"Then maybe I'll have to do it the long way. I don't want to rush this, I want to do this right, I have only one shot at it."

Ror sighs.

"So, should I write down a safe circle and you can have your niece dismiss me so you'll summon me back?"

"I can't believe this is happening. Yes, all right."

After he fetches the paper she makes a couple of circles. "This one has no bindings but is specifically for me. This one is also specifically for me but has a few standard bindings—" which she lists. "I could give you circles for random people but those should probably have tighter bindings—" Pause. "...it's rather odd that no one's ever been summoned here."

"Is it?"

"Yeah, I mean, I expect drawing on the floor is not a super uncommon activity? Er. I'll give you a random circle, can you complete it so we can see whether summoning normally actually works here?"

"...er..."

"I can't summon anyone, only—well, I'd say only humans can but your species demonstrably can, too—so if I change a bit of floor to have a circle on it that won't work but if it's almost a circle and you just complete it then it will, or should."

"I'm just a little wary of the - shifting project requirements -"

"...yeah I understand how that would be worrying." She rubs the back of her head. "I can't prove to you that dismissing works as I say it does unless I'm dismissed, but if whatever random fluke got me doesn't work twice then if I'm dismissed that's it—could be just an angel circle, two rogue angels are not twice as bad as one?"

"You keep offering all these ways to limit the supposed risk and I have absolutely nothing but what you tell me to go on."

"I could explain everything in detail so you can draw your own conclusions about the risks given the premises? I've been trying to not overwhelm you with too much stuff while still making the risks clear but I wasn't expecting to be summoned by aliens so there keep being things that didn't occur to me because they'd be—background knowledge or just wouldn't apply, normally."

"I'd still be going off what you told me."

"If summoning someone else works then that's some independent verification but ultimately yes."

"Please don't do anything stupid."

"I'll try not to do anything at all until I'm much more confident in my understanding of this world than I am at the moment."

"That's - not going to - Savo's a native and still -"

"That's not going to be sufficient, you're right, it's just the minimum bar. I promise I'll do my very best to not do anything stupid."

Ror sighs.

"I'm sorry."

"You haven't started any wars. So far."

"Yeah. So... what do you prefer to do now?"

"I don't know. I'm not - qualified for - I have the circles, you have the map."

"So would you rather I just go?"