"Oh, let's see. I've been pretty busy with nonsilly things..."

Her arm is wobbling more noticeably. "I noticed. You do enough for a hundred people."

"A hundred very slow people, maybe, which I suppose is the comparison you had in mind."

She laughs. "Paced for the Ages, we like to say."

"I don't see why you couldn't spend Ages doing things a little faster! Would you run out of things? It hardly seems likely. Your mother thinks there could be lots of other planets, even if you grew bored of this one, and it's possible to travel between the stars - the real ones, not the visible ones - even without magic."

"Define 'tempted'."

"Crossed your mind, and you desired to do it, but common sense intervened?"

"Let's just say I'm fortunate that I noticed there was something fishy about Quendi romantic customs before I tried to flirt with anyone."

"How does that work where you're from?"

"Differently. Less monogamously, in particular, I was very dismayed to discover that it is possible for Quendi to get married by accident."

"Oh, no, do the newcomers think that?"

"After a fashion; something about swearing by Eru and then, the words the fellow explaining it to me used were 'lying together'? I would certainly be paranoid enough to avoid doing those things but that doesn't mean I wouldn't describe some sequences of events resulting in those criteria being met as 'accidents'."

"No, I mean, no one got accidentally married by Cuivienen, even though it does just require a certain kind of intent and then ~do you think anyone's told me~, because they did not believe that this could get you married. It's true in a sense only if it's on your radar as a possibility so the Valar should have told them it was impossible and then it actually would have been."

"...I'm not sure that's not even worse."

Nod. "In other realms marriage is typically just a formal, public promise to stay together. It's breakable, it doesn't do anything to the soul, it's completely independent in both directions from lying together."

"That sounds nice."

"I don't see much advantage to the Quendi kind, honestly, unless there's something particularly inexpressibly delightful about having a renovated soul. At least the oaths one can make a case for."

"I think they bring most people joy. Also maybe it wouldn't be possible to have the strength to nourish a child if you couldn't draw on the souls of both parents? But you could still say you can't conceive children without a marriage, and have marriage itself not be something that could happen accidentally."

"The child-nourishing thing isn't a factor in other realms, but if you're going to do it that way your revision sounds like the way to go."

"Well, if I ever rule my own kingdom I can announce that that's how it works within my borders, and as I understand it, that will then be true."

"Are you sure you understand it right? It'd be a troubling mistake to make."

"No, but I'd check in with the Valar first."

"What if someone went out of your kingdom and found that it worked differently elsewhere, that wouldn't ruin it?"