[He and Merrill had spoken, back in the abbey, of how demons and spirits alike were two sides of the same coin and both saw the world far differently than mortals did. Of how mortals--bred of the world and bound to it--often couldn't think beyond their own frame and so came to grief for it.

And now, here, again--

He doesn't want to feel sympathetic to anything that goes by the name demon but these hardly seem like if they haven't the volition to avoid being bound to service.]

I see, [quiet, thoughtful] --So if one of your magicians appeared on this side of the rift she'd be liable to come to grief in short order, if she could talk to our native demons at all. [He does not sound like he'd be too broken up by that.]