:Yes: 

Leareth particularly likes the fish with creamy sauce and greens. 

He is very impressed with all cooking done under the constraint that the food stops being edible after a couple of hours; it's super unreasonable and everyone is very impressive for working around it so well.

Velgarth has been this way for thousands of years, of course; it's normal at establishments like this for food to be cooked throughout the day as it's needed. Less fancy taverns often have a pot of stew that just sits over the fire all day and occasionally has more ingredients added to top it up; needless to say, this is not particularly optimized for deliciousness. 

Okay maybe not literally all food made under these conditions. But this food, definitely.

It is all very reasonably edible food, and afterward they can walk back to the Palace and split up so Maitimo can meet more people and Leareth can go through the notes from talking to Savil. 

Meeting people is so much fun!

He can meet some of the other Heralds in leadership positions, and Dara informs him that Queen Karis will be coming up from Karse in a few days; the Karse side doesn't have a permanent Gate yet, her Council is still leery about magic that isn't just foreign but comes from another world. Savil can Gate them in using the terminus on this side, though, and have it be only marginally more inconvenient. 

That sounds wonderful. And he still has enough time to learn her language if anyone here knows it?

Dara had not at all imagined he would do that but, yes, many of the Heralds speak it and there's also a permanent representative here, she can arrange for him to meet with various people who are fluent. 

Among Quendi this is an important courtesy, because it's easier for Quendi and they care rather obsessively about language so it's more equivalent to 'learning the correct etiquette to address each other' than 'reading several hundred books about them' while he gets the sense to humans it's more like the latter.

Dara thinks this is very interesting, as a cultural difference; the fact that Quendi are much better at learning languages is probably related to the part where they care obsessively about it. It often takes humans years to really learn the ins and outs of a foreign language, and even then most people will miss nuances, which means it's better for diplomatic relations not to rely on those nuances being understood. 

That makes a lot of sense. Quendi also formed this norm in a world with a handful of languages and it might well not stand up to hundreds of them, but if it is not too inconvenient he would like to try.

It's not inconvenient for her! She'll ask around and make sure to find people who are going to enjoy it rather than find it annoying. 

He appreciates it a lot!

And eventually when they have both done a responsible amount of work he and Leareth can go to bed. 

Feels somehow unfair that our wonderful vacation means only spending seventy percent of the hours in the day at work instead of all the waking ones.

:You know, if you did not enjoy meeting people so much, you could decide to meet somewhat fewer of them. I do not think anyone would begrudge that: He smiles. :I am looking forward to a day trip or two, though, and having you all to myself in some remote place: 

I like meeting people! - but that sounds nice.

:Perhaps I could come with you to meet some of the people, in situations where it makes sense, and see if I can practice warming up to them: 

Kiss. I would enjoy that.

Leareth is going to enjoy pretty much any time he spends with Maitimo, even if it's frustrating being in public and not being able to show any of what he's feeling. Fortunately, right now they are not in public. 

They are not! Instead they are in Maitimo's bedroom. Maitimo is writing down some notes from the day's conversations. When he finishes that he starts sketching a picture.

Leareth is absently drawing various artifact designs. "...Mmm, what's that?" 

Pretty thing I saw earlier. It is a picture of Leareth.

Aww. Maitimo is pretty good at drawing. Not surprising, he's had a lot of centuries to practice, and Quendi are good at making time for that kind of thing. 

Maitimo is a very average Quendi at drawing and sculpture and calligraphy and so on but all of these are fields where the average Quendi over thousands of years attains a lot of skill. 

He finishes the outlines of the drawing and then sets to diligently shading it. This kind of takes a while.

It's fun to watch for a while, but Leareth is starting to get bored. He shifts over and arranges himself to snuggle without actually getting in Maitimo's way.