"Early twenty-first century. During my lifetime, in fact."

"Must have been quite disruptive."

"It was, but mostly in a good way."

"And not a single catastrophic mistake yet. I always assumed that without the Valar someone'd let a daeva loose in a matter of Years, and we'd be right back where we started."

"...Well, there was that one incident with the angel who turned people into furniture, but they found and killed the summoner."

"Turned people into furniture?"

"Yeah. While leaving them still somehow alive."

"Well, that's horrifying."

"Yes, that was how it was empirically demonstrated that nuclear weapons don't bypass daeva invulnerability. And everyone agrees that it was the right decision, even though it didn't work."

"...

How'd they find the summoner?"

"I don't know off the top of my head."

"And you don't have lightleapers so weren't looking literally anywhere in the universe. Okay. Guest room next door is yours if either of you like to sleep - it only has one bed, sorry - or if the palace isn't pretty enough I can take you out to the gardens for a few hours."

"...The palace is gorgeous. Neither of us is going to waste time sleeping when we only have a week to see each other in when we usually go decades without."

How normal. Which makes sense, if they're ex-summoners. But also feels a little too straightforward. 

"By all means. Let me know if you need anything."

"Alright."

Assigning people to ships. Giving promotions to people remaining in Tirion so the city won't shudder to a halt while most of its population is at war. And plan after plan after plan for evacuating Endore. He barely sleeps.

This whole thing sucks.

"So what are you doing when you're sitting in a chair with your eyes closed?"

"Oh! Sorry, I even gathered that your world didn't have backups and didn't think through any of the other implications - we're telepathic. I'm coordinating the departure from the city."

"Lucky," she breathes. "...The telepathy part, not the...other part. Can the chips be installed in daeva?"

"I can't think why not - it's not as if it'll kill you and if it did somehow incapacitate you that'd be tremendously valuable information and we have an angel on-hand to fix it." He pulls up a brain scan. "They look like that and they go there."

She examines the scan.

She makes the chip.

She can sense all of the people around her, thousands of them - the fact they're present, any thoughts of theirs which are public, if she wants she can reach out for their senses and see through their eyes -

Amazing.

And he can read all of her thoughts, now, because she hasn't yet learned to shield them. 

Very very unlike the daeva of his world, unlike the Valar. Not fundamentally alien at all. 

Interesting.

"D'you want to load some blessings on that?"

"Blessings?"