He wants Tylendel back. 

Vanyel doesn't say this, because it's stupid, but his thoughts are screaming it. 

"I - I don't - know. I think... Stef must be too young, anyway, or it'd have - happened already..." He shivers a little. Hugs himself. "I - if I have to go back and - help fix what happened - it would help a lot if I don't have to, to deal with..." He trails off. 

Tylendel can't be brought back, because, of course, he already has been. Maybe Irmo could restore Tylendel's memories to Stef's body, depending on what exactly these strange new gods are doing—there's definitely damage that can't be repaired, Melkor did a lot of that—but he doesn't really think it would be a good idea anyway.

I BELIEVE I CAN DISSOLVE THE BOND, IF YOU ASK ME TO, SO THAT IT NO LONGER PAINS YOU. THE DISSOLUTION WILL BE PERMANENT; I DOUBT I COULD RECREATE IT AND WOULD NOT EVEN IF I COULD.

It's really weird how much it hurts to have to make this decision! 

There should be an obvious right answer here, Vanyel thinks dully. He is - obviously - not currently lifebonded to Stef (again, what in all hells, Stef of all people...?), so it's not like he would be asking to undo that. He wants Tylendel BACK, but that was never an option on the table. 

He's feeling a surprising amount of - reluctance, flinch-response, something in that space, about asking for this when he can't get Stef's input? Which is also weird. It's not like whichever other god bothered to ask Stef about the lifebond first. 

Stef isn't Tylendel. It's obvious that he's not, that he should be thought of as an entirely different person, and yet somehow knowing that he is in some abstract sense Tylendel is kind of breaking Vanyel's brain right now. 

He's going to be a lot more useful alive if he isn't in constant broken-lifebond pain. It's...hard to feel excited about that, though. Vanyel isn't sure he can remember what it's like, to not be in pain. 

"I - guess if you can fix it then I'd appreciate that," he says dully, because being conflicted about this is incredibly stupid and if he can't stop doing it he can at least ignore it. 

Vanyel no longer has a broken lifebond. There's still something there, a scar of sorts, where the parts of him that fit so perfectly with Tylendel have been imperfectly smoothed over, but it won't hurt him anymore.

Now that Mandos knows what a lifebond looks like, he searches his Halls for other lifebonded people, and appears to all of them simultaneously, stitching a brief explanation of who-and-what-he-is into their minds first so that he doesn't have to have that tedious conversation over and over again.

IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT YOU HAVE BEEN UNNATURALLY AND UNWILLINGLY BONDED TO ANOTHER PERSON. I CAN DISSOLVE THIS BOND PAINLESSLY, AND WILL IF EITHER PARTNER WOULD LIKE ME TO.

This gets a handful of people from the rest of Velgarth, and exactly three Valdemarans. 

"I'm what? - Oh. Gods. Treven." 

Jisa is so mad about being dead! She's been wandering around angrily trying to talk to other dead spirits. Without much success, and based on their vague wandering-around they're just as confused as she is.  

It didn't occur to her before now that she could try to find people she knew on purpose instead of just walking in random directions. 

"Where is he? I want to talk to him -" 

That...explains a lot, really. 

"I don't know? I - I love her -" not that he's ever said as much to her, or even really formed the thought, but now that he asks himself the question it's obvious.

A lifebond, though? Lifebonds happen to people out of songs and tales. Not him.

"I - I don't know..." 

Being dead has been, for the most part, a massive relief. Randi isn't in pain anymore. He's spent a long time doing nothing in particular, just...resting. 

He assumed at the start, and for a while, that he died of his long-time wasting illness, in his sleep. He's made some halfhearted efforts to call out for Shavri, in case she followed him, but it's not like anything needs to be in a rush anymore, now that he's dead - 

Except, his expectations about being dead do NOT include a - death god? but not the Shadow-Lover, a different death god - being shocked and horrified at the concept of lifebonds. 

And, suddenly, he's starting to feel like things are, perhaps, a lot more complicated than he's been assuming, and possibly he should have been asking more questions. 

"Where's Shavri?" he demands. "Is she - did she survive - what happened–" 

Jisa and Treven are now next to each other.

He frowns at Jisa.  This is even worse than he had thought.

