"Then the bring-Rewind's-parents-in-person whole subtree's done, I guess?"

"Yeah." The bot wraps it up.

"Okay, next's remote transmission, which could be either a video feed or a phone call."

"Make sure," Lorica tells Rewind, "if it's either that you get to see or hear them react to something in real time."

"Yeah, if it's a recording it's pretty useless."

"But it could be a recording pretending to be a live feed, if you don't interact with it."

"I won't let him trick me."

"Okay, so, if it's a telephone conversation... I can't actually conjure anything through the phone that won't alert them."

"What do you mean, 'that won't alert them'?"

"Well, I can only conjure stuff if I can notice it's been conjured. Via video or in-person I can make a tiny locator somewhere they're not likely to be looking but which I can see, whereas via the phone it'd need to produce some noise loud enough for me to hear and then they'd hear it, too."

"Wait, really? I didn't know that."

"Eighty percent of power is appearances."

"Okay, but would it have to be a particularly implicating noise? Make it sound like somebody pressed the 6 button by accident or like the Rewind copy coughed."

"But... hmm... well, what could I conjure that's useful and would produce that kind of noise? Also there's the problem that I won't be seeing the other side, so whatever thugs that will be there might notice the thing I conjured wherever my power makes it appear."

"A bot," says Lorica. "A little, mini bot, which can make noises and see. A camo model."

"Where would I conjure it, that whoever's holding the phone wouldn't hear?"

"Inside the casing? If you can get it small enough."

"Hmmm... I probably can, but then it wouldn't really be able to see. Which, well, might not be necessary, if it's just a locator. Oh, your bots have night vision don't they?"

"Yeah. And once it's there it'll be able to report to you if other bots appear in its vicinity."

"Yes. I'm gonna need a video feed ready to receive its input, though, so I can in principle tell that it's inside the phone."

"That's a really weird limitation."

"On it," says the bot.

"Awesome. Alright, operation save-Rewind's-parents is on."

"You know, it's kinda weird that you two call me Rewind even here."