He looks pained. "Yeah. Thank you."

"I'm sorry for putting that on you too. And for everything. But we really appreciate your help." 

"Of course. I -

- it is also for his sake that I hope you're able to stop him from hurting people."

"...I know. He - it's already going to be so bad when" if "we win and he gets un-eviled and - realizes..." 

"He told me a little bit about what he did in Valdemar for Sauron."

Wince. "Huh. Why? You'd think it - wouldn't be in his interest, to convince you of how dangerous he was - is that part of why you decided we needed your help enough to not see him?" 

"I don't know what he was aiming me at. Probably not not seeing him until the war is over? Unless whatever he's planning is something I could've disrupted if I was there. But actually, what decided me wasn't that he was dangerous, I knew he was dangerous, it was that the rest of you were - no offense - it just looked pretty likely that millions of people were going to die and which millions basically chosen at a craps table if I didn't stay involved - if he'd wanted to avoid that he would've wanted to tell me to get him out of there right away, I would've done that. 

Maybe he was hoping I'd involve myself and then object to any mass murders you plan but - it's not worth trying to think around him like that."

Stef looks away. Chews his lip. We were handling it exactly how we were always going to, I think, with - that specific chain of events gone wrong. It hit all the fault-lines. We weren't ready for that - we couldn't be - I'm not, I'm goddamned terrified. I don't feel like I'm enough of a grownup to cope with this at all let alone outsmart Maitimo or else maybe we lose and Melkor gets the multiverse. Anyway. It's - pretty humiliating to admit that, but I think it's true and I'm glad you saw. 

I'm not - angry with you. Just Telumë, and Fëanáro. I think - the decisions you've put yourselves in the position of having to make -they're not decisions people can be ready for. They're not decisions people should ever be making. There is no way to decide how to kill ten million people and hold intact the things that could make it worth it. That's not to say I'll get in your way, if Sauron moves tomorrow. But ...I am really really really unsurprised that people pushed into this corner weren't ready to do anything that could possibly steer them out of it, and I think we have really really got to stay out of that corner any way we possibly can.

Nod. Well, Vanyel is at some point soon going to almost-kill himself to go personally ask a god for help, so - hopefully we'll get something useful there. I asked him to please do it after I've caught up with Fëanáro and made sure he won't do anything stupid, because it might put me out of commission for a while when he does it. 

Ooof. Yeah, that makes sense. Good skill.

...I should make sure I'm somewhere safe and Maitimo doesn't know where. Since I'll be quite vulnerable. He shakes his head. "Anyway," he says out loud, "I should get moving. Further I let them get ahead, the longer it'll take me to catch up." 

"Have a safe trip!"

And Stef heads back to the Gate, to catch a boat from Tol Eréssea and hope this stopover hasn't cost him critical time. 

Maitimo is sending three dozen people in Alqualondë lovely dreams about birds. No one has formally demonstrated that this can be done but he's heard of couples that say they can do it to their husband or wife. You have to time it right, they said, and it takes a lot of practice, and he doesn't have a lot of time for practice so - three dozen at once. 

Also he is engaging in a conversation with his father about whether Sauron could in principle be wrong about something. "Sure! Factual things, quite easily. If Sauron told me to give up on the alliance with Vkandis because he doesn't think it can be salvaged but I see a way to salvage it, I'll do that, because it will get him what he wants, even if he mistakenly thinks it won't get him what he wants. Moral things is more complicated but we did used to have lots of arguments about it - about whether it was a good idea for him to torture me, actually -"

Stef gets off the boat at the edge of the city. Nerdanel, are you busy?

I thought we were trying to not linger with Maitimo anywhere where he can reach major cities, but otherwise no.

Are you still on the move? I won’t  join you but I wanted to talk, I think it’s important and moderately urgent.

We were going to go until Maitimo was too tired to keep going, and then make camp. We can talk now.

Makes sense. I’ll keep moving too and we can talk. It’s - about Maitimo. And what I think we need to be careful of, going off - the sorts of things people with the goal of causing harm have done in my world, including with far less resources than he has. Probably it’s easiest if I go through examples, these things all really happened...

She listens. 

I think he's - not very likely to stay evil if there's any wiggle room in his orders. He's - a collaborative person. He hates being hated.

...I think he will try very hard to fulfil the oath in ways that don't involve being openly hated and that do involve lots of collaboration. He can work like that. It's - do you know the wording of the oath? Gods, I can - show you - Jisa could see it directly. And he can share that fuzzy sense-impression with her over osanwë; Jisa's a strong enough Mindspeaker to shove it at him and she did, right away, while crying on his shoulder.

I think he has a lot of - bits of himself in conflict with it, you're right, he does still care about you and Fëanáro and a lot of other people - but the core thing, it's not even as specific as orders that can have loopholes? He's oathbound to pursue Sauron's values. He can do it creatively, he may well be able to do it in ways that don't look overtly bad even, but - I don't think that's going anywhere until we win and I don't think Sauron left anything up to interpretation with the wording, he's too smart for that. So I think we need to block any avenue to it as thoroughly as we can. For him as much as for us. The oath will act on him less to the extent that he literally can't fulfill it, right. 

Yes, it will. I support all the - keeping him in the south of Valinor where he can't hurt people -

I'm worried he can still hurt a lot of people if we're not careful enough. There'll be people where he's going, right? And - and the thing my world's history shows is that a determined person with a plan can do a lot with any toehold at all - maybe I should say some more examples... 

He talks about chains of spies operating across a thousand miles, purely through favours and bribery and blackmail without any overt violence at all. He describes assassinations that really don't seem like they should have been possible, but were. Secret organizations with plans that went undetected by anyone. Some are from Katha's lessons with him, but some are examples from Leareth's lives, which he really hopes neither Fëanáro nor Nerdanel have enough context on to recognize. (He does ask her to please not mention any specifics to Maitimo, at least, who will be able to recognize Leareth's hand - 'don't give him ideas' but that's only a fraction of the why...)

Finally, he thinks to ask. How many precautions is your party taking against his literally just murdering Fëanáro? Because - that might well win the war for Sauron in one move. Meaning that if he saw an opening, the oath might almost force him to take it. 

Fëanáro has two of those defensive amulets. One on a belt and one around his neck. And Maitimo doesn't have a weapon. I guess we should maybe be assuming he could steal or make one.