"- is that a mosaic? Who in the world thought that was a good idea?"

"The - station infrastructure committee approved it, sir?"

"The station infrastructure committee needs a six week maximally condescending safety course! You guys are so lucky you didn't get some asshole instead of me!"

"Wait, safety? What's the safety issue? And who are you?"

"I'm the demon you summoned with this mosaic!"

"Look, if there's a safety issue with the mosaic, you have my attention, and I will stop the construction if one exists, but I'm not just going to stop it over unspecified warnings of danger from someone with no credentials."

"...did you notice that I wasn't here a minute ago? That I appeared out of nowhere?"

"I did notice that."

"He means that literally, sir." another of the workers interrupts. "He appeared out of thin air in the middle of the circle. I thought I was seeing things."

The first worker to speak is now looking at Cam and attempting to gauge from his reaction to this claim.

"Yeah. Since that's what happens when you summon demons." He waggles a wing illustratively.

"You're saying you're a demon who's summoned by mosaics? Look, normally I'd be happy for a chance to show off my acting skills with an impromptu role in a reality TV skit like this, but this mosaic project is a big deal and if you want me to play along with anything that jeopardises it I'll want it approved by my parents' secretary."

Cam sighs and starts reading the binding. Is this even a binding.

It is not a binding. It appears to be a long, grandiose and deliberately bizarre poem about the narrator's attempts to return to their hometown, Santoro, in which they are aided by apparently extensive magical powers and hindered by a strange and hostile environment in which they find themself. The poem talks extensively and very positively about Santoro in the course of discussing how much the narrator misses it, and avoids clear world-building regarding the hostile environment and the narrator's magical powers in favour of repeated unexpected and unexplained abilities and problems being introduced on both sides. A tile-layer has recently lain some tiles forming part of the poem in which the narrator summons a demon and is continuing to lay tiles containing more of the poem.

All the tiles featuring in this design, laid or not, are so much clay dust now!

This gets expressions of shock, dismay, concern and fear from most people present, including, initially, the man who has been doing most of the talking, who stares at the mosaic briefly before grabbing Cam hard and yelling "WHAT DID YOU DO?!". The other mosaic makers mostly seem to have frozen.

"Wow, personal space?"

"You destroyed my mosaic! You're going to pay for this! Silverio, help me hold him so I can call station police!"

"I'm not going to help you fight a demon. I can call the station police to try to get things sorted out peacefully if you're both OK with that?".

"Sounds fine to me. Sir, please let go of me while we wait for the cops."

"I'm not going to let go of you, vandal!"

Meanwhile, Silverio is speaking on the phone:

"A fight has broken out in Main Square. No. One of them is Anton Lewis, I don't recognise the other but he's not one of the workers. I'm one of the workers, we know eachother. Anton didn't seem to know him either. Jeans, and what look like blue bat wings attached to his back. Yes, jeans and blue bat wings. Yes. No. Right now Anton has restrained the other man. No one looks to be seriously injured so far. Neither of them has done anything that looked like it was aimed at killing or seriously injuring the other. Neither of them is visibly armed or has used weapons against the other but the man with the bat wings did something to the mosaic that I don't know how he did but might have been some sort of hidden weapon. No. He made the tiles crumble into dust. I don't know how he did it. It all happened at once. It didn't damage anything except the mosaic tiles. No. He said he was a demon who had been summoned by the mosaic. I have no idea. No, I told you, I don't know him. I have never seen him before. I don't know. Yes. That's right. No. No. No, just Anton and the demon, everyone else has been staying out of it. Yes. Yes. No. That depends on whether you count the attack on the mosaic as part of the fight. Goodbye.

" The police say they've dispatched someone."

"Oh good. In what ways is it acceptable around these parts to escalate when being wrestled?"

"I wouldn't know, I'm sorry, sir. I wouldn't escalate in your circumstances, but I'm not a lawyer, or local enough to be a good guide to local customs."

"Figures." He stops trying to keep his feet and sits down, wings flaring out.

A little while later, several people arrive in identical pale blue clothing with dark blue embroidered symbols (a hat, the letters "SDRS" and a knot, all in a wreath, over crossed trumpets) on the chest. When they do, Anton releases Cam.

"What's going on here?"

"This man destroyed my mosaic. I demand that he and his co-conspirators be punished appropriately."

They look questioningly towards Cam.

