Who to approach for something that didn't involve treason might be a fair cry easier. He was in Valinor for a hundred Years...

And we don't know that there's been any treason. Does that sound like something the Enemy might do, if he knew he couldn't expect anything obviously disloyal?

Maybe? He spent a while in Tirion doing things that weren't obviously disloyal, just trying to provoke Fëanáro to more and more paranoia...but paranoia can't be the game here, we weren't supposed to know about it...

I could imagine limited influence being absolutely worth a convoluted plot. Even if it's just one person and all orders have to be plausible, there's no way that wouldn't come in useful eventually.

I just have a hard time reconciling that with the Enemy being the recreationally evil, giant fortress type. Would make more sense with a larger-scale endgame.

I assume his endgame is to have the strength to assail the Valar. But - hmm. 

Eventually. But I don't see a way for this plot to escalate—if there's anything evil he can just say no.

There's got to be something we're missing.

Yep. We can keep a close eye on him, that's about it.

And confirm that he didn't lose some possession recently.

If there's some way to find that out without potentially tipping off the Enemy that it's a question we're interested in.

Have suggestions?

Is he married or something? It'd make things a lot easier if someone else might have noticed things going missing.

Or we could just ask for an oath not to share the fact that we asked with anyone whose identity hasn't been– with anyone. Since we don't know how good Enemy disguises might be.

Even a totally innocent person would as likely as not refuse to swear that.

Oh. Just because of the general disapproval of oaths, or because this oath is dangerous?

I can't think of a way it's dangerous but it wouldn't surprise me if Maitimo could, or could think of a way to build a lot of leverage off an oath not to tell anyone something...

Right. And we shouldn't just swear not to use that oath against him because Elf oaths handle blurry edges differently from practitioner ones.

I almost wish we had Maitimo on hand, we could put them in a room together for five minutes and end up knowing everything while somehow not tipping off the Enemy.

We would. If my cousins were good people this war'd be infinitely easier. 

Or even if asking for help wouldn't be multiple simultaneous disasters. If.

Maybe we're coming at this from the wrong angle. If the Enemy is using disguise, who does he impersonate? We know he didn't outright replace them or the connection wouldn't be pointing to Angband, and two of your father would be noticed...

Impersonate one of us, though - maybe not me, that'd probably also be too conspicuous, though I'm out of the camp a lot more and you might be able to time it right - someone who could claim to be acting on my father's behalf -

- and even explain that my father couldn't publicly confirm, and shouldn't be confronted about, giving these instructions -

Then that gets the set of plausible orders up to "suspicious" but still not to disloyal. Covers potentially Enemy-serving orders that your father might plausibly wish he could give–

–if there are a lot of actual ones of those instead of just plausible, it might be a good idea not to tell me. Maitimo again.

Yes, that crossed my mind. There aren't. Sigh. I was going to say 'not that you can just trust me on that' but I suppose you actually can.

I'll try not to infer anything if you don't say no to this question next time it comes up.

Things that we might plausibly want to happen but that actually help the Enemy. Telling Doriath about Alqualonde? It'd rebound on both us and the Feanorians, but there'd be no reason to disbelieve someone who looked like you saying otherwise.

Yes. Or if it's a long game, things that they can then leverage to convince the Fëanorians we're planning to attack them -

It has to be a long game, I still don't see any possible short-term payoff past bragging rights.

I wish we knew how compromised the victim was. There's a good chance we could clear everything up just by telling him what we suspect, and he stops taking questionable orders. And another chance that he conveys that straight to the Enemy.

And if he is the kind of person who'd at my request swear not to tell anyone about a conversation he had with me, then he already swore that, probably, to the impersonator...

Figures.

If we knew it was you being impersonated, you could just pose as whoever's posing as you. But it's just as likely to be Turukáno or someone, and we don't have the information to narrow it down.

Yes. There are probably half a dozen people who would be trusted if they claimed to be speaking on my father's behalf, or it could be anyone if he has a way to fake swearing to it.