"Yeah, of course. Thanks."

And so she returns to her laptop. Her life is on this laptop, it's only natural.

It doesn't take her long to find the correct document, with all of the case studies of Serafin's victims and the magical theory with very thorough documentation and citations to specific case studies in the document itself, or other documents she has written up on this specific style of magic. It takes her slightly longer to update her backup of the document, because even if the subject matter is horrific she is not letting it get destroyed. Once that's done, it doesn't take her very long at all to delete one specific case study with great prejudice and pretend that it was not there and did not exist. Maybe if she were being very thorough she'd go back through and erase all citations that refer to it, but she can't be arsed to look at this document anymore, and prints it.

Miles... decides not to ask about the backup. Or the deletion.

She'd explain it if he asked, but. Yes. Good. She prefers not to.

She gives Miles a quick hug then staples the packet together and then goes off to hand it to Liesel.

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

"Yeah. There's extra supporting documentation if you want it, but it's not super relevant to anything but the theory." She leaves out the part about the missing case study. Liesel's a smart girl, she can figure it out. "But let me know if you think you need them. I'm - going to go work on the long range ensouling spell."

She nods. "Good luck."

"Thanks."

The documentation is very thorough. It's clear, concise, and efficient, and even with all of that there's a daunting amount of information to sort through. The list of what Yvette's questionably-ex-quasi-boyfriend does to people is impressive. And also very clearly incomplete. There's a section of pure speculation that theorizes possible magical reactions to certain kinds of torture that the case studies don't cover - the author seems curious but in a clinical, detached way. Scientific and efficient, not sadistic. The case studies are referred to by number, not by name, all throughout the document. Names, if she knew them, are tidily listed, and not if she didn't.

One is referred to by letter, not number. It's missing entirely. It could be an accident, but there are only so many words that start with 'Y,' and a person that makes a document as thorough as this does not make mistakes like 'accidentally leave out a case study.'

Well. That would've been useful information, but it's very understandable that she left it out.

Liesel reads the documentation. She definitely doesn't know anyone right now that she could suggest to this guy as a substitute for his unwilling victims, but it's not impossible that she might be able to find someone, if she tried.

Yvette focuses on spell design, explaining to Miles the logic as she goes, though a little sedately. Part of her mind's on the spell, part of it's elsewhere.

Miles pays attention to the spell design and doesn't comment on the elsewhere.

Well, he gets snuggles for that. For that, and for everything else.

"... I think I'll just call him and explain," she says, with no preamble. "And just see how he reacts."

"All right. Want me to go notify Liesel for you?"

"Yeah. I'll ask him if he's willing to help, but. No promises there, I certainly don't want to try to manipulate him into doing anything."

"Sensible."

Smile.

"And if he decides that he'd prefer me without my soul, well. Too bad for him. It's mine now, I'm keeping it."

Snort. "Damn right."

"That being said, we should definitely make sure Chris doesn't need anything extra for protection against him before I actually call him, because. I don't think he's going to freak out at the return of my soul, but. I don't know for sure."

"...Yeah. Wise."

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst, or - something." She leans over to kiss his cheek, then closes her laptop, sets it aside, and stands.

"Yeah, something like that."

Off in search of Liesel!

In the living room, reading about torture!

"Hello again," says Yvette. "So I think I'm going to just call him and explain, but just in case his reaction is less than stellar I want to make sure everything is potentially prepared for a warlock to show up wanting to steal my soul."

"How quickly could he get here if he was trying, and how likely is it that he'd try? There are more preparations I could make but they're resource-intensive enough that I'm reluctant to waste them."

"... If he were really pissed - twenty minutes to react with a scry and a lightning bolt. A few hours to get here, otherwise. I don't expect him to do the former. The latter - if he decided that he didn't like me with a soul enough to want me 'back,' then I expect he'd show up some time to - 'retrieve' me, not necessarily immediately. If the preparations are resource-intensive then it sounds like they shouldn't be wasted."

"All right. Then we're as ready as we're going to get."