after the ceasefire and in violation of it. It was about - pretty normal things for a war to be about. One country was expanding and conquering its neighbors and a much larger and more powerful neighbor became afraid of having a regional rival who was also breaking a bunch of taboos on the use of human sacrifice for powerful magic. If the god isn't operative here I'd be surprised to be in danger from that war. ...I might be in danger from Tar-Baphon, my enemy in my world of origin, if he can find this place. I don't have any inexpensive ways to test that and will attempt an expensive test when I'm a little more recovered. 

Your oxygen levels are better, I don't know if you can feel the difference but I think this is probably a good amount of oxygen for now. 

Marian glances at the iStat machine but of course it doesn't have a reading back yet. 

- wait, sorry, are there two different worlds involved here? Also, uh, who's Tar-Baphon and how worried should I be - or, like, what sort of precautions would help you be safer if it turns out he can find you here? 

I think I do feel better, she says, after reflecting on it for a moment. And yes, the world I was on immediately before I arrived here is not my world of origin. My understanding is that there are in fact millions of worlds, maybe more than that. Tar-Baphon is a powerful lich, a kind of person who traps their soul externally so as to make themselves unkillable, and a powerful wizard. If he encounters this world he will probably try to conquer or destroy it, and my personal safety should not really rank very highly among our considerations except insofar as I can help with coordinating your response. Precautions that would be helpful -

Most places I'd just try to get in touch with the local gods and tell them what to look out for, they'd be able to see it better. Without gods, uh -  the ability to detect dimensional transit anywhere on or near your planet - that's considered a very hard problem where I'm from, but it's about what it'd take - and teams of people who can do scrying searches for a long list of people Tar-Baphon might conceivably send to scout for him - and the ability to notice unusual disappearances anywhere on your planet, probably in rural areas selected in the expectation they'd go unnoticed.

Well that's horrifying on about eighteen different levels. Marian both feels like she has a duty to tell someone who's more of a grownup than her immediately, and also she does not even slightly want to have that conversation. 

I don't think we can detect, uh, 'dimensional transit' unless it, like, has a lot of waste heat or something and it'd be obvious on satellite imagery. The police would usually notice disappearances pretty quickly, but - 'quickly' being like in a day or two, and probably longer in rural areas. 

Marian isn't sure how the telepathy works or whether she's going to have to explain some of those words to Iomedae. 

That makes sense. I would be very surprised if Tar-Baphon could follow me here, but it'd be catastrophic if he did so it's worth checking if there is anything this world could do to prepare. If he can follow me here, that makes it likely I am - closer to home - and the gods probably do have some capacity to act or communicate with me here; I'd be very surprised were it true that Tar-Baphon could reach here and my allies could not at any price, and if necessary I can ask Aroden to order them to pay a high one. 

She's getting impatient with lying down; she attempts to sit up.

Marian has reflexes about this! They may not be entirely appropriate to the current situation, but she dives in anyway to support Iomedae's back and hold the IV and art line tubing steady. 

Hey, take it easy. If you want to sit up on the side of the bed or something, I can help manage the tubes and stuff? 

I don't know what management they require but I do not object to you performing it. She can support her own weight; she's solidly back into territory where she could pick up a sword if she had to and had a sword.

Marian stops trying to touch Iomedae - she can tell when a patient doesn't want or need her being right there in their personal space supporting them - but arranges herself where she can easily and quickly catch Iomedae if she collapses. She reaches around to hold the various tubes and wires (oxygen tubing, monitor wires, O2 sat probe wires, art line wire and tubing, IV tubing, there's kind of a lot) and make sure they have enough slack. 

She doesn't exactly looked worried, or stressed - she mostly expects this to go fine, because her gut sense is telling her that Iomedae looks fine - but she is definitely very much on alert and ready to respond to anything going wrong. 

Are you feeling okay? 

I am feeling deep appreciation for how nice it ordinarily is not having been dipped in boiling water. I'm no longer dizzy, though, and I am reasonably confident I'm thinking clearly. Do you know where my armor is now?

Oh good. ....I'm not sure, the last I heard is that the resident was going to bring it over. I can go look for him if you want but, uh, I would sort of be more comfortable leaving the room if you were lying down. I know that probably seems really unreasonable to you as a legendary hero but. 

Iomedae feels more comfortable able to surveill her surroundings with Detect Magic, which she has an ioun stone for, and with Detect Evil, which would actually if she spotted it be mostly reassuring - it'd mean she was in the range where Pharasma's judgements were functioning as normal. Her surroundings are very strange-looking.  The armor can wait.