Miko nods, stepping away from Anevia and Seelah. A little further back, even, for good measure.

Seelah pours her last trickle of natural healing through her palms, which fixes the new damage. Then she grits her teeth and casts a handful of low-level Cure spells, which... at least make Anevia's legs look less ruined.

She still takes a little while to regain consciousness. Contrary to popular belief, getting someone back into positive hit points doesn't always make them pop back up like a Jack-in-the-box.

Everything strange that's happened so far—Hulrun not being able to heal her, the lack of hunger, the Darkvision—clicks into place. And—

Detecting Good instead of Evil. The way her armor ?drank? the blood. Inflicting damage when she tried to heal it. The color scheme. Is…

Is she Evil now?

She doesn't feel Evil. But—she can't deny what her touch did. She remembers what Soon said, before she died. (She died. And now she's… whatever this is.)

Is she even Miko anymore? Maybe she's some undead spirit that only thinks it's a paladin, shoved into a body that isn't really hers.

Seelah's watching her.

It started as the wary kind of watching you might do to someone you're not sure isn't going to try to kill you. It's turned into something else, though - more the uncomfortably sympathetic look of the only other occupant of the women's restroom during a catastrophic nervous breakdown.

"...knew a vampire once," she says. Apropos of nothing.

Oh, Seelah's talking to her.

"What happened to them?"

"Not much. Uh... we weren't friends, really, or enemies. We just. Met. He was kind of a dick."

She looks at the floor.

"Not bad enough that I'd have killed him. Better than some of the humanoids I've known. ...I've known some pretty bad humanoids. But."

She manages to laugh, at that.

"I see. Well. That aside, if. If you want me to stay away from you anyway."

She doesn't know how to finish that sentence. But—she can strike out on her own, if needs be. She probably needs to figure out what she is now, if not a paladin, anyway. Before she hurts another innocent person.

Seelah shakes her head, hard. "Good and Evil are questions you argue about in temples. Not in a cave while defending a woman with two broken legs. ...and you wanted to help."

A nod. A cautious step closer.

"All right. Well—I'm going to meditate. I need to find out what my new class features are so that—that—doesn't happen again."

Seelah looks confused, but doesn't question this. She should probably get some poultices on Anevia, while she's waking up.

She finds a clear spot to kneel and tentatively looks at her character sheet.

MIKO MIYAZAKI

Monk 2/Paladin 9 (Fallen)/Blackguard 5

Undead (Augmented: Graveknight)

BAB 15/10/5 (Flurry 13/13/8/3)

STR 21 (23) | DEX 18 (22) | CON -

INT 13 | WIS 17 (21) | CHA 23 (27)

HD 2d8 + 15d10 + 136

[...]

It goes as one might expect, from there. Her feats are the same, except for a few paladin-specific ones which have been switched for blackguard-specific ones. She's got some nifty special abilities.

Her "armor" isn't actually studded leather; it's literally just an enchanted leather jacket and trousers, treated as clothing. (They're very well enchanted, though - armor bonus of breastplate, and the first time each day that at least 25 HP worth of blood is spilled over them, she gains Fast Healing 5 for a minute. Also, they're the focus for some kind of undead-enhancing aura.) She's got a couple of other items of interest; notably, those scabbards on her waist are... a minor artifact? Named(???) Finnean?

Her Lay on Hands is instead a Touch of Corruption, which does the same thing but with negative energy. It's good if she needs to dump a lot of damage into a living enemy in one hit, and she's used to mixing unarmed attacks into her Flurry. Her Divine Grace is now Dark Blessing, which is literally identical. Her spell list is different, though not that different.

She's got Sneak Attack 2d6. That'll be pivotal, probably.

And she's got a fiendish companion. An undead nightmare by the name of Ashrider.

… Okay.

On the day she died—that is to say, yesterday—she woke up in prison to a succubus offering to trade in her paladin levels for blackguard levels. Despite the answer Miko gave the fiend, this seems to have been what happened whenever she… turned undead. At least she can take some solace in depriving the demon of the riches she would have gained in exchange for her paladin levels. And resolve to never let the succubus see her current outfit, which shouldn't be hard.

She feels uneasy about her scabbard being an intelligent artifact—at least, that's what she's assuming based on the name. She can talk to it… later. When she's properly alone.)

The same applies to… Ashrider. She's tempted to refrain from summoning the nightmare, but—no. She can't flinch away from something as valuable as a mount out of sentimentality.

Finally, she looks up at Seelah.

"All right. I can still prepare Cure spells separately from my… touch of corruption. I'll probably need to do that at dusk, although I haven't prepared any spells yet today and might be able to right now. I'm not sure what caster level I'll be preparing them at, though; I have more remaining levels in fallen paladin than in blackguard."

Seelah looks morbidly fascinated. "Levels. Like... you're not from around here, obviously, but is that what they call spell circles in Tian Xia? And blackguard I'm guessing is like some kind of undead paladin... it kind of makes sense they'd be able to use positive energy sometimes, undead don't always get along. Not that mortals do, but. I'm babbling, aren't I."

"I'm from Azure City, actually. And yes, though 'level' refers to more than just spell level or caster level. There's also character level and encounter level. Blackguards… don't have to be undead, which is probably the primary reason for the Cure spells being on the list."

She is now realizing, possibly thanks to the boosted Wisdom and extremely boosted Charisma, that she has essentially invited Seelah to ask what a blackguard actually is and possibly also how she fell. Oh no.

"Alright."

Seelah leaves it at that, and gently shakes Anevia's shoulder.

"Fuck you," Anevia mumbles, her eyes still closed.

"I'm not your wife. You're in a cave and we don't have food or water. I'm not giving you five more minutes."

Anevia glares blearily at Seelah. "Damn it. I should have known nightmares don't hurt that bad. ...you're going to have to carry me, if I try to walk it's not going to be pretty."

Seelah sighs, and hoists Anevia onto her back. "You have to cling to me, I'm not giving up my arms for the foreseeable future."

Thank you, Seelah.

She weighs the pros and cons of offering to summon her new mount. On the one hand, if the nightmare is as cooperative as Windstriker, it would be a massive help. However, she doesn't know that, not having summoned it yet. Also, Anevia might be too injured to ride.

She decides to wait. For now.

"Are we just walking until we find a way out of this pit, then?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

From some it'd be a gripe. Seelah's just asking.

She doesn't have any navigation spells on her new list, so no.

"No. I can lead the way if you'd like; I seem to be able to see in the dark now."

"That's good. You've probably got better range than the torch, and won't disturb any monsters like the light would... I'll wrap the torch until I can just barely see you to follow."

Seelah does this; once the phantom torchlight illuminates barely a 5-foot radius, she holsters it on her belt and allows Miko to lead the way.