Perhaps sometime we can do it all at once so I can brace myself. But still. I asked you to tell me and I'm glad that you did. I think your proposed strategy would have worked well. They trust me. If I say to do things they do them, they wouldn't ask themselves if I was still reliable, not if I was still good enough at what I do to pretend to be -

I don't actually spend my time thinking about how I'd hurt you, I don't have an essay to hand you on it...

When you're only half a person and which half you are was picked by your enemies it is really useful to have some hypotheses about what they were trying to achieve.

Yeah. I just don't know that 'do it all at once' is workable.

Please continue raising things when you think of them.

Okay.

Do you think that knowing what I know I should accept this world's version of my memories back?

I don't know what your model of the Enemy's mind control is. I probably wouldn't expect that your cooperation was necessary to put the memories back - or implant fictions - if he wanted them there.

No. But I'll notice little things are off, and I'll go 'ah, that's because I'm reintegrating them from this magic necklace'. I don't think he can do fully convincing fictions or he'd be able to accomplish a lot more, so there must be something I'd be able to notice - I wish I could talk to others -

Want me to go ask Thuringwethil?

Do you think she'd tell you the truth?

She's shown willing to swear that she hasn't lied over the course of a conversation after the conversation. I wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her otherwise, Loki shrugs. But it'd be an assertion within the thing you're trying to determine if it's a hallucination or not, perhaps it would be totally useless to you, perhaps it should be.

And I remember her. Another shudder, more moderated. I think I prefer having more information to not having it, even though I am going to be discounting it, but I don't care strongly enough that you should use your break on that if it's not interesting to you.

Thuringwethil's kind of interesting and I haven't seen her in a while. I don't mind.

Okay. Leave the Silmaril, please.

Of course. She hands it over.

Thanks.

The area doesn't look much different.

Pop in, then.

Silence for a minute, then the air shivers, then she's there. With the wings. "Hey."

"Hi, how are you?"

"Weathering things. You killed all my scavenger bats."

"...That hadn't even occurred to me, sorry."

"I think I will forgive the person with the Angband-melting bombs."