"Uh Grandda might get hard to avoid if you tried."

"Yes," says Cordelia.

"Grandda started liking me when I came to ride his horses but I'm not sure it works if you're not his grandson," says Miles.

"I can cut off the wings. And style my hair to cover my ears, I guess."

"...cut them? Anyway you'd still be too pretty."

"They don't have nerves. I'm not going to make myself uglier."

Miles considers. "...if it turns out your magic made me normal I bet he'll like you no matter how pretty you are," he says.

Cordelia half-successfully conceals a wince. "That's probably true."

"Is Mama magic?"

He tries.

No she is not because here is a basement dweller.

...she blinks disconcertedly at it.

"That's weirder than I thought it would be."

"Yeah," says Miles, unnerved.

"What... is it?" asks Cordelia.

"Demons can't make minds. That's mostly a good thing because most demons are nice but if they could make people then some would probably make people to be mean to and it's not like Hell has a government to stop them. So if a demon tries to make a person it comes out like this. I can throw it into the sun if you want."

"...I would like to be very sure it doesn't have a mind before I authorize throwing it into the sun - are there any studies you can cite...?"

"Uh, we tried like a gazillion things to wake them up and the only one that works is a wished-on power? ...if you try to do a fetus before five weeks it develops normally, after that it doesn't, does that count?"

She considers.

"What I'm afraid of is that they might have thoughts and internal experiences that they are unable to act on."

"Oh, Epic can read minds," says Miles, "he'd probably notice - you'd notice, right?"

"Uh, sure - are you okay with me trying to read a basement-dweller of you's mind - there's not going to be anything there but on principle -"

"Yes, certainly."

He tries.

It is in fact the case that basement dwellers have no minds.

"Yeah, nothing."

"Then yes, please throw it into the sun where it can no longer unnerve my children."

"It's not that bad," says Miles. "...okay it is a little."

"It is weird please get rid of it."

Pop pop now it's gone.

"Thank you," says Cordelia.

"Let's not make hundreds of those to check who's magic and who isn't," says Miles.

"Is there another way to check?"

"I don't know if making small models' work -" does he get anything if he tries to make a small Nika -