"Welcome to Tirion," says (and sends) the King. "It is a labor of love by our people and I hope you've found it hospitable." He's embarrassed about the troublemakers, but he thinks they'll calm down given a bit of time.

:It is a beautiful city. And from what I have seen of your kingdom, it is in many ways a paradise. Though I have also seen some things that, coming from my world and my experience there, I find to be worrying: He glances over at Fëanáro, directs Mindspeech at him privately. :I would like to use the barrier again if we are going to speak of this, however, I assume it will alarm people even more if the King is to become uncontactable. What would you advise?: 

Tell everyone we're testing his world's different magic, Fëanáro says. There are guards who can see you're not bothering him or anything.

Leareth does so, and then senses for the nearest magical object; at this point he's pretty sure he can draw on any of them without damaging them, and he needs more power than he has left for a privacy-barrier to last longer than a minute. 

Nearest is the Silmarils, but that ceiling is also magic, and the crown, and Fëanáro's sword.

He'll nab some power from the ceiling, that seems the least fraught. (Leareth wonders what it's been enchanted to do, or whether the magic is just to hold it together.) 

Shield goes up. :There is something I wished to discuss with you only with no chance of being heard: he sends. :A concerning theory that I have, regarding your recent troubles: Quick skim of the King's thoughts, to see if there's anything there that should inform his next words. 

The King is afraid, now; he hasn't known even the Valar to do that. Probably Fëanáro thinks he has things under control but Fëanáro makes mistakes - rather larger ones, as Olórin put it -

:This is a trivial spell in my world: Leareth informs him. :Different magic. I am not sure what your Valar are capable of - whether they might listen to a private conversation if it were not so shielded - and since this theory concerns them, or one of them, I wish to take every precaution. I have no wish to harm you or any of your people – my goal here is to help ensure that no harm comes to this place, or to your world more broadly: 

Not that he expects that to be very reassuring to the King – and correctly so, honestly Fëanáro has been way too quick to trust him – but it's the truth. 

I see, says the King. Where are you from, exactly?

:A world called Velgarth. It has gods, like yours, and magic that is rather different from yours, and – is worse, in nearly every way. My people grow old and die of it, and do not come back, at least not with their self and memory intact. We have hunger and disease and abject poverty everywhere, and I am not sure that any centre has had scholarship as advanced as what you have in Tirion. We do, however, have more expertise than your people do in a few areas. I came here by accident, using a spell called a Gate, which can open a door directly between two places so that the distance might be crossed instantly: He shakes his head. :I meant to travel several hundred miles and instead my door opened on another world: 

Can you safely return? If so, this might have been a lucky accident - we can help you.

He is not totally sure he believes this. He doesn't have Fëanáro's specific objections, it just seems unlikely. And tailor-made to be interesting to Fëanáro, too.

Which is extremely reasonable of him, really, Leareth can't disapprove. 

:I have not tested it yet. I expect so, since my abilities work here at all. One obstacle is power; my world contains ambient magic in large quantities, and – other sources–: he is so not going to test whether blood-magic works, although the fact that they come back when they die means it's hovering in the back of his mind as an option of last resort – although upsetting the Valar might disturb that, he isn't sure... :The other is the reason I have come here to speak with you, and it concerns your political situation: 

Leareth looks the King in the eye, his expression level. :In my world, there have been thousands of instances of succession, since there are many kingdoms and Kings live short lives. And many of them were...not peaceful. If I were, in my world, to observe the kinds of - trouble - that I have seen here in Tirion, I would expect there to shortly be blood in the streets: 

He ducks his head. :Alone, this would not be so convincing – Quendi are different, in many ways you are far better. Your immediate offer to help my world showcases it. However... I learned also of Melkor. And, from Nelyafinwë, I learned that...the political situation has been deteriorating for a long time, and despite all reasonable efforts made to salvage relationships. One such instance is happenstance, but a pattern indicates enemy action – and in my world, when there is no clear enemy, only a pattern of inexplicable bad luck, this inevitably indicates the subtle meddling of a god. And so I came to suspect, very shortly after my arrival here, that Melkor was not as apologetic as he pretended. And I fear that he wishes for your situation to end in a far worse state than the current one. Even if you think this is unlikely – if you consider it plausible at all, the severity of the outcome is enough to warrant taking it seriously, or so I would argue: 

That, too, sounds like Fëanáro's style of thinking about things. 

Perhaps we should bring the possibility to the attention of the Valar, who can investigate.

Leareth tries to think. He...doesn't know that he should be aiming to say whatever will convince the King of Fëanáro's plan, because he isn't sure that Fëanáro's plan is the right one. He doesn't have enough context to judge for himself, yet, and gaining that context will take time. Time that they can't, necessarily, afford to wait. Leareth doesn't trust the King to make the right judgement here either, though. He would trust Nelyafinwë more if the man weren't spending so much mental effort on suppressing misery and trying to not-think about a secret that, at this point, Leareth is pretty sure cannot possibly bother him enough to warrant the effort that's gone into hiding it. 