"I told him the mosaic was a safety hazard. He didn't believe me. I can replace it with a safe mosaic if we come to some kind of reasonable agreement about what that would be. Ideally, it would not summon demons with dangerous magical powers into an unprepared setting."

"So you destroyed the mosaic because it presented a safety hazard?"

"It was preposterous! He claimed he was a demon who had been summoned by the mosaic! He had Lindiwe claim to have seen him appear out of thin air in the middle of the mosaic!"

"Is that accurate?"

"Yes, that's right. I assume this gentleman wasn't looking at the time. Is there a security camera?"

"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.

"Campbell Mark Swan."

"If you're from a parallel world with no previous contact with this one, how come you have an Anglo-sounding name?"

"That's what's tripping you up, not the fact that I look like a human with some aftermarket modifications and not like a bug alien or something? My world's got English. I'm from its United States."

"So it's an infinite void that has parallel versions of specific Earth countries?"

"No, it's more complicated than that, do you actually want me to improvise the 101 lecture on the spot?"

"At this point I'm mostly just killing time until Records get back to me about the security footage or Phil comes back with the glass ornament. I don't currently see the need to demand a 101 lecture on Hell as part of investigating your alteration with Lewis, but I don't have anything better to do with my time while I wait than learning about it."

"So you've got the parallel Earth, with at least some parallelism of countries and languages though I haven't been here long enough to say how deep it goes. People from that parallel Earth, when they die, go to one of four afterlives - the boring default one and three where they turn into more interesting magical beings in the process. There are also native magical beings who didn't use to be humans. I am from one of the afterlives for a value of 'from' where I'm dead and used to be from the United States; us magical beings can be summoned."

There is a ding from the computer and the sheriff starts to look at its screen and do something with its controls.

"Records have confirmed that there are no records of you on the station prior to your suddenly appearing on the mosaic"

"Yep, that would be because of the summoning. Further demos? Questions? Am I compliant with the dress code? Can I get anybody a beverage?"

Eventually, Phil will come in with a fancy glass ornament containing a hollow, transparent part.

"Everybody ready? Five four three two one poof." Now there is a teensy eighteenth century sailing ship in there.

The sheriff inspects the ornament.

"This does look like you can either create or teleport matter, and unless Lewis can come up with an alternative explanation I'm inclined to provisionally proceed on that assumption. If you want a more official recognition of that than just a local sheriff most people will probably think is crazy, I recommend going to a university for it. Santoro Station has a partnership with Pierce University, we should be able to get them to run tests on you. Without that, I can get you an audience with the Infrastructure committee about modifying the specific mosaic in the square, but can't do anything about the possibility of someone else in another station stumbling on another mosaic design with the same problem.

Also, are you sure you want to do this via the Infrastructure Committee rather than the Station Assembly? I would expect the Station Assembly to prefer that it be brought to them."

"...I... guess I can go to the university. I have no strong preference between committees and will go with your recommendation on that."

"It came up earlier that the Infrastructure Committee might be better in that it would give us better control of how the information about demon summoning comes out." the woman who originally arrested him mentions.

"I don't want to cover this up. We serve the Station Assembly, and I think they deserve to know about it. If he insists on keeping it under wraps I can refer him to the Infrastructure Committee but in so far as it's up to me my recommendation is definitely the Assembly." the sheriff replies.

"I'm in favor of people knowing how to summon extradimensional magical beings provided they do it safely. And I happen to be qualified to teach a university course on exactly that."

"You wouldn't necessarily need to tell the Station Assembly how to summon demons, just that it's possible to do via a mosaic design and that you want them to require the mosaic design be changed to one that doesn't summon demons. The details could then be worked out with the Infrastructure Committee or Lewis."

"Sure, that all sounds fine to me."

"Good. Mr. Lewis, are you willing to suspend work on the mosaic until the Assembly next meets?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then it sounds as though this can be brought to the regular Assembly meeting. Mr. Swan, meet me here at a quarter past four in three days time and I will take you to the Assembly Hall."

"What should I know about how I'm expected to conduct myself in the intervening three days and what time and date is it now?"

The sheriff can give him a document listing the station ordinances, which covers everything from local by-laws to assault and manslaughter, and a map of the public areas of the station to make up for their lack of consistent signage to distinguish these from private areas.

And the date and time? He'd like to program the time zone into his computer.

3:48 PM, 17/08/2425

Huh, technically the future. Okay.

He will go for a stroll through some public areas and see what there is to see.