And suddenly about a hundred Quendi and a dozen humans are in a formless white place. 

"Welcome. You may stay here as long as you wish. If you walk a short distance, you will end up in your own region which will be disconnected from the others, but you can find them again if you wish. I apologize that it was not possible to bring your existing notes here, but you can recreate writing supplies in this way..." 

- huh. 

He should walk a short distance before people orient themselves and figure out who all is here.

- wash of surprise - 

Telumë should not be feeling anything at all through the marriage bond, for one Maitimo is unconscious and two, Telumë himself should currently be mostly-outside-of-time and Maitimo should not be. Meaning something went...unexpectedly. Or expectedly, in hindsight, this particular piece of context wouldn't have been obvious to Mandos but it's not like they've been going around advertising to the Quendi researchers that the currently-evil Prince of the Noldor is stashed in the basement here, somebody obviously forgot. 

Well, this place works something like Lórien's garden, he thinks; start walking, find what he's expecting to find. He expects to find Maitimo.

...He feels very calm about it. For the first time in over a year, nothing hurts. 

He finds Maitimo. Maitimo's walking away from the rest of the group, still surprised, and confused -

Telumë follows him a bit further, until the rest of the group is no longer visible or audible and they seem to be in their own small white world. 

"Fancy seeing you here," he says. It comes out kind of flirtatious despite his best efforts. He only ever sees Maitimo in one context, nowadays, and it's not 'wearing his professional face'. 

" - Telumë." He tilts his head, looking at him. "I take it this isn't Mandos. I was going to be very impressed, if it was, this is - better than advertised."

"Well, Mandos is technically responsible for your being here, I think, in collaboration with a Velgarth god." He has no idea whether Maitimo will remember this or not, but either way he should go back to being unconscious as soon as it's done, and then - everything will be over one way or another inside of a week - so it's almost like they can speak openly again. "Why, what was advertised about Mandos?"

"No one mentioned you feel better, or think better. I guess they often don't remember it very clearly. I was so afraid of it - but mostly, I guess, not for reasons that had much to do with what the Halls are like."

"Well, this is a temporary effect and I do not think Mandos has any reason to single you out there, although," he pauses. Expects the Shadow-Lover to appear and talk to him. Hopefully that works? (The Shadow-Lover isn't a single entity in quite the same way that a person would be; he's a...function, a small sub-part of a larger god with a particular purpose, sort of like a Maia but also a bit more abstract than that - it's hard to explain how Velgarth gods work to anyone who isn't a specialist.) 

"Yes, Telumë?" The Shadow-Lover appears as a tall man dressed in white, but not Herald's Whites exactly. He has long red hair. His face is in shadow but somehow his eyes are still visible, piercing blue, kind and sorrowful at the same time. 

He had forgotten the part where supposedly the Shadow-Lover appears to mortals with the sex and appearance they would find attractive (honestly, why, it seems so unnecessary, but so does a death god being called the 'Shadow-Lover', really.) 

"We need our own bubble for a while," he says, "and - at some point I need to go talk to the others, but he needs to not do that, he wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, we communicated poorly."

He wonders, vaguely, how the Shadow-Lover appears to Maitimo. 

More like original-Leareth than like Telumë, which seems like something to not share. 

"If you have made a mistake with your god I actually prefer you catch it here," he says mildly. "I don't mean to interfere with them."

He smiles, gently. "I know. I am just very paranoid, you know that. ...I was not expecting you to be here, obviously, but I think I am glad? I had not thought we would have an opportunity to speak again, and - in a place where neither of us is hurting..." 

"- are you planning to kill me, then?"

"No. Currently we are accepting Noldor volunteers, but you obviously did not volunteer. And of course we are hoping to win, and...it would be harder to fix the Maitimo who would exist after that, if you spent a long time with Mandos first. Also I am, perhaps, being a little selfish here." 

He nods. "Then probably we will speak again. Though one way or another it is likely to hurt a lot."

"...I suppose it is difficult to envision the future after the war ends, whichever way it goes. But, yes, there will be one." He looks down. "I am not sure if you will even remember this, later, but - I am so sorry. About everything." 

"I know."

"I want..." He has no idea what he wants. For it to be over. For none of it to have happened in the first place. To just be with Maitimo and have it not be so goddamned complicated. "I want you to hold me. Just for a little while." 

He takes a step back, crosses his arms. " - sorry. I'm not angry with you.

But I think - regardless of who wins - I would like to get ...back in the habit of thinking about that. Can I think for a few minutes -"

He's...relieved? Pleased. "...Yes, of course, I should have asked it that way." He sits down on a nearby white-fog-chair-thing. Waits. 

"You can come here," he says, a few minutes later.

Telumë gets up. Goes to him. 

...For some reason he's crying. It doesn't hurt, whatever emotion he's feeling, which makes it hard to tell what the emotion even is. 

He pulls him into his lap. "It is probably a waste of effort to figure out what I want, since it will depend on who wins this war and I am satisfied enough with my plans for either case. I am glad to be alive for it."

"You might as well stay and - do some thinking," Telumë suggests. "Since we have this space anyway, and you are going to go back to being unconscious afterward and will probably not wake up until the war is over one way or another. ...If my side loses then I assume I will not be alive in the aftermath, but I do still come back."

He's going to stay for a while for some cuddling, and then go out and be useful and tell the Shadow-Lover to please not let Maitimo find him by accident again. He feels very weird about having sex in front of a god-avatar so probably they shouldn't.