"No one here is going to forcibly touch you," says the witch. "Anyone who tries it is the worst kind of criminal. Or a very young child that severely needs a lesson. In your own world I don't think people will know that, I'm afraid. I don't believe I can help, but I can look for methods."

"If it turns out that me and Cam are a package deal such that I will appear whenever he's summoned from now on, I had better have a good defense," says Atriama. "Laminate myself in plastic or declare the scales not part of me - are there any hermit crab daemons? Do their shells count? - Or he'll have to stop taking summons and that would be awful."

"I... think their shells don't count. But there isn't exactly a test for this sort of thing, so I couldn't say for sure. Why would not taking summons be awful?"

"... Is there something wrong with doing things here?" she wonders. "I understand if you would want to return home, but it seems the obvious solution."

"I could just stay here, at least for the time being. My pen pals would miss me after a few years, and I will be dismissed whether I like it or not whenever you die, but it is at least short-term safe for the snake and has no other obvious drawbacks."

"Witches only die when they're killed or they grow bored, tire of life, lose too many people they love, or something similar. I'm likely to live several centuries, at least."

"And I'm good and proper thoroughly forever-means-forever immortal, so this is still only temporary."

"That's fair." She smiles, a bit. "But you'll forgive me if I work for a 'forever' immortality, too."

"Actually, if you are subject to the rules I'm familiar with, when you die you'll become a daeva, since you're a summoner now. But I'd be just as dismissed anyway."

"I don't know any other daeva on whom I would like to unexpectedly inflict a soul animal, but if I decide to go home and come back for unrelated reasons I don't mind being summoned by different people on the trip back."

"Yes, that was my thought process, as well. Thank you."

"You're welcome. So what's your name, summoner?"

"Adanya Emaia. Pleasure to meet you, despite the accidental summoning and daemon circumstances."

"Likewise. So, this is actually a terrible circle, I'm not bound at all, but my gaping cultural unfamiliarity inclines me towards slightly more conservatism than 'make spaceship, fly to Mars, terraform immediately'. How do you feel about harboring an exchange student?"

"Next time I accidentally summon a demon, I will be sure to make the circle less terrible," she says dryly. "I'm fine with harboring an exchange student, though you'd have to make sure it's all right with my dad if you want to stay in his house. Since you've got an unspecified magic I think my clan will also let you stay on clan lands for at least a little while."

"Do they only let people with magic in?"

"No. My brother and father are free to wander clan lands. But you're a stranger that they don't know, and I'm only a recent member. The ability to give favors is something in your favor."

"So to speak. But this is an optional exchange student program. I can and will fuck off into space if it's going to be inconvenient or involve supplying machine guns to questionably ethical insurgents or something in order to buy permission to stay in any given patch of land."

"Fair. It shouldn't be too much trouble, but I'll make sure. ... What does your magic do, anyway?"

"Makes stuff," say Cam and Atriama at the same time. Cam pets one of her coils.

"What stuff, specifically?"

"No, not specifically. That's the beauty of it."