"Maybe. I'll suggest that. I'm not completely clear on how close-knit the communities are."

"Maitimo knew everybody and was known to everybody. But even in Valinor one can't have tens of thousands of close friends, and there'd certainly be people who hadn't met him save formally."

Nod.

"I'd offer some of my people, who he'd be less likely to know, but I'm not sure there'd be volunteers. My brother and his children burned their bridges rather thoroughly."

"I understand. I appreciate the sentiment very much."

"Communicate my regards to my brother by neglecting to mention we talked at all, he'll appreciate it. And enjoy dinner. We're very pleased to have abundant food again."

It's dark by now.

It's a very pretty sunrise.

He is at precisely the location where she left him.

"Oh, that's convenient," she says, landing nearby. "How are you? Within the scope of how well you could be expected to be, I mean."

"My compliance is convenient? You are welcome."

"Not having to look for you very long was convenient. I brought you half a turkey and a knife," she says, handing him both of them.

He takes the knife. "I'm not eating. Thank you for the thought, though."

"All right, breakfast for me, I guess." She makes pretty short work of the half-turkey. "After I leave here I'm going to visit your family. I haven't seen them since I rescued you and while I have not been convinced that they shouldn't know I did that, I'm not certain it would be the best thing if they knew how to find you."

"I would prefer not to hallucinate a family reunion, no."

"I know, I know. And nor am I going to hold your location hostage to get anything out of them, which someone suggested. The question is whether if they try to convince me they won't chase you down, I should believe them."

He half-smiles. "I'm not going to answer questions about my family's expected behavior, except because it is already obvious to observe you wouldn't get anything out of them. You must know that by now: they did not, after all, attempt to rescue me, or make any concessions when I was in Enemy hands. If I had been released and was in someone else's hands, and that person attempted to extort my family, they would be ignored."

"I'm not saying, 'should I extort them'. I am not going to extort them. I'm saying, if they tell me, 'okay, we get it, he's not receiving visitors, we won't go visit him', can I tell them where you are."

He shakes his head. "No comment. Would you like to discuss something other than how my relatives would be expected to react to various situations? I'm much more forthcoming on literally any topic that isn't that one."

"Irissë recommended I quiz you on various Enemy capabilities," Loki says, flipping through her notebook. "I transcribed several entire conversations including that one, actually, and have two and a half permissions to share them with you, if you want exact words from her, Findekáno, or Nolofinwë; or I could paraphrase; or I suppose I could run it through forty instances of translation and hope it comes out really mangled by the time it's in Quenya again, Allspeak's very good but it's not that good..."

"Please read your transcriptions."

"Read them yourself." She pulls out the Irissë one, floats it in the air for him.