There's an enormous and beautiful cave system on the banks of the river Narog, that is as far as Elu knows uninhabited; he could set up a city there and people could farm on the land up and down the river from there. He's going to go check it out in a month or so.

That’s very exciting and Stef looks forward to hearing further updates.

When Stef gets done meeting everyone in Vinyamar (it’s so useful that Stef finds this a valuable activity) he will wait for a good moment to interrupt his father and Vanyel and Leareth at their magic research and drag them all to a meal.

Leareth would probably talk about magic for the next fourteen hours nonstop if not allowed, it’s incredibly satisfying to be able to quickly demo the spells he’s proposing, but he can be persuaded to take a break.

(Vanyel will help make sure this happens; he’s not working with quite so much pent-up excitement.)

They can keep talking magic at dinner; he won’t be able to follow along but he can smile and say “hmmm, do you think so?”

Leareth is visibly very, very happy about this plan.

Awwwww.

Vanyel holds up his end of the conversation and gives Leareth fond looks when he’s engrossed enough not to notice, and eventually points out that the humans really ought to get some sleep sooner or later.

Yes! There are rooms set up for them in the palace. He shows them there and wishes them good night.

In the morning Vanyel accompanies Leareth on a wander through the city to look at all the Velgarth-magic artifacts currently in use.

Stef walks with them for a bit and then heads off to chat with Macalaure about songs again.

He stays in his office, meeting people, looking in on Vanyel and Leareth occasionally.

Stef comes in midway through the afternoon. “You busy? I talked to all the usual people, think I’ve got a better idea of what the new city might need, could go through it with you now?”

"Sounds great. We should also be thinking about which things are going to be standard demands for new cities, because now I've heard rumors of at least two others."

“Ah, right, we should sync up on which rumors we each heard about that. Someone mentioned to me...” Stef relates Finrod’s gossip without quite naming its source.

"That is probably also what has Angaráto wavering on whether he's going with Nolofinwë's group, then. And then there's a group of people who want to go settle near the humans if the humans won't come here, which seems like a good idea."

“Right, yes, that seems like a very smart idea.” Stef taps his chin, thinking. “...Weren’t we going to talk to your cousin at some point about the new city, get more detail on the planning worked out?”

"That's a good idea. I'll invite him over - is now a good time?"

“Works great with me - should I check with Van and Leareth? I can’t keep track of the ‘what kinds of magic are possible’ list even just for Van’s ones.”

"If you can tear them away from the magic research it'd be good to have them too, sure."

“Well, I can’t promise it but I’ll go see what I can do, sound good?”

"Sounds great. Thank you."

Stef heads out.

Vanyel Mindspeaks him a few minutes later. :Sounds like we’re meeting now? It’s a reasonably good time, I think: