"The other Elf Maitimos are not kings and the one who's a king isn't above the law and the Elf Kings are not above the law although they had fairly extreme wartime powers."

"So, there's one potential origin in cultural differences.

If you would like me with long hair that sounds nice. It's been a while."

"I am not interacting with your hair until you can produce a request without reference to what somebody other than you wants done with it."

He gives Cam a quizzical look and does not express a hair preference.

"Seriously. It's disturbing."

"Anyway. What are we going to do with you," Loki says to Maitimo.

"I stopped, and I swore to searingly and intensely regret having ever done it, and I cannot do it again."

"Also he has to hate himself as much as I hate him."

"You... sort of stopped. There is some sort of barter arrangement," vague gesture, "I don't think he feels free to pass up. Didn't think you could coast on your good looks and charm, I guess."

"I had trouble getting out of bed or in fact doing anything except sobbing. I told him that I expected I'd figure out how to function through it after a few days and that I'd arranged for the country not to suffer from my incapacitation before I swore something I knew would leave me unable to do anything except cry."

"True as far as it goes. I don't have a lot of details on developments after that."

"He came back to me."

"Congratulations, that is actually the most impressive emotional blackmail I've ever heard of."

"The country needed me, and the other option was running away and - I couldn't think what I'd do, with myself, if I ran away, but I'd often thought about what I'd do if I had a way to rein him in. Figured I'd stay until I'd fixed everything in my power. He's very careful with me now, he knows otherwise I could leave."

Loki shudders. "Maybe what this situation needs is actually more Findekános and not replacement Maitimos." She dashes off a letter to the correspondence demon in Space Arda, attn: whichever Findekáno: found a new Arda your alt is not doing so hot write back when you're free to be fetched.

"Elspeth can you explain why Loki's upset."

"I think she doesn't think very much of your standard of 'careful'." Pause. "Or the existence of this inferential distance in the first place, actually."

"I'm happy to talk with alternates if they aren't going to attack Maitimo like his alternate did."

"I can stash him somewhere, if you're concerned. I was not expecting Maedhros to react by dropping something on his head."

He hasn't let go of Maitimo, and at that his grip tightens. "Neither was I, I was expecting him to get my Maitimo's oaths erased so he could go back to keeping me. What were you expecting him to do?"

"I brought him in to help me discern what the fuck was wrong with this one. It was clearly too optimistic to expect that a lie detection song would do the trick."

"I'm sworn to protect Maitimo with my life so I really don't want people brought in who are liable to assault him."

"I can give you free will. It's good stuff. Want?"

"...yes. I think. Can it be taken away later if - well, if that comes up, they probably would have a way -"

"Currently the only method we have available for affecting free will in either direction is me using an artifact that is like the Tesseract but less friendly. I can put your lack of free will back if you decide you prefer that but it won't reinstate your existing oaths, just let you make new ones."