"'people are acquitted who should have been convicted' is a separate complaint from 'arrests cannot be verified', are we in agreement on a satisfactory arrangement for verifying arrests such that we can move on to discussing the concern of wrongful acquittals?"

"Summoners who do as you describe may run afoul of unaccompanied daeva regulations and would be better handled at the Singapore office than on Ganymede proper," she says frostily, "but otherwise yes given the supposition that we can replace our forensic demons."

"We haven't had any trouble recruiting ours, are you anticipating difficulty there?"

"The ones we had were untrustworthy and took months to find in the first place."

"I imagine my suggestions on that would be very much unappreciated."

Glare.

"I've been impressed by your organizational competence, I'm sure you'll have no trouble sorting it out. Shall we talk about the wrongful acquittal?"

"What is there to say? We traded you the Swan demon for arrests and you didn't hand the daeva over for trial and I believe all but one now walk free one way or another."

"One was acquitted, three took plea deals and are under bindings that prevent them from ever causing harm again, one is serving three hundred years minimum. We do not have and never had the capacity to hand the daeva over for trial. I reviewed my transcripts of that conversation and I said 'we can travel into the daeva realms; it's not safe for us but the Valar can do it safely', from which I regret that it was misunderstood that we possessed a way to impose a binding on a daeva who was not taking a summons. We do not possess such a means, and you don't possess a way to handle them without it."

"You handled some of them for trial, for some definition of trial, and lawyers are portable. A parole officer visit once every decade is not what I would call 'serving' and your plea deals are ridiculous. No deterrent effect. Every daeva who hears that you offer deals like that will perform whatever mayhem they like so long as they only feel the need to do it once!"

"If we observe that to occur the court would consider that a reason to issue harsher sentences. Harsh deterrence also deters innocent daeva from taking summonses at all, leaving the pool of summons-accepting daeva one which is unusually willing to risk events with a serious downside for them; at this time our belief is that the effects on innocent people from artificially making it costlier to accept summons outweighs the benefits of deterring troublemakers."

"This is not up to you to decide! It is not up to you to risk it until you decide some event was caused by your leniency and not whatever the lawyer for the defense trots out as a justification! Did you consult any human polities on this?"

"Our defendants testify under a magical effect under which it is impossible to lie. They can be asked about their motivations directly, and sentenced off that."

"Because incentives are always so conscious," she simpers. "Of course you will never interview anyone who was deterred, that way, but why at this point I imagine you might have anything put together sensibly is purest optimism -"

"Before you got here I was saying to the president that I think we're past the point where a unified response to daeva can reasonably be hoped for, and it makes more sense to establish an agreement with respect to jurisdiction, so daeva who do wrongs in your world can expect to answer to Ganymede and daeva who do wrongs in ours to us. Does that work for you?"

"Will you turn over the five whose names we ill-advisedly gave you in a condition such that we can hold them?"

"I just explained to you that we do not have the means to do that."

"Then it seems like this does not work for you."

" - I am unclear on what requests for us you're bringing to the table today. I cannot magically force daeva to accept summons. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Apparently today it does not suit you and you will have some charming excuse for why you couldn't possibly have actually done as you just offered to do when the capability materializes!"

"I can't achieve the jurisdiction agreement without your help. I would love to discuss with you how we could achieve it together but if we leave things as they currently stand I doubt very much I will be able to make it happen. It involves persuading six or seven Elven polities to agree never to offer daeva wanted by Ganymede asylum, and our headlines are all full of profiles of this adorable fourteen-year-old child you're currently trying to arrest and I need your help to get anywhere."

"You have just claimed you can't achieve it, period, that you can't turn over those five who we never should have trusted you with in the first place - can't believe I listened to him - you will find the going very hard if you shelter criminals who have aggressed against human citizens. President Melo -"

"Surely you don't think you can convict the kid?" asks the President.

"I don't! I think it needs to go to trial! Apparently being videogenic grants him diplomatic immunity as far as Elves are concerned and they've appointed themselves obstructions in the matter accordingly!"

"I can't turn over the five defendants no matter what, because there does not exist any means of forcing a daeva to take a summons. I can, with your help, achieve an agreement not to summon future defendants, but I am a politician and I work within the constraints of politics and it is very hard for me to successfully push for your interests when everyone I am talking to has mostly heard of you as the people who are trying to arrest a child. - also, if you don't mind, why does it need to go to trial if no one involved thinks there's any chance it'll result in a conviction -"

"Because that is the procedure and it has to be followed predictably and regardless of how long he had been around before he induced half a dozen minors to take their own lives! How do you live with yourself? Those children are dead but he looks charming on camera and you can't convince your people that there should be a formal investigation into those deaths? I am sure that you can find equally appealing photographs of the deceased. President Melo, wouldn't you find it difficult to sell your constituency on relations with Elves if they knew that the angel who burned down half the Opportunity Arcology was released on plea bargain without trial and was going to stay that way? How long are you planning to cover it up?"

"Well - as long as he can't take more summons and no one has to worry about getting him at random -"

"That will not satisfy them all!"

" - would it also help any for them to know it was an accident? Because it was an accident. The angel has a severe clinical anxiety disorder, was summoned for the first time, had a panic attack, and due to an inadequate binding caused damage during the panic attack. He has been curled up at home absolutely paralyzed with terror ever since."