Yes, he is. Fëanáro doesn't want to make it particularly obvious that they're usable for powerful magic, even though they are (without Leareth's involvement, even). He's said he's just using them for light. The Valar want them, and have declared a couple of times that the Silmarils really in principle belong to all of Valinor; no one wants to encourage them in that opinion. Fëanáro thinks that eventually he should be able to emulate most of what the Valar can do using the Silmarils. Resurrections are the most important thing, there. But in the meantime it's better if no one thinks of them as the cornerstone of the Noldorin capabilities or anything.

Which makes sense even if it's frustrating. :Then I ought to test if I can use the Trees – I may be able to draw on them from a distance once I have visited in person, particularly if I can leave an artifact-focus there. And if not, possibly I can manage with the help of several Maiar at once. Which of the Trees is nearer to here?: 

They're next to each other at Exellohar; right back in Valmar where you went to petition the Valar.

Sigh. Not a place he really wants to visit again, but he can do it. :I will finish the current project and then Gate back to look, I suppose: He returns his attention to Curufinwë and their current research. 

He thinks you could make an artifact that just continually tries to make light while not actually having the completed artifact work for a light, and that this ought to be as good a magic source as a light for Leareth's purposes; he is trying this, and it'll take him about an hour. Leareth has some notes to work from if he wants to spend that time trying to hook up his spells to artifacts.

Leareth makes significant progress! He gets it to the point that he can link one of the shield-talismans up, but he has to be babysitting it, it's not stable enough to even survive physically moving one of the components, much less switching the shield into its more active, power-intensive mode. 

And then he has his broken low-effort light artifact and they can check if it works for providing magic!

It does! It shows up differently to Leareth's mage-sight than the non-broken version, which is interesting and could be a window into how their magic works, intriguing for future research but not immediately relevant.

Leareth tells Curufinwë that he'll keep working on the linkage; he needs to build the right kind of structure into his side of the mated artifacts, so it can be robust to minor disruptions like 'walking around wearing it'; a human mage can do this instinctively but a crystal needs to be 'told' exactly how, and it's new, which means it'll take him a lot longer to build than churning out copies of a standard spell he's used hundreds of times. 

He thanks Curufinwë and then checks with Maitimo whether now is a good time to Gate back to Valmar and look at the Trees, and whether he ought to take anybody with him. 

He should probably take someone with him as a cultural translator in case anything comes up. Lots of people are busy but he can find a servant who isn't.

That works fine, and if something comes up that he's unsure how to handle, he has the range to contact Nelyafinwë about it. 

Sounds good. Thank you.

Leareth waits for his guide to be ready, puts some very thorough warding on his room (which currently holds most of their artifacts for the expedition) and passes on that nobody should go in while he's away, and then, Gate. 

If he winds the other way from the gates of Valmar he can find the Trees. 

It's as bad as looking directly at the Sun, if the Sun took up half the horizon; they are hot and bright and burning his skin and his eyes, and they're denser even that the Valar with magic; they radiate it.

Leareth winces, puts up an opaque mage-barrier in front of him just to block the light, then braces himself and cautiously tries to draw on the magic itself. 

Magic! Magic magic magic! The magic would like Leareth to use it, it is for radiating across all of paradise, it is for coating everyone and everything with magic.

It's not comfortable to touch. But the magic is there for the taking. More than enough to cross an ocean. 

...The problem is going to be his own strength, his capacity to pour that much energy through himself and shape it to have a purpose. He can do it; Leareth is very calibrated on his own strength. But if he has to do it twice – which seems likely, he doubts the Trees will let him pull from them at a distance, at least not without months of studying the matter first, he'll have to Gate everyone and their supplies here first and then onward – then it's debatable whether he'll still be on his feet at the other end. 

He doesn't say anything about this to his guide, just nods. "This will do. We go back now." He opens a Gate from where they're standing and he's back in Tirion, both his eyes and his mage-senses still smarting from the forces that the Trees harness. 

No emergencies interrupt the remaining five days of frantic preparation. All of the food is repackaged into the insulated packages. All of the people supply and equip themselves. There are a handful of arguments but the only one that turns into a fistfight is one at the third linguistics guild over whether the departure marks the end of the second era of Quendi history. 

Leareth finishes the weather-barrier focus stones, and makes a few dozen simple heat-spells, and keeps working on the problem of combining the native magical artifacts with his own kind. He gets as far as making it possible for the link to survive physical jostling and movement, and outside interference from his own kind of magic – so the Gate-crossing ought to be fine – but changing what the artifact is doing via an osanwë command still disrupts the linkage. And the Maiar ought to be fine, but a Vala coming near enough might break it as well. 

Leareth will fully power everything, and set the ward-stones to their passive guarding state, with alarms that will go to Maitimo and a set of people he trusts. The weather-barrier is ready to set up. The heat-stones will be difficult to transport if they're hot, so he leaves them off; if they're activated, they can last several days on stored power, and hopefully by then he'll be rested enough to use magic again. 

He has about twenty personal shield-talismans done, and for whoever is willing to wear them, they'll last indefinitely on the default passive mode – enough to guard against low-power magical attacks. If they end up under attack and want the more thorough protections (which are inconvenient to have on permanently, since they get in the way of things like 'changing clothes' as well as sword-blows), then they'll be on borrowed time, about twelve hours of it.

And then he's ready to Gate. 

:I will Gate myself over first with Huan: he tells Nelyafinwë. :Then I will raise the much larger Gate to transport everybody to Valmar, and immediately onward from there. I need everybody to be organized, and move quickly. And: he hesitates but only briefly, :I am going to be exhausted on the other end. I will not be able to defend myself at all, aside from my protective shield-token. I...will have to trust you with my safety, for a time: 

It's in Maitimo's interest to make sure nothing untoward happens to him. All Leareth can hope for is that this will be enough – and if it's not, he's going to be starting over in Velgarth soon enough. 

Maitimo is not planning to let anyone murder Leareth at all. They're using Velgarth magic for shielding, for refrigeration, for transport - they have done their best to engineer things so they won't die if Leareth up and leaves but the project sure does have a single point of failure, for now. 

The Valar are looking for Melkor; they have not found him. They think perhaps he went south.

Leareth is needed to Gate fishing equipment and a few small boats back from Alqualondë; Leareth is needed to Gate metal from the mines in the north; and then everything is in one place for the departure. 

Thank you. We'll try to move as quickly as possible.

It's not currently productive to worry about Melkor's location; they've taken all the precautions they possibly could in the time they had, and now it's time to move. There's a tradeoff between preparation and speed and Leareth thinks this is a reasonable place to put it, and even if he didn't, it's Fëanáro's decision and not his.

Gate to Velmar, his hand on Huan. Leareth takes a moment to catch his breath and steady himself before raising the big Gate, wide and high enough to fit several wagons abreast. :Go: he tells Maitimo, tersely. 

And off the Noldor go to their new world. 

First Gate. Everyone through? Leareth takes a minute to catch his breath and then raise the second, straining to reach across the much greater distance. 

The Gate goes up. :Hurry: he tells Maitimo. :This is - difficult:

They start moving. 


Where Leareth is standing, the horizon darkens abruptly. Faster than nightfall, in places that have night. 

Aaaaand what now. Leareth does not have the attention to spare to have any emotions about this development. He holds the Gate. :Nelyafinwë, what: 

Hmm?

- I have no idea what that is. 

Pause. 

No one has any idea what it is.

Pause. 

Aulë doesn't have any idea what that is. Says it's not Melkor, not  - directly -