I think I shall get some rest. There's so much to do! Good night!

Okay, good night.

She stays up for an hour or so anyway, working on new effects for light spells.

And in the morning he has more audiences.

...huh. Okay.

Well, she goes about her morning and solicits breakfast and a guide to do more paths with.

She can have both those things!

And when it gets close to lunchtime she stops in to see Maitimo.

Hey! How's it going?

Pretty good. Got some more paths done. She sends a map. I think I'll have all the critical stuff done tomorrow, if there's anything else important I've been neglecting around here.

If there is none of us have thought of it. Thank you very much.

No problem. I might take a morning to hang out with Tyelkormo and talk about magic, then, in a couple days - I think they'll be good at it once they get through the explanations.

Sounds great.

Mmhmm.

Well, I'm going to go get lunch... you have been eating okay, right?

Yep!

All right. I'll be back tonight, then.

See you then!

Mmhmm.

She settles back into her habits - mornings with the Fëanoreans, afternoons with the Ñolofinwëans, busy all day with both. She teaches Tyelkormo the magic; she takes a day to experiment with tunneling, and they determine that it'd take a few years of dedicated effort for her to clear enough space for a city. She eventually decides that the most likely reason for Maitimo's concern for where she's sleeping is that he wants her closer to his host; she doesn't mind, but she does put in a portal to the Ñolofinwëans, carefully so it'll close if anyone else comes in, so that she doesn't feel so alone.

He pretends. He pretends with vicious concentration, can't ever ever slip up again, he pretends with every gesture and breath and word and thought. He relearns everyone's names. He is not concerned with where she's sleeping, and his attention is spread too thin to notice she thinks he is. He is pulling together all of the pieces of the lie he will need to live forever. It hurts, but it's a background buzz compared to the hurt that is continuing to exist at all. His brothers are relieved. They eat better. They sleep better. They train a few dozen people as mages and they practice together.

Time passes; it gets colder. The experimental greenhouses work perfectly and are reproduced in both camps; food still isn't abundant, but nobody has to go hungry. The kobold keeps making friends among the Ñolofinwëans and suggests some of them to be mages. She finishes the magic-vision spell; she works out a spell to teleport people home when they're injured; she distributes those and the arrowproofing spell. And after a couple months, during one of her regular check-ins with Maitimo:

Y'know, I think I'm pretty much okay, now.

Oh good. I'm so happy for you. 

Nod. I would've been anyway, but it'd've taken longer. So - thanks, I guess.

I feel very lucky that we were able to help each other.

Yeah.

Do you know what you want to do next?

Not especially? The mages seem to be coming along just fine, but it's still going to be a while until I'm not needed for spellcasting, I haven't really started thinking about what comes after that.

Well, there's no hurry.