The grownups are all very busy, but the children are all bored.
Bored or having nightmares. But Tasárinon was not on a ship and did not see the people dying and has only heard it thirdhand and can't exactly have nightmares about the look in his mother's eyes - well, he probably could, but he hasn't - so he's bored, and he is drawing on the floor. It is an absurdly intricate drawing. He has been embellishing it for three days.
And when he completes a circle of the right size -
- there appears a man with wings and a tail.
He takes in the scene, glances around, says, "Didn't anybody ever tell you not to draw on the floor?"
He leaps backwards a few feet. He looks perhaps seven or eight. It's a very pretty and intricate drawing for a seven or eight year old, if inadequate as a summoning circle.
"...no?"
"Oh. Well. Don't draw on the floor. Luckily it's not a disaster this time! But it could've been really bad. You want anything as long as I'm here?"
"What kind of thing? Who are you? Why shouldn't people draw on the floor? Lots of people draw on the floor." His lip is perhaps trembling just slightly. "And I want ships and - and I guess something to kill the Enemy with, and I want my dad not to be dead, and I want the King not to be dead."
That is an unusual wishlist for a child. And lots of people do not draw on the floor. And what language even is this.
"...Sorry, back up, where am I?"
"...Araman? It's one of Valinor's moons."
"I cannot fix dead but I can maybe do ships. Who should I talk to about doing ships?"
"The King? Or one of his sons? Probably? I can call them - my mom can call them - Amil! There's a Maia here and he says he might help with the ships and not to draw on the floor!"
"Uh, everything that's not an Incarnate like us and not powerful enough to be a Vala? Is that not what you are? Incarnates can't appear out of nowhere and also can't make ships except the slow way and we don't have time for that if we're going to fight the Enemy."
A woman walks in. Mid-twenties, exceptionally pretty, pointed ears. She's in uniform and looks exhausted. She bows to Cam. "Hello. Can I help you?"
"Hi. I believe I have been summoned here from an alternate universe or something."
"Uh. Well. Welcome to Valinor." She says it a little bitterly. "Good luck ever leaving. What makes you think that, and how'd you get into our room?"
"Well, I can normally be summoned, but normally I am summoned to one of two planets or one moon, none of which are named these things. Also it is normally common knowledge that you should not draw on the floor, because you might summon something, as," he gestures at himself, "has happened. Also this language seems etymologically unrelated to any others I know anything about!"
"We're speaking Quenya," she says. "This is Araman, which is one of Valinor's moons. Valinor used to be magically kept in a habitable orbit around a binary star system for the amusement of the Powers but they got into a fight and now we're orbiting a black hole. As far as I know there's one other inhabited planet in the space our ships can explore, and the Powers have probably now taken their war there. So we're going to stop them. And it's twenty-five years' travel from here without ships that can leap light and we have ships that can do that but we do not have enough of them. Is that most of what you'd need to know? We can feed one more mouth, probably, but we don't have the means to get you home."
"...you don't have to worry about feeding me," Cam says, making a pitless cherry and popping it into his mouth, "or for that matter anybody else if you want my help with that, and while I suspect you could send me home I don't know if you want to, because sometimes people do draw on the floor to purposefully summon demons and we're very useful."
She watches. She blinks. "I should get Prince Nelyafinwe."
"That's why I called you," says her son. "Can I've a cherry?"
He delightedly eats the cherry. The woman goes to a screen in the wall and says rather levelly that she has an urgent message and possibly a solution to at least three of the pressing supply problems and could Prince Nelyafinwe come here as soon as convenient please. Then she sits there.
"You said you were a demon? What's that?"
"Demons are one of the three kinds of daeva. Demons make things, angels change things, fairies move things. Daeva are also indestructible and summonable."
"That's - useful. And you were summoned? Somehow?"
"Yeah. This is not a good summoning circle and this could have been an unqualified disaster and no one should try summoning any more daeva by replicating this floor-drawing or doing more untrained floor-drawings, but kiddo over there completed what turns out to have been a valid summoning circle and here I am."
She glances at it. "That's pretty, Tása."
"Thanks," he says. He's eating his cherry very very slowly, still wide-eyed.
"I take it the reason not to do it again is that were a demon less sociably inclined they could create things like a sun or a black hole?"
"And people do it on purpose? Or are demons very well-reputed?"
"Demons are actually very poorly reputed, in comparison to angels and fairies. But a well-done circle can prohibit antisocial behavior, this just isn't such a circle."
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