I can see from anything with a brain and vision, he says, though it's easiest with people because osanwë with animals is terribly disorienting and gives me a headache after long enough.

I can't do a thing to non-people with subtle arts. ...But I can fix your headache, if you get one.

Oooh! I may take you up on that. Most people can't do osanwë with animals for more than a second, and it's an unproductive second, but I learned because I sometimes needed eyes and didn't have better options.

I can't fix your headache in advance unless you want me guessing on how to do that, but I can do it once you have one.

I don't mind, I was pretty used to it, but it might not be fun for you.

It's good to know ways things can be bad, when we're building a civilization from scratch here and don't know all the mistakes one can make.

My world's problems mostly start further upstream than that.

Bad Valar? That'd do it. He brings out some sandwiches.

Yeah, although we don't call them Valar. Thank you! Sandwich om nom.

Oh? What do you call them?

Gods. And there are other things on about the same tier that are also not as nice as the Valar.

That sounds worrying. What were you...doing, just staying away when the ground shook and not going out alone?

No, there's a whole civilization! Lots of them, actually, many different species of people. You just have to avoid attracting attention, doing experiments, or going near anything dangerous. Most people can avoid most of it if they just live quiet lives.

I don't mind a quiet life. I'd mind one lived in fear.

There's kind of - degrees of living in fear. I don't think most of it impinges on most people's minds most of the time.

He takes a sandwich. All right. Well, welcome.

Thanks!

And they make small talk until Rúmil returns with a sheep and a bag packed with carefully-wrapped glassware. Mahtan's thank-you for the idea, Bella.

He's welcome, of course. Headache?

It's not too bad. But he steps closer.

You do have to actually invite me to fix it. Them's the rules.

Please fix my headache, Bella. Are there problems with unethical practitioners of the subtle arts?

She fixes his headache. Yes, but those aren't the people the rules are for; the rules are to prevent misunderstandings. People who mess around in others' heads aren't going to be deterred by professional guidelines.

That makes sense. It seems like a skillset that could be used very terribly if one didn't have ethics.