Well.

He sits up and starts braiding his hair, very methodically. 

"I didn't really expect that to work," says Chua.

"It explains Rossi's sudden shift in advice," says the demon.

"Yes, it does."

"It was a bit of a handicap, explaining why we needed Swan without explaining why we needed Swan. This was a very ill-advised way to check, I hope you realize."

"I can't claim to relish having you in my house. I really did not expect it to work," says Chua.

"Does anyone else know?"

The demon shakes her head.

"We desperately need it to stay that way."

"I'd imagine you do," says Chua.

He finishes braiding his hair. "If you don't want a diplomatic incident I sincerely recommend you murder me and request a meeting with the version of me in Valinor and meticulously avoid mentioning that you did this. If you want to set this right I sincerely recommend you let me call for a ride home now."

"Request a meeting about what?" asks Chua.

"What kind of diplomatic incident?" asks the demon.

"Whatever questions remain now that you figured out the thing constraining us from answering them. What kind of diplomatic incident? You forked me against my will."

"I didn't think it would work," Chua said.

"I thought it might," said the demon. "I am prepared to deal with the consequences of having done so. Rochelle, I renew my recommendation of Sheila Reid if I become unavailable to you."

"Can I have paper and pencil, please?"

The demon looks at Chua, who looks like she's seriously considering taking the "murder" suggestion, but then Chua nods and the demon offers him writing materials.

"Thank you."

Letter to Cam: are there times of day free? 

He relaxes considerably once he has written it. "Anything I can answer for you while I'm here?"

"What's going on with all the people who look alike?" asks Chua, gesturing at the little heap of basement dwellers.

"Different universes have - we think it's more or less 'the person you would have been if you were born that species in that situation?' Not like forks but you tend to find you have a lot in common with them. And then there are also forks."

"We could tell they're not forks," says the demon.

"You said you didn't have a way to oblige daeva to take summons," Chua says.

"I do not have a way to oblige daeva to take summons."

The demon picks up a Hazel wizardry book. "Some things from this world are hard to conjure. Some are not."

"Spells don't all work on daeva, and some only work if they're letting them. If their mind-control spells work on unwilling daeva then you could recruit in Hazel for the thing you want, but I think the crew handling Hazel has decided not to tell wizards about summoning yet lest we get wizard daeva with 1802 ethical sensibilities."

"One of the people who looks like you carries a wand," says the demon.

"Even now you're weaseling as much as you think you can get away with," says Chua disgustedly. "I knew you were up to something and I'm beginning to wonder if you depend on being up to something to live."

"Timothy's in training to be a wizard, yes. So's Minor, the vlog demon, they're brothers. I was not up to anything until you captured Swan and declined to hand him over, then I was 'up to' making sure the trial forensics didn't run across exactly this, and right now I am 'up to' being mildly annoyed to have been brought into existence with loose hair in a windowless room somewhere I can only presume is in your star system."

"You're complaining about your hair?"

"This is Earth," says the demon.

"The fiasco with the arrests had nothing to do with Elf forking."

"On your end; it had everything to do with it on ours. We were not equipped to do spot arrests and competent trials but we offered anyway because you weren't budging on Swan and at any moment someone could have started running trial forensics and noticed Elf forking and we were highly motivated to avoid that.

Elves don't have a nudity taboo but we do have a comparably strong taboo on having loose hair. Please don't fork people again but should you find yourself doing so know that creating them naked is far less - frightening to wake up to - than creating them with hair unbraided."