:I have been trying: Leareth sends. :For a very, very long time: It's - maybe a couple shades more honest than he had intended to be, he's still shaken from Aulë, and in this moment he feels so incredibly tired, in a way that has nothing to do with magical reserves or sleep. 

:But perhaps the two of our worlds together...: 

(Yes, the thing he needs - or parses to Nelyafinwë as needing - is hugs, or more specifically allies he can let his guard down around and be comforted by and trust, who give him hugs, and this ought to be possible to engineer but is maybe not the top priority, considering.)

It seems like the two worlds together have a lot of advantages over any given one. And maybe somewhere out there there's someone else with even more useful resources.

:Maybe: Leareth does not know what to do with that snippet of thought at all, so he backs off and focuses on regaining some kind of equilibrium. 

Once they're back in Tirion he'll occupy all his attention with osanwë conversations rather than hug-related scheming. 

Leareth obtains the quartz he needs to start making artifacts, and takes it to his room. He'll need it to be in pieces of varying size – fist-sized for the main loadbearing ward-stones, thumb-sized for the freezing spell, pea-sized for the personal shields. He can carve it up or fuse smaller pieces together easily with magic, and then he starts on one of the personal shields first, and will keep working with quick breaks to eat until someone interrupts him or he's sleepy. 

Quendi, bustling around preparing for their departure, are happy to only interrupt him with food. 

Leareth finishes his personal shield-token, and a few others, and heads out into the street to find a stall that has necklaces or leather thongs or something to hang them from. Then he goes to find Nelyafinwë. 

The streets have necklaces and leather thongs and so on; the palace has Nelyafinwë. 

It is also, by the time he gets back, abustle with people shouting at each other. 

Leareth simultaneously opens his Thoughtsensing to skim some surface thoughts at random, and reaches for Nelyafinwë. :What is happening? Also, I need to see you, though not with extreme urgency if something needs to be dealt with first: 

Someone lit the building where we were storing food for the expedition on fire. We don't know who; there was a guard, he didn't see anyone. My father has announced that it was certainly Nolofinwë and stormed over there to confront him - it almost certainly wasn't Nolofinwë, right, but I'm not sure we should show our hand on that -

Oh for the sake of all the– Focus. :Is it still on fire? I can put out fires: 

It's contained but it's not out yet. South gate of the city, you can't miss the smoke -

He forges past the shouting people, makes it to Nelyafinwë. :I can do it from here. Faster. Can you cover me? I need to be in trance. Also, if you can have Huan come here, I could use additional power: He activates his own shield-protections, but they won't necessarily catch everything.

–And, if this is happening, then there's an enemy out there and the correct order for the other precaution is first. :Nelyafinwë, this is for you: He holds out the shield-talisman strung on a cord, rattling out Mindspeech as fast as he can; Quendi won't have any trouble keeping up. :Touch it, please, I will key it to you. I can set up the osanwë commands so you can activate it yourself after, for now I will simply activate it for you. It protects against magical and physical attacks, and yours has an additional layer – if you wish, you will be able to independently cast a privacy-barrier from it, like the one I have used. I thought you might wish to have this option: 

He touches it. Thank you. I'll ask for Huan but he'll be a few minutes, he's not in the city.

:I will do my best until then: Leareth activates the token with a thought, grateful that he took the time to fully power it before heading over. :Put this on. If there is danger here and I am not responding to osanwë, you can shake me: 

He leans against the nearest wall and slips into trance; this is going to be a lot of magic cast without any scaffolding. Scrying first, he doesn't have the Gift of Farsight but he can imitate it. Raise his mental eye above the city, skim towards the smoke. There. 

Area-effect cooling, that will be fastest. Leareth demarcates the fire as best he can, trying not to include any people in the permeable barrier he raises; it won't be good for anyone on the inside but it shouldn't kill them and he can make it right after. Then, power. He draws the heat out of the air, pushing it from inside to outside. The temperature rises rapidly in a ten-yard radius around the barrier – inside, it plummets. Leareth feeds in more energy and watches until the flames go out. 

The flames go out. The warehouse smolders. People stand around it shouting and eventually set down their suddenly obviated buckets. 

Leareth puts in a little more, just to make sure none of the smouldering is going to catch again once he stops, and then drops the spell. Starts to reach out with Thoughtsensing, but it's long range and he's already done a lot of unaided magic from reserves alone. Usually he manages impressive spellcasting by being prepared. 

:Nelyafinwë, can you explain to whoever is leading the efforts with the fire that I put it out? They seem confused over there: He lifts a hand to rub his forehead, trying to ease away the threatening headache. 

I can, but should I? It seems possible that this was at least as much a test of your capabilities as an attempt at destroying some of our supplies.

:Possible. Fortunately, that was nowhere near the edge of my capabilities, though I would benefit from having Huan nearby for anything larger. I assumed they would put together that it was my work, since it was clearly magical, though perhaps you could blame it on the Valar: 

He frowns. :When Huan arrives, there is a spell I can cast that allows me to see a short distance into the past and watch an area. If you wish, I could observe the scene of the fire as it happened. You would not need to share this information with anyone and reveal the capability, but it might be of value to know it: 

That sounds very valuable, yes. I don't know what cover story makes sense, I don't know what options we have for cover stories, there are Maiar who could've put the fire out but they're not here and we could Gate them here but I don't know if they'd be willing to lie for me and also I think the Valar and Maiar often know each others' locations if they're not deliberately hiding - might be best to admit it's you but put about that you're accordingly bedridden and will be for at least a couple of days -

:Gating in a Maia does sound complicated and prone to backfiring if they decide not to help. Your suggestion seems good – if we wish to use it, I ought either get out of the public eye, or feign collapsing. I can do the other spell from my suite:

His mind is racing ahead. :I ought also place shielding on any room you wish to use to replace the food room, but I suppose we could wait a few days to maintain the subterfuge. How badly will the fire impact our preparations?: 

It's not great but the report from the scouts was very favorable and suggestive that we don't need to be overprepared to survive this - our crops should grow there and there's enough food to sustain a larger population than the local one. The area's still swarming with people and some of them have left their senses public - he will have to talk with them about that but doing it now would be conspicuous - Under ordinary circumstances he would scoop Leareth up and rush him off to his rooms but Leareth knows so that's out, obviously - he can call Larya over to stand ready to grab him -

Leareth can't even quite follow why Nelyafinwë thinks it's out of the question to carry him back to his rooms, since he's not trying to closely read thoughts. He'll wait for Larya, and visibly hang onto the wall in the meantime. 

Larya is one of Nelyafinwë's assistants and right on hand and can scoop him and carry him off. Nelyafinwë can explain this to the public at large.

And Fëanáro, after a few minutes of standing outside his brother's house loudly insulting him, will declare that in response to this transparent attempt to prevent the departure, the departure date will be moved up to seven days from now.

       It wasn't me, Nolofinwë tells him. 

Obviously. But it'd be suspicious if I didn't think so. Shut up and tell me that I'm a traitor to our father's legacy or something. 

Nolofinwë just sort of stares at him, dumbfounded, but this works perfectly well too.