"Was that the wrong response?"

"No? It's just, 'I don't know if I want a hug' is the sort of thing that makes me want to hug someone, but you can't hug people without asking. I'm really glad to meet you."

"I can't imagine why you would be glad to meet me, but it is good that you are."

"You're my sister, why wouldn't I be happy to meet you?"

"Because my existence implies a great many unpleasant things and my presence serves as a reminder of those things?"

"I am sad that the Enemy had you and tortured you, but that was true before I met you, too. It's good you exist and bad he had you and good I met you."

"He didn't actually torture me very frequently. Why is it good that I exist?"

"...do you not think it's good you exist?"

"...I think it's useful that I exist. But I don't know if it can be good. I was created out of evil and used for evil and now I am going to suffer indescribably forever. I don't regret suffering indescribably forever if it makes Melkor's defeat more likely, but I do think it makes describing my existence as 'good' something of a stretch."

"Why are you going to suffer indescribably forever?"

"...Did no one tell you that I'm under conflicting oaths? Perhaps that explains why you were glad to meet me."

"No they said that but surely Eru won't just let you suffer forever. Or the Valar will be able to fix it."

"Eru created oaths and Fate. Presumably he knew all along that this was going to happen. I have not been experiencing conflicting oaths for very long and I am already sure that it was an unforgivable wrong for Eru to make them possible. I have no expectation that he will have been nice enough to make them fixable as well."

"We'll think of something."

"...Thank you," she says. "I don't think it will work, and I don't want you to try until after Melkor is defeated in case the solution makes me vulnerable to torture again. But thank you. I think that you are a good person."

"I don't think I understand how being vulnerable to torture is worse than being constantly tortured. But okay."

"I suppose the difference is fear."

"The Enemy can't get to you here anyway."

"I am sure it will eventually be strategically useful for me to leave. So I will. If I were not willing to sacrifice my comfort for strategic gains, I would have refused the first time I was ordered to commit an atrocity and I would not be here. But I prefer being in a situation where fear is not conceptually relevant to my life. Nothing can happen to me that is worse than what I am currently experiencing, so I cannot be threatened or coerced." She pauses thoughtfully, then adds, "And I always found it very satisfying when something caused Sauron frustration, and I expect being completely unable to hurt me will cause Sauron immense frustration, if we ever meet again."

"You can't leave. Not while it's still dangerous out there, even if there's no such thing as danger for you really."

"I can't?"

"No! The Enemy's looking for you, and we've only just found you, and now you know where Menegroth is..."

"I was not expecting to leave soon," she clarifies. "I just do not think that staying in Doriath forever will turn out to be the best way for me to bring about the defeat of Melkor."

"That's not the only thing that's important. Keeping people safe in the meantime matters too."

"Yes. But keeping people safe for a very long time and then eventually failing to continue keeping them safe because Melkor has conquered the world would be... good but not sufficient."