The Valar arrive in force.

Melkor - surrenders. He did discuss with local authorities whether they would benefit if the Elves left; he promises he didn't violate any terms of his probation, but understands that they'd be inclined to caution, he's horrified at the idea people who can't be resurrected might get hurt, so he'll come with them immediately. 

The Valar are so relieved!

...he's not exactly relieved. He writes Avalor with a summary of recent events - "and it might be unrelated, but -" and a summary of the rashes - "we'll see if they stop -"

"You think that was him?"

"I feel outplayed and it makes me nervous. There's no mechanism for the rashes and they're nicely timed to get everybody paranoid -"

"There haven't been any here, I can't help you investigate foreign cases. That's not a normal manifestation of uncleanliness, though, we do know how pathogens work."

"Yeah, we were briefly optimistic we could just find some actual physical manifestation of uncleanliness and fix it, when we first arrived and didn't realize it was a socially constructed thing. It's not a normal manifestation of a disease outbreak either - four cases in three countries, none of the reds getting sick -"

"Perhaps if it goes no farther scientific literacy will carry the day."

"Yep."

The next day there are two more incidents.

"How sure are you that he was arrested as opposed to not arrested," says Avalor.

" - if he could trick all of the Valar -"

"Well, could he have done this remotely? Reds have never caused rashes before - and don't normally touch people this often anyway unless they're having affairs -"

" - they don't? - we should track down all of the relevant reds, figure out if they were - bribed to do it or - I'm sure he could do it remotely but I wouldn't expect he could do it remotely with something no scan could detect -"

"No, they normally have the decency or at least the caution to keep their hands to themselves and allow a wide berth, these aren't even people who have to work closely with them."

He tracks down reds. One dead at the scene, one killed later, one held in quarantine, one in prison and insistent she didn't touch anyone, and Tapa's prison explosion -

"If you were doing this, what's your next move -"

"I don't know why I'd be doing this, I'd probably have had an outbreak in everybody who was secretly fucking one and let everybody panic when they found out."

" - are there advantages to picking people of whom it's true -"

"Built-in corroborating evidence and none of the accused invested as implacably in debunking."

"Might do this first to establish the reds-outbreaks link, I guess - how bad would the panic be -"

"We already have plenty of infrastructure dedicated to keeping them away. We can shore it up, be more conscientious, and unless it goes airborne or reds stop cooperating it will work."

He nods.

All of the reds that the country transitioning away from reds will let him have can go to Endorë now.

He can have them with the country's blessing! Pleasure doing business with you!

A delightful experience, really. 

He has learned he shouldn't apologize for the ship being small, everyone just makes faces at him. He sends them off. He paces. 

The Valar return to Valinor. Macalaurë is informed that he's not welcome on the terrible planet.

"Oh, but I had so much tourism planned. All those beautiful buildings they have, you see."

"- my fault, isn't it -"