I would assume not. I have to admit, while I am very personally upset that the Enemy has Maitimo, I don't see that it's particularly bad from a strategic perspective? Sauron will know far more than him about Arda magic. Iftel presumably has their own politicians...

Stef and Jisa exchange another look. 

Maitimo is really, really good at understanding people, Stef says finally. The same way you're good at languages and inventing new magic, he's good at that. Quendi are - smarter than humans in a lot of ways, so that would give him an advantage over Iftel's politicians, and Maiar aren't exactly known for their incredible people-skills. And, well, it'd be enough by itself that he knows Leareth well, right? It's not even about the fact they were sleeping together, Maitimo...helped him put himself back together, after Angband, and worked with him before that. He's going to be able to predict Leareth's strategy and that hurts us a lot. I don't think Leareth is wrong about that, even if he's got some other motivated reasoning for wanting Maitimo out of there. 

Huh. All right. It's a dangerous thing to attempt and I don't know that it's a favor to Maitimo at all but if our other sources confirm what Leareth has to say- and if you think of a way -

Jisa and Stef exchange a look again. 

:We should come up with a plan where the backup is just to kill him: Jisa sends. :But - Stef and I have some abilities that I don't think Sauron has a way of knowing much about. Mindhealing isn't generally used in combat and neither is Bardic. Mindhealers in particular are really, really rare, so - if we're lucky, I'm not going to count on it but if we're lucky, he won't be able to block my Gift even if he can block mage-gift: 

Huh. Well if you come up with some plans I'll be happy to think about them with you.

:We'll let you know: And Jisa heads off to try to teach herself the communication-spell. 

SO WHAT HAPPENS EXACTLY IF SOMEONE DOES USE THE NODE THAT THE STAR-EYED IS TRYING TO HOLD TOGETHER, IN LINEAS.

"Vkandis would be opposed." It is bizarre to have to argue this much with someone who has arranged you to share all their values. 

AND THE REGION WOULD NO LONGER BE RESISTING. 

"We will have to achieve that in some fashion that Vkandis is more comfortable with. You could maybe just go in and kill everyone, if you want, they don't have many mages and I don't think the Star-Eyed knows how to engage you if you're immaterial."

THEY WILL FLEE INTO HER TERRITORY. AGAIN. PEOPLE KEEP DOING THAT. 

"Whereas the magical fault destroys much of her territory, makes it less habitable, sets back her great work -"

YES, EXACTLY. 

"I see the temptation." There is still absolutely no way they could get Vkandis to go for it. And it's too soon for the alliance to shatter. Once Leareth invades, maybe, if he can be steered towards being useful and fighting mostly Iftel and Karse's forces. 

"If the Star-Eyed believed you were trying to do this, she would risk a great deal to stop you."

YES. THAT IS ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGE OF THE PLAN.

"One we can get without alienating Vkandis, though. If you move in with an army like you intend to do this, she'll stop you. She might throw everything she has at it, if she's sure enough you're serious. The rebels, the remaining Tayledras forces, whatever coincidences and conveniences she has stored up somewhere - we'd need to be positioned to take advantage of it. But we could bring an end to the war on that border. Without touching the faultline." Yet. 

HMMMMM.

Maitimo kisses him. "Think about it."

<Jisa, are you there? We have news> 

From the cadence of his words, it's not good news. <I'm here> Switch to Mindspeech. :Fëanáro - Treven - it's Moondance, something happened: 

They've had communications back for a few weeks. Vanyel is fine. Well, safe at least. Jisa can't talk to him directly, though, because his mage-gifts aren't really working. She has Gating down but is still working to re-derive the inter-world version from Vanyel's notes; once she can Gate to k'Treva, they can try to bring Van to Lórien, at this point it seems like he just isn't going to make a full recovery on his own even with Melody's help. Head injuries can do that, Melody said. 

He drops what he is working on to head over. 

<Two items> As usual, Moondance is very terse in his communications. Jisa isn't sure how he's holding himself together at all, after Starwind's death - they didn't even learn of that directly from Leareth, Telumë rather, he must not have had it listed in his top ten important pieces of news. Which is fair. It isn't that strategically relevant; the Tayledras have lots of mages. 

<Go on> 

<From Rethwellan. It is not being presented in this way but there was a coup. The Sword of Rethwellan is missing. Queen Lythiaren is dead, supposedly an accident, but we find this implausible. A different noble has taken her place and he is conveniently open to an alliance with Vkandis and his new kingdom> Pause. <This was done skillfully. Some god-managed coincidences were involved, perhaps, but...Vanyel recognizes Prince Nelyafinwë's hand in it> 

Jisa relays this to the others.