Nod. All right.

Findekáno's a good first choice, anyway.

Yup.

We should probably decide soon who will try killing the Enemy, since they then shouldn't travel to other worlds or have identifying information about them.

Yeah. I'll mention it when I talk to Findekáno later.

If there are several Elven mages and they're all Nolofinwean my people will be stressed and scared.

They have the bigger group, they're more likely to have someone willing to do it. But I don't plan on having anyone else learn magic until things are more settled between the hosts, anyway, it'd just be to give them time to think about who to ask.

Yeah.

The groups were the same size before so many of our people died. 

I'm sorry.

It was worth it. We made the whole continent safe again. So many people could go back to their homes, so many people'd been hiding, or dying, or slaves being marched north to Angband - it was right but still so many people died doing it.

Yeah.

He extends his arms for another hug. Death is awful on its own and it's also awful what it does to everyone else. It makes it so hard to be generous, so hard to be forgiving...

Yes hug please she could really use one right now. She keeps the snuggling-up to an absolute minimum but it's not none.

Yeah. Some people just break, in situations like that.

He's getting better at tolerating the hugs. Quendi're pretty tough. But it makes us less kind to each other, and that's painful for those of us who remember how it used to be.

Yeah, that's part of what I meant - it's not as bad as some things, but it's still hard.

If he wasn't doing okay at tolerating the hugs he'd presumably not be bringing up things that'd make her want them; he's definitely got enough of his people skills back to guide this where he wants it, one way or the other. She's not going to worry too much about it, though even as upset as she is she's still paying attention.

He squeezes her. I have said already that I wish you'd met us before.

She relaxes into the hug a little when she's squeezed, and then sighs. Yeah, me too.

After the war we will heal and then we will learn how to be okay.

Yeah. I hope I get to be around for that. She grins.

Me too, that'd mean this all goes very fast!

Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll just be two years.

Is that how long it'll take a mage to get good enough to try it?

Yeah, I think so.

That'd be something, if it works.

Yup. She is just slightly smug.