YOU ARE A CHILD, he says to her. NOT OLD ENOUGH TO MARRY, AND SCARCELY OLD ENOUGH TO BE THINKING OF IT. YOUR PARTNER IS NOT MUCH OLDER. I AM NOT SURE THAT ANYTHING EITHER OF YOU SAY WILL BE RELEVANT TO WHETHER I SHOULD PRESERVE YOUR BOND.

To Treven, specifically, because he can barely even observe the distinction between things Treven is saying to him and things he's thinking privately—YOU ARE IN A SONG AND A TALE NOW, I THINK, WHETHER YOU ASKED TO BE OR NOT.

To Randi—SHE IS ALIVE. I CANNOT ALLOW YOU TO SPEAK WHILE YOU ARE DEAD AND SHE LIVES, BUT I MAY RETURN YOU TO HER, IF YOU WISH, AND IF YOUR LOSS IS CAUSING HER UNNATURAL PAIN.

Then, to all at once—HALF OF ALL BEINGS IN THE UNIVERSE, MORTALS, IMMORTALS, AND GODS ALIKE, HAVE BEEN SLAIN. I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO FIX IT. I AM HOPING THAT YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT.

Treven...is just going to ignore that bizarre aside from the death god because he has no idea what to do with it. 

Instead of answering, he just tries to pull Jisa into his arms, unsure if this is the sort of thing that works when one is dead.

"Jisa - oh, gods, Jisa - it's all right, it'll be all right, I've got you -" 

It takes Jisa a few seconds to wade through all the mental screaming and start having thoughts which are in words again. 

"What? Half the people in the world are dead? - Wait, what do you mean the universe, is that - more than just Velgarth–" 

"I have to get back to her. Please. Please send me back to her, if - if that's a thing you can do - if, gods, if - if it's not just me who died, if it's half the people, they need me - did Treven make it, who's in charge in Valdemar right now -?" 

In lieu of an answer to Randi's first question, he puts him next to Treven and Jisa.

YES. CREATION IS VASTER THAN ANY OF ITS INHABITANTS KNOW. VASTER, APPARENTLY, THAN EVEN I KNEW, FOR WITHIN IT ARE ARTIFACTS OF MORE TERRIBLE POWER THAN—I WOULD HAVE EXPECTED THE CREATOR TO MAKE. THERE IS A BEING CALLED THANOS, WHO BELIEVED THAT LIFE WOULD DESTROY ITSELF IF LEFT UNCHECKED. HE OBTAINED THE FULL SET OF THESE ALMIGHTY WEAPONS, AND USED THEM TO KILL HALF OF EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, WITH THE MERE SNAP OF HIS FINGERS.

YOUR HOME-WORLD IS BEYOND MY NATURAL SIGHT. I CAN TELL YOU WHETHER ANYONE THERE LIVES OR DIES, BUT I DO NOT KNOW THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Aaaaaaaaah! 

"Tantras?" Randi asks, helplessly. "Dara? Keiran, Joshel...? Savil...?" 

THE FIRST IS DEAD. THE REST LIVE, ALTHOUGH JOSHEL IS—NOT WHOLE.

SAVIL I CAN—SEE BETTER. SHE IS NO LONGER ON VELGARTH, BUT ON EARTH—THE ORIGINAL, APPOINTED WORLD OF MEN, WHERE MY SIGHT IS STRONGER—HELPING IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THANOS.

"She's what? How did she get to a different world? And - gods, right, Vanyel, did he make it - is he with her–" 

He hadn't asked at first because Vanyel wouldn't in a million years agree to be handed responsibility for ruling Valdemar, which was the most critical question after Shavri's status.

"...Where's Shavri. Is she in Velgarth or on Earth - I need to be where she is as soon as possible." 

Mandos is getting tired of explaining things, and is about to just reembody Randi and let someone else finish the explaining, but there's someone he probably ought to consult before Randi leaves his power.

He reaches out, finds Shavri (why in Eru's name is she in Valinor of all places? Oh wait she's at Fëanor's house, that makes more sense), touches her mind as gently as possible—

Do you want to be lifebonded?

"Aaaaack!" Shavri is on her way to see Yfandes in the stables. She nearly jumps out of her skin, trips, and lands sprawling. 

...Oh, she thinks dully, that was a question.

