"I see," says the demon.

"Rossi, you useless idiot," Chua growls to neither of them.

"Perhaps he thought that the information shouldn't be shared with people who might use it and tell demons about it, that being the exact outcome we were so afraid of."

"Who else knows?" asks the demon.

"Cam, the entire population of the planet he holed, those people in my government whose work touched on it, the Hazel teenagers, President Malo. The only daeva to know of it are Cam, Minor, and now you. We haven't been introduced -"

"This is Lilie Ho, the founder of the Ganymede Circle Police," says Chua.

Lilie inclines her head.

"A pleasure."

"I suppose in a way I owe your - duplicate's brother - for alerting me that I did not have to make do with random demons of no particular alliances," snorts Chua.

"I will pass on your compliments, he'll be delighted."

Chua snorts again.

"What ought we expect of the diplomatic incident?" inquires Lilie.

"- what we would like would be reassurance that this will not be shared or repeated, no matter how angry Ms. Chua gets with Elves in the future. If that's forthcoming then we can agree many mistakes have been made on both sides of this meeting of peoples and we'd be happy to move forward with all of them forgiven all around. If that can't be promised, then we have cause for concern."

"Certainly it would be a catastrophe if the anarchy of Hell became aware of this," agrees Lilie. Chua does not contradict her aloud.

"Exactly. Conveniently the Valar have that truth effect of theirs and it can be testified that all parties have every intention of maintaining the secrecy, and then there's no need for more invasive measures to assure it."

"It really should have occurred to me that if this did work the result would be having you in my house," mutters Chua in a voice full of loathing.

"Forgiveness is abstract. What concrete results should we anticipate?" inquires Lilie.

"Our complaints about the kidnapping as well as your complaints about - not employing Hazel's mindcontrol on your behalf? Failing to disclose that an alternate universe version of me is brothers with the vlog demon? - anyway, we do not take all those public and tear each other apart over them, you can go about your work without our hindrance."

"And the daeva who evaded justice in your haste to trade for Swan?" says Lilie.

"You continue to not have a way to arrest them."

"You made a convincing-enough-for-her-purposes attempt at convincing Niari that you were working on that," says Chua. "Perhaps she just can't tell when you're being manipulative slime, that would explain it."

"She called it off, thought the risks were intolerable. I was indeed prepared to go through with it. I did end up promising her that if you do recapture any of them we will not interfere or object, and I meant that. But if we are going to forgive nonconsensual forking, a crime which my society regards as considerably more serious than murder, you can drop it. They were entirely free, before. Now none of them will ever hurt anyone again. We came to you first, you communicated nothing about what you wanted for over a month, at that point we had to try them, we tried them, even if we're willing to subject them to double jeopardy you don't have a plan for anything to do with them. Give it up."

"You acquitted the fairy!" exclaims Chua.

"The court acquitted the fairy after making the determination he wouldn't do it again, and also he can't take summons. I don't expect you to agree with me here, Ms. Chua. I just expect you to develop some realistic expectations. We forgive each other serious errors on both sides, you give it up with respect to the daeva, we overlook this, we stay out of your way and out of the way of your institution."

Chua inhales; Lilie speaks first, still soft and level. "When do you expect your letter to be answered, and how?"

"He could be asleep, it could be a couple hours. If this is Earth I can leave Ms. Chua's house and wait for them somewhere my presence is less unpleasant. They can talk with you here, if that's most convenient, and then assuming everyone is on the same page it shouldn't be more than an hour's conversation."

"We are on the island of Langkawi, Malaysia," says Lilie.

"I won't speak the language but I'm happy to step outside for a walk if that seems best."

"It is a beautiful day," says Lilie, patting Chua's hand while Chua glowers at him.