"Is he good at suggesting things to Valar in addition to more conventional politics?"

"Better at it than I am. I have some profound disagreements with the Valar I make no effort to disguise."

"Wouldn't expect you to but it is indeed potentially impolitic. I'll ask him. Worst case scenario is somebody decides it sounds like lots of fun to invade Valinor, which can probably be solved by having some this-side filtration of who can go through."

"That would indeed be a tragedy, but only for the attackers. The Valar would just instantly kill them all."

"I agree. It'd also be good to know if Elves killed in your world come to the Halls of Mandos, but that's not easily evaluated."

"Yeah, that experiment should be put off as long as possible."

"I think a gate with some filtration is worth petitioning for in any event."

Nod nod. Kib writes this down.

And they return to practicing Harthanic.

And eventually Kib goes back to the palace and looks for Maitimo.

"Hello. Find a clever way to test language acquisition?"

"Nope, but what I get out of dreams is almost exactly the stuff it's most difficult to get out of books alone, so now we're both much better at Harthanic. He says you're the person to ask to petition the Valar for some kind of gate - a filtered gate, so as to not have them indiscriminately slaughter an armed incursion should anyone come up with such a plan - so that they don't have to be bothered every time someone wants to do tourism or sell a violin at the stork fund store or something."

"I think that's very wise and I will petition them to that effect." If you were wondering what was important enough to make me so cautious, it's not the Kingship.

...What was it? "And he says politics in my world does in fact get important enough that it wouldn't be a waste of your talent there."

"Aww, that's good of him." Petitioning the Valar is indescribably easier if they like you.

Makes sense. "Lots to do. I'm excited."

"Likewise. I'll let you know the verdict on a filtered gate as soon as I can."

"Cool. You wanna keep me up until Laurelin's peak playing Governor or should I go program?"

He twitches. "I'd love to keep you up until Laurelin's peak playing Governor."

"One of my favorite things about the game is the paper record you can learn from," he agrees.

This game has a good setting; he's having a lovely time with it. He's also thinking how to get the Valar on board with a gate in a way that doesn't invite future disasters.