"See you."

Off she goes...

...and when she's far enough to be sure the Behaims aren't looking she makes her way to the Thorburn mansion.

Rose looks exactly the same as she did last 2003. Maybe scarier now that Sadde's better informed about the kind of thing she could call down constrained only by her own good judgment.

"Sadde. You exist again?"

"Indeed I do. Miss me?"

"I'm very glad to see you made it back safely. Untested magic is risky no matter who's doing it."

"Indeed I do. May I come in? I'd like to catch up. Or is this a bad time?"

"Of course. Anything to eat or drink while we catch up?" The mansion is well stocked, but Rose doesn't know where Sadde is on the scale from "just had dinner" to "it's been sixty years." She opens the door fully. Once they're in they'll be out of view, just in case.

"I'd welcome some tea or coffee, thank you," she says, walking in.

Rose acquires tea for the both of them, then makes her way to one of several luxurious-looking armchairs. She moves more slowly and carefully than she did sixty years ago, but doesn't seem too hampered by it.

"Remind me how much you were there for? You founded a cabal and we got them started, but I think the last time we met neither they nor I had managed to be a net positive yet."

"I was there 'til October, so yeah, no net positive yet. Has that changed?"

"It has. I should be discretionary with details, but am confident of having been on balance a setback for the demons. The cabal...they didn't fail. They're not, collectively, good enough that I would trust them to scale up very big, which means they aren't breaking new ground, but they didn't self-destruct either."

"—I see. I do believe I should fix that."

"I hope you don't mean the self-destruction."

"I mean the part where they're not good enough. Do you know why?"

"The unavoidable part is that they don't have any history or reputation. If I tell a demon my name, it might bargain or at least listen. They don't have that yet.

The other reason is that I've been withholding some information out of suspicion they might use it. They have enemies, and have become destructive enough to try to lawyer their way out of your oath. With demons, they don't need a complete success to be dangerous."

"—lawyer their way out—in hindsight it's obvious they would but ugh—yes I definitely need to clean that mess up."

"They moved from Montreal in the interim. A city with inquisitors was understandably not the best permanent site, so they're in Toronto now."

"Toronto doesn't have inquisitors? That's... odd. Why not?"

"Diabolists aren't so common that every city needs dedicated opponents. Sometimes Lords call in the nearest group if they need assistance.

My understanding is that they're trying to lie low to avoid provoking anything."

"Is that so."

"It's fairly common, for diabolists. And relatively unobjectionable, since it means no one else has to deal with the kind of thing they might do overtly."

"Mmhm."

"What do you have in mind?"

"That I'm going to make them become a decent faction with worthy goals and methods again."

"They haven't completely lost that. Unless they've been lying, there's been the kind of problem that needs diabolists to solve it. Not just out there and unsealed, but actually in our world."

"Oh good then I guess my work's cut out for me."