"What can I do for you in the meantime?"

"I - don't really have anything else I do with my time, at the moment - except take a lot of notes, I'll need more notebooks eventually - I don't know - which room is hers, is it that one -" She guesses and points.

"Yes. How -"

"The whole house is in range of the weird sense that goes through stuff. But I was mostly guessing."

"They left here Years before they left the continent, it should be nice and tidy."

"Yeah."

"Please let me know if you need anything."

"Thank you. Um, in theory I know how to cook and stuff - I haven't in a while because the people around me tended to sing while doing it and it wasn't a one-person job but - if there are things I can do to help out."

"I mostly just eat off the trees when I'm in the middle of a project, so you'll be well-served by knowing how to cook if you want more variety than that. Are there things you'd like to know about Valinor or anything?"

"Probably - I don't know enough to know what I need to know, I read a lot but it tended to assume background information I didn't have -"

"Makes sense. So there were three tribes of Elves beside Cuivienen and they settled in Valinor separately - the Vanyar in Valimar, which is built into the mountains around Taniquetil, the Teleri in Alqualondë - the Noldor mostly aren't welcome there because of the Kinslaying - and the Noldor here in Tirion. Then various people who were dissatisfied went to found their own cities. Tirion has less than a quarter of the population it had before the war, and it is ruled by my brother-in-law, Arafinwë, who did not depart Valinor with his family. Carrying weapons is prohibited but there are no other laws I can imagine you running afoul of. If you need things you can go and get them in the city, or ask me to get them for you, there's probably always people singing."

"That artifact is going to be so popular in my world and it is so inconvenient here. I'm not in the habit of carrying weapons around."

"Then you should be all set. You can feel free to interrupt me when you think of things to ask, if they come up - and there's a library, across the hall, but mostly a very dated one..."

"Thank you."

"Of course."

"I'm glad Lírnith told me to find you."

"Me too. It is hard to imagine what they've been through or guess how they feel about - everythng that came before the war.

Valinor is a perfectly safe place to wander around homeless but certainly no one should need to."

"It's probably also easier to put up a couple signs and let a finite set of neighbors know about the singing thing than to just wander around like that."

"That too. You and Mait- Rirosseth can just set up out of earshot of the neighbors, down south, they build everything into the side of the cliffs."

"That'll work." That's so much nicer to think about than any of the intervening time, which consists mostly of empty anguish and question marks.

"You'll like it there, it's lovely." He sends a mental image.

"It's beautiful. Not that I was expecting Elves to live anywhere that wasn't."

"We need it. That and song. I - hope Mandos understands us well enough to create nice Halls of waiting."

"I hope so too. Does she - ever pass messages -"

"She can. I don't think she does often, but I can certainly think of occasions."