...Either they're going to poison him or they won't, or he'll starve to death if he refuses to eat, and in all those cases he ends up dead and back in Velgarth. "Breakfast, I suppose." 

She pats the wall next to her; it melts away to reveal a table, some chairs, some plates. They have steaks on them, and vegetables, and a glass of wine. "No one ever takes me up on the wine, which is a shame, because it's the fanciest of fancy wines. Aged for thousands of years, y'know. We have extra years here."

"How nice for you." Leareth gets up, joins her at the table. He feels - helpless, and he hates feeling that way, and - there's an off-centre wrongness in it, looking at his plate of food. 

He shrugs internally. He eats. 

She drinks her glass of wine. "I would apologize for so rudely interrupting you but I dunno, I actually kind of feel like you're the asshole, here? Like you teleport in from another world, you land on one side of a war, you immediately decide they're the good guys and you're going to help them win. Would you like it if someone did that to you?"

"...It would be inconvenient. I would not exactly hold it against them. Though in my own case, I think I had enough information to judge." 

"They're cute, I'll give you that. They make pretty stuff. They're adorably naive. They don't, actually, matter more than orcs."

"I am aware of that, actually. The orcs are not my enemy here." (And he'll find a way to bring back their dead, someday, and he keeps that thought well behind his shields.) 

"Just your, uh, fuel source?"

"Yes." 

"Kay. Boss wants to talk to you, make the case for our side. Or his side, I'm more of a contractor. If you are planning to heroically throw yourself at him and try the mage explode-y thing I can save you some time and tell you that doesn't work here. If you are, in light of no-explody-thing, still planning to declare that you'd rather die than hear us out I can save him some time and get you a dagger or whatever. Souls don't leave this place, not even yours, not even for your extradimensional resurrection setup, so if I were you I'd hear us out, but I don't really know what it's like, being the kind of thing that can die."

Is that possible? Magic seems to not work here - maybe some, maybe all - but mage-sight works, he was able to tell instantly that she's a Maia, and his spell is passive – how does Melkor know, did Melkor read his mind? Or eavesdrop on osanwë, he did tell Maitimo, no, wait, he was behind a privacy-barrier...but who knows what works anymore...or–

–how does she know about Final Strike, how does Melkor know, he doesn't think he ever brought that up as an option–

...Or, no, maybe he did mention it to Maitimo as an option, he can't quite line up the memories but it was a pretty hectic time and his note-taking and checks were less thorough than he'd usually do. 

Mage-sight is passive but actually reaching to check his own spell in the Void is not and doing it is an incredibly stupid idea, he'll have to think it through properly. 

Or just assume she's telling the truth. Melkor is a god, after all. And Leareth has no idea how long he was unconscious. Melkor would obviously want to have that figured out before waking him up to talk. 

"I am certainly not going to kill myself right this second," he says coolly. "I might as well hear him out, though I highly doubt my answer will be a yes. Up to him if he still wishes to attempt it." 

"Cool! This way, then." And she stands up and nearly trips and stabilizes herself with a bat wing and then leads him out of the room. There's not even a door. 

Huh. Is she unused to having a embodied form or something? She was disembodied before. 

He follows her. 

She leads him up a staircase and down a hallway and down another hallway and to a vast cavern in which there is a throne, and a Vala. She curtsies. Leaves.

LEARETH, says Melkor. WHAT A PLEASURE. DO MAKE YOURSELF COMFORTABLE. I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THIS WORLD.

It's not exactly clear where he's supposed to make himself comfortable, so he stands. There's no point in being afraid of the god in front of him, and Leareth is pretty much out of emotions, so he doesn't bother. "I am listening." 

THE CREATOR OF THIS WORLD IS CALLED ERU ILUVATAR BY THE ELVES. THE VALAR AND MAIAR ARE THE AGENTS TO WHOM HE DELEGATED ITS CREATION. THE ELVES BELIEVE THAT ERU'S VISION FOR THE WORLD WAS THAT IT WAS PERFECT LIKE THEIR PARADISE, WITHOUT HARDSHIP OR LOSS OR TRAGEDY. 

