He'll probably hit on you. Nicely, for as long as you're playing along. He doesn't even acknowledge being the reason the forest's enchanted, isn't it terrible how we're all trapped here, let's ride along and try to find a way out.

Elspeth wonders what happens if she claims to be taken. She has never had to actually claim to be taken to fend off an advance before; Jake is monogamous by obligatory species feature and she's monogamous to the extent she's gamous at all through lack of interest but people usually don't hit on her and the ones that do take a bare no for an answer.

Well, he's never going to see you again, is he.

Not unless Elspeth's family find her, and they'll be looking, and has she mentioned she can't keep a secret, okay she technically can but she's really bad at it and it involves making sure every single thing she says to the person she's trying to hide from is at least technically false so they don't know what it sounds like when she says true things.

He knew taking me might start a war with people significantly closer and more obviously inclined to murder him at the slightest provocation, and he did it anyway.

If playing along means pretending to be attracted to him or something Elspeth is going to be really bad at it. So, so bad at it. If it means actually sleeping with him and he reacts badly to "no" that would be the point where Elspeth would no longer need oathful confirmation that he should be deluged in too many memories for his brain to handle.

Okay so I'd better start planning for breaking our way out of here, then, even if the timing's inconveniently dependent on how long it takes my husband to get impatient. If you kill him and we don't immediately leave there'll be a civil war and my son'll be a pawn in it. So please do let me know when you do so we can get out.

Elspeth can do that. If Aredhel wants to see if the truth magic thing happens they could also do that; it'd be faster if it worked.

,,,sure.

She turns around.

Rides back to where Elspeth is.

"I swear that everything I've told you today has been true, and that I haven't withheld things to mislead you."

Elspeth talks to herself.

Magic is delighted.

Okay, I believe you. Who do I need to blast?

...depends whether it's effectively fatal. If it is, then we can probably keep it down to around two hundred people, if not I'd rather blast the city and then slit a dozen throats.

I only have a couple hundred yards of range. And this doesn't work twice on a single person and does leave them with lots of random people's personal memories.

Okay. Ride as far in as we can bluff, take down the guards when we can't, get my son, take down the guards going out, there are a dozen specific people who need to die and I can point them out to you, head for the borders and attempt the strategy I think I have for getting through the enchantments, if they don't collapse once my husband's dead.

Elspeth hops down from the tree. Okay.

I'm sorry.

Will the guards actually have to die die or can they just lie there processing memories if it turns out Elves can do that?

Only a dozen people have to die die if it turns out Elves are not erased by the memory-blast trick.

Okay. Should I sit on the horse with you or just go on foot?

I get the sense you can keep up?

Unless your horse is a lot faster than any horse on Earth, yes.

Then just run alongside, probably.

It's significantly faster than any horse on Earth. She can still keep up easily.

Elspeth wonders why this horse is so fast. It's a good thing for this purpose she's not a full vampire, animals hate full vampires.

Raised in Valinor. Valinor makes everything stronger and healthier and longer-lived.

That's an interesting effect. Addy would want to know all about the local magic; Elspeth kind of does too but mostly for practical reasons.

Valar can do all kinds of things but lots of their effects amount to making their territory more something and in Valinor's case that's more alive, vibrant, strong, healing, blissful, etcetera. The kinds of magic Elves can do are songs and enchanting metal. Enchanting metal takes months for simple things and years for complicated ones and decades for the real triumphs of magical engineering - Aredhel's husband does magic swords that are sapient - and songs have near-instant effects but they only last while you're singing.