"And that is entirely reasonable and is a separate thing from revenge. I did qualify my wish for the assassins by specifying that they could not retain the power to harm."

"Sure. All right. Even if they never again had the power to harm me, I would like them to have to face the consequences of what they did. Since they do, I am more concerned with how to change that. Your solution of sending us to separate planets fixes the second problem, but not the first. It's much much better than any options actually available to us, but it's not really what any of us want."

"And it will not work any time soon." She sighs. "I don't know how Fëanor's people feel about the entire debacle - and I suspect you don't either. Many of the reasons you have not to show forgiveness apply to their incentives not to show remorse. Neither of you is strategically well-served to look vulnerable, like you might hesitate to kill to get what you want the next time there's a conflict."

"I am not sure that apologies are your missing piece here. They can be lies as anything else can be."

"No, whatever his other failings Fëanor takes his words very seriously, and means every one of them. An apology from Maitimo is worth the parchment it's written on; an apology from Fëanor would be real."

"Even now you're sure of that?"

"So... It sounds to me like Fëanor, however brilliant, is bad at setting priorities and worse at managing his extremely volatile emotions and was sufficiently badly parented that he never picked up the skill, nor has he ever had cause for this to give him a moment's trouble from anyone he had not already written off and ceased to value. Does that sound right?"

"You've got it."

"And what you want is the chance to receive - not only receive but spurn - an apology from him. But he does not have the maturity to see the merit in this course of action from a standpoint of pure ethics, and doing it anyway will profit him nothing. He has already attempted to dispose of any help or companionship you could stand to offer in the future, you are not prepared to render any he may have come to miss since he abandoned you, and as mentioned if he looks unwilling to back his demands with violence by admitting to any of the more restraining impulses he may or may not have this puts him at a tactical disadvantage if someone of your faction becomes demanding. Try to picture his personality itself as a resource limitation. It is fairly clear that he does not have some skills and habits that might normally considered basic for a healthy adult. Assume that it is literally impossible for him to suddenly cultivate them. Given that, can you make it worth his while to give you anything you want?"

"I don't think so. Having the things they stole from us is better for them than giving it back to us. If they don't believe we'll attack them, and they're not moved by guilt, they have no reason at all to return them. Fëanor thinks, presumably, that a smaller host with unquestionable loyalty is better than a larger one who knows he's not a good King, so he doesn't want us for the war. We have absolutely no hope of getting anything at all from them without a fight."

"Then perhaps, given that you seem to have rather more of the skills considered basic for an adult, you - as the psychologically functional party - should consider meeting them as strangers without the intervening steps. You could also assail his party, but - well, I don't get a very consistent picture of how much you value people's lives, so I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad idea from your perspective."

"We don't want a fight. But what would meeting them as strangers even look like? He doesn't trust us. Even if we can bear to say 'oh, we're over it, we don't regard the things you stole as ours and you may keep them', I don't think they'd take that at face value. We could settle on the opposite end of the continent and just hope they don't bother us too much - if we can survive at all in Melkor-controlled territory without any seeds for agriculture. Or horses. Or tools for weaponry. Or most of our best weapons and armor."

She shrugs. "I have some hope I may be able to talk some sense into them when I meet them. If I can't, if they are just as you say and determined to remain that way, I will do my best to help you settle peacefully elsewhere and start over and fend off orcs. I've lived off hard land and while I was not a scholar of all the disciplines I would have read up on if I'd anticipated this landing, I did read a lot and may know things sufficient to bridge the gap. In the meanwhile, well. None of you need starve to death."

"In that case you have a deal. Though I can't promise I won't sometimes grumble at you about the utter injustice of us having to put up with this. Oh, and -" He violently shoves her into the snow and draws his sword.

She goes prone in a trained fall, kicks his legs out from under him, and kips up to plant a foot on his back. She's heavier than she looks.

"Your thoughts are fine. I was explicitly looking for them, and very nearly nothing. Or was that not sufficiently startling?"

"I was startled, but not threatened." She takes her foot off him and offers her hand to help him up.

"We don't threaten children, when teaching. So I think you should be fine."

"That's encouraging. Are you all right? I kicked like you were as fragile as a Midgardian but I suppose it's possible you're more so..."

"I don't know much about Midgardians, but I get the sense from you that a year of being stranded and undersupplied in the tundra would not be survivable for them? Anyway, you could use about thrice as much force before hurting me, and if we'd met back in Valinor ten times as much."

"All right, I can remember that."

"...if we agree to go settle on the other side of the continent from them, then will you teach us to fight?"

"Your enemies have not vouched for your promise-keeping. But given sufficiently credible intent to do so even when confronted with not being in this wasteland any longer, yes."