"A bi-directional information imbalance, then.I suppose you could select only from people who were born in Endore and came to Valinor, but that limits the available pool rather sharply...of course, if we're saying we're selecting from all the Elves, ever, we could say we're selecting a future version of any given Elf who has in the interim acquired relevant information."

"That sounds much harder to do, somehow. A Vala probably could just speak to every Elf; future versions with different information is a different problem..."

"Oh, when you said all the Elves I thought you meant including ones who hadn't been born yet."

"I suppose that'd be maximally thorough, but yes, I have no idea how-"

"I mean, this is all just hypothetical anyway."

"Not entirely."

"Oh?"

"Someday presumably the pigeon-messengers and the powered flight will get us back in touch with the opposite shore."

"Well, yeah, but you're probably not going to immediately attempt to select fourteen Elves at random at that point."

"No, but the question of whether it's nicer there or here will become relevant."

"Well, true. At that point it's hopefully less a question of polling everyone than of letting them decide for themselves on an ongoing basis, though."

"Depends exactly how easy it gets, I suppose, and how the Valar feel about that."

"Yeah. Well. I did say 'hopefully'."

"I share your hopes."

"For what it's worth, I'm glad. 'How easy it gets' is an engineering problem, obviously--I wonder if we can do anything about the other."

"I am hopeful. I think we've built some trust with the Valar."

"That's certainly something."

"And hopefully it will all happen gradually enough they can grow accustomed to it."

"Yeah. It's not as though we have a way across at all, yet."

"The sense I get is that it's hundreds of Years out still."

"Most likely, yes. We have time."

"All the time in the world."

"Yeah--it would be better not to take more time than we need to, though, there're people who didn't come to Valinor who've had loved ones die and be reembodied, here."

"I think moving slowly enough not to startle the Valar is a higher priority."

"I do agree. It's just--hard not to imagine being separated from Ahyadacil like that."