THIS IS NOT WHAT ERU ENVISIONED. ERU ENVISIONED A GRAND WAR OF GOOD AGAINST EVIL, IN EVERY STEP OF WHICH GOOD WOULD LOSE FOR AS LONG AS IT WAS POSSIBLE. HE ENVISIONED HEROES GROUND DOWN BY ENDLESS DEFEATS THAT MAGNIFIED THEIR FLAWS AND DESTROYED THEIR GOOD QUALITIES, UNTIL AT LAST THEY WOULD CHOOSE THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION RATHER THAN CONTINUE. NO ELVES SURVIVE OUTSIDE VALINOR, IN ERU'S PLAN. NO ORCS SURVIVE AT ALL. ERU LIKES BEAUTIFUL STORIES, AND ERU THINKS THAT THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STORIES ARE THE STORIES OF HOW PEOPLE ARE UTTERLY DESTROYED BY WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN THEIR GREATEST STRENGTHS.

I AM NOT THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLES OF ARDA EXCEPT INCIDENTALLY. I AM THE ENEMY OF THEIR GOD. 

Leareth's first thought is that this could be custom-written as a speech to be convincing to him, specifically. 

"Oh?" he says. "I assume you are playing the role of the enemy in Eru's plan, then. Tell me how you plan to subvert it such that it does not go this way? Also, how do you know of this. I would think it would not be in a creator god's interest to tell his creations, including the gods among them, what tale he intended to tell with their lives." 

I PLAN TO SUBVERT IT BY KILLING ALL OF THE OTHER VALAR, KICKING ALL OF THE ELVES OUT TO SOME OTHER UNIVERSE - HE CAN MANIPULATE THEM TOO DIRECTLY, EVERYTHING WITH THEM INVOLVED VEERS BACK ONTO COURSE - AND MAKING THIS PLANET A NICE PLACE FOR ORCS TO LIVE FOREVER HAVING THE SORT OF ORC LIVES THAT ARE BENEATH HIS NOTICE.

EVERYONE KNOWS THESE THINGS, IN A FASHION, THOUGH THEY HAVE NOT CONSIDERED THE IMPLICATIONS. I HAD HOPED YOUR ELF FRIENDS HAD TOLD YOU EARLIER - THEY CAN TELL YOU NOW BUT HERE YOU OUGHT TO TRUST IT LESS, MAYBE NOT AT ALL. I CAN SWEAR TO IT, BUT DID YOU ASK YOUR FRIENDS WHETHER THEIR OATHS BIND US TOO. THEY DO, BUT THEN, I WOULD TELL YOU THAT. ANYWAY, IN THE ELVEN ACCOUNTING OF THIS, ERU CALLED ALL OF THE AINUR TOGETHER TO SING A SYMPHONY THAT WOULD CREATE THE WORLD, AND I SANG OFF-KEY, AND SWAYED MANY OTHERS TO MY CAUSE, SUCH THAT WE NEARLY DROWNED OUT THE ORIGINAL MUSIC. AND THEN THE SONG ENDED, AND THE LOYAL AINUR ASKED ERU IN DISMAY WHETHER WE HAD DESTROYED THE SONG, AND HE SAID THAT WE WERE A CRITICAL PART OF IT AND IT WOULD BE SEEN EVENTUALLY HOW ALL OUR WORKS RESOUNDED TO THE GREATER GLORY OF ARDA. THAT IS HOW THEY TELL IT. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY THINK IT MEANS. I TRIED SUGGESTING, WHEN I WAS PAROLED, THAT IT MEANT MY ACTIONS BEFORE THE FIRST WAR WERE ACTIONS ERU REGARDED AS RESOUNDING TO THE GREATER GLORY OF ARDA. NO ONE THOUGHT ABOUT IT. I AM NOT SURE THAT THEY CAN.

"I do not think that tale was told to me, no." He should be able to remember but he was in a hurry. Stupid– no, there isn't any point in recriminations with himself now, it won't be productive, it won't help. "Whatever the truth, it - seems plausible to me, that there are things everyone knows but they do not and perhaps cannot consider the implications. The rest..." He looks down at the stone floor. "Your orcs are people too and I agree they deserve good lives as much as the Elves. I doubt I share Eru's values. I doubt I share the values of the Valar. However. That does not mean that I share yours."

