"You rang?"

"Your highschooler winged deer alt is eager to meet you."

"I bet she is the prettiest winged deer."

"I totally am!"

"I cannot vouch. She is currently in the form of a middle-aged man who tortured Phix, so that your brother can use her as a pivot point for scrying. But I told her I'd tell you she wants to hang out."

"Of course I do. She has shapeshifting?" wonders Zeviana.

"Winged deer do that in Medallion, if they want to eat humans' hearts. This particular human was torturing Phix, so I'm not inclined to mourn."

"Ooo, useful. Yeah, no mourning here, either."

"Nor me," mutters Phix, who hasn't looked directly at Savannah since she shifted.

"Found him," pronounces Cypress. "He seems to be drinking tea. Medallions mean something to you, right? He's wearing one."

"What's the picture on it?"

Ice hangs up on Zeviana so he can use the mirror to show Phix the results.

"Aaaaand there's a dragon after me. Fucking great. Do you know how to deal with dragons?"

"Even if we assume all that means is 'large, possibly firebreathing, flying reptile' I am... not sure I'd like to try it."

"Not without knowing more," agrees Cypress.

"... Can't we assassinate him with magic or something?"

"I mean, I can do a death spell? But I don't know if it'd work on a dragon. I suppose I could ask Mrs. Adams to hang out in Chamomile and ask the alethiometer if it would work on her, but I'm not sure how consistent the effects would be between critter types, and the death spell could easily have different effects depending on whether the target has a daemon or not, which I can't check by alethiometer at all."

"My brand of magical assassination also has flaws. For example, I can't do it from the safety and comfort of your apartment, it's - near impossible to make a shield that far away and get the aim correct. As in, I doubt even Prime could manage it."

"So - I'll try a death spell if you want me to, but I can't guarantee it, and it also would mean that you wouldn't know why he's after you."

"Sphinxes and dragons had a huge war a long time ago, but I was so totally not involved, on account of not having been born..."

"... Ugh. That's an idiotic reason for - all of this."

"Yup. Kind of terrible."

"Savannah, can you stop being that guy now?"