Not fully trusting anyone else to make the right decision has been his default state for the last few millennia, of course, but usually he's better oriented than this.

Leareth takes a deep breath, yoinks more energy from the ceiling to maintain the shield. :Forgive me, perhaps this is simply outlander prejudice, but – I am not feeling ready to trust your Valar. The gods of my world, though they may be well-intentioned: or they may not, but the fact that they might be isn't a lie, :tend not to understand all things, and they have made many what I would call blunders. And if I am right, then Melkor fooled the other Valar into releasing him. To my eyes, this does not bode well for their competence to investigate: Assuming Melkor hasn't suborned them entirely, but that might be taking it a step beyond what the King can absorb right now. 

I don't know that they were fooled, says the King slowly.

The parole of Melkor was a matter of much debate, and many of the Valar opposed it. The ultimate decision would be that, should we build our paradise by imprisoning eternally one who threatened it, we would be failing to embody the ideals that make us better than him. 

:...That is not information I had: And it might change things rather a lot. :I do see the argument. And my understanding is that Melkor claimed he would repair the Outer Lands – if this had been his true intention, I would approve of it: 

He frowns slightly. :I...am perhaps biased against trusting the judgement of gods, who may have an idea of paradise significantly removed from the one I would choose. I have long experience to go on, and yet, the gods of your world may truly be more trustworthy: 

He's pretty sure Fëanáro will disagree hard on this point. The trouble is, he doesn't know which of them is right. 

:Fëanáro: he sends, privately. :Is this true, of the Valar? Also, I have explained my theory now. If you wish to tell him your plan, now is probably the time: 

The Valar vary;  there were definitely some among them who doubted Melkor, and some among those who still supported his release. The reason they won't help is that they won't do anything, not for Years. You can ask my father if he disagrees. 

Leareth refocuses his attention fully on the King. :However, an issue with the gods of my world is that they do not respond quickly. I hear the Valar are perhaps even worse. So I would not necessarily object to asking their aid, but I would feel uneasy about relying on it. Especially since they will need time to deliberate with one another, and Melkor would not need to deliberate with anyone, and so might easily act before they have time to resolve anything: 

That does seem possible. I think we should send to them without delay, but there may well be substantial delays in their response.

:That could be reasonable. My intuition is to be cautious, here – to take at leave five minutes to deliberate it, surely that is not too much to ask. However, it is, in the end, but an intuition, and one shaped in a world that is not yours: 

Leareth thinks fast. He is worried that the Valar are a route for Melkor to obtain information - on him, on their theories and plans. The King evidently trusts the Valar, even if he admits they may be slow. 

:Perhaps: he sends, slowly and carefully, :we might try to find the best of both worlds, here. A practice used in my world is something called an unbiased investigation – someone may bring in an expert to look at a past crime scene, for example, but without telling them of any existing theories. Because theories might be wrong, but once they are in your mind, they shape how you perceive the evidence of your senses, and it is harder to recognize their flaws. The Valar will be slow anyway. We might as well wish for them to be slow and correct, and they are certainly powerful enough to come to the right conclusion. So, I might suggest that we go to them, and speak of my concern - the political aspect alone - and of the fact that this does not seem natural, given what I know of your people and their virtues, and I suspect a plot by some malevolent actor. And allow them to choose their own angle for finding out who that actor might be: 

Leareth lifts an eyebrow slightly. :I think that is a reasonable plan in itself, and it would also assuage my paranoia that this might be a way for Melkor to learn that we suspect him, and take action more directly. Gods are very difficult to outsmart. I have found it best to take every precaution, even when most of them seem unnecessary: 

The King is relieved, because his wife is going to the Valar anyway about Fëanáro and this seems like a better frame for it than 'do things about Fëanáro.' That course of action seems wise to me - and of course we can discuss it for as long as any of us have concerns to mention, I didn't with my initial recommendation mean to suggest that the issue was settled. I think it likely, actually, that the Valar are already investigating the situation - I know it to have caused them considerable dismay. Violence and threats are unknown to Valinor; it would be encouraging indeed if they were introduced by some hostile entity.

I think it fits. You commented yourself, once, on how everyone seemed to have heard the worst possible account of things from the worst possible person - and there was that odd time when Artanis insisted she'd heard me saying something I hadn't said -

It fits. Other things might fit too; I haven't tried fitting grand conspiratorial theories, really. But certainly, everything has been harder to resolve than it should have been. Much of that, though, was your own decisions -

And much of it was Nolofinwë's, unless we're about to learn Melkor impersonated him. It's not hard to get people to make mistakes if you control their access to information. Father, what I want to do is leave immediately. Leareth's magic can enable it. When we learn more, we can reconsider, but in the meantime, Tirion is under threat and the way to stop all this division is to permit our departure with all who have the courage to accompany us.

That will be a great grief to our people, I think, and one that could maybe be avoided if we can unravel the scheme at its roots.