No thank you but it's nice of you to offer.

Okay. See you tomorrow.

Med school takes a long time but a lot of that is memorizing vocabulary and pharmacology and organic chemistry that isn't immediately useful here, and bedside manner and hospital procedure that's redundant with what they already have. Elspeth condenses what she knows that will do them any good. By the time she's done she's fluent in both Quenya and Thindarin and still quietly simmering with disgust at the King all the time. It's not like equally terrible people aren't around at home but they're under control and he's out of it and Elspeth can't fix that.

She doesn't know yet if her family will ever find her. They still might.

And if they do she doesn't want it to be any harder to get him under control than it has to be.

Maybe she should go to Tumunzahar.

As grateful as everyone is for her medical help they are kind of relieved by the time she's done. It is uncomfortable to be around someone constantly simmering with disgust at the King. Tumunzahar's lovely, she'll like it there. 

Well they could try having a less disgusting King but apparently that would be too hard. If she leaves does she get her sword back? It has probably been bored.

The King is the only one who can possibly win a war against the Enemy. It might seem reasonable to Elspeth to propose they have a civil war rather than let the King be vaguely abusive towards his consort but she is not one of the people who'd die in that civil war, now is she. Also, Findekáno is very much pre-any-oaths on the record as not wanting a civil war over him. 

Which is very noble of Findekáno to be sure and she therefore did not put her fist through the King's face she's so restrained.

Yeah, maybe she should go to Tumunzahar.

Does she get her sword back? Unless it's, like, bonded with somebody here, it's a sapient sword and she isn't planning to kidnap it against its will.

It's pretty bored and is delighted to travel with her. How was the palace, how were the Elves.

The Elves can all read minds and that's lovely in her opinion and they brought her food and were mostly pretty nice but the King is morally bankrupt! Off she goes.

Can he stab the King? He's never stabbed a King, it sounds exciting.

This would apparently cause larger problems than it would solve, alas.

Says the King?

Say lots of people.

Who work for the King, though?

Well, work for him or are around him, but they're the ones who would be flung into a civil war and people who are not nearby might not care as much about the civil war thing.

So if the King dies there'll be a civil war? And there's an Enemy nearby who doesn't seem to have many scruples, and who could probably assassinate the King on account of being literally an evil god? It seems very irresponsible for the King not to have planned for this.

That's a pretty good point, although the evil god has not assassinated him so far so maybe there is some non-obvious reason he can't do that.

Or maybe him dying would not be as much of a blow to his cause as his people all think.

That's possible, but the person on whose behalf she would be inclined to maybe kill him seems to think it, and it seems presumptuous without a really solid reason to think so to use her judgment over his there.

Shame about him being mindcontrolled. 

The sword is a bit sour about not getting to stab anyone, with all these bad people around.

Well, maybe somebody who needs stabbing will come along later.

Great! 

It's three days' travel by horse to Tumunzahar; she's faster, but she'll probably want to sleep over somewhere halfway through.

She can just climb a tree or something and wedge herself between branches unless someone thinks that would be a terrible idea.