Good, that is the point.

They have a little hotel at this ski resort and they have a room in it and lucid-dreaming sex is much safer but it's just not quite the same. They should go take advantage of that.

Yes, yes, they should.

And eventually they return to Valinor, having skiied, and it is back to sneaking around in their sleep and Isabella not looking at Maitimë very much.

Sigh. But they need the Valar. After a lot of complicated negotiations Ulmo approved a portal between San Francisco and rural Mali, in the hopes of incentivizing development of reliable power and running water in the latter via eager housing developers wanting to offer people apartments two blocks walk from work. Polio's gone. Malaria's nosediving. Infant mortality, too. 

"What's she like," Liz asks, one Mingling. Maira says the Valar were supposed to give Arda a sun like Earth, but chose the Trees instead because the Trees would extend only as far as the Valar wished, would leave everyone who defied them or declined their guidance in the dark. Without that handicap, Maira says, the world outside the Valar's stifling guidance would long since have surpassed them, and wouldn't the Valar be embarrassed then. 

"She's - I doubt thousands of years in solitary confinement were good for her," Maira says, closing her eyes to check that no one is nearby. No one is nearby. Maira gestures.

Liz turns away from the windowsill and goes to her Maia's side and kneels. Maira runs a hand through her hair. Maira wraps her up in magic, leaves her paralyzed there. It's one of their favorite games. Liz can't imagine how she'd ever be satisfied with a dom who wasn't a deity. 

"I doubt thousands of years in solitary confinement was good for her," Maira says, "and I imagine she was very scared that history would play out exactly like she foresees it, horrible suffering in Endorë and a gilded cage in Valinor, for all eternity." Maira rakes a hand through her hair again and her clothes fall off, torn at the seams. She would giggle, if she could move. Maira is terrifying and it's so hot and she knows how special she is, to have this. 

She can still think at Maira. She doesn't hide any thoughts from her, even though she had to learn privacy of thoughts perfectly to keep Maira a secret. They both like it that way. The way for Maira to give her exactly what she wants, exactly the things she doesn't even know she wants, is for Maira to understand her better than she understands herself. And Maira does. Is she going to be - angry?

"Not with you, sweet. She knows you started working on how to rescue her as soon as I told you the truth, she knows you saw through the lies of Valinor, she'll be so proud of you. And she loves me, and she'll be happy that I've found happiness, after all these Ages. I never knew what I was missing, Elizabeth, millions of years and I had no idea -"

I love you.

"I love you too, sweet. I love you so much. I'm so proud of you. Are you ready?"

Yes. 

Maira trails a hand down her face. It slices her cheek open, so neatly that it barely hurts. Maira has to hold her still for things like this. When they met Liz didn't have the pain tolerance for any serious play. Maira was exceptionally patient. Comes of being a Maia.  

So does the ability to stitch her cheek back up, and now Maira does that. "Come here, love. We'll be so busy, once we start, and I will scarcely be able to function, I'll be so proud of you and so short on time to demonstrate it -"

Liz stands. Liz falls into her Maia's arms. Liz tilts her head for a kiss and tries to make herself believe that Maira could consider herself lucky, that Maira could consider herself proud.

Her mother is back in Valinor collecting Treelight for her project. She's agreed not to make them gems, as a better test of averting Arda's fate hasn't come up. She sends monthly, almost-indecipherable updates. She's juggling festival planning and project funding and thinking longingly of last night. It'll be really useful if artifact magic to make psion abilities permanent without maintenance would come along soon.

They get dressed. They download lots and lots of things they'll need, off the internet. They won't retaliate against my family?

Maira kisses her head. I won't lie to you; they might. If we succeed in closing the portals and if we make sure the other psions here can't develop the power that you have, then your family'd be safe, but if we fail -

We can't fail.

I chose you for your resolve, my love, and for your strength. If you do what you're told, today, we won't fail. Your family will be safe. Everything not founded on a lie will be safe.

Liz leans into Maira's comforting arms. "I'm ready."

"Good." Kill Mandos. 

Liz trembles. Maira's told her the things Mandos has done. She knew it was justified long before the power clarified itself in her mind. She's not afraid of this bit, really, she's afraid of everything that comes after. 

Maira starts singing, so softly human ears can barely hear her. Liz relaxes. It's all so clear when Maira sings.

Liz kills Mandos. It doesn't feel like much of anything, really. She finds her at the edges of the range she's been working to expand, finds her and tells her magic - gone. It leaves her feeling oddly light. Just Mandos, Maira'd promised, that was enough for Melkor to escape, that was all the killing that would be needed, unless anyone got in their way or the other psions tried to hurt Liz or Maira - 

Now we wait, Maira says, now we wait a few hours - 

- they could see on the job listings when the Tirion monarchy hired a precog with a longer range than their standard one, they were in the clear right now -

Liz kisses her Maia, and trembles, and waits. 

Hey what happens if

...

Forget what happens if she goes and surprises Maitimë why is she dead in half an hour. It's not the same as being dropped out of a precognition by interference, that's more like not looking that far ahead at all - looking into her dead future is different - she's heard it described but has never had it happen even on the skiing trip when she was checking checking checking to make sure she didn't carome into a tree -

She can't see what does it, just suddenly - it doesn't even hurt -

Is she dead if she leaves the room - yes.

Is she dead if she bolts as fast as she can that direction, that way, that way - yes.

Are there more things to check that don't involve conversations, those take longer to precog - okay, is she dead if she goes for the portal -

- the portal is gone -

The Vala she's talked to the most is Ulmo. What happens if she tells Ulmo that in twenty-eight minutes she's dead can't tell why and the portal is gone in fifteen -

[- oh. That's probably because Melkor escaped - is it just you or the whole city -]

Melkor escaped and they -

She promotes this conversation to reality. [I can't tell because when it happens I'm dead. You should have told me as soon as Melkor got out in case I could have caught it!]

[...oh. Yes, we should have. I can protect you. There, now you shouldn't die. Mandos is dead and she was holding together the magic on Melkor's prison. We don't know how. You were actually a candidate explanation.]

[Wasn't me, I wasn't even working on that, some of the other psions were - what have you been doing about this, I can check paths for you -]

[Trying a few different ways of defending Valinor, I don't know if they'd look distinguishable to you. The portals closing was us, it would be a catastrophe if Melkor got to Earth.]

[I can report back on anything I perceive including things you will tell me about if they happen whether I can see them directly or not. Can you recapture her -] She's safe now supposedly - yes she really is okay - is anyone else dead if she goes out and looks -

[I very much doubt we can recapture her. We don't even know where she is.]

The other psions are dead except one who is missing; the other mages are dead save two, who are missing; the Elves who were around and would have noticed are comatose but not dead, interestingly.

Are they dead already, if she reaches out by telepathy -

Nope, still there - and very confused -

- and then gone -

[All the psions except Liz and the mages except Taylor and Ahmad are dead in ninety seconds those three are missing Elves around them are in comas if I go check in person -]

[I have done for them what I did for you, does that fix it -]

Does it -

Now if she checks they are violently dead instead of suddenly and inexplicably so.

[They die differently, gorier -]

[Then Melkor has a Maia assistant. If it were her acting directly, nothing I did could help protect in full generality. If I inconvenienced them, they aren't a Vala - and they aren't an Elf -]

- Isabella still survives to the end of her range right -

- what happens if she telepaths Taylor -

[ - hi -]