"...yeah. But we didn't tell Rirosseth that either - the oath wasn't making her do anything at the time and it would've scared her - and we went and moved into a Dwarf city, it was expensive but I paid them with ideas for technology from my world and translations and handing out some of the effects - and then after a while she figured that out too - and we still didn't know how it filtered, it could have been almost anything - and she said she'd try it - and it matched -"

"So now the two of you are magically in love? Are you, ah, compatible?"

"That sort of depends on what you mean exactly."

"Okay. Are you happy?"

"...she's dead," Annie reminds him.

"Not forever."

"I'm a human, the Dwarves and Celebrendes were working on immortality but they didn't finish - and the Valar do not like her at all - but I hope not forever, I'm, I'm working on that."

"Okay. What do you need?"

"I need the Valar to like me enough to let her come back. Without having to have it explained why, probably. I can de-oath orcs and I have more time in Valinor than I would out of it and I don't know if that's enough -"

"In general it's not up to the petitions of the living, but I take it she'll also be cooperating as much as she can. I - I think you'll need more than a human lifetime, even in Valinor, but if anyone can invent immortality it's my granddaughter."

"She's brilliant."

"Yes. Takes after her grandmother, that way."

"I've heard that."

"Well, I will be honored to have you as a guest while all that gets straightened out, though once it is and you have her back you might want to move south, it's more liberal."

"Okay. Thank you very much."

"Of course. I hope it is all resolved quickly."

"Me too. I don't even know where - they were going to try to figure something out where I could touch the orcs to transfer the magic without them having to be fully reembodied because that's important for some reason, I don't know how to find out if there's something Mandos is ready to try there or where to go to ask -"

"I could go with you to Taniquetil in a week, we can ask - we could also petition the Valar to extend your life but it might be wisest to bother one of them about that individually, rather than ask at Taniquetil -"

"Okay. Which one?"

"I know Aulë best."

"Okay. Before or after going to Taniquetil?"

"I've never met a mortal before, how urgent is it?"

"I'm almost forty at this point. I'd normally expect to live to be somewhere between seventy-five and ninety if I died of old age and not accident, with the healing factor I can probably break a hundred if not a hundred twenty, and Valinor's supposed to slow me down all by itself..."

"By a factor of ten, yes. We should probably petition Aulë first."

"Okay."