Leareth isn't sure what to say here either. Because he's done that, hasn't he, more or less – cut out the parts of himself that don't help, the parts that aren't loadbearing to a vow he made under the stars two thousand years ago. Because he can't afford to be anything other than ruthlessly optimized to win. 

And yet - not like this. Leareth can't help but feel a jarring wrongness about how Maitimo is thinking of it. He isn't sure what's different. Maybe it's just the way that Maitimo feels like he, as a person, can be fundamentally wrong or broken, and that isn't how anything works, that isn't why. 

Leareth doesn't know how to cross that distance, not right now, he is way too tired to navigate that conversation. 

:I am sorry: he sends, and it's not clear even to him what he's saying it about. :Maitimo: it might be the first time he's called him by that name, the one he's guessing is more personal or intimate in the Quendi naming tradition, :I...am glad you are someone I met. I am glad that a person like you exists, and is - trying to win: 

He looks away. :I think I need to rest more, now. My head hurts: 

Of course. Do you want the song for sleep -

:I would appreciate it: Leareth lies down, pulls the fur approximately over himself. :Thank you: 

He sings. He listens in on his father learning the local language. He tries to make a list of things he's not thinking about when Leareth is awake and around, to make sure that none of them are important things that will go not-thought-about. 

- could he kill Leareth if he decided he needed to? Probably; he could try removing the shield amulet and then cutting off his head in his sleep. This is very unlikely to be a good idea but it'd be good to know if it'd work; he should ask someone if they can take off his amulet when he's not resisting, once he gets it back. 

- do allies from Leareth's world change Leareth's calculus about the benefits of good relations with the Quendi? Probably somewhat, but he doesn't talk about them like they're close friends who he trusts uncomplicatedly, so probably not entirely. Being more of a close friend with Leareth trusts uncomplicatedly would help on this front, though because he can't deceive him it gets in the way of having any substantive plans for if Leareth isn't trustworthy. He could delegate having any of those and then forget about it himself but who to delegate to, his father will not outmaneuver Leareth at anything except a pure research project. Findekáno could do it but he flinches from the idea of putting any more barriers to trust between them right now. For that matter if it's anyone he interacts with regularly he'll have a hard time not knowing what they're planning and if it's anyone he doesn't interact with regularly they'll have a hard time arranging to have enough access to do anything if they need to.

He could ask someone to ask someone else and not tell him who but for everyone he trusts he can guess who they'd ask.

Irissë?

Yeah?

You are in charge of deciding whether we need to kill our extradimensional visitor and if we do, figuring out how to do it. I think it is very very unlikely that we would need to do that but if we did I wouldn't be able to notice. 

Won't we, like, lose the war immediately if -

That's one of the reasons it's very very unlikely to be a good idea.  

Sure. Okay. 

That seems better, though he should be careful not to think through how she'd probably do it if she needed to because he wants to not be thinking about this at all by the time Leareth's up. 

What else is he not-thinking? That Leareth's hot, even the hair, which is probably an awful thing to enjoy in someone but it's not like it's hurting him. He will just continue not thinking about that one, for many reasons.  

That maybe it was in a sense stupid to rush - Melkor plainly timed the attack on the Trees for their departure, and if they'd taken a month about departing he would probably have still timed the attack for their departure - though maybe the ambush on the other side would've been better organized -

That Melkor knew the departure date and the approximate locations they'd arrive. Could've been good luck, could've been that someone leaked it. Maybe they should require oaths of all their people, that they haven't knowingly shared any information with Melkor about the war effort. That'd be so momentous, though. Walking around talking to everyone for five minutes would probably be nearly as good and strain trust less. 

That Leareth has pretty obviously started a lot of wars and killed a lot of people in his campaign for - whatever it is he's trying to do in his world. And hasn't quite admitted to it yet, maybe because he's still worried about how they'll react? Maybe because he hasn't revealed everything yet about the capabilities that'd let him do it? But he's shown more than enough skill at killing things...

Leareth will want the Quendi to repay him when the war is done, here. And this will probably mean involvement in Leareth's wars in his world and they're probably objectionable in some fashion. And the more they rely on him the less reasonable it'll be to refuse, when it gets to that point - except they are obviously already almost wholly reliant on Leareth for at least the next fifty years or so until his father can maybe build something that can threaten Melkor. 

