It's okay. Or, well, it isn't really but we can go have dinner and ask them.

Yeah. We should do that.

And you should carry me there.

So she returns triumphantly to the banquet hall holding her Annie and only a bit more disheveled than they departed.

"Welcome back."

"Summarize yourself, Annie."

"Gosh. Uh, I'm originally from a world where the magic comes in the form of artifacts which if a person touches them they each grant one benefit and one drawback. One day I had a traffic accident and six of them hit me so I have... a lot going on. One sent me to another universe but also means I can share and then unshare the effects on me, in their original pairs. That's where I met Rirosseth. Uh, another one's going to sound weird if I explain it but it's probably pretty key to understanding the story. It does a thing where not for everyone affected but for about ten percent of my sample it'll make them fall in love with somebody they know. In my case since I didn't get it taken off right away it didn't have to be somebody I already knew and shortly after I landed Rirosseth showed up and it was confusing. The corresponding benefit is immunity to other mind affecting stuff, though, my sample was a bunch of people called orcs who needed out of their oaths and it does that, about one in ten paired off. Stop me if I need to go into more depth on anything."

"Does your world have other magic, is this responsive to Remove Curse -"

"Original world it's only artifacts and I don't know what remove curse is but that seems like it might undo what I have wholesale and I have been coping with it all for hundreds of years and do not want to gamble on fucking with it."

"The falling in love thing sounds really sketchy."

"I am aware. I do not want to get rid of it because that would for one thing probably wind up with her being a statue again and for another probably make it really hard to keep most of my memories of my life well-assimilated and stuff and for yet another would itself constitute a radical change to how my brain works."

Nod.

"Aaaaanyway she was herself under an oath with the implication that she showed up in the course of stabbing people and then kidnapped me and I did not mention the love thing because it seemed like it would be awkward. She noticed anyway. Lírnith, her sister, decided after process of elimination had determined which side effects went with which good effects that she wanted to try the anti-mind-affecting thing in case it'd help with the oath, which she'd also sworn, and it did that and didn't stick her on anybody. We didn't tell Rirosseth that either. We all moved in with Dwarves and raised twin orphan half-Elves and I told Dwarves a bunch of stuff about technology from my world. Eventually Rirosseth figured out what we weren't saying and decided to try it hoping she'd get lucky and you can guess what happened probably."

"You are both under a magic love curse."

"I really think I'd love her anyway, if I'd been less of a mess."

"You would," says Anaander immediately.

"Maybe."

He doesn't look up but he twitches.

"Anyway then the Valar showed up, the message was in Sindarin so maybe you know who they are?" At Ambela's nod, "They showed up and finally stopped Melkor. Lotta continent-shaking trumpet blasts, very hard on the music allergy, it's extremely painful. Our kids had gone to join the fight and we wanted to see how they were doing and also look into me deoathing orcs so we went to where they were hanging out. Someone didn't get the memo about not singing around me. Rirosseth charged in and someone murdered her. I finagled my way into Valinor so I could be there when she got out of Mandos and de-oathed orcs while I was there and lasted a long time but not long enough. Then I reincarnated on what I thought was a different planet but turns out to have been the same planet later because it seems like it's the same one Rirosseth was on when Mandos got sick of her and her mom and sisters and spat them all out, and I still have all my artifact effects and have been eradicating insect-borne illnesses in Sierra Leone."

Isn't she just the most patently wonderful person in the entire universe.

"Well, uh, welcome, have a summary of what's going on and help yourself to the food except for the eggnog since you stepped in the pitcher - what are your other effects?"

"Music allergy goes with a regeneration power, it's pretty heavy-duty. I'm eradicating the insect-borne diseases by giving out the one that kills vermin on contact and it goes with feeling too hot all the time unless it's really cold - between that and the regen I'm actually safe and comfy in really cold places though. I'm blind and deaf but have a sense of where objects are for a ways out in all directions, works through walls and stuff like that. I have a polyglottalism power that conveniently overrides that, so I can hear voices speaking, and see text or sign, but not hear other sounds or see other things except I'm using Rirosseth's ears and eyes now. That comes with being faceblind which is a really minor drawback and if there are any Celebrendeses around they'll probably want it persistently. And reportedly she took after her mom and grandma in that respect." She sits down and takes the summary and a helping of curry.

And they can check if Endure Elements helps with the temperature thing.

"No, doesn't help. I'm mostly okay at tuning it out. When I was in Valinor Aulë fixed it by just actually giving me a cold aura that faded out if I went somewhere cold or if someone came close to me. Also insulated me for the music problem. Wore off after I died."

Nod. Well, that's all the help he can offer if no cursebreaking is to be attempted.