Oh?

They think about things for Years, they're really slow.

Oh, huh. I didn't know about that.

I need to go talk to Aulë again soon anyway, maybe I can speed that up some.

Or you could just teach me anyway.

Nope. Too dangerous.

I don't care. I am okay with taking the risk.

Yeah, I know. But you're not the only one who has a say in that decision; I'd be responsible for it, too, and I'm not okay with taking the risk.

How would you get hurt?

Well, for one thing, you'd probably die, and I'd be really upset if you died at all and especially upset if it was because of something I'd done...

But I'd get to see my mom again!

That doesn't mean I wouldn't be upset about it, though.

But you shouldn't get to stop me from doing all dangerous things just because they'd make you sad.

Right, and I won't try to stop you if that's the only reason, but that doesn't mean I'm going to help you do them if it'd hurt me to do that. And it isn't the only reason, anyway, my magic can be dangerous to other people, too, even by accident if you do something with it without thinking about how it could affect people.

I wouldn't. I'd be so, so careful.

Sigh. I'll think about it.

I can be careful about a different thing so you can see how careful I am?

That might help, if I can think of something that needs the right kind of carefulness. But that's not the only thing I'm worried about; if you learn magic before it's safe, people might be scared of you, and I don't think that'd be very good for you. And that's not the kind of thing you can fix by being careful for a little while.

People wouldn't be scared of me.

They would if they knew what my magic can do. Remember we talked about hexes? My magic is kind of scary.

But Quendi aren't like the people in your world and don't do awful things.

Maybe. I'll think about it.

It's so pretty and I want to know how.

I know. But just because you want it doesn't mean it's a good idea. That's kind of what being careful is all about.

I'm really careful when it's important.

Sure. But if I make a mistake with this, I can't take it back. So I'm going to think about it first.