Looking between the skeleton and the little rodent, Scout asks, "You don't feel vulnerable, having your heart just wandering around outside of you?"

"Soul," her dæmon says. "Hearts are physical. We're souls made of magic dust."

"If you're part of me, how do you know that?" Scout folds her arms over her chest, shifting her weight on her long feet.

He just shrugs, a weirdly human gesture coming from a bird-lizard. "You saw it too. Besides." Leaning his beak down he nips at his own foot - Scout winces - enough to scratch his skin. Rather than droplets of blood welling up there's something luminous and ethereal.

"Okay, don't do that," she says instantly, vaguely creeped out.