"Definitely less of a nightmare to scale, that - who are you, Cam, what's your role in this."

"I have a long and complicated story the upshot of which is I need to get a million insubstantial god-things out of a black hole or otherwise restored to life."

"Gosh, okay.  Is that tractable."

"Not with magic I have. I'm hoping they can do something if they ramp up enough." He inclines his head toward Ancora.

'I can,' they assert.

". . . Gotcha.  It sounds like you have non-applicable magic?  What's that like."

"I can make things. For reasons that are not well-understood this magic cannot make minds, even minds that are implemented on physical substrates, but the other species that were casualties of the black hole are cyborgs with backups I can use for the purpose instead, so it's just the Maiar - the insubstantial god-things - that I need outside help with."

"Can you elaborate - 'things' like artefacts or what; is it crafting or are there rituals and then you just have whatever it is, poof, or - "

"Nonmagical matter that appears stationary relative to my reference frame, optionally copied from existing objects according to what are called 'conjurable parameters', very poof."

She whistles, impressed.

'Cam is immeasurably helpful.'

"I gave them a computer and have been conjuring up their 3-D models to spec. And introducing them to video recordings, which were apparently new; what year is it on your Earth?"

"2014.  - 'My' Earth?"

"There are lots. I was born on one."

"I guess that's probably not weirder than anything else going on here.  And uh, why my Earth; why me specifically to pause it - "

"Ancorabenilisifentiliane gave me a shortlist of options and didn't know much about anybody, including names or anything I could use to conjure for more, but your resume was the best, especially considering that the runner-up is thirteen."

"What was on my resume?"

"Saved seven people's lives the first day you had magic?"

". . . Ah."

"Is that - complicated somehow, or -"

"It - wasn't a great time, is all.  And I suppose - I was one of them, if six versus seven makes a difference for complicatedness, or if it just being self-defense loses me points."

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want."

"I do not super want, yeah.  Thanks."

Cam nods. "So, uh, that's what we're about."

"Uh, cool."  She turns to Ancora.  "So - you made vampires, now you're in an interdimensional bar, what's the story there."