Huh.

OK.

Our species is actually native to Earth, but most of us have left. There's - somewhere nicer - and we can go anytime we want.

Ah.

Weren't you ever in the nicer place, then?

Born there, actually. My grandparents left Earth.

Why'd you come back?

Before God created the universe he created the Ainur, his servants, and he charged them with creating and shaping and protecting the Earth, and one of them rebelled against him - you've heard this story, though some of the details got a little distorted somewhere along the way. We called him Melkor. God had said that even Melkor's designs would resound to the greater glory of the whole thing, and so they weren't very afraid of him...and it made sense, at first. They'd craft valleys and he'd fill them in with mudslides, they'd build mountains and he'd chew through them with glaciers, and it all made the world closer to the original vision for it. But they - they were tired of conflict, they don't like it, they don't really understand it, and they left Earth for Valinor, the realm of the Valar, and they made it perfect and temperate and beautiful and a haven, in different places, for every animal that has ever lived here or ever will. 

When the Quendi awoke on Earth the other Ainur weren't there. Melkor was, and he captured and tortured us and bred his captives into a race of monstrous slaves and sent them back to prey on the survivors, and they invented weapons and stopped travelling alone and retreated towards the waters of the lake where we first awakened and they didn't understand what was happening. One of the Ainur, Oromë, the Vala of hunting, had returned to Earth to hunt, and he ran across a tribe of Quendi, and that was how the Ainur learned we'd arrived in the world. They went to war with Melkor. They imprisoned him. They invited us to come to Valinor with them. A few people agrees to go as scouts. They went. It was - so peaceful, and so beautiful, and free of war and violence and hunger and every affliction of the body. Some stayed. Some went. For three thousand years they flourished, in both worlds. And then the Ainur decided to release Melkor. 

They weren't - it sounds like a stupid mistake to a human but Melkor was the only evil in the universe, and we didn't know what evil was, and he said he was so very sorry and that he wanted only to walk free among the peoples of Valinor as our humble servant. They released him. He arranged through some elaborate machinations to ensure the King's eldest sons believed each other to be plotting to usurp him, murdered the King, triggered a civil war, and fled to Earth to scour it of all life.

People in Valinor were uncertain what to do about this. The factions were 'wait and see if we get more direct divine guidance', or 'something other than that'. Second faction left.

Ah.

She's sort of beginning to see why Alex might have the sense that telling her things would constitute homework. Also she probably should have brought her flashlight out here so that she could plausibly take any notes during this conversation.

So you were in the second faction, then?

Yes.

And how did that go for you?

Very badly.

But you didn't go home?

No.

I see.

Some people did. 

Probably sensible of them.

I expect they're much happier.

Sounds likely.

I'm not really clear on how much sleep you need, but am I keeping you from it?

Not really. I was mostly out here pretending that I knew how to skip rocks.

It's a bit of a - it turns out you can send a sense-memory, sort of.

Huh.

She gives it a few more tries, eventually with somewhat more success.

Thanks.

Any time.

Eventually she heads back to her cabin and slips into bed and resolves to at least try to have a passable time at not-actually-evil summer camp. 

Mass and changing classes are things that happen at the end of the week, so the only quest she can get started on immediately is Zach, which is not really a quest that she expects to go very well but maybe she can at least avoid making anything worse. 

"Hey!" she says, the first time she passes him. "I haven't been seeing you at lunch. I heard it's gonna be pizza today."

"Oh, I'm allergic. Not to pizza, to the cafeteria. Not allergic."

"Oh. That sounds rough." Why would anyone ever give her this mission. Poor Zach. He doesn't deserve to pay the price for her incompetent attempts to prove that she's a sane and cooperative person to telepathic ancient not-aliens embedded in sketchy corners of the government. "Is it like a specific thing?"