"Fair enough. At least I talked him out of the literal tank."

"He proposed a literal tank? What for?"

"To keep me safe."

"I suppose that is a thing that a literal tank would do."

"I mean, it's not like I don't get why he's got all of this overprotectiveness now."

"Yeah, don't die."

"Though it didn't seem like you planned to."

"I didn't plan to but I wasn't exactly thinking straight to be as careful about avoiding it as I could have been and I regret that."

"Well, now he's going to be thinking about it way more than needed so it balances out."

"As long as I can talk him out of the literal tanks and their ilk."

"Course you can."

"Yeah."

"You handled losing a twin better than I did. I didn't outlive Imliss by very long."

"Oath said everlasting darkness if we failed. I figured if we succeeded that'd retroactively get him out of there. Or - if not, I was going to join him anyway, no hurry..."

"Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice," she mutters. "...Sorry."

"World's supposed to end in the Dagor Dagorath, but let's hope it's a long time coming."

"The what?"

"Final battle? It's a prophecy. Of course."

"Fucking prophecies, ugh."

"I know, right? Anyway, someday, Melkor's supposed to get loose again but not for long, some mortal stabby-stabs him and that's it, and then Father breaks open the Silmarils to heal the world. By the time it's due to come true we're planning to be on Alpha Centauri, so so much for the prophecy. They're not reliable in the Age of Men anyway."

"Remember Melkor's prophecies about human atrocities? I saw video of one of them in history class. Slightly different angle. Otherwise identical."

"Wait, really?"

"I wasn't even sure this was the same universe and not yet a third until I saw that."

"Well.

Fuck."

"Do you know when it's due to come true? How long is it likely to take to get to Alpha Centauri?"

"When the world is old and the sun's tired, which sounds like billions of years..."

"Okay, good."