So the Maiar can read their minds.

"And it would... weaken the Maiar's power, if they could keep secrets?"

I guess. I know Melkor can read minds even if people are doing the thing that lets them have private thoughts, anyway.

Well, that's horrible news.

"Does knowing that make people afraid of him?"

Uh, I don't think that's the main reason?

"Oh?"

Yeah I think mostly people are scared of him 'cause of all the torture and murder and stuff.

"Okay, I am going to guess that Melkor is in charge of either all of your planet, or a sizable fraction of your planet, entirely through his own strength and not because a lot of people think he makes good decisions and like having him in charge. Is that right?"

He's so glad he lives in a democracy.

Right.

"Things are different here. Here, it's hard for people to be in charge of huge areas solely on the basis of how strong they personally are, because most people are very powerful. To really rule a large area, you need lots of allies, and you need to offer them something to make it worth their while. For instance, our government pays for certain kinds of medical care. And, basically, the less power you have by yourself, the more you need to get what you want by making deals and helping people. Does that make sense so far?"

I think before Melkor came back that's how orc villages worked.

Came back? Nah, not going to ask about that, that's a digression.

"So maybe not all of this will be completely unfamiliar. In our context, sometimes knowledge can be a kind of strength, especially knowing about other people's weaknesses, like illnesses and injuries. So people are sometimes reluctant to get help, because they don't want to show anyone that anything's wrong. Does that make sense so far?"

If the help is good then there isn't an injury to know about anymore, is there?

"There are some things we can fix that completely but there are others we can't. So far. It might turn out you can do better, but with only our magic a lot of injuries leave scars and a lot of illnesses either leave scars or keep coming back over and over again every time they're treated. That especially happens if we can treat the superficial symptoms but can't fix the root cause."

Are scars secrets?

"Not inherently but some people have scars they prefer to hide." And now he's thinking about someone he knows who wears an illusion over a missing eye. Oops. That's technically already scryable, but it's the principle of the thing. "Especially if they still cause pain or limit range of motion, or if the reason for them is a secret, or that kind of thing. It depends on the person and what they're comfortable with people knowing."

Okay. So, I'm not supposed to talk about who I sing to.

"Right. Is that something you're willing to do if you work for us?"

Is it hard? Are people gonna like, hurt me to get me to say stuff?

"Actually torturing you for the information would be very unusual but I guess I can't guarantee it would definitely never happen. It's much more likely you'd have people trying to intimidate you but unable to follow through, or people trying to trick you into saying something, or trying to get information without you quite having to say it - like if they ask about several people at different times and you say 'no, I didn't sing to Ariu, no, I didn't sing to Seihra, I'm not allowed to tell you whether I sang to Gema' then it's obvious. Or you could have someone try to bribe you, but sometimes those people are actually hired by employers to get you in trouble. But on the whole I wouldn't worry about it, it's pretty unlikely that anything would happen that would seriously harm you."

But if it does happen is the rule that I still can't tell, because I don't know if I want to sing to anybody if I have to do it like that.

"Yes, that's the rule. It might still be worth experimenting with whether you can heal people if they're magically hidden from you, or if recordings work." And nothing bad is likely to happen to her if she wants to work freelance and not be subject to these rules but he's not going to suggest that except for how he just did by thinking of it. Well, she'll have a harder time getting clients that way. But if they can make this work without her knowing anything, and make it very clear she doesn't know anything...

What's a recording?

"A combination of illusion and knowledge magics can show you something that happened in the past or is happening far away. It's how the copies of the laws work; they're all just displaying copies of the real code of laws, so any changes show up immediately." He assumes with as scared as she is of doing anything anyone might disapprove of that she probably looked those up first thing after coming here.

She isn't about to correct him, though probably she should actually get one of those soon. I have no idea if that would work for a song.