Leareth might want it to not get to that point. Allies with superweapons who can kill a god themselves are only in some senses more useful. Except, no, there are other gods Leareth wants dead and he has had thousands of years and not solved that himself. 

Maitimo notices that he is, himself, sort of tired, and should probably fix that before the next disaster, whenever it is. He calls someone in to stand watch. Sings, since otherwise he's never going to be able to stop thinking.

If not disturbed by any emergencies, Leareth will sleep solidly for another eight hours or so before waking. His body is feeling the abuse he's put it through recently, and possibly also the lack of whatever background magical vitality-effect was present in Valinor. He could push through it, if he wanted, and there's critical work to be done here, but he'll be able to do it much faster and better if he can actually give himself a chance to recover. 

If he can, he's not going to do much for the next few days except sleep, and eat when he wakes up (which he may have to be reminded to do), and request updates from Maitimo on the other Quendi, and then ask to be sung to sleep within an hour or two. 

There are no emergencies. The remaining host of the Noldor encounters only orcs as opposition as they make their way to the coast, and the orcs are disorganized. They set up by the sea. They encounter more clumps of local Quendi, who have either fled to the walled cities to the south or to Elwë's kingdom to the east or to the deep mountains and forests they know better than the orcs.

Fëanáro announces that every Noldo is to become fluent in Thindarin, and that they have three weeks to do so. He broadcasts language lessons to assist in this. 

By the end of three Arda-length days, Leareth is finally back to his fully-recovered baseline. His head is clear. He should – try to orient, properly, actually think through what his goal is here and what strategies are available to him. 

Maitimo does not fully trust him. Honestly, this makes Leareth respect him more rather than less. Maitimo is not stupid and has probably arranged for there to be some kind of contingency-plan in the case where Leareth betrays them, and also arranged to not personally know about it. Since the Noldor are split, Leareth is no longer in range to read the thoughts of all his other people who could be organizing such a plan. 

–Which is in a way a good thing, actually. It lines up his incentives in a helpful way. He doesn't want to betray Maitimo. Partly that's for calculated strategic reasons, but partly it's just that he likes Maitimo. He's met so few people who are both competent, aligned with approximately his values, and genuinely trying to win. That feels precious to him, whether or not it should. 

Leareth doesn't trust Fëanáro's competence or his values very far, but he does like the man. Maitimo's father may not be strategic in the way Leareth wishes, but he's brilliant, and he's - trying. There's a spark in him. One he seems to have passed on to at least several of his children.

It is rarer than you think, he remembers saying to Herald-Mage Vanyel Ashkevron, in a dream in another world. In a world of lights, you burn brighter than most. I cannot wish to see that extinguished.

...This is a different world. One where the gods aren't (yet, at least) trying to prevent him in particular from ever having allies. Maybe it's worth actually trying for it. The downside risk to him if he trusts Maitimo and then the Quendi betray him is - high, but bearable. He'll need to redo some work back in Velgarth. It's not like it'll be the first time. 

Leareth looks for Maitimo's mind. :Are you busy? I wish to speak to you and your father: 

Let me see if I can drag him away from the language lessons. He can, but mostly only because Fëanáro has already picked up all of the dialects of Thindarin known to anyone in the cave system. They come find Leareth.

He sits down cross-legged on his furs.

:My next project is to study how to reach my world again, both to communicate the reason for my absence – I think it likely time is still passing there, though perhaps not at the same rate – and to summon more help. Being the only mage is a serious bottleneck. In particular, I wish to pull in an acquaintance of mine who is, I estimate, about ten times as powerful a mage as I am. My relationship with him is...not uncomplicated. Technically we are on opposite sides of a predestined war. However, we have been speaking to one another, in a dream-vision of said future war, for approximately the last fifteen years. He is, quite reasonably on his part, not entirely on my side: 

(Also, Vanyel knows a number of inconvenient facts about Leareth's life and activities in Velgarth. Possibly knows more of them by now; Leareth hasn't spoken to him in almost a year and is pretty sure he went abroad on some kind of research mission. Which means that this will go better if he reveals some of those facts himself, at least to the people who will be interacting directly with Vanyel if his attempt here is successful.)

