"I don't know what a halfling is either, but our magic seems to think it's Sauron, or at least related to him in some way."

"Going back to the other one - is there any way we can tell how Maitimo's doing?" 

"It does not look as though Sauron is obviously torturing him." 

"Could the - pain thing - be faked somehow? Could they have found a way to send it without experiencing it?"

"Is that known to be possible with marriage bonds? It's not something I'm, er, as familiar with as Velgarth magic." 

"It is not known to be possible to fake anything about marriage bonds, even Melkor isn't known to have been able to do it, but several features of this situation are unprecedented as far as Quendi marriages go."

Nod. "He's not doing anything," Melody notes quietly. "Has he moved this entire time?" 

"Not really," the older Vanyel says. "Anyway. We should figure out what to do. I'm not sure how confident I feel taking on Sauron right now? He's some amount warned about Velgarth magic and we don't know how much. In particular we don't know if he's learned to cancel it yet. As far as we're aware he could only do it at very close range in our Velgarth, even with considerable practice, which would make it harder for him to take on all of us. That being said, this is an older Sauron, so he might have more tricks." 

"Can we snatch Maedhros back without confronting Sauron?"

"Without defeating him, I think yes. Without any confrontation is hard - I suppose one of us could try to drop a Gate right underneath him, but that's not really in my repertoire of Gate techniques." 

"I could do it, probably. It would give this Sauron a very up-close look at how Gates work, though, and I suspect they are a technique we especially do not wish him to be able to cancel." 

"Please don't teach Sauron how to travel between universes."

"I could Fetch him - he's a little heavy but if I only have to do it once and not very far -"

"That seems much safer. Where are they now? Belrun, how close would you need to be, and can you do it from a scrying-sense or do you need direct line of sight?" 

"I've never tried it through a scry and should do that under safer conditions. It'd help if the scry could let touchsight work, does it allow othersenses in general? I have pretty decent range though."

"You know, I am actually not sure if scrying could in principle convey touchsight for a non-mage party observing it. It can convey mage-sight, for the mage casting it, but I think it is an entirely unexplored area whether it can do so for additional senses. I think our best option is to be within your range." 

Leareth examines Vanyel's spell; how far away is Sauron right now? 

About a quarter mile outside Imladris!

"Belrun, can you do a quarter mile?" Leareth turns to Elrond as well. "Are you certain he cannot interfere with this place? He is lurking quite close." 

"I don't know. He has never tried. Certainly it would be very noticeable if he stepped within the valley itself." He closes his eyes and concentrates, perhaps on its defenses.

"Do you think he can see magic we do here, or would that also be shielded and hidden from him? ...If there is a way to have it be shielded, that would be very helpful. I am not sure how close he needs to be, in order to observe our magic and learn from it." 

"If he doesn't have the Ring I am very confident he can't see anything within the valley itself. - unless anyone is sending it to him, that is. If he does have the Ring then all bets are off and we should really go to Valinor immediately and regroup from there."

"...Is there a way to tell?" 

" - at a quarter mile we'd probably have noticed the Ring. But it'd be nice to have more to go off than that. - Maedhros will presumably know?"

"True. That may be the fastest way to find out." Leareth glances at the others. "I think probably it will not be hard to subdue him if he fights us, given how many mages are here, but we ought to be on our guard. And...probably warn Telumë." 

"I'll go get him."