I have actually met someone who got fewer headaches once he cut his hair. I'm still sorry I bought it.

You also don't have anything to be sorry for.

I guess you're entitled to say so.

I am, he says smugly. 

Maitimo's very charming when he wants to be and he could arrange that not a single conversation occurred that didn't suit him, I don't think it would have been rational to go around with the level of paranoia that would have been necessary to figure it out.

It's very unsettling that he - knew what to hide, and hid it so well. It's like there's an entire nice Maitimo in there who isn't allowed input on certain decisions.

That's why I think something broke when we were doing defensive self-mind-control, it - he knows who he would be if he were a good person -

Sigh. You think I can get my wishlist, or that we're going to go in circles around whether he can have mages?

I think there's probably a way to get your wishlist but the mages will be the sticking point.

He could have salvaged - not all of my goodwill but some of it - if he'd done anything other than storm in and immediately commit domestic abuse and follow it up with that - thing -

He did tell me later he deeply regretted doing that in front of you!

Not doing it at all, of course.

I mean, I fully expected him to do - not that specifically, he's never done that before, but something to cause it not to have been a good idea for me to tell you.

Sigh.

There's a knock on his door.

Somebody's knocking.

He answers.

"Is it a good time?"

"You could do worse."

He lets himself in. The guards leave. 

"Last conversation just turned into lots of brinksmanship, I really want to avoid that this time. You're safe, Ranary's safe, I want to figure out how to win the war. Does that work?"

"Maybe."

He nods. He sits down. "What do you need?"

"I would like to, in addition to being safe from - I'm not actually sure what you're saying I'm safe from - from whatever you had in mind, be safe from being held against my will and coerced into doing things. Ranary too."

"And how does that help get Melkor killed."

"My reservations about you don't point at it being less of a good idea to kill him. My reservations about you do suggest that I might not like what happens after you don't strictly need me alive and not suicidal any more. Also I don't seem to find imprisonment inspiring."

"If we can have a copy of the notes on Melkor and a couple people who can kill him if you fail or if the Enemy kills you as soon as you're outside our walls, you're both free to go with whatever resources you might require."

"I don't know that the notes will actually be useful to you. They're reminders of components of an aesthetic."