Leareth has gone very still, his face slipping into the controlled blank expression that means he's thinking hard and not sure what any of his conclusions are yet. (It's almost the same as his default neutral face from before, but not quite.) 

"We've tried following up on the Arda side too, but it's been very difficult. It appears that Maiar in Angband that were in a physical form that made physical sense when magic stopped working survived, and the rest didn't. But they vanished without a trace if they had no body at all, making it hard to tell whether any given one died or got out. - and we killed most of the orcs in Angband when we sacked it a few minutes later, and they're understandably not being very cooperative with efforts to figure out which Maiar were present and which was not."

Leareth carefully folds his hands in his lap. "I am guessing you have tried mindreading for this problem, since Vanyel can do it." 

"Not on the dead. Or maybe he could if Mandos would let us, which he has not. We've tried on the living."

Nod. "So...what are our next steps, if any? I am unsure that I will be able to help in any way that Vanyel has not already tried, but I can give it more thinking time." 

"There's not much obvious. We might have to just keep looking for signs of tampering in Velgarth. There is a Maia we captured alive. We tried reading her, obviously, but it doesn't work quite like reading a person and Thoughtsensing a non-disabled Maia doesn't work at all and we don't know how much she recalls from before the loss of magic so we're not taking those unproductive conversations as very much evidence. Figured we'd wait and eventually ask you, what to do with her." He sends an image. It's the one with wings like a bat.

"Oh, I remember her." Leareth is quiet for a moment, sifting through his memories that include her. "She seemed - less bad than many of the others. Has she tried to harm anyone while you have been keeping her captive?" 

"No. Not much chance to, though."

"Can she really harm anybody without having any of a Maia's powers?" Shrug. "I - do not particularly desire her dead, and it seems cruel to imprison her forever. Could she be freed but supervised in some way?" 

"We've been - reluctant to make the mistake we made paroling Melkor again. But yes, she can be."

"That makes sense. Do you think there is any way even in theory that she could regain her magic? If not, it seems a drastically less risky and more reversible decision than paroling Melkor." 

"It's hard to have a confident guess when we took her magic with a weapon we did not fully understand. But there haven't been any signs she's regaining it."

"It seems remotely possible someone else could give her back her magic," Vanyel admits. "If it stays coherent in the Void - which we're kind of hoping it does, that's the only way we'd have any hope of ever getting Olórin back - and if a Velgarth mage finds a way to access it and is on her side. Or if another Maia learns how to use Velgarth magic, possibly. I...don't think it should be possible for her magic to come back from the Void of its own accord and glom back onto the rest of her." 

"Right. Vanyel, what sorts of signs of tampering were you looking for in Velgarth, and how far did you venture?" 

"Reports of new kinds of magic mainly," Vanyel answers. "Or - weird geopolitical events, since Melkor seemed to like scheming that way. I've been as far south as Seejay. Your organization has the north covered. I can't get into Iftel but we do have a diplomat there, a civilian merchant, and his letters haven't mentioned anything odd. I haven't gotten west of the Pelagirs or into the Eastern Empire, and there's a lot to the southeast of Seejay. But if anything really big were happening, I think we'd hear something about it." 

"Maiar are generally pretty slow. Even if someone is there we might not expect to see anything for decades."

"That makes sense." Heavy sigh. "Well, now I know. It sounds as though Vanyel has already communicated with my organization on my behalf, so there is nothing I need to immediately act on there?" 

"Yes. Er, sorry for doing that behind your back; I've had a lot of back and forth with the various people you left in charge." 

"No, I appreciate it. Thank you." It's been very restful, having various necessary plans happen in the background without any input required from him. "It would probably be good if I were briefed fully on that at some point, but I do not think it particularly urgent." 

"I think that's all the geopolitics we were going out of our way not to mention. Should I call in Melody?"

Leareth takes a deep breath. "...I am ready for that, yes." 

Leareth's ready, he lets Melody know.

:Perfect! I can be there in ten minutes?: Pause. :Hmm, actually, is it all right if I bring Jisa? If there's any kind of problem after today, she'll be the one nearest at hand to help with it, so I'll feel better if she saw this:

He passes this on to Leareth.

"I wish to think about it for a moment." Leareth tries to do that even when it doesn't feel like a big deal; it seems important to get back into the habit of reasoning through decisions rather than let other people make them for him.

This one isn't that complicated, though. Melody has a good point about Jisa being her replacement, and vouches for Jisa, and Vanyel can vouch for Jisa as well at this point. (According to Van, she 'took a while to grow up but is definitely there now.') 

"Yes, that is fine with me," he says.