It's the same thing as with Aulë - a fuzz of magic filling the whole space, not particularly concentrated on where there's ostensibly a body.

Of course. Of course.

Leareth holds the spell, and waits, and hopes that Nelyafinwë hasn't taken any irreversible countermeasures in the time he was asleep. 

He has a sword, when he comes in. What -

Leareth snaps up a privacy-barrier around both of them as soon as Nelyafinwë is within two yards, and then, rather than explain, directly shares what he's 'seeing', it'll be a little hard to interpret but it's not exactly subtle. 

:That is not Nolofinwë: he sends. :I did not think to check magic-sight until now. That is - how Aulë appeared to my Sight: 

Ah hah. Good. - I mean, not good, but - good, we weren't misreading the entire situation - and we can see him, we can have a sense of at least some of what he's doing -

:I did not expect such direct confirmation anywhere near so soon. This is not very subtle: Though it would have been, he supposes, if there hadn't been a foreign mage with unknown magic from another world. Maybe the gods of Velgarth would flail just as badly in a commensurate situation.

:I am going to drop the barrier, we can continue to speak of it indirectly: 

Leareth does so, and the spell, and then grunts and brings both hands to his forehead; he's normally set up with plans and mage-artifacts and people working for him, not the only mage in an entire world making everything up on the spot in a baffling new emergency, he hasn't given himself backlash this bad in several centuries. 

Are you all right? 

:This is what happens when I overuse my magic. I will be fine in a few hours: 

All right. I told Nolofinwë we suspected the girl. He said he'd talk to her and then said an hour later that she denied it, which was interesting. She presumably wouldn't have reason to lie to him? He could be lying to me but I did make it clear I was trying to defuse things. We should tell my father and maybe imply that you did all the scrying in one part so he doesn't think I withheld this for six hours.

:That is interesting: Leareth agrees. :And, yes. I still need to give your father his shield-token as well, and I can set up the osanwë for it. Are you still wearing yours?: He could check but the reaction-headache doesn't make it appealing to use mage-sight unnecessarily. 

Yes. I think my father and the King are both more important to shield, though, they're the people who you'd assassinate if you were trying to stir up problems in the city.

:I think anybody clever would realize if they assassinate you, your father is likely to make a questionable decision in a situation where you would have made a better one, causing things to deteriorate. In any case, I can make a third shield-token in several hours of work: It's not preferable to do it before he's had a chance for the headache to subside, but he can manage if it seems necessary. 

I might be being paranoid but I don't want to rely on it.

Leareth nods. Cautiously sits up. :Then ask both of them to come here, please, and I can key the two existing shield-talismans to them: Well, three exist, but the third is on him and he has no intention of giving it up. :If you are able to stay here while I work on another, I could shield you directly if there were an attack: 

He frowns, turns to Huan and includes the magical dog in his Mindspeech. :And, I know Huan likely has things he would prefer to do then sit in my bedroom, but – I am also feeling rather paranoid and would prefer a power source be near at hand, in case of another disaster: 

Huan licks Leareth's hand and folds himself onto the ground again, with a laziness that seems to be communicative. 

I'll ask them to come here, Nelyafinwë says. 

Leareth scratches behind Huan's ears, draws off energy while he waits. The headache fades a little. :–I could use something to eat and drink: he thinks to mention eventually. 

He flicks through the shared senses of a dozen different people, decides who to send to get Leareth food, sends them off. 

Fëanáro and the King arrive. 

Privacy barrier?

Leareth can do that. He can show them what he saw, too, but he waits to see if Nelyafinwë is going to offer some kind of preamble first. 

He kind of wants to finesse this, yes. An Ainu - likely Melkor - ordered the destruction of the warehouse. They impersonated Nolofinwë to tell Hereniel to do it. Leareth has magic that can view past events, and can see through such illusions. I think the intent was that we discover, somehow, her involvement, and that she then confess she heard it from Nolofinwë; if we hadn't already realized there was more afoot, it might have played out that way. Leareth, can you show them -

Leareth can. He holds up the memory of it as clearly as possible; he can explain if they're confused about how to interpret his mage-sight. 

I knew it wasn't Nolofinwë, he says cheerfully. And now we have proof that Melkor is fomenting the problems in Tirion, and can ask the Valar to arrest him again, and proof that Melkor opposes our departure from the Outer Lands. 

      I do think, said the King, our next step is to secretly ask the Valar to rearrest Melkor; we can't do it, and if he's innocent it can be cleared up once he has been arrested.

Leareth massages his forehead. :That seems likely to be the next move worth trying. I am trying to think if is there a way that could go terribly wrong. I doubt it is playing into Melkor's hands, since it would be difficult for him to know of my exact magical capabilities – however, I would like to spend five minutes considering how this might go badly, before making a final decision: 

...Is it just that he's disinclined to trust gods in general, and extending this to the Valar? Leareth doesn't feel that he has enough context on their world, yet, to know whether his unease is based in anything real. 

The obvious thing is that it's likely to tip Melkor off; it seems that right now he doesn't yet know we have identified his involvement. I think it's still worth it, unless you have some way to arrest a god yourself.

:No: Not yet. :I - worry that he could have already decided to escalate to a full-on war with the other gods if conflict were to arise, and if he is expecting violence and they are not, he might evade capture entirely. And then have even less reason to keep his involvement subtle, and – we are not currently prepared to fight a god head-on. I agree that telling the other Valar needs to happen, however, I would prefer to do so after we have a substantial base of operations in the Outer Lands, not before. At least Melkor can only be on one continent at once: He's pretty sure of that, anyway. It wouldn't be true of the gods of his world, but Melkor seems much closer to a physical entity in the material world, even if he's made of raw magic and not flesh. 

He shakes his head. :Of course, if we do not tell the Valar to intervene, Melkor may be able to prevent the departure entirely. I am not sure. I think it is a gamble either way: 

The sooner the Valar are notified, the sooner they can act, says Finwë. I think they'll act promptly, when it comes to this.