"You do!" he says cheerfully. "The first time a descendent uses a fire spell. Sauron thinks Melkor can set up something for surveillance of magic like he was doing in Valdemar, but bigger, and I can catch you at it." Petpet. "I am planning to give you a planet, which is the best wedding present in all of history if you think about it."

Snuggle. "Probably!" It's quite romantic actually even if it really shouldn't be given the context. 

"No one has ever given their husband a planet before and probably no one will ever do so again because we will abolish the institution of marriage."

"Oh, why? Not sufficiently conducive to suffering?" This is such a weird conversation to be having. 

"It's Eru's! Remember, I hate everything to do with Eru even when suffering actually has nothing to do with it. Eru is a horrible meddling idiot and should stop. - he's the reason I got sent to you again, you know, I don't know if anyone told you."

"I do not think anybody told me specifically but I am not at all surprised." 

"After the revelation that you all were totally planning to use the Silmarils to kill tons of people my father asked if it was my fault and I said that it was and he punched me in the face and the Valar - panicked - barely remembered while trying to make everyone stop doing things that if they left no precautions I would just walk over and kill Vanyel - asked Eru for help - and then I was back in your cage."

"...I did have the thought when it happened that obviously the gods hated me very much and were laughing. The Valar continue to remind me of - oh, if one took a group of human six-year-olds and elevated them to godhood. They are not ill-intentioned - usually - but they are so bumbling." 

"It is probably very hard to rule beings who are fundamentally a completely different kind of thing than you! Now that I've met Velgarth's gods I'm impressed they at least talk! With words!"

"Have you personally met Vkandis? I tried to speak with him in the past and failed, on at least one occasion via being set on fire." What a thing to find in your own notes on previous lives. 

"I've given reports to people he was possessing. They weren't any good at formulating questions. And I've seen him interact with Sauron, which seemed to work better for both of them - I think that was Sauron's main advantage in negotiating, he could actually talk to Vkandis at all -

Also the Iftel communications people seemed terrified of me out of all proportion to how scary I was trying to be so maybe they do frequently get lit on fire for delivering bad news.

- such a dumb way to run an evil empire, lighting people on fire for delivering bad news."

"You would think so, right? Also, you are in fact very scary." He says it while smiling slightly. "Perhaps they were simply accurately recognizing this." Exactly like everyone in Arda failed to until afterward. 

"Oh, I killed people for causing bad news. Killed their families, sometimes, if it seemed like they'd understood their incentives to not be sufficient and would've done better with stronger motivation, though that wasn't actually anywhere near the most common cause of bad decisions. ...And I wanted our mages to be scared enough of me they'd rather do the suicide fireball, which they were really bad at noticing it was the moment to do. But it's just wasting my time if priests end up scared to deliver bad news that's not their fault.

- there's some we'll have to get back. If you win."

Telumë nods. "Well, if we win, we will have the help of several gods with that. And, yes, most people are not going to be good at making the call of when to Final Strike. It is not as though this is a habit one could practice that well in advance..." 

They can talk for a while. The conversation can't really be uncomfortable even if the content is, not here. For now, Telumë can accept that as a gift he'd never expected to receive. 

"...I ought to go," he says finally, reluctantly, as he disentangles himself. "But - stay longer, if you wish. I love you." 

"I love you."

And Telumë walks back out into the Shadow-Lover's realm, expecting to find anybody who has questions for him.

Interdimensional permanent Gate-terminals are completed and Almarë and Ertuon walk through holding hands. 

I think it's a lot better than dying fighting in a war, she says. Because that's probably traumatizing, what with the violence, and you might've killed some people, and even if that's not your fault it's got to affect you, right?

But if you go off to die fighting you might not die, he says, which is a lot less scary than definitely dying. There's the sense that if you're clever enough, if you're brave enough - 

They don't stop walking - they've been told not to stop walking - but they slow down the slightest bit to gawk at their surroundings. 

Their surroundings are shockingly ugly! They're on a flat plain, tundra stretching out as far as the eye can see in one direction; in the other direction, snowcapped mountains are visible, those are quite pretty. There are canvas tents and hastily constructed buildings or at least roofs with cloth walls that whip in the wind. It's cold. There's snow on the ground, in between patches of frozen brown mud. 

A number of humans at fold-out tables are handing out very makeshift warm clothing from crates, and maps of the camp, and pointing the arriving volunteers at where to go. 

A human woman, looking tired and harried, apologizes to them for the unsightly surroundings. They're not needed quite yet but it won't be a long stay here, less than a day probably. Unfortunately there is not really food for them right now, or anywhere to sleep. 

They raise their eyebrows at each other and start singing; other people, walking through the Gate behind them, join in. The song is mostly just to lift their moods but it will help with the cold, a bit, too. Once they have decent numbers they can melt the nearby snow. 

Okay, Almarë says, I guess probably this is moderately traumatizing. - the way King Fëanáro was rumored to have originally been planning it - you wouldn't even know -

- yes, Ertuon says, but also, what if someone was pregnant even though we'd been told not to. Or had a pet bird who'd starve if they were gone for a week. Or - probably you don't want kids - 

Presumably if it was bad for kids they would've said they couldn't volunteer, and they didn't say that. Though they might not have known it would be ugly.

I think war is always ugly. 

One of the Quendi volunteers starts directing the singers to work on flowers; by the time there are thousands of Quendi there are buds poking their heads out of the soil. And being promptly trampled because this is a lot of people. 

There are pretty detailed plans for this but also everything is being done so fast. Some Velgarth mages Gate in. Then more of them. 

Some of them have long white hair in braids and are wearing clothing that's almost pretty enough to go unnoticed in Arda. They gather in a circle and start doing some sort of magic, and then the wind cuts off as a giant barrier appears around the rapidly-erected camp. 

One of the human logistics staff is explaining to some people that they're Tayledras, which is good, it means the Star-Eyed Goddess must have elected to help after all now that they know how dire things are. 

Should we be coordinating with them on magic? I don't think ours will interfere but we won't do weather if they've got that covered, that sort of thing, says the Quendi who is coordinating the singers on turning this camp into a meadow of waist-high wildflowers.

"Oh, that's a good idea actually! We didn't know we'd have them until the last minute so they aren't as well in on the planning - I think that person is coordinating..." 

So the singer wanders over to confirm that the field of wildflowers is fine, and is there anything else that'd be more useful?

The person is tall and looks fairly young as humans go and also kind of sad. He answers in Velgarth Mindspeech; he doesn't share a language with them. :The flowers are not a problem, no. What else does your magic do?: 

The songs we can do on short notice mostly do healing, and plant growth, and decoration, and weather. There are some ones for hand-to-hand fighting but I hope there's not going to be any of that, some people brought children.