"I'd be delighted to assist you in doing so should you desire my help."

"I'll probably need it if any of the language is opaque or I just don't have the context."

"Oh, some of the works of Earl Albert's my grandfather has will likely be French translations, is that acceptable?"

"I'm fully literate in French, yes."

"Well then, that won't be a problem, I suppose." She actually has the first volume of the Royal Campaigns in her study if he wants to get started on reading it while she holds his hand.

"...I can't. Read. While I'm backlashed basically at all. Unless the reading itself somehow manages to constitute a social activity."

"Oh, hm, would you like me to read it to you?"

"That works."

The first section deals with a campaign from shortly after the Dark Ages ended. A stone beetle the size of a small mountain was steadily heading towards London, drooling fire and sounding screams that provoked men to anger. It killed all but one of the first dozen empowered who joined forces against it. Desperate, the king had called for all able-bodied empowered to work together, finally slaying it after days of breaking apart its shell and dealing with their own maddened comrades fighting against them. Its corpse formed a small dormant volcano that is less than a day's ride away from London.

"It... can't have been that big when it was attached to a person, can it?"

"Very unlikely - demons change as they grow in power, and getting bigger is common, though Cindermount is unusually big. Possibly it had some means of continuing to grow even after it became wild."

"Like, do they eat, or...?"

"Not usually. I believe that later in the battle description it's mentioned that Cindermount's wounds leak lava which can harden into shell if left undisturbed. Perhaps that's sufficient to have provided its unusual size if there were enough unsuccessful attempts to vanquish it." 

"That doesn't explain where the lava came from."

"Came from?"

"- so, when no magic is involved, there is basically always the exact same amount of stuff. It might take up more or less space or be a different kind of stuff, but it's the same total amount of stuff by objective stuff-amount-measurements. Magic can break this rule but if demons usually don't break it a lot it prompts the question of why this one could break it enough to turn into an entire mountain."

"My demon appears out of nowhere when it manifests to haunt me. Is this somehow different?"

"Depends on whether it exists between hauntings. I'd tend to think it does since its properties can change - it gets stronger till you let it haunt you, right?"

"Yes, though it didn't exist prior to haunting me as far as I know - also as it gets stronger it gets larger, I believe."

"Under conservation of mass - that being the same amount of stuff principle - it could still start existing having not previously existed as long as it was made out of stuff that existed before. And grow, as long as the stuff comes from somewhere before being incorporated into it."

"I don't notice it doing any such incorporating, but if it did I don't see why Cindermount couldn't do the same?"

"It can and clearly it did! It's just notable to me."

Nod.

"Shall I continue reading about the battle?"

"Sorry for interrupting but it will happen again. Please go on."

"I don't mind." And a return to reading about the unsuccessful attempt to rescue an empowered duke who was swallowed whole by the beast.