Very plausibly. But what about it - does he want my father working on disease prevention?

Leaving Valinor prematurely?

...maybe. That's going to be hard to talk him down from, but I can probably work at it.

It might be easier if we knew when Men were going to happen.

Want to ask Melkor?

Maybe. I'm not sure I want him knowing I want to know the answer. And he could lie, although I suppose if he did and we took the information to one of the others they could call him on it.

I can have someone else ask, too.

I think that's probably safer.

So he has someone ask. Melkor denies knowing the answer.

Harder to get outside confirmation on that kind of lie, if it's a lie. Maybe we could ask around anyway and see if any of the others know.

I'll ask people who are on good terms with some of them.

I guess Orome's probably too far away from the city for Tyelcormo to count for that.

Yeah, and hard to find, it could take a month. Though it'd be an excuse to get the two of them out of here. Not that I'm not also worried about you, but if anyone so much as threatens Idaia my brother will overreact and then we'll have real problems.

Yeah, I got that impression.

I will absolutely start a war for the two of you but only if it actually helps.

I'd say 'don't, it's not worth it' except that anyone who's liable to die in such a war would have a much easier time coming back than either of us would.

Yes. I think it could be worth it. But I'm really working very hard to prevent a war, not to win one.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

They head back to the palace after the talk. They are not assailed in the streets.

 Well, that was more informative than I'd feared and less than I'd hoped.

It's something. There's going to be debates in the forums all week, I feel like I should have someone there to warn us if the mood in the city's a problem.

Probably.

Do you have enough reading material to keep you occupied?

At least for another little while.

All right. I can recommend some more when you get through it. Take care. Lots of it.