"That's good." He hesitates, and then hugs him. "Very impressive, really. What mental habits -"

"Thank you."

Leareth hugs him back, then bounces him an impression of what it feels like as they walk. It's kind of an artifact of how he has to relearn multiple lifetimes worth of knowledge and memory at each new beginning, cramming it all into a year or two of reading through his records, using mnemonics, categorizing them in a way where he can find them again without the usual memory context cues like 'where he was when it happened'. And then he keeps using that structure for day-to-day events, because he has to make a new set of records as he goes for the next time, and ideally keep it sorted and do regular summaries because it's not like he gets a neat five years' warning before he's going to die again.

And that means that if he's remembering things that don't fit that system, it eventually stands out. Melkor's repeated alterations were pretty subtle, actually, but they affected the structure of how he had stored the last 'day' worth of memory enough that it was obvious as soon as he actually thought to check. It's too bad that took an entire two years. 

Shiver. 

You figured it out in time, in the most important sense.

...Honestly it seems sometimes like Maitimo is more disturbed when the topic of Melkor comes up than Leareth is, at this point.

They reach his room. :All right, I need these ones to go into a pile here, in order...: 

Little pause and then he'll help Leareth reorganize.

Leareth lays out the boxes that various sets of records came from in a row, and puts one of them awkwardly far for Maitimo to reach, and then while Maitimo is midway through combining a stack, floats out a very gentle compulsion that he wants the box to be a bit nearer at hand and could pull it closer when he next has his hands free. 

This works fine; he pulls it closer without thinking about it at all.

Leareth lets it pass without saying anything. A minute or so later, he tries for a compulsion that might be a bit more jarring. Maitimo wants to swipe a book from the top of Leareth's current pile and put it in the box he's currently loading. 

He should grab that book - why should he grab that book - he should ask Leareth whether he should grab that book instead of just moving it - these thoughts fail to displace the conviction that he should grab the book -

Leareth watches this for a few moments longer. :Did you notice that?: he sends finally, releasing the compulsion. 

I think so? Not in a very productive fashion but I did poke it and find the poking kind of dissatisfying.

:I was able to do one earlier that I think you did not remark on, though mostly because it was something you might have done on your own anyway: He describes the box-moving. 

Huh. Yes, I didn't notice that one.

Nod. :It appears I can do compulsions carefully enough that you will notice the magic in itself, which is good, but I cannot get anything past you if it is at all uncharacteristic. I am not sure how much this is because you were prepared for it and are unusually good at observing your thoughts: 

I bet it's mostly that I'm paying particular attention. 

:I mostly feel comfortable with this amount of practice, actually? I suppose I might try giving you a more complicated conditional one that does not involve a well-specified action with objects I can see in front of me. It can be entirely in my rooms: 

All right. As long as other people aren't affected and don't notice you can do what you'd like.

Leareth gives it some thought. 

Then he smiles, and puts in a more complicated compulsion. He wants Maitimo to make a little art installation that celebrates him getting his magic back and is made entirely from objects findable in his room. (Quendi make art just by existing, this shouldn't actually be hard for him.) Also, everything needs to be colour-themed based on the first item Maitimo finds. He adds in a couple more silly specifications based on which objects he finds or picks up in what order and then lets it go with a little push. 

Maitimo putters around Leareth's room picking things up and looking at them and setting them on the desk. Occasionally he pauses and frowns to himself. He hums while he works. 

"Did you want these somewhere in particular," he asks while he is assembling them into a little mobile sculpture and fashioning a peg from which to hang it above the desk.

:I had not selected a particular place for it, no: 

"All right."  Having finished this he starts straightening up the books on the bookshelf. "Probably we should also dust but I don't actually know how to dust, I have never done it."

"I think one uses a duster, usually it is a lot of feathers on a stick? Is that necessary for it to be pretty or are you doing it just because now, I cannot tell from here." 

"As far as I know I am just occupying myself while you figure out what you want to do with me; if you have already figured it out then congratulations, you successfully slipped it past me."

"Oh. I thought it would be much more obvious than that." He explains. "Would you normally walk around turning my possessions into sculptures if I were boring you?" 

"Probably not that in particular? But I was checking at the wrong level, I kept checking whether I could stop what I was doing with specific things. I think you've got it."