:However: he adds, :it will not be a difficult choice for him, whether to take your side against Melkor. I am...not a good person by any usual definition. I have been waging war against the gods, which requires being as ruthless as they are. Vanyel, however, is a deeply ethical man: He smiles slightly. :And curious – he will appreciate you greatly, Fëanàro. He might even know a few languages I do not. Bringing him here will mean some awkward conversations for me, but - I know he will choose to help you, and he is the only person I can think of who, with the Silmarils available to him, might be a weapon powerful enough to defeat a Vala: 

He looks between them. :This is your world and your war, though. What do you think?: 

How does a war get predestined?

:The gods of my world can see the future. Not perfectly clearly, but enough. I was planning the first stages of an offensive to gain enough power so that I can fight them directly: He might or might not get into the details of that with Maitimo later, get his opinion on whether it's a good thing for Fëanáro to know right now. :The gods saw enough of this coming to - attempt to create a superweapon and aim it in my direction. Which is an unusually blatant intervention for them. Through a serious of tragic and horrifying events, Vanyel came to be a mage ten times as powerful as I am, and was given a Foresight vision of our battle so that he would know to prepare for it. I do not think this will be enough, I am not stupid, but - it was more than I expected: 

He looks down at his hands. :Thought, something more complicated is at work here. The mechanism of Foresight does not inherently require that visions be symmetric, so it is odd that I have the dream as well, and even stranger than it became a lucid dream where the two of us could communicate on neutral ground. I assume this is a plot in itself; I am not sure if done by the same god who arranged for Vanyel's Gifts to awaken so strongly, or a different god with different goals: 

- huh. Well, he's welcome here, if he'd like to come, and I think more allies make it likelier we can hold on long enough to develop a way to kill Melkor, which it looks like we'll need to do.

Leareth decides not to go into the part where he's not at all sure if he'll have a chance to ask Vanyel. :I agree: 

What's Fëanáro thinking? Come to think of it, what's Maitimo thinking? 

Fëanáro wants to learn more languages but is aware this is not the time and that this should not be decisive for whether to have Vanyel over. He thinks he needs fifty years to weaponize the Silmarils but maybe he could do it a bit faster, and maybe it's worth first doing force-multiplying things like figuring out artifacts that make him think better or following up on research into artifact strategies that would allow for longer order-blocks. Or figuring out how to physically sustain Leareth, who seems like he'd be considerably more powerful if he had better endurance.

Maitimo did not miss that Leareth had said nothing about asking Vanyel. He is not planning to participate in this conversation, though, because he'd like to have more of his father's goodwill and if he comes up with an objection to Vanyel later he'll pass it along to Leareth when he thinks of it.

Which is fair enough on Maitimo's part. The tensions between him and his father are - unfortunate. Leareth isn't sure he has the skill or context to try to do anything about that over the next however many days or week or months they have before there's another emergency. Maybe, hopefully, just having some slightly-less-pressured time working in close quarters will help. 

:Separately: he says, :I am interested in continuing to research how my type of magic interacts with your artifacts, including the Silmarils. The two kinds of magic have different strengths and weaknesses, such that they might combine synergistically, and while I am not the most powerful mage of my world, I do have among the most experience with inventing new artifacts. I am not sure how long I expect this to take to pay off, though, or how it best makes sense for me to prioritize my time here, when we are not sure how much of it we will have. At the very least, if I can figure out a more stable link, I could give you indefinitely-powered wards that could be set up, moved, and switched to emergency power levels and back without that breaking: 

I think that's a reasonable priority. The Enemy clearly lacks the means to strike at us now, and I suspect he'll wait a long time; the Balrogs are lost for years, maybe longer, and must have represented a significant share of his force. If he wants to set up Utumno again, that'll take time. The only option he has that could happen right now is coming himself with the spider-thing, here, and I don't think he'll do it, not when as far as he knows you can just Gate us away.

:I could at this point Gate you away; I am simply not sure to where: Leareth frowns. :That reminds me. At some point I assume it makes sense to reopen contact with Valinor. Do you have any way of doing this without my help?: 

- not good ones. We could cross the northern ice, we could try to build oceangoing boats. Either would take a long time and might fail if the Valar have taken additional precautions after Melkor attacked them.