—and a man in a canoe appears, hovering three feet off the floor, next to the TV. That is, the canoe is hovering three feet off the floor, and the man is in it.

He glances around the room, then looks quizzically at Cam.

...this does not make Cam any less confused or any more able to talk/move/make things.

There is a nonlinguistic mental impression of the man in the canoe saying, I apologize for appearing here so abruptly. Is something wrong?

I think so but I couldn't tell you what I don't know what's going on.

I can't imagine that you know any less than I do; what can you tell me?

(The first not-quite-a-sentence comes packaged with a vague implication that this man may have just spent several years alone in a big empty room inventing his teleporting canoe.)

...I was somewhere else in the middle of something desperately important and then I was in this world which seems like a fucked up version of my birthplace two hundred years ago and now I can't do anything except apparently talk to you and move my eyes so I'm a little concerned that I am intended to talk to you by the people who prevented me from doing anything else.

I can see how that would seem plausible. It isn't true, but I'm not sure how to demonstrate that, except perhaps by trying to restore your ability to move... I would need to touch you in order to do that. May I?

Okay.

He climbs out of his hovering canoe and goes over and sits next to Cam on the couch and puts his hand over one of Cam's and closes his eyes.

All right: what is the nature of this strange winged person, and what is preventing him from moving?

The winged person is indestructible and when free can make arbitrary material objects. He is currently under the effect of a hostile psychic power which deigns to allow him to blink and breathe, though he doesn't actually need to do either.

...well.

The hostile psychic power originates from elsewhere, so Korovai can't inspect its source directly, and he feels like it would be imprudent to just delete it from existence in case it comes attached to a person who might object. So what if he just... very carefully pulls a partial copy of his own mental protections, just enough to shield the winged person from this kind of mental attack, and—

Before he puts it in place, it is prudent to ask: Do you know of any reason why someone might have concluded they need to imprison you?

I - could be very dangerous if I chose. But I didn't interact with anybody here before they did this thing.

I see. I'm going to try something, which should free you at least temporarily.

And he removes his hand from Cam's and settles the partial mental shield into place.

The demon stretches a wing, makes a puff of air. "Thank you," he says.

I'm sorry, I don't speak your language.

Oh. Sorry.

- he creates a little packet of papers, skims the writing on them, winces.

...Is this related to the desperately important thing you were in the middle of?

Yeah. They don't know where I went.

I see, he says.

There is a sense in which I was also unexpectedly transported away from something desperately important; I've spent the intervening time working on a way to return home. It's possible we might be able to help each other.

So this isn't where you were trying to go?

No. I have developed the ability to travel between worlds but not the ability to navigate except by retracing my path. And retracing my path is untested; this was my first jump.

Could you trace my path instead?

Not yet. I'm trying to develop in approximately that direction, but it's slow going.

I might be able to get home and then back where I was working but not via any action I can take and not for a few days.

Not via any action you can take...?