Then Leareth will meet his first Elf! He's taller than a human and very pretty and it's only a little obvious from his appearance but more obvious from his mind that he's not human. He is wearing absurdly nice formal clothes and has his hair braided even more elaborately than Bella's. He blinks at them. "Neat."

(Leareth reads the Elf's mind for about three seconds before catching that apparently they don't shield at all; he stops immediately, he feels very secure here and also it would upset Bella.)

"Welcome," he says politely. "Thank you for being willing to come in this fashion. Had you met the other me? That must be a little odd." 

He is thinking that that sure does look like Leareth.  "I did, briefly, before the war started. The whole situation seems odd but hopefully in a way that is to our advantage."

"It is so strange! I would like to help, obviously, but I fully understand the caution your people have shown. Are there any specific questions you have? I could ask my alt if he is willing to meet you, I am not sure if it is helpful to see both of us in one place and confirm there are definitely two." 

"They haven't told me anything specific about what they're looking for but I am supposed to verify as much as I can without causing much inconvenience to your spell development process. - and to ask about whether there could be a spell to send me back, not because I need to go back, I can easily stay here for the rest of the war. but because I think it'd be - useful. For something. I'm sorry. Prince Nelyafinwë took it very hard, when Leareth was captured, and he's very paranoid these days."

Glance at Bella. "I believe we have a spell but it is not completely free of risk, since it has occasion targeting errors such as the one that led to our entire situation here." 

"Right. I've got some progress on adding a section to be more careful about duplicate world instances but that can't be the entire problem because if the spell were just confused about which Arda I wanted, I should have landed in the south of Valinor in a random meadow where Rúmil and Fëanáro were waiting for me."

"Valinor blocked Gating. I don't know if that could have messed with your magic which isn't Gating but maybe they were atypically comprehensive?"

"- oh, that might be it. Confused about which Valinor and then couldn't put me in the selected wrong Valinor."

"So maybe just have it react to confusion by not sending you anywhere at all, or something."

"Yup. I will do that. Thank you for the tip."

"And then you could select a destination not in Valinor, since we are aware of the Gate-block now - and fix the issue with duplicate worlds... That ought to be significantly safer, I think, though of course there are unknown unknowns." He looks at Bella again. "I wonder if our Vanyel would be up for meeting Ninquë - what do you think?" 

"Probably. I bet he'd like to hear Quendi singing in person if nothing else."

"Should I ask my alt about meeting you?" Leareth asks Ninquë. 

"That sounds good, thank you."

Then he'll go check in with Angband Leareth and see if he's up for that. He doesn't explain very much context, just that a Quendi who he briefly met before is here because of the war effort collaboration. 

It sounds exhausting! But it's probably really important if the other Leareth wants him to do it! He puts away his book, which he's been too unfocused to read for the last half-candlemark anyway, and tries to summon more alertness. "Of course." 

Local Leareth goes to retrieve Ninquë. "He is probably not up for a long visit, he gets tired quickly, and he might be very emotional." 

"I understand. I've talked to survivors of Utumno."

Leareth nods, and brings him over. His alt has a new room now, just beside the library; it's not up to Quendi beauty standards but at least it doesn't feel like a hospital. 

He has a writing desk, which he spends about ten minutes a day at before flopping back in bed. Which is where he is now, it seems vaguely rude but thinking about that is hard. 

The visitor looks vaguely familiar? Leareth probably met him, before, but it feels like a decade ago and it's hazy. He nods, keeps his expression neutral even though his heart rate is spiking for no reason. 

He glances between both of them. Nods. Stands still at the door and sings, not anything magic, not directly at Leareth.

Leareth calms down a little. The singing is - nice, he has a hard time noticing when something is actively pleasant as opposed to just not-bad, but this is. 

Speaking out loud still feels like too much effort, and like there's some sort of barrier in the way. He can't Mindspeak but he can public-think for osanwë. What does he even have to say, though.

Is Vanyel all right? 

As far as I know he is doing well and very well liked. They picked me because if this was some kind of trick I don't know much, though, so - I don't know much. 

That is very smart. He wants to ask if Maitimo is all right, but the visitor isn't going to know that either. It was brave of you to come.