Ring only pouts a little bit and then it stretches back across the centuries and plucks a mind from its deathbed and a body from its health and -

He looks like Elrond, of course. He blinks. "Did you really -" he says to Elrond.

        "- I didn't do anything, really, these mad aliens came along and had it all worked out. You'd have woken up sooner or later even if I had nothing to do with it."

"- but you had something to do with it -"

        "They need someone to rule humans!"

"Did something happen -"

        "To Númenor? Yes. Eru destroyed it. It endured nearly four thousand years - that's not bad, really, for a human civilization -"

"I wish you would drop the qualifiers!" And he hugs his brother.

"I don't think your humans will appreciate being handed governance," he says to Ambela after a few more minutes of stories exchanged.

"Well, what they're doing now is working okay in some cases and not in others."

"How many? Where are they?"

"Fifteen thousand and change. I installed them on my universe's Endorë. Some of them integrated really well with the Dwarves, some of them went off and did their own thing and aren't bothering anybody, a handful are bothering anybody."

"So they've gotten in trouble?"

"Nobody was willing to arrest the pirate. I have placed her on a planet I terraformed after she attacked me with a knife. Apparently hallmarks of a justice system she might respect include 'willingness to cut off her hand'."

"-if you did not have a spare planet how would you handle someone attacking you with a knife."

"I wouldn't, usually! I suppose I'd run away?"

" - okay, how would your law enforcement handle it?"

"They would be concerned about the mental health of the attacker! They would warn people in the surrounding area to keep back and attempt to disarm the mad knife-wielding person!"

"And then?"

"They'd... discuss why they attacked someone with a knife and what led them to do that and see that the circumstances no longer called for that? The Dwarves have these arbitration organizations that have a lot of fines... the person who attacked me is not signed up for one."

"Are you going to be horrified if I have peoples' hands cut off and come interfere."

"I will definitely be horrified but it's possible I could be convinced not to interfere."

"Elrond, how many people did Númenor have at its height?"

       "I - ten million?"

"If you bring those people back into a society that cannot cope with one pirate with one knife you are doing them a tremendous injustice. I did not rule a society that dealt out grievous injuries regularly, I ruled a society that did not have pirates because we would. And societies that do not have pirates are better for everyone usually including the pirates. I don't expect I'll need to cut off any hands but we will probably have public whippings and if people expect that they can get out of punishments by going to the Elves and saying 'look at the horrible thing my government's about to do with me, save me' then you will have a whole rabble of asylum-seeking rapists and murderers and you'll have to find someone else to govern your country because I won't take a job I can't do well."

Ambela's ring observes that mind control solves this problem.

"You always suggest that," she mutters to the ring.

"Who else is on the planet with the pirate?"

"Nobody. She's been there perhaps an hour now and everything is edible, and I came straight here."

"Do you have a place in mind for reembodied humans?"

"That planet is available. If you don't like the coastline or something I have a couple others."

"I need some people. Can you get arbitrary people?"

"Yes I can." Pat pat ring.

"May I see the planet?"