"...good question."

There are a lot of ways 'lose' and 'get away' could shake out - he's hardly planning to bring Beka along when he goes - without him, Irikaino would have to keep the mountain going by herself, and she'd hate that, but he's not sure how much Beka could help...

I'd probably like the torturing swans part more than she would but that isn't saying much.

"Sorry." Kiss. "Maybe we'll figure out how to make the spell self-sustaining before it comes up."

I probably wouldn't be very good at torturing swans anyway. One time somebody thought it'd be funny to make me torture my mom but I guess I hit her too hard 'cause she died.

...he hugs her and kisses her forehead.

(If it'd been him, that would've been on purpose. But Beka isn't him.)

It was sorta on purpose but I would've been in lots of trouble if it didn't look like an accident.

Snuggle. "I love you. I'm sorry you had to kill your mom."

Snuggle. "She's an Elf, she can be alive again sometime in Valinor."

"Still."

He is going to kill Melkor. He is going to kill Melkor so much.

"I love you."

"I love you too." Kiss.

Kisses are so good.

They are! You know what else is so good? Beka. Beka is so good. Best prettiest most delightable orf.

Sooooo delightable.

So delightfully delightable!

He works on making the foundation spell self-sustaining, and manages a few tweaks that cut the necessary frequency of torture from about once a week to about once in six. He works on generic versions of assorted godslaying options, and information-gathering spells which may be useful to the endeavour. He works on the problem of steadying continents which may be inclined to crumble. He delights his orf and hugs her baby and reads to them from the books in his library and gets along with his daughter better than he ever has before.

And then, when there are no obvious preparations left to be made, he starts working on interdimensional transit. He could probably spend another year just on polishing potential godslaying spells, but it's entirely possible that he'll show up and discover that none of them work and he has to invent a new one from scratch under time pressure.

Beka is delighted to spend all her time being delighted. It's delightful.

Kat gets older! She says 'Mama' and 'Iri' and 'Serik'! She says 'flower' and 'sleep' and 'food' and 'no'!

She says "chase! Chase!" and goes running off and Beka chases her.

It's a very chase-friendly castle. So many places to run through. Gardens! Courtyards! Hallways! The ballroom! The wide expanse of grass that separates the castle from the lake!

Chase chase chase chase catch toss catch put down chase chase chase.

The lakeshore! (The lake is so pretty.)

The little village of pretty little cottages where the swans live when they are human-shaped and not currently being bothered!

"Kat baby maybe don't go that w-"

She's going that way.

Beka chases her faster.

A long row of cottages with their doors and windows firmly shut -

- and sitting outside the very last one, a woman in a beautiful fur-trimmed white dress, who jumps to her feet in alarm when she hears Kat coming.

"Kat come back here don't bother the lady -"

"CHASE," Kat insists, runrunrun.

The lady is now staring at Kat in a combination of bafflement and horror.

Beka puts on a burst of speed and catches her child, who immediately begins kicking, about fifteen feet in front of the cottage.

"- what - who - are you," she says, staring. Wondering if these people are somehow responsible for the drastic reduction in torture lately. Wondering if that's his child, and if so what in the world he did to it.