"My imagination is not fertile enough to come up with a scenario where I'd wish this death on someone if any cleaner method were available."

"If they'd struck us all down on the shores of Alqualondë I wouldn't have called that unjust. But this -" He laughs. "I mean, maybe their goal is to give us more time to repent of it, so we have a better chance of being judged well once we die."

"It sounded like the dead can express preferences which may change over time. Surely they are capable of repentance in such a state?"

He shrugs. "No one knows. Probably. It's considered impolite and vaguely blasphemous to try to learn the criterion they use to judge us by. As if you're trying to take advantage of the strictures, rather than abide by them out of respect."

"If the entire process commanded more respect in the first place that might have a certain limited logic to it..."

"Your system has many advantages over death being eternal oblivion but its clarity and objectivity are not among them."

"How would you do it?"

"If at all possible, I wouldn't - by which I mean not that I would abdicate the option but that I would engineer the scenario to involve no death of sapient beings at all. Are we assuming this is for some reason not a possibility?"

"My opinions on death are in many ways shaped by my being accustomed to it being only ever eternal oblivion with no affordances for returning or gaining insights and personal growth from the experience. I definitely would not design an arrangement where memory loss was routine." Shrug. "Ideally I would have some opportunity to talk with the sorts of people who would be operating under my creation and ask them what exactly they were getting out of their extreme sports, what it was they wanted to risk when they cliff-dove. Certainly I would make extremely prolonged sleep or something like it an option for someone who was irretrievably depressed as it sounds like Míriel was, I have no wish to inflict life on the unwilling either. But I think there are better ways for one's choices to matter than the possibility of self-destruction. The most meaningful choice I am making today is not the choice to refrain from slitting my throat."

"The Valar didn't know that we die, originally. When they met us and learned what had been happening in the Outer Lands in Melkor's reign and their extended absence, they panicked. I don't think the current system is the product of some particular wisdom."

"I had not suspected it was."

"So in your world, if you die, that's - it? You're destroyed, as far as you know?"

"Barring some sort of unusual circumstances around the death itself to the point where it could instead be termed an extreme medical emergency, yes."

"That's horrifying. I'm so sorry."

"Thank you."

"Is there anything we can do? I don't know - we'll obviously be careful to keep you out of the fighting, but beyond that -"

"I'm accustomed to fighting and probably better at it than any ten of you, maybe more, depending on how much your better sight and hearing count for and whether the fight takes place in the snow or any other terrain you have special maneuverability on. If I avoid it it will be because I see no one on the field I am certain I want to strike. This is doubly the case now that I no longer have the handicap of needing to avoid the use of magic lest someone notice. My healing spells are very good and you see how quickly I can cast them; while I might meet with ill luck I might do that stepping into an avalanche, here, or being assassinated in my sleep. As for old age it will not advance quickly enough for me to find it overtaking me before I have made a spell for it."

"Right. You, ah, may under-credit your persuasiveness and related diplomatic skills." He shakes his head. "Old age?"

"I said Asgardians live for thousands of years? In much the same way children become adults, adults become, eventually, old - weaker, more vulnerable to disease, very gradually falling apart in almost the way of an old machine or well-read book. I have centuries of youth left and will then slowly decline, or I would if I were not planning to sidestep the process with sorcery."

"Your process sounds different but perhaps it can be ameliorated by sorcery as well."

"It can. Fëanor already solved it, not that we can count on him to share. The Silmarils - they capture the energy that pervades Valinor, that stops us from experiencing this problem there. In their presence we get stronger again; anyone who can visit them will be able to live in the Outer Lands indefinitely. It was his crowning achievement. Melkor stole then, and now they're strengthening the other side."

"Well. It is known to be possible in principle and that is always promising."