Only bees and butterflies in the city, but there's more kinds outside of it.

:I would ask how you prevent insects from traveling wherever they like, my world has never figured it out, but I suppose the answer is 'gods': 

Leareth sighs a little. :All right. I had assumed you had a plan for this because my world does have some spells for preserving foodstuffs – and books, which will be eaten by bookworms and other critters if you are not careful, or simply get damp and mildew at some point. Even for buildings, though that is less urgent. The simplest way to keep meat is to freeze it, if you can; I have a spell that can do this and I can build an artifact for it, you will not want to wait until I am rested enough to cast it directly. Grain or milled flour tends to keep longer than bread, if stored in containers well sealed against moisture, so if the bread is not yet baked, you could simply bring the flour instead and bake it as needed: 

He frowns. :...Also, many varieties of biting insect carry disease, in my world. This is obviously not the case in Valinor, and may or may not hold in the Outer Lands, but it would do to be wary of it: 

- nod. It's good to know of it as a possibility, at least. How long does frozen meat last? Grain and flour?

:If you wrap the meat wrapped in something airtight and never let it thaw partially, years – not Years, I apologize, years in my world are much shorter. Perhaps up to a quarter of a Year. Grain or flour, perhaps the same duration, if you are careful with storage – cloth sacks will let mice through, not simply insects, and if the air is moist then mold will grow on it. Also it is worth noting that seed grain or corn will often no longer sprout after several years, so you will want to immediately take aside some from any crop that does grow, for future plantings: 

He is actually visibly distracted for a second, conveying orders based on this information to a dozen different people working on the departure preparations. " - thank you. Very much."

:You are welcome. I am glad I was able to help – and that I thought to check now and not later: Leareth is trying to quickly reevaluate everything he's heard so far and everything he knows about wilderness missions in light of this missing context. :Do clothing and equipment last forever here as well without breaking or tearing and needing to be mended?: 

Clothes tear and equipment breaks. I suppose it might do so much faster in the Outer Lands. I'd expect to need to repair an outfit I wore regularly after less than a Year of wearing it.

:That does not seem absurdly off, though camping is often harder wear on clothing than city living. Do you have soap on your list?: 

For getting dirt out of clothes? Yes.

:It is more important generally in a place where small-creatures can grow and make people sick – you will want to wash anything that food is to be eaten off, especially anything that touches raw meat or fish while you are preparing it – oh, fish spoils even faster than meat, though generally it begins to smell off first and people find this offensive before it will actually make you ill: 

Does the freezing work on fish, too?

:Yes, though many people think fresh tastes better. Also – for both, if you are hunting or fishing, they can be kept chilled but not entirely frozen, which would take much less magic to maintain than keeping it entirely frozen: 

He thinks. :It would make the spell cheaper to re-power if it were not maintaining a barrier alone; do you think your people would have time to make crates with some level of padding? This would keep the air inside and outside from mixing, so the artifact would not have to do so much: 

We should have time for that. Not visibly distracted, this time.

:I notice that this plan places rather a lot of weight on my presence and ability to maintain your artifacts, which is not ideal: On the one hand it could be useful for his purposes, if they’re relying on him, but...Leareth does not actually want hundreds of Elves to starve because their meat spoiled if he gets injured and can’t use magic for a week. 

:There are lower-tech alternate methods, which I ought probably teach to whoever has time to learn and experience cooking food. Drying and smoking is the best method for meat, though not as good for taste or nutrition as freezing it - but in an emergency, you could smoke most of your meat before it would spoil:

That sounds useful. I assume the locals will probably also know some things about this? The Elves long ago didn't but they've had hundreds of Years since then, they should've invented some things...

:One hopes. Also that they know which local plants if any can be eaten – a diet of only grain and meat is not the most healthy in the long run, more variety is good. That reminds me, I am not sure of the state of your Healing arts – you have some magic for it? Do you use medicines, herbs...? You will want to be equipped for treating illness and injury:

Leareth pauses, smiles slightly. :I do apologize if I am saying things that are completely obvious. I am loathe to skip over any other misunderstandings or assumptions I am making: 

It's not obvious. One of the things my father doesn't like about Valinor is the ways it can - weaken you, leave you incapable of surviving anywhere else - a good father, he likes saying, doesn't raise children who never want to leave the home, much less children who can't safely manage it.

:Certainly true of human parents. I would argue it ought be true of gods, but - who am I to tell them what their goals in fact are? All I can say is, it seems their goals are not yours or your father's, and I do not blame you at all for wishing to pursue your values in a place where you are free to do so: 

(He actually just wants everyone to like him and stop fighting.)

(That's not true but it's truer than he'd like. It wasn't, fifteen Years ago.)

I think we'll learn a great deal from this. Hopefully we won't all pass through Mandos on the way to telling everyone else about it. (Shudder. Mandos will not be like Leareth.)

Leareth wants to say a number of things. That they will learn, but that he'll do his best to make sure they learn now, before the Gate goes up and it's too late for second guesses. That they can do it, that it might be hard but it is possible. That once they're out of Valinor, once they've had a few wins, things will someday be less complicated and everyone will have a little more space to be their true, best selves. 

That he isn't, absolutely isn't, going to let Maitimo die that isn't a promise Leareth can reasonably make, not even to himself. If there were solid strategic reasons to let the man die, or kill him with his own hands, to save the rest of the Quendi, he would do it. And he might not even be granted that choice. It's not something he's allowed himself to swear for any individual person since - the very beginning, since the first time that everything went more wrong than he could have imagined, and at the end of it there was still a world and he was still in it and everyone he had ever known was dead.

So he says nothing instead, and is silent for a minute, and then keeps going through his mental checklist on wilderness survival. Most of which comes out of quartering large armies in inhospitable territory. Leareth doesn't include that part. 

He'd like someone to figure out whether artifacts can keep things cold and how crates can be insulated and what the inventory of food that will be slower to "decay" looks like.

:That is all I have for now: Leareth sends finally. :Do you have quartz or other crystals that I could use to begin making spell-artifacts? They take multiple hours each so I will need to be efficient: He's still not sure if they've announced a departure time or followed his advice not to, but he can do mental math. :Also I have lost track of how long until I am needed for the Gate: It's going to be obnoxiously more straining with Huan starting out on the opposite side; he can manage it, but he'll want to find a nice strongly-magical ceiling or something to lurk under for a few minutes beforehand, and he's going to feel the brunt of it. 

About another hour. I can get the quartz to you before that. Thank you so much. 

There's obviously some things to be suspicious about here but right now problems down the road are much worse than problems here and now, and he's solving those. (And he has a way to hurt me, and isn't using it -) (Except to make me think that.)

:Then I think I will finish my tea here and – hmm, I ought obtain some changes of clothing, and bathe at some point. I saw shops with clothes, near here; do I need goods to exchange for them or is this entirely a gift economy?: It...wouldn't be insane, if it were, this place is the closest Leareth has ever seen to 'no material scarcity.' :Also, while I do not mind sleeping in the library, I worry others might wish to use it for its intended purpose. What should I do if I want a temporary room here?: 

If you routinely visit a store or take expensive things from it, it's courteous to keep them in mind when you're travelling and bring back things that they might appreciate. I bring tea back for this shop, when I travel. I wouldn't worry about it for picking up necessities. Some people have spare rooms, and the palace does; do you have an idea of who you'd prefer to stay with, or should I just arrange something?