Cam has no comment.

He looks between them and says "you're going ahead with it."

It's the drooping tail, isn't it, that's a dead giveaway.

"Yes," Maitimo says. "We need you to swear not to tell anyone until it's over."

"The Enemy asked for this. The Enemy wants this. For all you know there's something even worse coming - for all you know he works for something even worse - and wants them out of the way. There's nothing that would convince me it's not a mistake to do something like this, and nothing that would convince me you can ever win on a deal with the Enemy."

"Yeah. I know. I need you to swear not to tell anyone until it's over."

"You said you wanted to talk about it."

"I can't talk about it if you'll betray us if you don't agree -"

"Betray you? Who's making a deal with the Enemy to destroy an inhabited planet?"

"I," says Maitimo, "am currently being tortured for millions of years in ways I have tried not to think about and I can stop that from happening to anyone ever. Perhaps it's biasing me. Perhaps you can get an instance of me not rolled back to right before I was captured and explain to him that you don't want a solution that our Enemy's going to find satisfying for the very short years until we find a way to kill him for good."

"I know why you think you're right," he says, "and you know why I think you're wrong. There is nothing to rehash here. Have a nice trip, forgive me if I don't wish you good skill-"

"Promise me you won't tell anyone until after it's done."

"No."

The room's empty. "Cam -"

The room is osanwë-proof.

"Please swear. People will notice you're missing and panic."

"I swear not to tell anyone that you're going to destroy Valinor and everyone on it."

"Or otherwise communicate it or cause it to come to their attention-"

"Yeah. No."

"Give me some choices here."

"Oh, are you not enjoying yourself? Did you tell him it was some dreadful necessity -"

Maitimo steps a lot closer. "We can put you in orbit for the next week or you can swear."

"I swear not to give oaths under coercion, ever."

"I regret this."

"Liar."

...there's some subtext here, isn't there.

But if a few million Maiar aren't going to stop him, gay subtextual drama isn't going to do it.

"All right," Maitimo says."Let's go."

"You're coming along?"

"I suppose I can stay here, it's less of a disaster if it leaks now that I'm alive."

Cam osanwë-proofs the airlock, and the shuttle. "If being profusely apologized to would help on any level..."

"You can't even know their names, did you know that? They're all impossible to speak aloud, osanwe-only, soaring sounds with the strangest echoes."

"Or you can spend the next while trying to make me feel worse," Cam acknowledges.

"I am not trying to make you feel worse I am trying to stop you."

"For that you'll need a better idea." Cam steps into the shuttle and gestures.

He raises an eyebrow. He does not move. 

"I can also just kill you and resurrect you later for fucking practice but if you would like to come along and spend five days trying to talk me out of it, now's your chance."

And he gets in the shuttle.

And Cam flies it out and surrounds it with an osanwë-proof lightleaper and punches in a course.

He sits there silently.

That's fine too.

He is trying to think of something better but nothing brilliant is coming to mind.

"Do you want to come the whole way or just park in space for a bit."