"...I mean, if I'd had to try to decide whether to go with you or not that would have actually been horrible under the circumstances so I don't mind, considering."

"...didn't think of that. Does that - generalize, if there are other things where your drawback won't let you think straight, or now that you have more information can you do more steering -"

"Having more information and not being in a total panic helps a lot. Uh, I probably wouldn't be able to do anything like intelligent prioritization if it seemed like you were in danger or something?"

"I'll keep that in mind. It's a good thing your abilities are touch-range -"

"Is it?"

"I mean, I don't think it can possibly come up again but if someone gets another Silmaril the oath'd - eventually erode 'not wanting to ask you to blind the whole city for me' just as much as it'd erode 'not wanting to kill people' and as it stands there is not much you can do to protect me from fights and that's probably good."

"I'm not sure blinding the whole city would even contribute much because that does come with the weird sense. I guess you could shoot at them from out of range or something. Why can't it come up again?"

"The other two Silmarils are still in Angband and the circumstances that made it possible to steal one are unlikely to arise again, and there aren't even any major civilizations left the Enemy could hand one to for the entertainment value of watching us fight."

"Oh."

"Were you imagining it was something nicer than that?"

"I was sort of hoping for something more airtight than 'unlikely to arise again'."

"I'd love that, but - no."

Sigh.

"Could always just - throw ourselves at the Enemy and hope we die - but it could in fact be worse than that -"

...shivery unhappy Annie.

"Are you going to be - not okay, if I die -"

"...well, you keep existing if you die, sort of, right, I might be able to hold together off that?"

"Yes. I do."

"...so I guess I'd try to function well enough to, I don't know, go try and persuade Mandos to be better at her job or something."

"...that would be excellent."

"I don't know that I'm very persuasive though."

"And she's a tough nut to crack, I tried for a very long time. Does it help if I have a preference that you be okay if I die?"

"...I don't think so, or if it can it requires more sophisticated nudging my thoughts around than I've learned to do yet."

Nod. 

"I mean, I guess it is pleasanter than you not caring if I'm okay or not, it just doesn't seem to actually produce an expectation that I could successfully be okay."