His next lucid moment... doesn't appear to be in Mandos, nor reëmbodied in Valinor.

"This court is now in session, in the matter of In re Fëanáro Curufinwë.

"Do you know where you are?"

It's not like he knows what Mandos looks like from the inside, anyway.  They'd never let him visit.

"Well, I'm guessing you're the Doomsman and Judge."

"I'm a judge, let me see... ah yes, I see you're here for our afterlife exchange program.

"Here's the deal: the gods who operated your afterlife found you in some way incompatible with their goals, but also found it undesirable to leave you in stasis for eternity. Since we're set up for such a wide range of petitioners, we're a common choice for a fallback afterlife.

"There are nine destinations for petitioners in our system, and the purpose of this trial is to sort you into one of those destinations, based on your inclinations with regard to Law vs. Chaos and Good vs. Evil.

"I need to ask you some questions so we can proceed—does it sound to you like we are speaking in a language you understand, using words that you are familiar with, at a speaking speed you can follow?"

Oh.

He's gotten away from the Valar.  Farther away than he'd ever thought was possible!  Even if he never gets back - he never expected to get out of the Everlasting Darkness, or even be let out of Mandos, anyway.

He smiles.  There'll be a lot more to find out soon, but to start with -

"Yes!  In fact, you're using exactly the phonemes and phraseology I've advocated!  Where did you learn your Quenya?"

"There's a magical effect in place that renders all speech in the native language of the listener. Do you understand that you had, while alive, the capacity to take actions, and that those actions had effects on the world and on other people?"

"That's horrible magic!  How can anyone talk about languages that way!?

"... Though even so, I'm curious.  Suppose my father were here.  Our language has changed significantly during his life; would he be hearing Primitive Eldarin, or the most modern Quenya, or something in-between?"

"Well, since it's unlikely that all of us speak any languages in common, more easily than if it weren't present. People who speak more than one language hear the one they are most comfortable with.

"I do need to know if you understand that you had the capacity to take actions which had effects on the world and on other people."

During that last sentence, Fëanor is trying to tell himself that, really, he'd be more comfortable if this transcendental being was speaking Valarin.

(It doesn't work.)

"See, that's a horrible thing about this translation magic!  You don't get to learn each other's languages!  Even though you've been working together for - how long? - you still don't know them!"

"I don't think any of us have met before? I could be wrong. Look, I need you to answer that question and one more so we can get started."

Fëanor sighs.  He has learned something from having to deal with the Valar and Fingolfin and all the Noldor and the Sindar - sometimes you should talk about what they want to talk about.  And he should probably give this new judge half a chance before treating him like the Valar.

Even if he has to do it under a translation spell.

He answers in the Mithrim dialect of Sindarin, "I have definitely taken many actions, and -" (he switches to a version of Quenya with various rejected vowel-shifts) "- despite many obstacles - sometimes I have managed to -" (he switches to Valarin) "- have effects on the world."  (He switches to his best try at a Doriathin dialect of Sindarin.)  "And on some people."

(Though not on all the people he wanted to.)

"Thank you. Do you understand that the purpose of this court is to determine your alignment and which afterlife you are assigned to?"

He would cross his arms, except he doesn't have any arms here.

"You mean you assign me?  I don't get to choose?  And what's an alignment?"

This is starting to feel uncomfortably like Mandos after all.

"The purpose of this court is to decide with which alignment the actions you took during your life best cohere. There are nine alignments, each of which is identified with one of Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic, and one of Good, Neutral, or Evil. Each alignment may send a representative to make the case for their afterlife, and as you can see you have eight lawyers present, and myself who acts as both judge and representative for the ninth afterlife. You may speak as to your decisions and reasoning behind those decisions, and we will take that into account.

"Now that we've concluded initial questioning, we can begin discussion—I know there's a lot of stuff in the last few years of this petitioners' life but let's try to go chronologically, if we can."

"I have a jurisdictional objection. The petitioner is from a completely different—everything—subjecting them to the possibility of the Evil afterlives is supremely unfair, they have no context for these decisions, and even if that weren't true we'd still lack the capacity to fairly judge them given that all of our precedents are designed for different contexts. Going all the way back! Furthermore we're relying on secondhand reports of unknown veracity, and lack direct fact finding ability. The whole exchange program is a horrible idea and we might as well let the petitioner choose their own destination."

"We have jurisdiction because the Court that does have normal jurisdiction over this petitioner has entrusted it to us.  If you object that the petitioner has no context for risking the Evil afterlives, then surely that objection would apply with all the greater force against his choosing his own destination, and we should - as usual - choose the destination that would best suit him.

"And I see no problem with applying our precedents to him.  Of course, some will need to be adjusted in details, but little more so than is normal for applying precedents to a different planet and species."

Abaddon's representative looks over from the corner in which they're lurking.

"Hey, objection!  Why're you saying it's unfair for him to have a chance of getting us Evil planes?"

"I concur with Axis and Abaddon, not to mention that no one gets a choice to exist in Pharasma's creation in the first place. It may be unfair but it's not unfairly unfair."

"Jurisdictional objection overruled. Elysium objected to the creation of this program, but a random trial that's a part of it is not the place to relitigate it."

"Moving on to the actions of the petitioner—ran away from home at a young age. Certainly a chaotic act, abdicating the traditional responsibilities of royalty."

The Maelstrom's representative, who looks like someone's glued together body parts from a dragon and horse and goat and lion, throws up his hands in glee.  "And he kept abandoning those responsibilities all along, and most of the social expectations of royalty too, for the things he wanted to do!  And then he refused the orders of the local gods themselves!  And introduced war practices never before seen in his world!  And I didn't even mention that he burnt the ships!  Totally chaotic!"

When you list it all like that... Fëanor hadn't thought of those actions in the same bucket before.  Some of them he's proud of; some of them (like abandoning the royal responsibilities to Fingolfin) he's since seen some disadvantages of but can't really regret; some of them (like the Kinslaying) he wishes could've turned out some other way.

But now he is seeing a common tierod after all.  "I did what I had to do when the world pushed me and wouldn't bend."

"That's the essence of Law!  He was true to his own nature!"

"Abandoning responsibilities is only chaotic if he did so in a chaotic manner, many societies have lawful ways of abandoning responsibilities. I think the key to this is going to come down to—how much of the responsibilities were enshrined in law rather than social convention? To what degree were his actions in war contravening norms of battle versus simply doing new things? To what degree was he, as king, lawfully subservient to the local gods? It isn't unlawful to ignore the commandment of a god, The Abyss v. Sarenrae, -7308, not even to ignore a lawful or good god, Erastil v. Sarenrae, -6593."

"A society that don't have an explicit law/custom distinction doesn't get to have all its members declared lawful for not technically breaking the law."

"Maelstrom, Heaven, please let's try to go chronologically. I know there's a lot of interesting stuff late in life but let's try to assess the petitioner's behavior prior to those, so we have a baseline for those later actions."