You can assume that. 

All right.

I'm sorry.

He is going to cry on his husband for a good long while at the next available opportunity - no amount of practical necessity is ever going to make killing children feel okay, and it's worse somehow that he didn't even know - at least with the baby orcs he knew he was doing it, and knew for sure that he could bring them back one day... well. Someday he will have general resurrection, and someday he will have a solution to the other practical issues, and that won't make it okay but it'll be a good start. (Are the ones he couldn't burn going to starve to death, that's horrible - well, if this Maitimo wants his help with it he knows how to ask - and he's not going to want his help with it because Taliar is just a Vala to him, and that hurts too, he's failed so badly at such a fundamental part of who he is - he could've made this Maitimo so happy...)

He catches Nezhefena's eye and nods to her.

Shadows.

Esarkan's office.

"Well? How did it go?"

...he clings to his husband and bursts into tears.

"That well, eh?"

He hugs him. "He killed them all instantly. Turns out that the alternate universe version of me's planet had an agreement where consenting people'd host the slug things and in exchange the slug things, which were from a much more technologically advanced civilization, would teach them their technology. It is unclear if my alt knew that on your planet they were kidnapping unconsenting people, I don't think he had any influence over what they did but he didn't consider himself out from under a threat either. And he can't stand Taliar, which I should have predicted - love, I'm sorry -"

he could have made him so happy and he fucked it up—

and he still doesn't know which ones were children—

Hug. "We don't even have two of you and if we did I bet it'd work out all right, he can't have the objection that you're too virtuous for his tastes."

They could have two of him in three days if Taliar thought the second one would be - accepted in good faith, would have the same chance with the new Maitimo that Taliar did with his husband.

"Two of you?" inquires Esarkan.

Sniffle.

"Is that 'one is more than enough' or 'why can't we have five', I can't tell from here..."

"I'm not entirely sure myself."

Hug. "I can - try to guess - it might depend if the fork would be as powerful as you -"

"Does my emperor need me for anything else or can I go cuddle my husband somewhere—"

(and he's not actually sure how powerful the copy would be - might depend how he went about it - if they'd met a new Maitimo under more congenial circumstances and he'd looked at Taliar and decided he definitely wanted one, Taliar thinks his preferred approach would've been to sit down with him and explain everything about himself and his relationship with his husband, and then create a copy of himself from exactly the moment before he arrived in Arda, and tell the copy 'hello, I'm you from a year in the future and I'm matchmaking you with this inexplicable duplicate of my husband, I swear on my soul it'll all work out'... that copy would have the same power level Taliar had when he arrived in Arda, he's sure.)

"No, go on. The crisis is over," says Esarkan, waving a hand. "Congratulations on your marriage."

"Thank you."

Awwww. I am - deeply flattered and delighted that you'd want to do that for an alt of me. I don't think that approach will work. I bet we can think of one that can, if you're very sure you want that.

And now Taliar would very much like to be picked up and carried off to his family's rooms in the palace where he is very sure they will be left alone to snuggle as long as they like.

He's - you, as far as I can tell, he's exactly you but a less lucky you - I want you to be happy and I want other people who are you to also be happy and I have the means to make people-who-are-you very very happy in a way I'm not sure anyone or anything else can. Of course I want to do that. But - I'm not just going to drop a copy of myself in his lap and walk away with no explanation - it'd be a disaster, they have no Melkor to fight, and without that I need him to be actively in favour of the project, the other me won't be able to look past the thing with Findekano if it's still going on - if it's not still going on and I swear on my soul that they're going to be happy together, the other me will stay with him even after finding out, but I can't think of many other ways around that, and I can't swear on my soul that they're going to be happy together unless I genuinely believe it's a sure thing. Which I would if I hadn't completely fucked everything up with the other you before ever meeting him.

Even if the other you's in love with him, he'd leave if he found out -

It's not absolutely certain that he would, but it's pretty likely. And - some of the things that got us to where we are -

Soul-touching, bad days, rape and torture - those are not things Taliar would've agreed to if he'd arrived in a peaceful kingdom with his happily married future self offhandedly suggesting he date the king. If he swears on his soul that it'll work out, that's enough of an assurance for the other Taliar to decide to - put all of himself into the attempt. And Taliar is pretty sure that Taliars who are going to successfully date Maitimos need to do that. Theirs is not the kind of success that can be duplicated in half-measures; it's all or nothing.

The other option, though it's not very ethical, is to not give him the means to leave, would he put his whole self into making it work out that way?

...he might, but I could also see him, for example, killing himself out of spite... I'm pretty sure it's not feasible to prevent him from doing that, all he'd need to do is want it the right way, wait three days, and then ever be conscious and in his right mind again.

I suspect that if we tell my alt that could happen my alt'd be more careful than that - I was, with Findekáno - but I understand why you don't want to rely on my alt's ability to manage him into trying when my alt doesn't like you and might honestly just hurt him for fun -

- actually, that's exactly what he'd do, my alt'd resent being manipulated and decide to prove that he wouldn't like his you and he could get his you to hate him, just to hurt the real you -

...depends how hard he tries, I guess... if I was sending a copy of me into that I'd give him all my memories of you and explain the situation and let him decide whether he wanted to risk it, and if he went in, he would end up either killing himself or succeeding, I think.

I do not consider that an acceptable risk. I want yous to be happy, I don't want to torture a you even if it does help the me -