"Vanyel, I think we ought give it another week. Also we are going to sedate you for it, so it does not hurt you anyway, but still. Unless Cam is in more of a hurry than that...?" 

"We have all the time in the world. Also it'll probably slow you down, reverse some progress even, if a Gate hurts you much now."

"...I guess that makes sense." There's plenty of reading to do. 

There is! Leareth is making progress on winnowing out the useful books from Bar's recommendations. (He's considering putting together some sort of index/guide for future patrons, if things like that stick around when a person leaves. Not that he's planning on leaving for, well, possibly the next several centuries once they accomplish the immediate objective.) 

He asks Cam if he should do any reading about the people they're planning to go meet in Endorë, and if so, who to ask Bar for materials on. (Or Cam can give his own suggestions if he has them.) 

"You could read up on them. Maybe newspapers? If the Noldor don't have any yet then Brithombar papers might do."

"Thank you." Leareth goes to Bar and asks about both. Any written materials on the Noldor would be good, actually, if there are published histories too. 

There are various histories of the Noldor and plenty of newspapers.

Perfect! He'll start with a few of the histories, skimming to determine which one looks like the best starting point and then diving into it. 

Elves sure exist and do Elf things on various planets. Well, just the two.

Do they have the ability to travel to other more distant planets and just haven't so far, or is it too challenging? (He sort of assumes Cam could solve the 'too challenging' part.) 

They could, either in lightleapers or in conventional ships that take twenty-five years to get between the two they have already, but haven't gotten around to it.

Digression: he goes to ask Bar about written works on the engineering behind 'lightleapers' (a list of titles to start, if there are a lot of them.) 

The original paper detailing their underlying physics principle is titled "I did it" and is by then-Prince Curufinwë Fëanáro. Later expansion on practical engineering considerations were undertaken at a leisurely pace by various Teleri.

...Cute. Leareth reads the paper through and takes notes, just in case it's the sort of thing that might come up as a way to impress the now-King. (Who he is already expecting he's going to like.) 

Vanyel would like to read that too! And then fill Leareth in on his research notes, and discuss Gate-spell adaptations in theory. 

At his next Gate-exposure-therapy session he can get it down to thirty yards. 

"Good for you, seventy percent reduction in one step."

"I'm starting to get really bored of this! Probably boredom is a sign it's working, right?" 

"It's an improvement on agonizing fear?"

"It really is." 

Leareth makes some basic magic artifacts for experimental purposes, and spends a while casting adapted-Gates in the backyard, trying to do both of "open a Gate where the object is" (Yfandes helpfully hides them far away for him), or "summon object to him." It's not exactly analogous to summoning Maiar but it ought to generalize a little.

Inconveniently, the Gate-spell seems to prefer treating said magical objects like a destination, but he's hoping with additional work he can get it to do the other way instead. 

Cam makes himself available to dispense drugs and embroidery hoops and enchantment-suitable rocks and so on as necessary.

Leareth makes a little more progress on the theory behind the Gate-spell, but thinks he's now hitting the limit of how much useful practical experimentation he can do before actually having a Maia to look at. He dives back into other reading instead. 

Vanyel gets down to twenty yards. Leareth gives him a book on relaxation exercises, discovered by accident in his background reading. This is great because it's something he can practice for as many candlemarks as he wants, every time he's annoyed with himself for being the blocker on them leaving, not just a few minutes every couple of days.

The next session he gets down to five yards. He thinks he could probably go even closer but Leareth insists on holding off. 

"He's right, imagine how annoyed you'll be if we have to start over from the beginning."

Sigh. "Fine, yes, I would be pretty annoyed." He looks over at Leareth. "I think I'd be fine going through a Gate while sedated, though."