"Your apology is appreciated, more or less."

"Mmhm."

He nods. "I wish you the best of luck, and hope we meet again under less constrained circumstances." And he takes off.

Sigh.

"I wonder what it means that it's hard for them to find Arda - I suppose it's possible that the Valar have protection against random people portaling into Valinor - or specifically against violent powerful people doing it -"

"Do you think you could do it eventually?"

"I am sure the Valar could keep me out if they wanted. I would be a bit surprised if they were trying to - and it might be evaded as straightforwardly as 'aim for Endorë instead' - but I'm definitely less optimistic knowing that they have interworld transit and tried it and couldn't do it." 

Sigh. "- also let's start that dimensional or at least planetary colonization thing. Since they aren't trying and clearly don't believe that the troubles are all behind us. It doesn't have to be urgent, but maybe drop some money on planning so when a tinker for rocketry pops up we can put them in touch with a touched-up version of Sphere's work on arcologies...'

"Yeah."

Sigh. "I don't even think I'd stay home, not with all the things to do, but it'd be nice to go home. See pretty things. Watch my father glow approvingly."

She takes a gauntlet off to squeeze his hand.

Squeeze. "Birth control, less fragility - I could do something that lets people handle lower gravities without eventual circulatory problems, that'd be conducive to eventual colonization - I can do air circulation too, as a side project, it'd be comparatively straightforward and a different skillset - then maybe I can try to think about what does portals."

"And then we can walk to Mars. Or Alpha Centauri."

"It'll be lovely. Let's go home."

"Okay."

They go.

They snuggle. They invent. He finds himself thinking longingly that if Lorica had proper Elf hair they'd have gotten carried away by now and that wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

Her hair is normal, human hair. Although she's letting it grow out, probably to tease him. The back of her neck is the closest equivalent but she has very good self-control.

The back of her neck isn't a human thing, apparently, just a Lorica thing. It's definitely a good thing.

He makes progress on birth control. He sends a couple things to Dragon to learn how they don't work, which is not worth the time when you have to do development the slow way. He fiddles in his downtime with the platformer that enchants magic artifacts as you play. Hires a couple people to wear his rings and give a simple version a try. Rete does the graphics - you race through a winding stunningly pretty city, ducking under some barriers and over others. Miss one and you start the level over. Confusingly, humans find it easier to get a perfect score if there are sometimes additional distractions - the screen partially obstructed, the path winding underwater or along the ramparts of a castle. He advises Rete on one level, which has you racing around a city based on Tirion. 

The game has ordinary controls, but the thing the ring is paying attention to is the thoughts that accompany a jump or a duck, the thoughts it has been taught to recognize as a 0 or a 1.

Eventually someone beats the game, and their test ring glows. 

"Can you procedurally generate content for a game off a set of encoding instructions?" he asks Rete.

"Easy as pie."

"Cool!"

He tells Lorica. "Slower than Dragon but if there are lots and lots of worlds it might scale better. Mysterious conspiracy apparently has interdimensional transit - even if not to home - I wonder if it's worth asking them if they'll give us access elsewhere for humanitarian stuff."

"Maybe when I finish their spambot. They want to be able to verify that I can't backdoor into it. I mean, I'll still know how it works and everything, but they want it nontrivial I guess."

"I suppose they'll probably be more favorably disposed then." Sigh. Kiss.

Kiss!

~Lorica~

"I love you."

"I love you so much."