"I'm sorry. It looks like magic doesn't know what to do with you. I don't suppose this book mentions anything about banshees? We've never understood why they interact the way they do with magic." 

"I didn't even know banshees were a thing until now," says Yvette, archly. "No. It hasn't mentioned anything about any of that," sort of like everyone in this fucking town, "its focus is just Cthulhu and Cthulhu related powers. What are banshees?"

"One of many mythological creatures that seems to actually exist. They're rumored to be immune to magic. I don't know how much of the Irish legend applies. Said to wail when men in an important family die."

"Huh. Okay. Can I get something like a, a list of mythological creatures that we know to actually exist? And maybe some guesses as to what Lydia is, if we can make any."

"You can get a few lists, in order of how accurate I think they are. There's some disagreement within the community. There also isn't really a coherent community. Banshee is one of the guesses, fairies insofar as they exist, dragon, if they do...she's something I've never encountered, since very few supernaturals are immune to the specific things that she is immune to." 

"All right. Thanks. And - good to know. We'll let her know and ask specifics about her weirdness."

"Good luck. Sorry I couldn't do more." 

If that's all, Scott will be happy to convey her elsewhere. 

Not quite -

"Think it's worth the trouble to have me only read... this..." She motions to the book. "in an ash circle?"

"It might keep others safe, if you're otherwise likely to have any spillover effects that we can't detect. You'll be trapped in with whatever entity is involved; it seems to keep itself close to you."

"I think I'm trapped with it anyway," says Yvette, dryly. "Might as well keep everyone else safe. Is the ash reusable?"

"It is. I'll have to draw the circle again, but it doesn't use itself up for circles and simple barriers." 

"Any specific way to draw the circle, or is it just. Pour it out in a circle?"

"It amounts to the same thing for an observer. The mindset is more complicated. I can get started with short notice, I've been doing this for years." 

"I thought you were retired." 

"If that was ever true, it's certainly not anymore."

"Then - yeah, please re-circle me, I've got some reading to do. Scott, you don't have to stick around for it all, you can come pick me up in a few hours or something? And if there is an emergency you call ahead and then we go from there."

He nods. 

"Good luck." 

Scott leaves.

The doctor makes the circle.

And Yvette goes back to reading.

For a book on how to grow up to be an unknowable eldritch entity, it really is very nerdy. And sort of dense. The concepts involved are explained very clearly, if hard to put into typical language, but there are a lot of factors involved. She has a limited supply of what she's going to term 'starting power sources' with which to build the upgrades to herself. If she taps them all dry and doesn't build something to regain the types of power, then she'll just - be stuck. Unable to progress further towards becoming Cthulhu. Which, really, might not be such a bad thing, except for how she'd have to definitely progress in what she's deciding to term the eldritch tech tree. And except for how some of these upgrades look. Healing, invulnerability, teleportation - she can definitely eventually get home, if she plays along to this book. At least, according to the book.

(But what would she be, when she got home?)

And none of these changes are reversible.

"There's a way for me to get home. If I eldritch it up," she says softly. "But anything I do to myself will not be reversible."

"Our own magic doesn't seem to work on you, or I'd offer some of our illusions. I suppose the greater fear is the way it will affect your mind, than your body."

"Yeah. I mean it'd be bad if I suddenly sprouted some extra tentacles, but - worse would be if I decided that it made more sense for me to harvest the minds of every sentient creature on the planet for power. .... Which by the way is. An option for me. Which is great."

"To use a metaphor, can you pick fruits from minds instead of something completely destructive?" 

"I - think so? Maybe? But I don't precisely need to be touching any minds for harvesting anything at all, if I put my - my starting resources towards making something that will make more of the resources, I can just. Not. I was planning to not."

"All right. I just wanted to make it clear that we can help with resource constraints. If splitting the costs would help."