I am the intermediary, usually, though really all of us are. It is very very meaningful to me, more than instrumentally, and with the necklace my capacity for knowing people well seems entirely limitless.

That does sound like an improvement.

And right now Father finds it stabilizing and treasures it much more than he ordinarily would, he's very very dependent on our peoples' belief in him and his cause, so it's less lopsided. If he'd have gotten the crown in peacetime there are lots of reasons he'd have given it up but that's one of them.

Nod.

I do sort of regret that I won't be able to have that kind of role after the war.

Maybe one day. We'll see what happens.

I will eventually end up in charge of somewhere. Just - not these people, and they are my first love and have sacrificed tremendously at my request -

Mm. Well, I can not-rule-Asgard and we can commiserate, does that help?

I suppose. And I get to keep Findekáno.

Yep.

We both sort of figured that at some point one or the other of our parents would just suggest that we solve this problem by swearing never to do it again.

I do think you find our lives more depressing than we found them.

Probably, which I suppose is all to the good.

It certainly amuses me.

Good.

You said with respect to your magic. What a difference it made that there was one person who knew.

So much. I like being able to be that person for you.

What did Fingon say after the dinner, other than that it went well?

He said, 'He didn't burn the boats'. Twice. Then the thing about you making things complicated, then confirmed he'd tell his father, and I said 'I know you are', and he said 'I understand why he wouldn't want that, but everyone deserves to know and it's relevant', and then he said he wasn't going to see you for ten years, and to tell you that your father apologized for the ships. And then we briefly discussed the field trip for the adopted orcs.

You're welcome.

I can think of so many ways to meet him in the next ten years and none of them are worth it and I want to do them anyway.

I can't get indignant that he didn't learn it from me when I was resolved not to tell him. But still. Not being able to talk about it is hard.