Okay. I can come be on standby for that.

:Thank you: And Leareth heads back over to the infirmary to, in a sense, read his own mind. 

He gently taps the other Leareth's shields. :I am going to read you: And slips through the shields, which aren't exactly under his control the way his own are, but it's sort of like external room-shielding that he's personally keyed to; there's some resistance but it lets him past without having to actually break anything. 

Leareth can tell someone is reading him, and it feels like - well, it's not like he has any previous experience having his read mind by himself but it sure does feel that way.

If drawing inferences from observations were safe, then he would be very confused, and scared, because of what it indicates about Melkor's capabilities that he can fake this, either he has Vanyel, in which case the war is lost, or he's figured out how to replicate Velgarth Gifts, in which case the war is still lost–

–and he manages not to follow that trail any further, reminding himself that his reasoning and the evidence of his senses are both compromised and he has no way of usefully interpreting what's happening. 

The scared sticks around, though, escalating toward full panic when he senses a mental probe tugging his thoughts in a particular direction - toward Vanyel, right now, the other person is curious about that. 

:Bella, can you please calm him now: 

She calms him.

That enables Leareth to go back to skimming thoughts which are not mostly internal screaming. He tries to be efficient about it, because it turns out to actually be moderately distressing.

:...All right, I think I have the highlights, and we ought to talk about it. It is very strange: 

If you're done I can back off on the calm?

:I am done: 

She backs off slowly.

Leareth feels the change; he's so confused, this doesn't feel like Projective Empathy or Mindhealing. (Honestly it works better while being less obtrusive than either.) Melkor is making some baffling artistic choices here, he thinks distantly, and then stops being curious about that and just curls up in a ball, he's kind of shaking but it's not like that's an action he decided on, so whatever. 

And she follows the local Leareth out of the room.

Leareth leads her to a meeting-room a ways down the hall. It's a large-ish one and there's room for Sayshen, too, if she wants to join. 

Sayshen does! 

Leareth sits. 

"First. He comes from the future, from about the year 807 by Valdemar's calendar, but not from my future. He does not have any recollection of you, or of changes one would expect downstream of your arrival." 

"...okay. So -

Oh, that explains it, if there are several Velgarths at different times there could be several Ardas at different times too."

"Yes. Speaking of that, I am fairly sure he does not come from the past of the Arda timeline you are familiar with, but from its future." 

"Are you telling me they - what, let Melkor's Maiar continue to operate Utumno for - how long, what year is it there -"

"The year is 1490, or was at the last point Leareth was tracking the calendar, he does not have any idea how long he was imprisoned. The King's eldest son, Fëanáro - is that your friend? He sounded similar to the description. Anyway, he is grown up, married, has grown children, and has a very unfortunate relationship with some half-siblings; there was nearly a civil war over succession, between him and somebody called Nolofinwë. The other Leareth landed there by accident due to a Gate experiment, and intervened to prevent violence, but - it turned out Melkor was behind it. The other Valar had paroled him some time earlier. Leareth has some gaps in his memory before his capture, so I am unclear on the exact sequence of events, but they somehow ended up openly at war with Melkor on the other continent - Endorë, is that right? Melkor built a new torturefortress; this one is called Angband. Leareth was trying to grab Vanyel, who would have been in his early thirties at that point in his timeline, to help with the war effort. He seems to be under the impression that he probably succeeded, and that Vanyel was most likely not captured as well, but he is confused about most things, obviously missing major chunks of his memories, and seems very reluctant to draw any conclusions about what reality is." 

"Yeah, that's him. Hang on I'm going to tell them to tell the Valar not to do that."

This seems like the highest priority by far, so Leareth nods and waits and doesn't interrupt until Bella returns her attention to him. 

"Okay, they're on that. Hopefully they'll listen."

"Thank you."

Leareth takes a slow breath and lets it out, resting his hands flat on the tabletop. "It makes sense that this other Melkor could not block your type of arcane magic, having never encountered it, and this has me slightly reassured that he could not have tracked your departure. I think it would be good on one level to contact that Arda, since it sounds as though they are in serious need of some help, but - also it does not sound like a very safe place for Velgarth mages, since Melkor can definitely cancel our magic entirely. I hope the Vanyel there is in fact all right." He closes his eyes. "The other me had become rather fond of him, in the intervening years." 

"I have the earcuff, I might be able to get ahold of - a Fëanáro from there with that much to go on. Or the Vanyel."

"Would it help to have more information about his life in the interim? I only did a shallow read of it, it was not the highest strategic priority and merely fulfilling my curiosity did not seem worth causing more stress to my other self, but I have some." 

"It wouldn't hurt - I don't think it makes it easier to find him but it probably makes it possible to come off better in the introductory interaction."