"I am—we are—interested in this proposition. Say more?"

"When I say I can be different shapes, I mean I'm not forced to be a vaguely circular puddle of lava, this is just the result of me optimizing for getting here as fast as possible to have the finesse to manage talking. I can just as easily make a moat as anything else, even if your settlement is a strange shape. Perfect lava perimeter, except for some designated non-lava bridges for crossing? Entirely possible. With more finesse I'll be able to make and unmake bridges myself, but I hesitate to make you more reliant on me than you already will be."

"That sounds—"

"We should convene a town council for it."

"Oh come on do you really think anyone would be against this—"

"People like going to their farms."

"Then moat around the farms."

"Still should go to council."

"Do we even have quorum? I thought Saanvi got gone and Kamlai was most of the way there—"

"It doesn't matter you're not this place's appointed leader if anyone is it's the witch or Hel and the witch doesn't care and Hel isn't around so we get a fucking vote."

Roger sighs longsufferingly. "You heard Allan, I guess."

"I am happy to defer to whatever moat-or-not situation you’d collectively prefer. I also don’t need to be contiguous, and when I can be more than just lava I can have internal variety. So, farmland, and then tropical rainforest, and then a lava moat: entirely possible. Eventually."

"So for now I still better find you an uninhabited-except-for-lost-dead place for you to be a volcano at?"

"Yes, please."

"You heard the lady. Ceci, Taehee, Lin, and Xander-slash-Letícia."

Sighhhhh.

"Thank you for your assistance, I’m sorry for the trouble."

And eventually the relevant people are fetched. They all look... mostly like normal people, except one of them is dressed in ridiculously heavy armour.

Also, two of them are missing noticeably more of themselves than the others. One of them, a woman, has a slightly vacant look on her eyes, which are pure white. Her skin is slightly paler than it looks like it should be, and her edges are mildly translucent and fraying a bit. "Oh, a new fiery friend," she says, softly, looking at the pool of lava. She's holding a plush rabbit that's missing an ear and rocking it in her arms like a baby.

The other looks more solid but is clearly missing even more of his self. He's kind of jittery and looks to be on the verge of a panic attack, and he's staring intently at the pool of lava as if expecting it to jump him.

"Hello!" says the fiery friend. "Has everything already been explained to you, and would you all like to be poked so you don't get worn away further, via bullshit divine magic?"

The jittery one stares at the lava even harder. "It spoke."

Allan sighs. "Yes, Xander, I told you it would."

"I thought you were lying."

"Why would I—"