"Indeed. I have high hopes in the long term. In the meantime we've just all got to make sure things don't fall apart by then."

"I'm really nervous about this but it could just be leftovers from how badly everything went to hell last time."

"I am also very concerned about this," he says frankly. "It seems like it came out of nowhere and was astoundingly ugly when it did."

"And apparently there's a...reformed...evil god in the mix."

"Have you had the chance to meet him?"

"Not yet."

"Nor have I, which I find vaguely worrying because I usually get a good sense of people when I meet them."

"Maybe we should."

"I've tried a few times. He's not always around."

"That seems incredibly suspicious."

"I agree wholeheartedly. I am not sure what to do. I've told Manwe I find him evasive, but Manwe's not going to throw someone back in prison for not wanting to chat with me."

"Tyelcormo said he thinks he's involved with the--friction, between your dad and his brother."

"If so it's not in any obvious manner, he hasn't taken a side or counseled either of them and there are no obvious anonymous contributors to the disaster."

"Okay. Let me know if there's anything I can do."

"I certainly will. In the meantime, what can I do for you? Decided what you want to learn first?"

"I don't really know where to start deciding that," she admits.

"Want a list of everything people do all day in Tirion? It'll be long."

"It seems like it would be. Your brother suggested something where dreamworking would be an advantage..."

"If you pull raw materials out of thin air and do things with them, do they then vanish? You could get some cool artistic effects that way, have an unusually easy way to get things out of a mold..."

"Yeah, they vanish."

"Then maybe you can start by narrowing to disciplines where you can pull that as a trick?" He lists some - "probably others but I am thoroughly mediocre at every craft I've tried so I may be failing to think of applications..."

"I'll start there," she nods, "and probably sit in on some random talks to get a taste for things, and try to figure out what our world has that we can conveniently import besides flameworking."

"Oooh! Let me show you the places to go to sit in on interesting talks! Actually, let me draw you a map of the city, it's not hard to get around but it's hard to remember where everything is..."

"Thanks!"

He draws her an exceptionally pretty map. He adds flourishes and circles the places they've discussed in purple ink.