Karis must have been expecting these questions; she still answers slowly and thoughtfully. They would be interested in sending their own delegation, yes, she's already talked about that with her Council back home. They need a bit more time to decide on receiving a Noldorin delegation. 

They want to hold off on importing any of the foreign magic, even though it's a very kind and generous offer and she can see how much of a difference it's going to make in Valdemar. It's a very big change and both her Suncat and the high priest aren't that comfortable with it yet. She wants to wait and see how it plays out in Valdemar over the next few years. 

That makes a lot of sense. Many Quendi polities are holding off on adding Velgarth magic for the same reason, and will probably do so for decades. Vinyamar would be delighted to entertain a Karsite delegation.

Wonderful! 

Karis cheerfully makes conversation with them for a couple of hours. She seems completely unperturbed by Leareth, asks him lots of questions about magic and a few carefully phrased questions about the war. She wants to know lots of things about Quendi culture and if any of the answers are surprising or uncomfortable to her it doesn't show. 

The rest of the meeting is uneventful and she bids them goodbye before lunch and heads off for other meetings. 

He likes her. (Shockingly.) He will meet other people for the rest of the day too.

Leareth is actually surprised to find that he likes Karis too, and wasn't that tense by the end of the meeting. It was still kind of draining, though. He meets with whoever Maitimo is meeting for half of the afternoon, but then splits off for a break in the privacy of his skylight-room, going over notes for implementing Arda-Velgarth hybrid artifacts across Valdemar. He and Savil have made a lot of progress on an official proposal, even if Leareth still needs to invent some of the specific spells they want to use. 

He's excited for that. 

He's excited for more meetings. 

And when they both seem to need a break - more of a break than they get in the evenings - didn't you want to take a day off one of these days and show me pretty sights up north?

:I would love to! Day after tomorrow? Savil and I have the Work Room booked tomorrow to test some ideas: 

Sounds good!

He schedules his meetings accordingly.

And they can head out on schedule. Leareth arranges to borrow proper warm clothing for both of them, even though he ought to be able to keep them cozy with magic; always better to have more layers of safety, and it'll be cold up in the mountains. He also packs a few days' worth of food even though he's planning on Gating them back tonight, and an artifact that Maitimo can use to contact someone in his organization nearish the mountains in case Leareth is incapacitated for some reason. 

He knows the exact place he wants to Gate them to. It's moderately high altitude, but not high enough to make them ill due to not having time to acclimatize. There's a nice little climb, should be exciting without being too genuinely dangerous, and an area to sit and get a good view, and then there are caves lower down that he can heat up more easily with magic so they can rest comfortably, and there's a spot that ought to have an amazing view of the sunset. 

Quendi are unfamiliar with the concept you can get ill at high altitudes - "I don't know if we can't or if it just doesn't come up when your only means of transit anywhere is walking, because you can acclimate slowly". 

The mountains are delightful. He is delighted.

Everything is covered in snow and ice this high up, even though it's late summer in Valdemar itself. It sparkles under the sun. There's a frozen waterfall up ahead. 

Leareth wants to drop off some of the emergency supplies in the cave, which is a bit further down, and then backtrack and climb higher. If they decide it's too unsafe he can just do a short-range Gate to get the higher view, but he remembers there being trail most of the way, even if it's steep, and he can use magic to cheat on the steeper bits – and to catch Maitimo if he slips.

He can't use magic but he is a perfectly competent mountain climber - "Findekáno likes it. Also skiing and altitude jumping." - and can make it up without too much trouble. He keeps pausing to take in the scenary, and sighing happily whenever he does.

Leareth stays mostly focused on the climb until they get up, he's being pretty cautious, but at the flat bit that has the good view looking out and over the frozen waterfall, he smushes some snow into a sort of seat and then snuggles up next to Maitimo. He's warm enough from the exertion not to even want a heat-spell yet. 

He unpacks the food he brought to eat up here, which was chosen to be easily portable, bread and cheese and various dried fruits. 

"This is lovely. Thank you."

"You are very welcome!" Kiss. 

Kiss. "Do you suppose most worlds have suns? And sunsets?"

That's a fascinating question. "I would have assumed so, before! If I had considered the question of there being other worlds at all, I mean, without knowing of Arda in particular. ...I mean, I did wonder about the stars. Astronomers have posited that they may be like suns, only - very, very far away. In which case maybe they are suns to other worlds. Not ones found in different planes as Arda is, simply incredibly vast distances apart. I hoped perhaps I might even know the answer, someday, if - I made a god that let the world change and grow, and someday we were strong enough to travel such a very long way." 

" - huh. I guess someday we'll find out. - if it's possible why wouldn't they have come here first -"

"I am not sure. Some of the possible answers are frightening – our Cataclysm nearly destroyed the world, perhaps our world was lucky and most are not..." He shrugs. "Or it could be that no magic makes that travel feasible, and actually what I did to arrive in Arda is far easier. Or perhaps I am wrong, and the stars are not places where other worlds could be at all." 

"Huh." He stares out at them. Shivers, a little.

It's sort of neat that Maitimo can see the stars even in daylight, at least some of them, and Leareth borrows his eyes for a bit, but the topic is - not a happy one, and he would prefer to snuggle and kiss a bit.

At some point the wind shifts and it's uncomfortably chilly even with Leareth's attempt at a mage-barrier in the way, and also the sun is moving down the sky and he wants to make sure they climb down in good light. They can head to the cave? 

Sounds good!

The climb down goes smoothly, since they cleared the snowy bits on the way up, and they reach the cave. Leareth can put up a weather-barrier and warm the inside, and then lay out the blanket he brought over the stone to sit on. He brought some wine; he doesn't intend to drink enough to get tipsy but it seems like a nice addition. 

"Oh, it's so cozy." He'll drink more than that; Quendi can sober up quickly if they want to. 

The wind picks up and makes an interesting, almost musical sound against the skin of the weather-barrier. The sunlight gets slanting and golden; the mountain peaks spread out to one side now look like they've been dipped in gold.

Leareth is pleasantly tired from the mix of exertion and lots of magic. He arranges himself in Maitimo's lap, holds his free hand, watches the sun slip down toward the horizon, which is now shading to pink and lavender. The mountainsides are picking up the same colours, along with deeper violet and blue in the shadows.