"Seems a shame. Howcome everyone knows about Daeva but no one knows that some of them are dead humans?"

"I can only answer half of that question."

"Which half?"

"Oh, everyone knows about daeva because I told them."

"Yep. I was seventeen, I found some summoning books in an abandoned house, I carefully experimented and talked to some daeva, and then I deployed a bunch of summons to make it pretty undeniable that they existed. Previous summoners came clean in small quantities - they'd all had economic incentives to keep quiet, you see, but those were gone - and I hid among them and taught summoning at a university for four years and then someone figured out it was me and shot me in the head."

"I took to being a demon really well! The only trouble was then I couldn't get in touch with my parents."

"That must suck. My parents are kind of gratuitously ordinary for the most part but I'd hate not being able to see them again."

"Gratuitously ordinary. Mine are approximately that too. Anyway, eventually they died and went to Limbo, which is what happens if you don't turn into a daeva. I knew about it but hadn't publicized - it seemed like it would make the engine of post-scarcity unnecessarily political, you know? - but Limboites aren't summonable and don't get cool powers and the place is kind of disappointing."

Cam hands her a piece of paper.

"Thanks. Fair warning, if this doesn't work the first time I'm absolutely going to try again."

"I mean, maybe give me twenty minutes if it's been long enough between dismissal and resummoning that your first attempt catches me in the shower. The first drawing will remain valid in that instance, incidentally, as this is a personally targeted circle. I'll just turn up slightly damp while you're drawing a redundant duplicate."

"Okay, that's fair. Why would you be damp, though, couldn't you create a layer of hot air between your skin and the water or something?"

"Water clings tight enough that it's mildly uncomfortable to get the air under it. I'm faster than those awful public restroom fans, but not by that much."

"Yeah, okay, I'm a biology major, not a physics major, I'll take your word for it."

"Some people don't mind sloughing the water off like that, I've just never liked the sensation."

"I'll probably try it at least once if I'm ever a demon. I believe in trying new things before judging them unless they're really obviously a bad idea."

"Oh, that will get you into all sorts of messes if you're any kind of daeva. We're indestructible."

"I do have a fairly reasonable definition of what constitutes really obviously a bad idea you know."

"Yes, but if one is indestructible things like 'flinging oneself into a star' are merely 'inconvenient'."

"That sounds annoying to get out of. I don't mind risking pain, but tedium is more of a deterrent."

"I do actually have a plan to get out of any stars or black holes I find myself in but it would take a while."

"Yeah, it doesn't sound like eternal torment, but I can't imagine why I would want to do it in the first place. There's a difference between 'not judging' and 'bothering with.'"