"I really do appreciate that you made the time to stop by," he says to Niari. 

"Thanks so much for the invitation, it was fascinating."

"I'll let you know if Beach becomes more pressingly a concern, or when we run into anything else out there that's your purview. Would it be convenient for us to pay a fairy for the ride home -"

"It would save me a few minutes but it's not a great hassle, really."

"Whatever's easiest for you. As you might have noticed we have more demons running around than we know what to do with."

"I have noticed. I don't want to contribute to the wait time."

"Makes sense. Have a lovely day."

And she goes.

And he watches Timothy's interviews and looks for troublemakers.

He is not especially in the mood to conduct more interviews; he reorganizes his list.

"Why did you drop the tidbit about my watching daeva incidents, what were you going to do if she were suddenly really curious."

"Offer to compare notes? There are lots of reasons someone might track daeva incidents besides 'is Revelation and likes knowing to five decimal places how positive-sum he was."

"One decimal place."

"I love you. Anyway, I'll be careful about which tidbits if you prefer it but - the thing where people have exactly one piece of information about you and it's 'holed a planet' really bothers me. 'holed a planet, plays violin' is tolerable, 'holed a planet, tracks daeva incidents, wags his tail when learning about new magic systems' is good..."

Cam sighs and leans his head on Timothy's shoulder. "I don't see how advertising 'the black hole demon plays violin because he thought that one song about soul-stealing was funny' helps."

"Song about soul-stealing?"

"Would you like me to perform 'The Devil Went Down To Georgia'. It was funnier when I was twenty-five."

"Yes I would. I am not yet twenty-five, it'll probably be hilarious."

Cam kisses him and makes himself a violin and does the whole thing.

It's hilarious. "When people are being really annoying around you - not Niari, more annoying than that - I am very tempted to say "Cam, trade you my soul for a copy of the paper?" but then I imagine the face you'd make."

"She wasn't even annoying."

"No, she wasn't. She seems very capable and she'd been forewarned and she was entirely reasonable and still you - shrunk -"

Sigh.

"They're not keeping you unbound as a courtesy, you know, it's because we are all a hell of a lot safer when you have more choices."

"I don't expect her to feel that way on a gut level and have no desire to scare her by appearing - unsubdued."