Pretty much what I expected. I can swear to it, too, the problem isn't that they don't trust me it's that trusting me to mean what I'm saying isn't - isn't the kind of trust that's relevant here. 

Then what kind is?

The ships burned, didn't they?

"Mm. Yes. I've been trying to - fit that together in my head, between being busy on other things. I don't think I quite have the whole picture yet, though I've heard from both sides."

This is the sort of problem that Miles, personally, would solve using radiant sincerity and personal commitments. He's not sure if Maitimo would be best served by the same strategy or a different one. He hasn't really seen Maitimo at work before.

That's also pretty much how I'm going to do it. The problem is that I'm not sure how well I can, under the conditions.

"I am at your disposal for advice or assistance," he says, maneuvering the grav stretcher along.

If it was him he'd just pick one or more people on the other side who he trusted to handle the relevant information properly, and then deliver to them a very true and very detailed story of how all these things came to pass, and explain how he meant to keep something similar from happening again. He's hesitant to advise Maitimo to do exactly the same thing without more information about Maitimo's mental state. Unloading personal history like that can get kind of grueling, and while he's content to have committed himself that way and would do it again in a heartbeat, it's not something he'd lightly volunteer anyone else for.

It is worth considering. The problem is that the people who I trust to handle things properly are also people who have the most reason to feel betrayed. 

...Honestly that just makes them sound even more like exactly the right place to start.

People who feel betrayed by me often decide they don't want to give me the chance to maneuver them back into liking me. 

Valid from their perspective. But there's a war on.

Miles thinks that, under the circumstances, it is plausibly in those people's best interest to put themselves in the way of such maneuvering if the end result is to make the war effort more efficient. And he does firmly believe that unifying the Noldor would make the war effort much more efficient.

Amusement. 

I think so too, but then I would, wouldn't I?

"Well, yes."

Another consideration: out of all the Elves Miles has met, Maitimo seems to be the one by far most suited to wielding Miles. That's... not insignificant, under the circumstances.

If you tell them that, don't tell them it in a way that makes it seems like - they couldn't count on you to prevent us from wronging us again. 

They could certainly count on me that way, he says. He is very certain of this indeed. Your advantages are all about how well I think we would work together in a cooperative capacity. I don't think you'd be any better than Stanis Metzov at getting me to follow illegal orders.

Oh, I bet I'd be better than that. But I don't want to hurt them and I do think you'd stop me and that's genuinely useful so do make sure it comes through. 

He laughs. I was speaking rhetorically. Well, thinking. You would be better at it than Metzov but this is not a high bar to clear and does not get you all the way to success.

Fortunate that I don't want to talk anyone into committing war crimes and mostly want to try to make amends for one already done. 

Yes, Miles agrees.

They cross the lake. They are accompanied on in to Nolofinwe's. There are five or six people in the room; their expressions range from mistrust to outright dislike.

"I was relieved to hear you'd been rescued and were recovering," Nolofinwe says after a moment.

"Thank you," he says brightly. "I had insufficient imagination for Angband and I'd prefer you continue doing so but if you were inclined to think four Years of that evened the score then the temptation to tell you what was done to me would be overwhelming. And that's not why I'm here. I am here to apologize. A terrible evil was done in my name and I cannot set it right and I regret it enormously." 

Miles is content to keep out of this, it doesn't seem quite his place to actually comment, but he is present and has opinions and cannot actually conceal those opinions from the telepathic elves.

He suspects he would not have insufficient imagination for Angband and has been trying to avoid imagining Angband as a courtesy to Maitimo, with considerable success overall.

He is finding it hard to balance the solemnity of the occasion with the intense happiness he feels at finally, finally having an angle on the reunification of the Noldor. It works out to a sort of... reserved but very emphatic contentment. The fact that he just finished telling Maitimo about Dagoola definitely brings the parallels sharply to mind.

"A terrible evil was done in my name is an interesting phrasing."

"I didn't do it," Maitimo says. "I swear that I'm telling you the whole truth in this - I did not do it. I opposed it. I expected Father to send the ships back and I asked him to send the ships back and I begged him to send the ships back and I took no part in it and I was not expecting him to do something so shortsightedly evil so I was not well-positioned to stop him. I could have tried to do it anyway, and had a civil war on our shore. I think I would have if I'd guessed you'd crossed the Ice. But I didn't guess that and I did not desire ever again to be responsible for Elves drawing arms against each other and so I stood aside and watched. I do not expect you to forgive me."

There's an extended silence.

That... yeah. That's the last piece, isn't it. That is exactly the thing that was missing from Miles's understanding of the situation.

"Well," Nolofinwe says. "That's nice to hear. It rather doesn't bring back the dead -"

"If there is anything I could do to bring that about," Maitimo says, "I would walk back into Angband for that end. I cannot. We wronged you. I wronged you; I earned trust that when it mattered was not deserved, I did not stop him. And I cannot bring back the dead. 

But your forgiveness I only want, selfishly, as your nephew. Your trust is what I need to win this war."

"As our King," Nolofinwe says.

"The Enemy tampered with my memories," Maitimo says. "I know I once wanted it but I do not remember exactly why. I know what I want now; I want the war won. If the only way to do that is to surrender the crown I will, unhesitatingly, advantaged in that by not even knowing who I was back when I would have hesitated. I am with all due respect not sure you'll have the trust of my people, if you ask that of me, but Eru help me if that's what you want I will try to line us up behind you."

Reuniting the Noldor will, as far as Miles can tell from what he's seen, make the project of reinventing his galaxy's technology go much faster. Maybe not literally twice as fast, but not much worse and potentially a little better depending on how well the reunion manages to go and how much the separation has been holding them back. He is in favour of any plan that substantially cuts down on the time until they can fire an electron orbital randomizer into the rubble of Angband.

If it were up to him, though - which it certainly isn't, both because it's not his place to say and because he has less information with which to make the decision than most people here - he'd pick Maitimo. The temptation to jog Miles's elbow can get very strong, and refraining correspondingly difficult, when he's doing something particularly Milesish. Macalaurë has not given the impression of being particularly good at this specialized skill, and Miles doesn't have a read on Nolofinwë one way or the other, but Maitimo fairly blazes with it, and if the Noldor have a monarch Miles can serve without worrying about them getting in his way, that opens up a lot of possibilities. 'I don't want to hurt them and I do think you'd stop me and that's genuinely useful' - that is the right attitude for Maitimo to have, and he has it.

"That's not what I want," says Nolofinwe after a moment. "I do want a public apology and I am not comfortable having the succession go by Feanorian primogeniture in general but I, too, would see the Enemy dead and if the avenue to that is an electron orbital randomizer then the cooperation of your people - and more than their grudging cooperation - will be required. 

I need assurance that this will not happen again. And you swore as stupidly as your father."

"And if we do something stupid, you'll be as well positioned to stop us whether I nominally command you or not. I have the highest confident I could not order anyone in this room into wrongdoing, and I find that very reassuring, and if the Oath is forcing my hand in a way that hurts the war effort, Miles at least will stop me. "

"So will we."

"Thank you."