"Yeah." Sigh. Squeeze.

The landlords do not proceed to manifest and challenge them to single combat for control of Milliways. He hugs Cam and plops down by the side of the lake and says "the mind-control song was way stronger for Maglor than for Edie and I when we tested immunity. I should probably ask him how he did it."

"Was it the same music?"

"Nope. Maybe he just composed a more powerful one, that could be it. ... it worked within a couple of notes, all the ones we had extant took at least fifteen seconds..."

"A couple notes, literally? That should... not work. There are only so many notes."

"Yes, I know. I want to ask him - actually, I want some kind of assurance he doesn't do that if my alt's not about to self-destruct, and then I want to ask him - maybe he'd been humming it quietly for a bit in anticipation of the need, but..."

"I didn't notice any... preliminary effect..."

"Should've warned you sooner, I'm sorry -"

"I think I'd have noticed," Cam says uncertainly.

"I can ask him but he's probably pretty occupied -"

"No hurry."

So he cuddles his boyfriend and sits by the water and worries and eventually -

Matt thinks you two'll want to check in?

Very much, he sends and says aloud for Cam's benefit. Is he okay?

Took three days, but yeah.

"Three days, geez. - How'd you have the song working that fast?"

With enough power and practice you can improvise, get the effects without the exact magical sequences. I think mechanically the answer is something like 'I stored a shortcut'.

"So the note sequence wouldn't work for arbitrary people?"

Definitely not, no.

"Please do make sure I can't hear you before pulling that kind of thing in a shared acoustic space."

Yeah, understood. If you're expecting it it's like 'taking a Xanax', not 'hit with a mind-control ray', but I can't imagine it ever being urgent on a scale of seconds.

"Xanax," says Cam, "doesn't fuck with me unless I let it."

Well, neither will I.

"Thanks."

Sure. Take care.