"I could make a one-way-glass-bottomed lightflyer, but I couldn't stare out the floor if I were piloting it myself, so I'd need company. What format's your copy in?"

"Sounds like fun."

Cam takes the data disc. "Yeah, I'm going to have to convert this to read it on my computer - local computers are all extremely unportable." He puts the disc down on the table and makes one that will go in his own device, and puts it in his device. "No obvious wrinkles except I need to know where you want everything put."

"I will come up with a place for you to put things while you're busy conjuring dirt and plants."

"Cool. Am I going to be able to keep the wings while I run around to all these places or are there easily alarmed people loitering in the relevant warehouses-and-suchlike?"

"I will make sure the warehouses don't contain any easily alarmed people when you visit them."

"That is very kind of you."

"I prefer to avoid alarming my subjects unnecessarily."

"When we do get around to experimenting with dismissing me, assuming you can retrieve me again after the fact, I would like to find and retain the least racist angel available for easy on-and-off with the extra bits. So I can go out in non-radioactive public with a minimum of blood and inconvenient discards."

"'Least racist angel'?"

"Angels and demons don't get along very well, as a group. But if you summon a hundred of them probably one angel who is willing to be my assistant in exchange for their own shopping list will turn up. I could use an angel assistant for more things than just wing removal, they're generally good for recycling, getting stuff out of the way, one could de-radiate Vorkosigan Vashnoi, etcetera."

Miles perks up. "Ooh, yes please."

"Vorkosigan Vashnoi is the most dramatic example, but it's not the only place that could use de-radiating."

"Ah, alas, angelic de-radiation powers are extremely specific, everything that is not Vorkosigan Vashnoi will just have to stay radioactive, sorry to disappoint."

"Anyway, even racist angels can be useful, pay them in books and complicated electronics and kittens if they don't want to hear from me about their shopping lists, install them in hospitals if they know what they're doing - angels need a lot more expertise to do complex work than demons do, but plenty of the ones who like taking summons know enough to work medical miracles."

"And you can never have too many medical miracles."

"Agreed."

"On the other hand, angels are - on the level of the individual person - just as dangerous as demons. They can't destroy a whole planet, they'd need to actually have learned things about explosives to do any large-scale damage, but they can turn somebody into, say, water, as easily as they can shake your hand. Accordingly I will want to go over in painstaking detail how you do a binding - you can always loose the angel later if you want to trust them, but one you don't know will need to be neatly confined to circle during negotiations and attached to a well-specified task after. You can summon me under a binding, too, if you want, but I wouldn't really be thrilled about it and I think I've more than demonstrated that you don't need to. I also don't see any good reason to teach you how to gag any daeva."

"Makes sense," says Miles, nodding.