"Cam's route?"

"That would be the story I don't like telling," Cam says, and he goes across the room to plop in front of the fireplace.

"...So I'm guessing based on your technology level that you won't know what I mean if I say black hole..."

"No..."

"Morgoth offered to swear not to do evil shit if Cam destroyed Valinor. Cam held out until he could resurrect all the Elves there and had a sufficiently tight wording before he accepted."

And he'd thought Cam was safe he probably hasn't interacted with enough non-Maitimo people his judgment's probably all off - this person would find it objectionable to let their boyfriend rape me they must be a delightful human being -

- Maitimo wouldn't want him to make a fuss and he doesn't want to make a fuss, straightfoward, that -

"...

...okay," he says evenly. 

- not everyone in Valinor is an Elf - 

- the Valar are the only thing holding the Enemy back, if it's true he could escalate - 

- it's not as if you can't hurt people very very badly without ever raising a hand to them or ordering it done, he's seen Maitimo in motion - 

"Your alt there wasn't okay with it either. Cam didn't think it was okay, but Morgoth was torturing thousands of people for years every second, and he decided to make the tradeoff, and ever since then he's had a 'you committed an atrocity, you lose' button in his head if he ever argues with someone.

I don't think I could have done it, if it makes you feel better, even if I thought that the tradeoff was worth it."

"Maitimo thinks he's a more effective King because of what he does to me, and the war's more important than one person, so the tradeoff is obviously worth it -"

"I'm sorry."

He'd been stupid to let down his guard in the first place - yes, tell everyone exactly how easily they can tug you around, just because he makes reassuringly horrified faces - 

- until the tradeoff's worth it - but then he'll feel really bad, don't you know - 

"I won't make him feel guilty over it, don't worry."

"What?"

"I won't make Cam feel guilty over it."

"...You worry about you, Cam's dealing with it. It really doesn't sound like it's you who needs to be careful of his feelings here."

"Okay. Have they considered - distributing populations more, across the multiverse, so fewer people die the next time there's something worth killing a world over..."

"...I don't think that's going to come up again? We have Milliways now, if we come across a problem of that magnitude we can just shut the door and have infinite time to figure out something better. But yes, I take your point."

"Are you planning on leaving people in here indefinitely so you can always find it?"

"I'm not sure of the exact details, I'd have to ask. It might be that, it might be something the Feanaros invented..."

"Okay. 

Can you recommend anything from the bar -"

"The Bar does recommendations herself! If you wanted me to recommend you something I could just make it."

"Bar, I'd like something to eat," he says.

And Bar produces potato and sausage soup and a fried polenta square under roasted squash in Béarnaise and a slab of cheese-crusted halibut and a slice of blueberry pie and a frothy glass of something unidentifiably delicious and pale.

And it is delicious. Arda does not have food this good, and he says so. 

And then he'll go up to his room if no one minds.

No one minds.

"Bye," he says, "thanks," and he goes up to find the room.

It is on the floor indicated by its first number, a little off to the right, with a view of the exploding stars.