Do they all adhere to the same books?

If they do not I did not hear of it but my knowledge of my race as a whole is limited. Hiding that knowledge is something my mother might have done. I believe that the booster drugs increase loyalty to clan.

Is there any precedent for not taking them?

Not that I know of. I don't believe I was intended to know as much about them as I do. I believe that I could separate the mind-altering effects of the drugs from improvements to mind-speech but in my current form that does not benefit me.

Your current form?

I left my body behind to deceive my mother. I exist in the computers I built in this place.

I see. My species can do that with Vala help but it's not common.

It is forbidden in the books to do as I have done. It was difficult to accomplish.

Are there reasons behind the things the books say to do or not do?

I am unsure; many of their dictates are justified as strengthening clan or self. It is the books which dictate that all young must pass the trial of the culling ivy. The books also forbid killing one's kin without strong cause. The books claim that casting your mind apart from your body leads to shirking your responsibilities in reality. It is similar to what they say about losing yourself in dreams.

Culling ivy?

There is a plant which allows one to practice dominating another with mind-speech. If you approach too closely without dominating it, it will eat you. One of the trials on the path to adulthood is to touch the culling ivy. Very few fail the trial. I played with it as a toy when I was younger. The books say it culls those unworthy of membership in the clan.

I see. It sounds unpleasant and difficult in many ways to grow up as one of you.

I did not find it so until I began to search for secrets I was not welcome to. I find deception unpleasant. The Ivy is more distressing in retrospect. When I was young, it was simply an enjoyable toy.

If Elves die, we can be brought back easily, but we still would not present children with a risk of being eaten.

I will not force the ivy on my children if I ever have them. The risk is small for those with enough skill though, much like flying in an obstacle course.

Can you come back, if you die?

Can humans?

There is nothing which preserves the minds of my people after we die, though as I've demonstrated it is possible to copy one's mind to a computer. I do not know if humans could be copied in the same way but I expect they could be. Nothing that I know of does this automatically and if my mother knew of such a thing she might seek to destroy it to ensure humanity is properly extinct. The books do not speak of life beyond death.

Do you know of any other sapient species?

Not in detail, there are other races my people have wiped out for one reason or another and some who have been passed over and allowed to do as they will. None seemed powerful enough to challenge my people so I choose not to seek them out lest I bring my people's wrath upon them. I copied the records my mother had; I can show you them if you wish.

Thank you. I'd like them on principle but humans are the priority now. I wonder if the best thing to do wouldn't be to get the Valar to help; what I'm not sure of is whether they can follow me here, since they haven't done so already.

It has only been a few seconds of outside time since you entered this building. I dilated time so there's more time to figure out what to do for the humans. Their world will be destroyed in two weeks of outside time.

Goodness. The Valar can't do that.

I'm unsure what that might mean for whether they could help. What sort of help do you imagine they could provide?

They're very generically powerful. That just happens not to be a power they have, and I don't know if it means that your people are more generically powerful or that you're using different underlying magic but otherwise couldn't stack up against them or that you have markedly different strengths and weaknesses with no clearly implied superior.