"What's 'flash-healed?'" Liya asked suspiciously. Helygen didn't answer.

"May I see your leg?" they asked. Liya hesitated.

"I guess so," she murmured, and shifted in the stone chair to bring her right knee to her chest. She unbuttoned the cuff of her pants--they were denim, but not like jeans so much, and they buttoned around the ankle with brass--and rolled the fabric up.

The burns had healed into shiny pink scars that made bending her knees hard; she hadn't been able to get them to go away, and was starting to think she never would. Helygen knelt down in the grass, offering her their knee.

"Here."

Liya obliged, propping her leather shoe on Helygen's knee. She had to fight to keep from flinching as Helygen's right arm--if it could be called that--quietly sprouted roots that wrapped around her scarred calf.

They were gentle; the spots that weren't scarred almost tickled. Threads of gold light were winding through the roots, roaming over her skin like feelers.

"Have you had any pain where the break was?" Helygen asked. Liya was frozen, watching intently.

"Um," she murmured, "for a couple days, but then it stopped."

"And the burns?"

"I healed 'em as soon as Marinos let me."