"Smoothly. He will no longer be a problem."

"It's best if we divide the blame, here. Mr. Irving will be here in a few moments, and we can say that while you committed the act, I suggested the method and he provided the motivation. This will minimize conflict with the pack."

"All right."

And he arrives, as promised.

"Ellie. Where's my, ah, necromancer?"

"We killed him. You were motivated to end his life, because of his crimes against the town your wife and daughter gave their lives to protect, and I suggested a trip to the sun, and Ellie here supplied the method."

"Alright. Anything else?"

"We're better off without him."

Nod.

"What do you plan to do next?"

"We need to look into who summoned her here."

"My summoner is essentially my only point of vulnerability. So far, we have no leads."

"How does summoning work? What were the circumstances of yours?"

He explains what he knows about summoning circles, and the lack of any obvious summoners when she arrived.

She supplements slightly, but the doctor has essentially the full picture.

"What about the Nemeton?"

"The Nemeton? It may be intelligent, but not that intelligent..."

"Can it form intentions?"

"I hadn't thought it could. It's possible."

"That's a new one. A tree for a summoner."

"That doesn't exactly fill me with hope about your ability to return home."

"The other option for dismissal is killing the summoner. So, burning the stump or similar."

"That's also not filling me with hope. The Nemeton, if it is as intelligent as this suggests, has that intelligence as a result of centuries-old magic, despite having been turned from a flourishing grove of trees to a single, dead tree stump. I'm not entirely certain it won't persist if we destroy the stump."

"A Nemeton is unlikely to be easy to destroy, anyway, they're very magical. Moreso than the sum of the druids that sanctify them."

"It's not as though I have any pressing appointments."

"Are there fairies we could summon? Those, we could dismiss if they've wanted to go home, but in the meanwhile they could keep you company."

"This is not the world to which daeva are usually summoned. I do not know whether my own appearance here is a replicable occurrence."