Oh. That would explain the singing, I suppose, Leareth leaves out in public thoughts. That is - kind of your people, to help him mark the day like this. I hope he finds it meaningful. 

Mmhmm. Do you know much about what happened?

I think I know most of it at this point, yes. To an extent it was my fault. 

I assume you don't just mean that you could've finished your god a few centuries ago.

No. I - had various plans in motion, including some underhanded ones – I was hoping to pre-emptively reduce the number of Herald-Mages in Valdemar so that a war would be short and involve fewer civilian casualties. One of these involved supplying a very dubious foreign mage. He later decided to take on a job for one Valdemaran family that was feuding with another neighbouring family – I suppose he might have done it anyway but he was surely more likely to do so because I had made Valdemar salient. Some violence ensued, then more. It eventually led to Vanyel's lifebonded deciding, while under great duress, to Final Strike most of the landholding in question. 

I see. 

I think maybe humans are too young for it to be a good idea for them to have the option of suicide by enormous fireball.

Perhaps. ...He was seventeen. To the Quendi that must seem little more than an infant. I think humans would be better off if this power were withheld until at least the age of forty. 

I think I was several thousand years old before I stopped being an idiot all of the time and started being able to schedule it for unimportant times.

I find that hard to imagine. Though I suspect humans grow up faster in some ways, of sheer necessity. Perhaps that will change, someday. I think longer childhoods would do my species good. 

Mmhmm. If you think you'll be all right, today, I want to stay in case Vanyel needs me.

I was going to suggest you do so. I will be all right. There are plenty of books to read. 

Then he can order in food for himself and Vanyel at reasonable intervals, and sing, and hug Vanyel when it looks like it'll help.

Vanyel isn't really in the mood to eat but he'll do it anyway with a bit of prodding. Hugs every so often help. The music helps even more. Honestly, the most helpful part is - everyone acting like this is a normal and proportionate and if anything restrained reaction to a death eighteen years ago. 

Well, it is. 

The song is very long; it is after all meant to be sung seven days. 

It's weird, how this is one of the most...restful...technically-not-Sovvan that Vanyel has ever experienced. Nobody is expecting him to do anything or annoyed that he can't do things or having extra feelings about his feelings that he has to comfort them about. 

He does end up mentioning to Maitimo that for the several years before his journey to Urtho's Tower, due to the fact that Sovvan is also a major seasonal festival in Valdemar, he usually had to spend it in political meetings. This requires also explaining that King Randale, as part of the alliance they formed with Karse when they ended the war, is in a state marriage with Queen Karis of the neighbouring country and has a child with her. (Marriages and children are a not-uncommon way to resolve tensions between nations in his world, he explains.) This is awkward because of the part where Randi is lifebonded to Shavri, but Karis doesn't seem to mind at all, he suspects she's relieved that her marriage doesn't involve any of the, well, usual intimacies in such a relationship. It probably seems pretty weird and offensive to Quendi, though, given how their marriages work, and since Karis is presumably going to make it to visit Arda at some point, they should figure out how to present it. 

(Vanyel does not mention that he's actually the biological father of said child, or the very awkward evening together that making this happen required.) 

Yeah that's super not how Quendi do things. The closest thing to lifebonds are marriages and you're not supposed to have two of them. Marriages are not categorically zero political - his grandfather the King of the Noldor married the King of the Vanyar's sister, once Maitimo's grandmother died, and that has had and has gone on having a lot of implications for the standing of the children of the two marriages, and there are other examples that probably aren't worth getting into, but you certainly wouldn't marry someone if you loved or were sort of married to someone else.

The Quendi have mostly understood so far that humans are different - humans can lifebond with people of the same sex, for one thing - but figuring out how to present it in advance is a very good idea.

That makes sense. It's definitely going to be a bit complicated but they can think about it later. Maybe Randi will have suggestions when he's back from his tour around Valinor. 

It's a draining day and Vanyel is tired pretty early and heads off to bed. 

He uses the time when both Vanyel and Leareth are sleeping to do everything else that requires being physically present - going around to peoples' houses, meeting with them, bringing them presents, writing the few letters he doesn't want even Larya to see.

The next month passes relatively uneventfully. 

Vanyel works on permanent Gate techniques. Tries out some prototypes, though he'll want to bring Savil in for the final version. Talks to Curufinwë about the most powerful incomplete-artifact they can make for it. Probably they can't power an inter-world Gate from anything but the Silmarils but a cross-ocean one might be doable. He designs a communication-spell artifact that is powered on both ends via Arda magic, activated with osanwë, and doesn't need a Velgarth mage at all, and one end of that can be dropped in Vinyamar. It's theoretically not secure, so they shouldn't use it for important state secrets, but it's peacetime and it's not like there are any other Velgarth mages wandering around to intercept it.

Leareth meets with Melody every few days, gradually nibbles away at the mess of un-ordered memories. Keeps a lot of notes. Things are still very up and down; sometimes he has a string of days in a row where he seems almost fine, a few times he spends all day curled up in bed because everything outside is too overwhelming, mostly it's somewhere in between. 

(Vanyel offers a couple of times to go through Urtho's journals with him. Leareth appreciates the offer greatly and he wants to at some point but - maybe after he's managed to better sort out which of his feelings about Vanyel are appropriate and which are the result of random unpleasant fake scenarios.) 

A month later, King Randale and Shavri arrive back in Tol Eréssea with their escort. 

It's too bad they couldn't have seen Valinor when it was, well, lit, but their willingness to go around meeting people has done a lot of good for interplanetary relations. Maitimo hosts a dinner when they return. Do they want to see Vinyamar too?

Randi does, yes! He thinks he should probably meet with the political leadership of the Dwarves, and - do the orcs have a head of state? He isn't sure what the situation is with that but it'd feel wrong to leave them out entirely. 

The orcs do not super have a head of state and have mostly scattered around the world in small tribes which will rapidly grow into big tribes. No one has great ideas for what to do about that but visiting them sounds like potentially a productive step. " - Van should go with you. They're not magically bound to be our enemies now, but -"

"I can definitely go," Vanyel agrees. "It'd be nice to see over there, and - hmm, we can do the permanent Gate setup at the same time? Savil and I are just about ready, I can do a Gate and bring some people over." 

"Oh, that'll be wonderful. Thank you."