:I'm not lifebonded. He's dead: 

In her private thoughts, she's - inexplicably furious that whoever this is, probably some sort of local god, is asking the question at all. Why. What's the point? It's too late, too long down that path, fifteen years of the world and the gods' schemes grinding away at her and lately there's not much left. 

She wishes Randi had never been King. But she can't, and she hasn't ever, been able to wish that she had never met him and been lifebonded to him. Before the awful day when Darvi slipped on the stupid Palace steps and broke his stupid neck, everything had been sacred and precious and perfect. She remembers Randi holding their baby daughter for the first time - his daughter, she was always his, even if she was Vanyel's too - and she could cling to that golden memory for a thousand years.

She loves Randi. It feels like she lost him a long time ago, not all at once but slowly over years, to the awful crushing pressure of a kingdom and a duty he couldn't walk away from - and of course she loves that in him too - and she misses him and she wants the past fifteen years to NOT HAVE HAPPENED she wants to go back and live forever in that one beautiful evening in the Heralds' barn, dancing, drinking, singing, Randi with his arms around her - 

She's POINTLESSLY FURIOUS at whoever this god is, who apparently thinks it's any of his business who she's lifebonded to. 

He can't read her private thoughts in the same way that he can read those of the dead, but enough of that gets across to make the point to him.

I'm sorry, he says. I've just discovered the existence of the lifebonds created by the gods of your world, and I found the...involuntary aspect...concerning. I can dissolve them, and thought I ought to ask those currently bonded if they would like me to do so.

Randi is dead, but his soul is in my custody, and I am sending him back now.

He reembodies Randi. He doesn't do anything with Jisa and Treven. They're young, but their love seems genuine even without the extremely questionable divine intervention. He'll save any unilateral bond-breaking for after he's more thoroughly investigated whatever foreign gods are doing this.

Then he turns his attention back to Vanyel.

ANYWAY, A MAN NAMED LEARETH HAS ASKED FOR YOUR RETURN. HE THINKS YOU WOULD BE USEFUL AGAINST THANOS. I CANNOT COMPEL YOU TO RETURN, BUT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GO, I WILL SEND YOU BACK.

As an afterthought, he asks his brother to bring Shavri to his domain, so that she can be united with Randi sooner.

Shavri is still laying on the ground, but no longer in the middle of the path down to the stables at Fëanor's estate. Instead she's in the middle of an impossibly colorful forest.

Jisa is so furious at being left behind! 

"I can't believe it!" she snarls in the general direction of the stupid death god, though not directly at him because she's not that much of an idiot. "He's just going to leave us here!" 

Treven hugs her. As close to a hug as you can do when you're dead and your body is mostly metaphorical, anyway. 

"Jisa, we're kids. We can't fight, what's-his-name, Thanos. And - at least we're together, right?" 

- Vanyel, who hasn't subjectively experienced all that much time passing but was starting to wonder what's going on, is now wondering why he doesn't feel more surprised. 

"Leareth asked for me? How is he - is he fighting Thanos now? I - guess that sounds like something he'd do. Um." 

He grits his teeth. He could really have used longer to make this decision, but it's not like it was ever in doubt. "I'm going back, then. Er, what about my Companion, Yfandes, where is she - if she's back in Velgarth I'm going to have a bad time -" 

He hadn't really questioned it, earlier. He couldn't find her with Mindspeech but it didn't feel like he had a broken Companion-bond, and he hadn't seen much reason to expect they would get to be together even in death. 

LEARETH IS FIGHTING THANOS. YFANDES IS STILL ALIVE, AND WITH HIM.

And Vanyel is alive again.

Meanwhile, Calanáro wakes up on a very soft bed in a very beautiful garden, naked, in a body that feels fresh-made, although he wasn't old or injured enough before to notice much of a difference.

He's not that confused. Obviously the time-travel experiment had gone badly, and Mandos had sent him back without bothering to lecture him, or even allow him to experience any subjective time in the Halls at all. That's unusual, but not really, given the circumstances.

He's talked to the Returned. He knows about Lórien. There's clothes under the bed, it's a six-day walk in that direction to the nearest place with a train station, and so on and so forth. Hopefully he can find a way to speed up the process of getting back to the rest of the group.

Except—there's a second bed in this clearing.