"What's a lifetime?"

"An imprecise measure of time, referring to the usual span between a human being born and dying of old age. Approximately a hundred years."

"That's horrifying. You're so used to dying that you talk in terms of life spans? How do any of you live? My cousins, one assumes, are -"

"And this would be why Curufin is working on solving biological decay. We manage pretty well, though. But if you're ever given to wonder why I can't seem to stand still..." He shrugs. "It hits me harder than most, I think, just how limited and limiting the natural span of a human life is. So I aim to cram as much accomplishment into mine as possible. And possibly extend it indefinitely. I should visit the other side of the lake soon and see how he's getting on, whether I can help, and how stirred up they all are about my unannounced rescue mission."

"They're going to be in a proper Fëanorian panic, which is mostly communicated through destructive testing of thier recent handiwork and oblique comments that seem to be about something else. Maitimo would have been safer on this side of the lake."

"He may well have been, but I couldn't convince Tyelcormo of that, so here we are."

"You can smash Angband and kill Balrogs but you can't go tell Tyelcormo to take a long walk off a short pier?"

"I... didn't want to, I guess. It seemed likely to cause conflict. If I'd had some way to find out directly what Maitimo himself actually preferred, I would have gone with that and let the consequences fall where they may, but he was in a bad state - looked like he could barely tell where he was." He sighs. "And I am so very reluctant to cause conflict."

"You have the Balrog-killing weapons, no one's gonna cause a conflict with you. Or did you give those to my darling cousins, too?'

"I did, actually. I may yet turn out to regret that decision, but somebody had to have them, I wasn't about to leave none of you with the ability to kill Balrogs, and they were the ones I was already dealing with. Ultimately, of course, I want all of you to have the ability to make Balrog-killing weapons."

"And the bit where they tried to kill us just... escaped your memory? Don't worry, I don't think they're going to come charging over here and cut us all down with the Balrog-killing guns, the last time they tried they did it so they didn't have to face us. But still, they did try. You had better hope Maitimo recovers."

"If I had ever got the impression from them that they were going to try to kill you, I would have acted differently. So far your situation looks like one of the most solvable feuds I've ever seen. It's very heartening."

"What the hell kind of feuds have you seen?"

"Oh, is it time for another Miles Story?"

"You just told me you're not even a hundred, I don't understand how this much has happened to you."

"In a universe containing twelve-to-its-own-power of people none of whom is going to live past a hundred and twenty, things frequently happen. But they do happen to me with greater frequency than to most people, I admit."

"And you've encountered a feud worse than this one."

"Plenty. When I was seventeen years old - just barely not quite an adult, in human terms - I stumbled into the middle of a conflict so old that the actual nature of the original grievance never came up the whole time I was there; I had to win the war just so I could leave. If I'd been able to reconcile the sides instead, I would have."

"...how does one stumble on a war? And why win it if you don't know who's in the right?"

"It was... an accident. A very long and complicated accident. And I... don't come off looking very good in this one. But I can attempt to explain anyway if you like."

"I would, yeah."

"Well then. To begin with... I failed the entrance examinations to the Imperial Service Academy on Barrayar and my grandfather died a few days later. I felt like I'd lost all control of and joy in my life, so I decided to leave my home planet for a while and travel to the planet my mother's family comes from, to get away from everything because everything was wrong. I brought my childhood best friend along with me, because she seemed like she would enjoy the trip. When we got there, I happened to overhear some people talking to a jump pilot about taking his ship away from him... oh, I might have to explain money before this part will start making sense, it just occurred to me that I've never yet heard anyone here refer to the concept."

"You might have to explain the imperial service academy, how one just decides at 17 to change planets, and what a jump pilot is. And, yes, money."

"It was always my ambition as a child to train as a military officer, because that's the most prestigious thing it's possible to do on Barrayar and people kept implying that I couldn't; the Imperial Service Academy is where one goes to attempt that. A jump pilot is the pilot of a jumpship, which is the only kind of ship that can fly through wormholes. Visiting other planets isn't all that difficult - the length of the journey from Barrayar to Beta Colony is one or two twelves of days. Not trivial, but not out of reach if you happen to want to go there. As for money... it's a sort of proxy for trade. If you want something someone else has, can't convince them to give it to you as a gift, and don't have anything that they particularly want in return, you could find out something they want and figure out how to personally get it for them... but it's often more convenient for everyone involved if they can ask you for an amount of money, which you give to them in exchange for the thing you want, and which they can then go on to give to other people in exchange for other things. As long as everyone mostly agrees on the value of money, then everyone can benefit from that convenience."

She blinks. "I suppose when you have that many people it's necessary."