...if that's how you prefer to look at it, I guess.

I wouldn't say that it's a matter of preference. Of all extant possible alternatives to my father continuing to mismanage the planet forever, I'm the only one that doesn't require yet another civil war. That makes cleaning up after him my responsibility regardless of how I feel about it.

The people the evil god was obliged to stop torturing weren't released, just - ended.

It seems plausible that many of them would have preferred it that way. And perhaps when I find you a god we can see about the ones who wouldn't have.

I can get - pre-torture versions of them, after I'm done populating the replacement planet.

He nods.

If you want to summon me after warning me you'll try so I can be available you draw this on the ground, sheet of paper, big enough for me to stand in, complete the circle after the writing.

He looks it over, carefully, once.

I still think that given the information we have available, copying your creation power looks like a surer method of establishing communication.

How would you do that?

Taieli, the magic I acquired after I was stranded away from home, is capable of copying things. Very exactly, if necessary, although precision and complexity both take time.

Huh. Well, it's a pretty nice power most of the time but in addition to physical danger it enables invasion of privacy same way it enables correspondence.

That sounds potentially useful for dealing with my father.

Oh?

It's not actually my father that's the tricky problem; there's no magic in the Fareine line. It's his... friend, Lady Reihar Nirue. She's a powerful mage. I know she is protected against some possible kinds of attack, but I don't know which ones and don't have a good way to find out. I suspect your powers wouldn't be able to tell me what her protections are, but they might help me make sure she's well away from any innocent bystanders when I start trying things.

Yes, you can conjure for surroundings. However, demon magic can't make things that are themselves magic.

What qualifies as magic by the relevant standard?

I'm not sure how it applies to things from arbitrary worlds, actually, but it's a gap that might impede you.

Noted. May I try copying your creation power, then?

Do you actually need permission?

Not intrinsically, but nevertheless I am not going to try copying your power without it. And I would need to use my touch-range sensory power again to inspect it to the necessary level of detail, and I am not going to do that without your permission either.

What are you likely to use it for besides correspondence?

Creation of things that need creating. For example, everyone in the world where I got taieli is dead because they ran out of stars. I don't plan to allow that in my world. And, as I said, spying on my father's court may turn out to be a useful endeavour.

Running out of stars takes a while under natural conditions. Your magic doesn't spy?

It could be encouraged to spy but not nearly so conveniently.

Encouraged?