YOU DO NOT NEED TO. I PROPOSE THAT WE ASSIST EACH OTHER IN SOLVING PROBLEMS THAT NEITHER OF US CAN SOLVE ALONE; WE NEED NOT AGREE ON MORE THAN THAT. WE KILL THE VALAR. WE KILL YOUR GODS TOO. YOU TAKE THE ELVES OFF MY PLATE: OTHERWISE I WAS GOING TO KILL THEM ALL. I THINK THEY WILL BE FREER IN ANOTHER WORLD. FEANOR KNOWS THIS. "MANWE IS LORD OF ALL OF ARDA", THE VALAR TOLD HIM, WHEN THEY PUNISHED HIM. I THINK HE UNDERSTOOD WHAT THAT MEANT, THOUGH MAYBE BY NOW HE HAS FORGOTTEN IT. 

Leareth has not forgotten that. 

"And you have a way to bind yourself to this," he says, thoughtfully, "with an oath? And a way to prove to me that such oaths bind Valar as well? Whether or not it was said to me, it was not proven to me that this is the case." 

I SWEAR TO THE TRUTH OF EVERYTHING I HAVE SAID TO YOU. I DO NOT KNOW HOW YOU COULD VERIFY THIS; YOU COULD TRY TO WATCH MY MIND WHILE I SPEAK THE OATH, IF YOU WOULD LIKE. YOU COULD VERIFY IT WITH THE MAIAR; SURELY YOU WERE TOLD THAT THEY AND WE ARE THE SAME THING. 

Trying to read a god's mind sounds like an excellent way to let that god into his mind, to do whatever it wants, but - he has little reason to believe Melkor can't do that anyway. 

Maybe there is no third option, here. Maybe, for the first time, someone else holds all the cards. 

"I need a night to think about it," he says quietly. 

OF COURSE. I WILL LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR ANSWER.

Then Leareth will follow the Maia back to the little stone room, and lie down, and spend the next however-long mulling it over. 

The fundamental problem is that he cannot trust anything that Melkor says. He should expect Melkor to be incredibly convincing - maybe to be able to influence his mind directly - and all he has to go on apart from that is his priors from Melkor's actions during the war. Which were filtered through a bias source – mistake number fifteen of five hundred, probably, he ought to have checked, except he isn't sure when would have made sense and it did seem most likely, all along, that he was right. And Melkor definitely hurts people. 

Melkor may or may not be able to kill the Velgarth gods, but it would be plausible that he could. 

Melkor may or may not be able and willing to take a binding oath to do so and then leave Velgarth and the Quendi alone forever so he can do whatever he wants with his Orcs. Probably torture them at least sometimes. There...are worlds where that might still be worth it, relative to the status quo.

Leareth is not at all sure that he trusts himself, now, in his current state of 'under the complete control of a god he assumes is unfriendly to his values', to come up with an oath that is watertight enough, to check all the contingencies. It would be disastrous if something slipped through. 

There are other worlds. Melkor has not said anything about whether he'll leave those alone. 

...Taking a step back. If he were anyone but himself, the right answer would be obvious. Give up. He's lost. From a position like this one, with as few resources as he has, not even sure whether he can trust his mind, there isn't anything he can do to win that doesn't sacrifice something irrevocable. 

He is himself. He is, as far as he can tell, the only person in all of Velgarth to have been genuinely trying to change things, in the sense of 'genuinely trying' that means not giving up until the work is done. Giving up here would be breaking that oath. ...But he isn't the only person across all the worlds. There's Maitimo, who's already immortal, old and experienced. And others. Maitimo was right. And if Leareth dies, here, he's pretty sure he knows what Vanyel will do. Vanyel and Maitimo can probably still win the war as long as Leareth isn't actively helping Melkor.

It hurts less than he would have expected. Admitting that this time, maybe he made an irretrievable mistake, and - the future he cares about, if it's reached at all, will be best reached by others. 

...In which, the sticking point is that, regardless of the world and the lights in it and the future of all of those lights, Leareth does not want to die. At all. There's a screaming abyss of horror, there - of fear - and, while it's maybe not as deep as he expected, it hurts to admit that maybe this variable is no longer under his control. It's not guaranteed that he dies forever. Maybe Melkor is just wrong. Or maybe souls stay here but only until the war is won. Maybe Vanyel and Maitimo and the Noldor army will come for him.

It's...not his choice, anymore, whether any of that will happen. Not unless he wants to ally with a god who he is pretty convinced is opposed to everything he cares about. It could be correct to do so - it's the kind of choice he would make, usually - it might be the fastest way to free Velgarth - but that doesn't mean it's not horrific. There are some costs that maybe even he isn't willing to pay. 

Leareth spends a long time staring into that, turning it over and over in his mind. 

Finally, he sits up. "I am ready to speak to him again."