"Define necessary."
I sighed.
Truly, the lamp could not be commissioned soon enough.
There were certain phrases that no sensible man wanted to hear from an ancient Jinn with questionable restraint and access to space manipulation. Define necessary was somewhere near the top of that list, just beneath trust me and I have an idea.
Both were signs of imminent property damag and possibly continental levels of clean-up.
"Necessary means," I said slowly, "if someone directly attacks Spiro, William, the estate, the rescued children, or any personnel under House Konstantin's protection."
Abi nodded with great seriousness. It was a bit too much that it felt suspicious. I stared at his wide grin with all the skepticism I could muster.
"And? What else would define necessity." he asked.
"And if the attack cannot be resolved through restraint."
"What level of restraint are we talking about?"
"The kind where bodies remain in one piece."
"Alive?"
"Preferably still breathing."
