"There is a security camera."

"He's probably doctored the footage. He bribed Lindiwe and did something to sabotage the mosaic tiles, so he's clearly put effort into setting this up."

"What did he do to the mosaic tiles?"

"I don't know, but he did something to make them all crumble to dust at once."

"I see. So you" (he indicates Cam) "claim to be a demon who was summoned by Anton's mosaic and destroyed it to prevent it from summoning more such demons, and you" (he indicates Anton) "claim that he set up an elaborate hoax to pretend to be such a demon, including bribing your employees, the sabotage of the mosaic's tiles through an unclear method and the hacking of the station's security cameras?"

"Yes."

"The specific mosaic actually was expended when I arrived; I wanted to prevent it being copied."

"So it's one demon per mosaic? Did you have reason to expect someone was about to copy the mosaic?"

"No specific reason but it's hard to be too careful when possible results of summoning the wrong demon include 'the planet is sucked into a black hole'."

"I see. So you're alleging that in the process of designing the mosaic Anton accidentally created a design for a dangerous occult demon-summoning ritual and you destroyed the mosaic to keep the ritual secret? Would you be willing to work with Anton to modify the design into one that you'd be willing be made?"

"I shouldn't have to modify my design over this nonsense!"

"It's a decoration for a public space. Working around other people's demands could be considered a part of the job."

"Will I get credit for it?"

"I can't unilaterally guarantee that but if he's willing to compensate the station for the additional work time I expect it can be arranged."

"I want to remain in charge of the design. And I am absolutely not letting him have co-designer credits."

"I really don't care about design credit. You just have to have it not say that you're summoning a demon. Uh, or anything else."

"It didn't say that."

"There was a line in the poem that technically said that."

"So you're asking me to change one line of the poem? It's not my poem, I just chose to put it on the mosaic."

"You could probably get the copyright holder's permission to do a modified version. Or use a different poem."

"The copyright holder is Sarah Flynn-Pembroke. She'll probably agree to do a modified poem, but I'll want it in writing that the changes are being demanded of me against my will so she won't hold it against me and I want a written disclaiming of creative involvement from the demon guy before I broach it with her because if he does wind up finagling creative credit for any of her work she will hold against me."

"In that case I think we need to escalate the matter to someone with the authority to formally demand the changes. Do either of you object to taking it to the station assembly?"

"I don't see a good reason not to just take it to the court, but if you want to make the assembly deal with a vandal telling a fantasy story it's not my problem."

"Whatever's the done thing is fine by me. I don't want credit for the poem merely being one of zillions of possible poems that don't summon anybody."

"We don't strictly need to escalate it higher than the infrastructure committee, but in either case we'd go via the sheriff, and the assembly typically prefers that particularly important or unusual cases be brought to them. The infrastructure committee might be better if you're wanting to keep this low-profile.

"I guess ideally if it's going to become high profile information that you can summon demons I should find a safer way to reveal that."

"OK. Could you both come with me to the police station, then?"

"Lead the way. Or tell me which way as the demon flies, I'm not very quick on my feet."

The police will lead them through highly decorated street-sized corridors to a door labelled with the text "Station Dispute Resolution Service" and the same emblem as the police uniforms, and from there through corridor-sized corridors with a more consistent and understated aesthetic to an office containing a man in a black hat matching the ones on the police emblems and a black tie (worn without a collar), both with the police emblem in silver.

"Excuse me, Sheriff: this man is demanding a change to the design of the mosaic in the square, vandalised the mosaic to prevent it from being made according to the existing design, and has offered to reimburse the station for costs incurred by the change in the design. Mr. Lewis has stated that he'll comply if the infrastructure committee demand it and pay him for the extra work but not otherwise."

"The infrastructure committee made the designs publicly available for two months in advance. Is there a good reason you didn't make your complaints then?" The sheriff asks Cam.

"I was in Hell at the time."

"He maintains he is a demon who was summoned by the mosaic. He has an eyewitness account verifying that he appeared out of thin air at the mosaic and a claims to expect video would confirm it as well."

"I see. I'll have Records check the security footage. Even if it goes through though, it doesn't seem to me to warrant a special audience with the Infrastructure Committee, though. We can't just let people bypass procedures by causing a fuss and hacking our security systems."

"He maintains that the current design of the mosaic risks causing a black hole if implemented, and Lewis confirmed that he destroyed the mosaic by causing it to all simultaneously crumble to dust. Also if his story is true there should be no record of his entering the station."

"Well, I'll have Records check that as well. In the meantime, could you destroy this piece of paper the same way you destroyed the mosaic? Do you agree to scans and searches to confirm you have no concealed weapons? Medical tests to confirm that your wings are natural, or that your genes are different from those of a human? A photograph to compare to station documentation?"

Interpolated paper. "You can photograph me, you can scan me, I don't really want to be manhandled."

The sheriff points a device at him, presses a button on it, announces "I'm going to send for someone with a scanner now" and types something on his desktop computer.

"So, currently we're on track to prove you have some sort of advanced weapon concealed beyond what our scanners can detect, and a way to enter the station undetected. That's impressive, but do you have further evidence to give us that you're a demon from hell, or advice about how to prove the universe is such that your claim is less far-fetched than it sounds? What exactly are hell, and demons, and how do they relate to the material world? Not that we strictly need it to arrange an audience with the Infrastructure Committee, to be clear, but if it looks like you have a high-end concealed weapon and have interfered with the station's security systems we'll want you to turn over the weapon and to help us to fix what you've done to the system and to get information about how you did it."

"He and Anton agreed to go through you to the Infrastructure Committee as part of a mutually agreed-on solution to their dispute. He didn't threaten anyone with the weapon, he just used it on the mosaic."

"Do you have family here? It might be helpful if we could bring them in to negotiate on your behalf."

"No, I don't have family here. Uh, Hell is a spatially discontinuous infinite void except for what demons have put there so now it has stuff in it. We can make things. I could demonstrate that if you like."

"If you can make things that a human couldn't, I'd appreciate you demonstrating that."

"Well, humans know how to make most of the good stuff, but they can't do it like this." He materializes a crab rangoon and bites it.

"Humans can do magic tricks that look like that, and I don't know enough about magic tricks or demons to come up with a test to distinguish them."

"I could make something appear inside something else if you want to provide a something else. Snowglobe or ornament or whatever."

"I'll send someone to get one of those hollow glass ornaments Vescovi sells. In the meantime, do you have any ID on you, or that you can get? A name, date of birth, RD number or TP number? Any acquaintances not involved in the incident we can contact for information about you?"

"...look, even if me being from another universe was something I was doing for the bit, I wouldn't drop my bit just because you asked me. Like, I admittedly have a name and a date of birth but they're not going to get you very far."

"If nothing else if we put your name on file we will at least be better able to match future reports involving you to this one."

At this point, someone arrives with a scanning device and confirms that he does not appear to have any weapons.