About them merging? I'll admit it would have been more convenient to be wrong, all told.

[ a pause, wincing ]

My shoulder is, to put it mildly, fucked.
And I've got to get this stuff off me—it's only a matter of time before it eats through the bark faster than I can regenerate it.

[ One small upside: the tarry blood is mostly just on her arms now, the rest shedding with her disintegrating clothes. So much for dignity; at least she's always liked her figure. ]