Hugs! "That's wonderful!"

Momentary pause. "Yeah."

"...what's the less wonderful news?"

"They're also being reasonable about half-Elves," Elien says quietly. "We get to choose."

"The problem," says Eliel, "is that my sister wants to go be the Queen of Men. And therefore die."

"In four hundred years."

"That doesn't make the eternity without you afterwards any shorter."

"...why do you want to be the Queen of Men badly enough to do that?"

"...I dunno that I want to live forever? Most of the Elves I know wish they could die for real. I don't want to be an Elf - and you're not just choosing the fate, you're choosing the fundamental nature -"

"The oaths and the fate and the needing pretty things?"

"Yep. So - human. Getting to be Queen and therefore change a lot of other things and help a lot of other people's just a bonus."

"Do you get to change your mind again later - how quickly do you have to decide -"

"Another few years - we should choose for real before they make the humans the continent - can't change your mind."

"Well. It's your life and you can decide what kind of life you want it to be, but you might want to remember that in addition to knowing Elves who want to die you know at least one human who wants to live forever."

"Because of her, though, right?"

"No, I wanted to live forever before that too."

"Did you know by the time you were my age?"

"I wasn't even twenty yet when I landed in Arda."

Nod.

"There are a lot of Dwarves who were excited about the immortality research too."

"There are lots of Dwarves who are excited about flight and will never set foot in a plane. And it's not that I don't want to live forever, it's just that I can imagine no longer wanting that and having no choice forever and that seems worse than taking my chances with whatever Eru has planned for men."

"I guess that depends on what you think of Eru's planning skills."

"'forever with no choice about it' is something Eru planned, too. And planned knowing he'd planned Melkor. I'd rather my life be happy than infinite."

Nod.

Hug.

Hug. "What-all is going on around here?"

"Uh, the Valar are holding things together so everyone can evacuate, they're trying to figure out what to do about - uh, Lírnith and Rirosseth, they're pardoning everyone else, they assumed everyone'd take them up on the pardon and return to Valinor but a lot of people are going southeast instead..."

"Doesn't astound me. What are the - the options they're considering about Rirosseth and Lírnith?"