Yeah. But I doubt the advice he needs is 'well, you could get away with murder so you could also probably get away with this'.

Mmhmm. 

And the boy couldn't, necessarily. If later he decided he wanted to be known for - anything else. 

- yeah. 

I'm still not coming up with advice.

- leave Arda. Go live somewhere that's not like this. That's the advice.

Isn't it?

I guess so. 

Unless you're going to change things.

I don't know how to change things.

You're usually more creative than that. 

We could mind-control everyone.

Not that creative. Sigh. I don't think you're going to import a solution from the stars. 

Whyever not, it worked for Melkor.

Sorry. 

That was - good advice. 

Good night.

Good night.

Vanyel's sleep is troubled. Why is he thinking about Stef so much. This is dumb. Stef is half his age. He has children Stef's age. Every part of this is a bad idea, it doesn't usually take him nearly this much willpower to steer himself away from bad ideas even though he is, in fact, fairly lonely. (It's just that nobody is Tylendel and so it doesn't really help.) This shouldn't be any different. And yet.

Leareth only wakes up once in the night, but the unfamiliar surroundings startle him and he reflexively reaches for mage-sight, tries to check shields and wards, and when this doesn't work he - doesn't really panic about it, there's no point, he just...curls up and holds very still and feels overwhelmingly helpless, 

We're in Vinyamar. Visiting with the delegation from Valdemar.

That helps but only a little. In this moment, Leareth wants his magic back so, so badly. He sort of suspects this isn't even about Melkor, or not entirely? For eighteen hundred years, every single time he's gone to sleep in an unfamiliar place, he's put up wards first.

He's been murdered in his sleep a few times, when he wasn't thorough enough. Not for a thousand years, though. He learned to be careful. 

The Velgarth gods aren't here, the Valar hate him but they're not going to send an indirect assassination plot, but - old habits don't fade quickly. 

Vanyel says he sometimes lights things on fire when he has nightmares. I guess if that seems like a good tradeoff we can talk to Melody. 

Maybe. Leareth isn't sure. He would have said he had better control than Vanyel, but it's been years, and he doesn't trust any part of himself anymore, maybe he will again someday but not yet.

...He wants Maitimo to hold him. It's not the same thing but it's the same shape of thing, sort of? Convincing the relevant part of his mind that nobody is going to murder him while he's sleeping, because they would have to get past Maitimo first. 

Yeah. He climbs into bed and arranges himself in a known doesn't-scare-Leareth way. 

This gets Leareth through the rest of the night and he is reasonably well-rested in the morning.

Vanyel is somewhat less well-rested but he'll manage. (Don't think about Stef definitely block that fantasy about Stef, he needs some kind of very enthralling distraction.) 

Well, they can see the city and meet a lot more Elves, including his brother who is extraordinarily gifted at singing. It is the most distraction Arda can offer. 

He doesn't say anything to Vanyel. The conversation with Findekáno has left him tired and sad and not totally sure why.