"Sure.

Or, you might want to change into clothes that blend in better first. I can find you something of my nephew's, bit big but less conspicuous."

"That would be very kind."

"We have some of his things boxed up for when he comes back from the war. He won't miss it."

Some mostly-fitting 1943 clothes are found easily.

"—oh, duck, the war is still going on, isn't it."

"It is.

Try to resist the temptation to dictate a history book to the Prime Minister."

He rubs his temples. "Christ, there'll be—no. Ugh. No." He shakes his head. "Sorry. I should show you where the creature was."

"Right. That.

It's not the biggest issue, but it's the one I'm more positioned to do something about."

He nods, and after having changed starts leading the way.

The circle of stones is where it was left. The rocks representing the tips of the teeth have managed to shift back to their designated spots, so it looks the same to ordinary eyes as to a practitioner's. Barely stands out at all.

"Kick out a rock, and there's still a spirit rock there. When I stepped inside I was in the creature. I—managed to seal it."

"That was you? This is old, I would've expected it to be sealed long ago or not at all."

"I'm not sure 'long ago' is a meaningful concept for this."

"Fair enough.

If you were inside, and I'm assuming here you mean something more three-dimensional than standing in the ring, how'd you get out?"

"Goblin that attacked me had a club, I used the club to smash it from the inside, then while I was hurting it and after I'd made a hole I threatened to create a paradox if it didn't agree to be sealed."

"Actively trying that would've been a very bad move on your part. Potentially bad for it, too, though.

What exactly happened when you went in? It does just look like a set of rocks from out here."

"First few times, nothing, but then when I fell in with the goblin the rocks jutted up like stalagmites and I was trapped inside a stone cage."

He nudges a rock inward with a fallen branch. It rolls over in exactly the way the tip of a buried spike wouldn't.

"So it's still dangerous? To Others and animals and practitioners, if not to innocents. Well done on that part."

"I actually made it agree to a tighter seal than Solomon's, but—" Pause. He's never heard of his Seal before. No one's ever said his name was familiar. So knowledge of the Seal of Sadde had not reached Jacob's Bell by 2003. "I'm not sure it's wise to tell you."

"You're probably being overly cautious again, but it's better than the reverse. 

Thing is, it affects what I do about it. If it's dangerous I could try and shut it down for sixty years somehow, if it's not dangerous that's a waste of some potentially very expensive effort."

He chews on his lip for a bit then says, "Remember when I said I wanted to be memorable? I want to supplant the Seal of Solomon with something better designed."

"You do realize that's most of what's protecting all the bystanders. Not a good thing to mess with unless you're really sure you know what you're doing, and probably not even then."

"The one I designed augments Solomon's and references it—" and he explains it again "—so whoever has it automatically has Solomon's, too."

"Supposing it does catch on, then the Seal of Solomon gets clearly labeled the kind of thing that can be changed. The next person to come along might not have the same motives you do."

"It didn't change, though—the creature, whatever it is, has the Seal of Solomon, too. Mine just gets tackled on, on top of it, and it's never contradicted."

"Right, you succeeding would not itself be a catastrophe. What it would do is make the status quo less absolute. It'd involve a step up in this case, but at the cost of making the hard-won situation we have more precarious."