"I might want to do that."

This is incredibly fascinating! Mhalir thinks that he's also curious to hear the debates. (And mindread the people engaged in them.)

<They seem very...> He isn't sure how to describe it, actually. <...Not Good, exactly, that does not capture it, but - like they cannot even comprehend Evil at all? In their minds they - live in a world without enemies. I cannot understand how this is a stable equilibrium, but...apparently it has been, somehow, for thousands of years...> 

:No free will, no criminals. It's not stable with the kind of people you and I are but you could do it with a population of angels and archons. I assume the orcs haven't conquered them because they have gods backing them, even if the gods are not very overt about it and not particularly worshipped.

 - obviously free will is a terrible thing to do to people but I find myself a little sympathetic to Melkor all the same. This is all so ...fake.:

<As someone who does not think free will is terrible, I - it troubles me. I suppose they seem happy, but they are also so...helpless. And - not doing much that I would consider of great importance? Though I suppose they have their own priorities.> 

:I'm sure this serves their gods somehow. And people aren't supposed to have their own priorities, they're supposed to have gods'. 

But it does seem - kind of sad, when you actually face it.: 

She asks the wagonmaker about local crops and local holidays - there is the reported anniversary of when Melkor was defeated and when the creator god made elves, but mostly they seem to have fewer holidays than Cheliax or anywhere else. Some people have children; it is generally discouraged to have several young children at the same time lest you have to split your attention, and both men and women are expected to be around to do lots of childrearing. Marriages last forever, apparently. 

:And there's no reason they wouldn't, because people without free will don't drift and change like free willed people do.: Carissa is aware that she's leaning perhaps too much on this hypothesis but it makes things make sense.

<They do seem rather unchanging.> 

They reach the city proper, eventually, and Ma'ar directs most of his attention to their surroundings, instinctively watching for danger even though it seems rather unlikely here. He lets Carissa lead the conversation and find a good opportunity to split off and look for the palace; in the meantime, if he can cast Detect Thoughts without being too noticeable, he's very curious to glimpse what some of the Elves they're passing by are thinking. 

They are thinking about the music they're singing and the sights as they pass them by and the debates they're listening in on and the presents they want to buy their friends. Several of them notice that Carissa is oddly short for an adult and yet doesn't have the body of an adolescent; also her ears are round, what an odd style choice. Someone tries to compliment her on it and is surprised to find out she's unable to be contacted telepathically.

Mhalir had already noticed that the Elves seem taller and stronger on average than humans, though this is relatively uninteresting as species differences go. 

<Listen to debates first, or try to go ask someone at the palace to talk to their orc diplomats?> he asks Carissa. 

:Let's do the debates first, there's less chance of drawing enough attention to us that we need to leave.:

<That makes sense.> And maybe they can ask people for directions there, to get some more practice having low-stakes brief interactions with the locals? 

She makes her excuses to the wagon guy and peels off, flags down a random person to ask for directions. Explains her artistic lack of soul use. 

The debates are held in a sloping wooden auditorium looking out on the cliffs and beyond that, the ocean. There are a few dozen elves present, some of them speaking, some of them standing or sitting and writing furiously, one knitting while she watches and one drawing the arguers. They're all spectacularly well-dressed. They're currently arguing over whether if you were going to hold elections it'd make sense to hold them once a century or more often than that; too often, of course, would waste the time of all the citizenry who have to contemplate and place their vote.

Mhalir is...kind of impressed, actually, the most impressed he's been so far. There's still the same uncomfortable lack of any particular urgency or - a sense that this matters, that anything here could make the difference between a more-okay and less-okay world. But they're making intelligent points, they're being open and curious, there's - a sense in which they're still trying, even if it feels unclear to him whether, deep down, any of them believe it has real stakes. 

(...Maybe it doesn't, not meaningfully, not the way he knows it? They seem to be at least quasi-immortal, living in an idyllic high-trust society in peace and plenty, their gods watching over them. Maybe it fits, culturally, that people in those circumstances would end up being this way... He's not sure what to think about it, and for some reason it's obscurely painful to look at.)

He wonders what Carissa's impression is. Probably less favourable than his. 

They don't seem stupid. 

It does seem - kind of wasteful? She's not sure what the Asmodean stance on this is and she's not sure what the Iomedean stance on this is and she's - not sure that hers would be either of those, anyway, at this point. 

It - feels like it matters, whether they are right, whether they really do have the unconditional protection of their gods and can concern themselves with art and music and debates about the merits of democracy divorced from considerations like 'peaceful transitions of power' or 'legitimacy' or 'continuity of the government'. Or whether one day in a couple hundred years when the orc lands are full it'll all go up in flames they can't even understand.

<That is definitely a possibility that frightens me> Mhalir admits. <And - well, Melkor may seem rather sympathetic to my viewpoint - the Elves seem to think he did very bad things but they are so unclear on what - but, either way, the fact that the gods were at war once seems reason to think it could happen again. And would presumably not be very good for the Elves.> 

He pauses for a while, half-listening. Thinking. 

<...I wonder how one gets to Valinor> he muses finally. <We - could perhaps learn more, there, about the overall situation.> 

(At the cost of maybe attracting the gods' attention, which he's not at all sure how he feels about.) 

:No other inhabited worlds in this system, right?: 

<Not that we could see - and if the gods can somehow cloak an entire planet, then they are terrifyingly powerful and I am not sure I would want to approach them! ...We can have the ship go further out in the star system, gather sensor data on the nearest other stars. Even if the locals have no spacefaring technology at all, I would not put interstellar travel past their gods.> 

It could also be in another plane. An afterlife, sort of, except without getting there being necessarily mediated by dying, since I don't get the sense they die often.

<...Maybe. In which case it could be more inconvenient to find - I suppose we could ask if anyone in the city remembers travel between here and Valinor, since they are so long-lived someone might.> 

:That's a good idea. Probably not here, I guess I can ask people in the streets on the way back towards the palace.:

<That makes sense. Did you want to do that today as well?> Mhalir is feeling kind of exhausted, but Carissa seems to have more stamina for this kind of thing. 

:If anyone who has the capacity for paranoia has noticed us it seems worse to give them more time to learn about us before we've learned what we need from this place, right. I'm worried word is getting out about me and my artistic project since they're all telepaths and talk to each other.:

<...Yes, that makes sense. And visiting the palace will tell us more about whether their leadership at least is capable of paranoia, perhaps. And then we can judge whether it is safe to return to this city again.> Pause. <...Though, honestly, I think I get along better with the orcs.>

And they can sneak out of the debates and start making their way to the palace, on the lookout for passersby to ask about Valinor travel. 

She explains her art project which requires her to interrupt their singing instead of just telepathying them. She claims a related art project requires talking to people who knew people who are now on Valinor, do they know anybody?

"Hmmm, anyone at all who was around back then? Did you talk to your grandparents?"

"They don't know anyone who left for Valinor."