"Oh. Thank you."

"Hopefully Jovah isn't mean and stupid!"

"...right."

He squeezes Fëanáro's shoulder.

And before she goes and does that all the Bellas swap life stories!

And he finishes up Boots' story by explaining how there were protests around Mandos and people were talking about leaving for Endorë but no one was getting Bella and when he tried they took away all his books and paper and ink so he'd have nothing to write on and when he drew it in the air they stopped leaving him alone ever and when he figured out how to do it invisibly in the air then he could finally make progress and it took eight years but he got Bella and they went jumping for somewhere where nothing could smite them.

"- that was very brave," says Mirelótë after a silence.

"They were going to let her die and all she did was give our world nice things and we promised her she was safe -"

Hug.

Hug.

"This all happened this week," he explains to the angel Isabella. "I expect we'll get less paranoid around gods with more time."

"That's reasonable."

"Is there anything you want to see while you're here?"

"What is there to see? I don't know if anyone would object if I just flew around..."

"They'd be curious but there are Maiar who do that occasionally, you'd be fine. The city, airports - Tirion doesn't have a spaceport, wrong latitude for it - computers, movies, you could visit Taniquetil if you're interested, the Valar might be able to do something about the - dying thing -"

"We have an afterlife, it's not as obvious as it would otherwise be. What are computers and movies?"

He was around when they were invented and can give a pretty good explanation for someone from somewhere where they haven't been! And there is a screen right here to demonstrate, too.

"Interfaces are a little like that. Glass with light behind them."

"Huh. How do oracles write with them?"

"Buttons with letters."

"That's interesting. The Valar didn't really invent electricity ahead of us but I can see how if they had they might have used it for things, and maybe not have taught us immediately..."

"The music machines in the Eyrie and Monteverde run on electricity too. They ran out of it a little while before I was born, just in time to hook them up to generators Caleb invented. I didn't know interfaces were electrical but it makes sense."

"The Valar were split on how much technology to teach us as compared to how much to let us learn on our own. Perhaps Jovah is the more independence-minded kind."

"The settlers had a lot of technology but gave it up."

"Why?"