I think I'll need to know more about the Valar before I decide whether to do that.

Scared? Scared.

Of course! Would you like me to tell you about them now? 

My wife wanted to die. They let her; they have no right to stop us if we choose to die, and don't claim to. Though if you want to wither away and die I am going to ask you not to spend time around my son; he's had enough of that from people who claim to care for him.

That does help to know, yes. I don't... think, I'll be doing that any time soon, but there are situations where I'd want to. If I stay I certainly won't, though, most of what I'm worried about there is that kobolds - I - do very poorly living alone, and that's obviously not a problem I'd have here.

The Valar could probably make you not wear out and die in Valinor, but be normal elsewhere. They are the creators of this world and they are very powerful.

Nod. It sounds like we'll probably be able to figure out something agreeable.

She still doesn't seem completely comfortable with the idea, but it's more 'thoughtful consideration' than 'fear'.

Is there anything else you'd like to know about me?

What do kobolds need? To be happy, to feel safe?

She pauses before answering. One could easily assume it's just for thought.

Company, mostly. My world is dangerous, and kobolds' way of staying safe is to keep to ourselves and look after each other. I've always been adventurous and don't mind being around strangers, but I do need a tribe or something like one. Useful work - I suspect Fëanáro is going to fulfill that nicely, but when I said that what most got my attention there was that it needs to be done, I meant that. But other people might find my skills as a Speaker or my magic useful, too, and I do find it fulfilling to do boring or repetitive things if they genuinely need doing. In the shorter term - your culture is confusing to me and I'm going to have a hard time really being comfortable until I have more of it figured out, but I expect that's mostly a matter of having time to observe it, and I've already been working on that.

Can you explain your magic? That might help us suggest useful work so you can see if it's the kind you find fulfilling.

She nods. I don't know all of what it can do; it's relatively new and I've been busy with other things since I got it. But the easiest thing to do with it is enspell an object to teleport itself to a specific location, and enspelling something to teleport a person or object touching it rather than teleporting itself is also very easy - Fëanáro suggested that I make jewelry to let people teleport around the city, which I can certainly do. It's a little more difficult but still not actually hard to make a spell need extra conditions in order to trigger - in the case of the jewelry it wouldn't just be touch, since it'd be very easy for someone to accidentally teleport themselves that way; I'll probably make them with charms that have to be squeezed to activate. For those kinds of spells I have to have been to the place the spell will aim for; I can also cast in a way that doesn't require that, but I'm not really sure how to aim with a spell like that; I've only ever cast one, which is how I landed here. And it seems like I can cast spells that open portals rather than directly teleporting people or things, but I haven't experimented with that at all yet.

I can also cast spells on people, with basically the same range of effects as casting on objects, but there's some extra details involved with that and I'm not really inclined to cast on anyone but myself - if you find a situation where a spell on a piece of jewelry won't work, let me know, but I don't expect to see any.

I see. Yes, ways of quickly travelling would be convenient for many people. I assume one can't accidentally land on or in someone else, or in the trajectory of a moving cart...

Two of the things I specify when I'm casting spells are how close to the target the actual destination has to be and how close to things someone can land - if there's no clear space big enough, the spell just won't trigger. I also have to cast the spell specially if I want it to put someone in midair or surrounded by something other than air, and I'm pretty sure I can't teleport someone directly into a solid at all. Air to water or vice versa works, though.

All right. Then if we are sufficiently careful about design, those could be useful without risking anyone's wellbeing. And children could have ones they could squeeze to return home if they wandered and got lost...

She grins and nods. Certainly.

Welcome to Tirion.

She smiles and bows again. Thank you for having me.

Please don't get close to my son if you're going to leave him.

They've already made it pretty clear that that'd be traumatic, yeah, she sighs. Would it help to know that it wasn't my choice to leave my old tribe? I was never even tempted, and as a Speaker I could almost have had my pick of tribes.

i am not asking for your loyalty, child. I am asking for you to avoid forming attachments with someone who'd grieve them while you try to decide what you need.

We might be past the point where I can back off on it without hurting them, unfortunately. I'm not actually sure we didn't pass that point in the first hour, before they knew I had osanwë or magic or anything - they told me they didn't like to be touched, and I went home to get a heavy blanket - it's sort of the next best thing to a hug, being under one of those - and when I got back they were upset that I'd gone. She gives a wry shrug. It's a good sign, I think; I'd be worried if they were withdrawn. But risky, yeah, I know.

Okay.

We are glad to have you here.

She grins a grin that doesn't quite reach her eyes or ears. Thank you.

I should go, Fëanáro is waiting for me. We're planning on playing around with teleporting water to make a fountain; is there someplace in the palace we can do that?

Will water get everywhere?

That gets a genuine grin. Yes.

Maybe better to do it outside where you can't ruin any furniture, then.

She nods. We can go find a nice park or something.