Can you - close it, fight it - no, that's stupid - I'll warn Lórien -

Vanyel had in fact just been considering blasting it, but - if he does it successfully it'll probably kill Leareth and it turns out he isn't willing to do that even if it's the correct strategic move.

:We should get out: he sends – if a Vala can't fight off whatever's coming then they won't add that much. :Tirion?: 

Yes. 

It's a good thing Vanyel has been practicing Gates so much. He finds the nearest arrangement of branches that is vaguely threshold-like and gets the Gate up in under ten seconds (which is a lot slower than Leareth but is fast for mages in general) and sprints through and as soon as Maitimo's through he'll wrench it down. 

Orcs. Eighty of them. Lórien's handling it. That can't be - the whole of it - maybe meant to distract us? But - 

- is a trap for you something he could do, some magic that if you try to fight it or repel it it'll hurt you - or pull you through -

:...I don't know of anything like that. But Leareth knows a lot more magic than I do: 

I just can't think what the point of sending eighty orcs to Valinor is.  - maybe there's a lot more and the rest are in other places? That might make the Valar do something stupid. - oh, the Valar are probably going to close off Gating now. It's - the point was to deny us the mobility.

:Damn it. That makes perfect sense. ...Should I try to get us somewhere else in case they haven't done it yet? Or, er, do we actually want to be here. If we expect Leareth not to be able to get to it. He will be able to get anywhere in Endorë: 

Let's stay here. I - maybe Melkor just tricked him, but if he is working with Melkor - let's stay here. 

:Even if he was just tricked, if Melkor can trick him once I'm sure he can trick him again: 

Vanyel drags a hand over his face. He...hadn't wanted to believe that Leareth could be tricked, even. Had hoped he was smarter than that. But maybe no one is smart enough against a god who has complete control over them. It was only a matter of time.

:...It is beautiful: he says eventually. :Even under starlight: 

Thank you.

Can you - Gate to my father's room in Tumunzahar - try to get him here too, if it's not too late -

Vanyel does it instantly. 

It works. "What -"

"Leareth's working with Melkor Gates cut off soon get back here now -" and his father grabs his things and steps through. 

"Leareth's -"

We should have rescued him, he wants to say, but no, they shouldn't have done that, because they can't do that. 

"He bought us a lot of time."

"I guess," Fëanáro says, a bit disgustedly. "The Valar are going to cut off Gates?"

"I think so. Think that was the point. I don't know if there were others. I guess - Vanyel should offer to help track them down - if they're scattered across the continent -"

:I can scry for it, sure. Not as well as Leareth but my magic is fixed - at least we had enough time for that...: 

Nod. I'm sorry. I know you knew him for a long time, I know this has just been - one thing after another -

:My entire goddamned life has been one thing after another: Vanyel says, weary. :I wish–: For a billion stupid pointless things and wishing won't make any of it happen. :I'll cope. I generally do: 

:Er, I should probably add some caveats to that: Yfandes jumps in privately to Maitimo. :But I'm not worried about him right now: 

If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know, he says to both of them. You need quartz for the scrying, right - he walks into someone's abandoned house and starts going through their drawers for it.

Vanyel waits for him. 

...It is very tempting to cry but he doesn't. There'll be plenty of time for that later when it's slightly less an emergency. 

Yeah. 

Quartz.