That is not how any of the species that I know of work.

"...that's kind of surprising but maybe magic changes things."

Why is it surprising?

"In species that die, and have kids that are like their parents, parents who want kids more and can have more of them because of that will be ancestors to more of the population."

It seems like that would take a long time. 

"It does, millions of years."

There have been Elves for a hundred thirty-two years.

"...and you started existing magically?"

Eru put us there when he thought it was the right moment. Eru is a - bigger god. 

"...huh."

And I bet Materia doesn't work that way because it hates science and the thing you just said sounds like science.

"...studying it is the purview of science..."

Shrug. I don't know how old Materia is either. Maybe not old enough for the thing even if the thing isn't science. 

Science is great it was Bella's favorite thing about Valinor.

"Science is pretty neat. I mostly do math though."

I like languages. And magic.

"I don't speak any other languages but I bet I'd like magic if I could do magic."

You can probably do magic.

"Really?"

I think so? I can't think why you wouldn't be able to learn magic.

"...cool."

Yeah. Magic is amazing. Everyone should have magic.

"What kind of magic can you do? Teleporting, telepathy..."

Osanwë isn't wizardry it's just the way Elves are. I have a flight spell and a bouncing spell that isn't as much mana as the flight spell and I can make diagrams in the air - I needed that so I could design the spell to rescue Bella, because they took away all my paper and pencils and things - and I can heal people and make a bungalow and go invisible and make an anti-time-slip necklace.

"They took away your paper and pencils? That's horrible. - no computers? Anti-time-slip?"

What's a computer? They took away all my ways of writing things because they knew I was trying to invent a spell to go get Bella and they thought I would die. Valinor has a time-slip thing so you never feel like you're in a hurry and it makes it hard to do things fast and Bella found a way around it but the Valar got mad.