"That makes sense."

"Is the current situation, uh, stable - I can't really get the circles withdrawn without a reason and like I said if you have the apparatus set up it plays better -"

"We weren't planning to fetch his summoner from the refugee planet until everything was put back, and we have no expectation that having him around unbound because we can't dismiss him and summon him back is going to present an immediate problem."

"Okay. So, circles up, and when you're ready to have him dismissed and try him whenever is... convenient... then I go to Chua with a jurisdiction complaint and we take 'em down."

"That makes sense. Thank you."

"You're welcome. And I'm really sorry for your loss."

"It's been a horrible few years. I am so glad they are behind us."

Nod.

She leaves. She goes to Mars. Saniah has a guest room that's almost pretty enough. "I need your help crafting a court system that the GCP finds adequate."

       "And that gets your leadership and Cam cleared?"

"Ideally? In particular that exonerates Cam, because we don't want to be dismissing him and resummoning him with constraints, that sounds difficult. I don't think Prince Curufinwë or Prince Nelyafinwë would mind very much if the court convicted them of something." 

      "...because the court can't actually impose a sentence?"

"Oh, I was assuming that the court would have a way to impose a sentence, otherwise I'm worried the humans won't think it's a real court."

      " - in that case it's not clear to me why your rulers won't mind if they're convicted of war crimes."

Larya blinks. "I mean. They did have a planet holed. If you do that you can sort of expect people might think it was a war crime."

      "I think we might be talking past each other. How are you envisioning this?"

"The court examines all the evidence. The court concludes that they are guilty of war crimes or something, and obliges them to apologize and not come back to New Valinor -"

      " - that's the disconnect. You want this court to hand down sentences of - apologies and exile?"

"Well, yes."

     "Elf cultural thing?"

"We do not really have cultural norms around how to punish people who hole planets."

     "...Amenta would execute them. Well, in practice if you won a war you might just be able to ignore the condemnation, depending. But. If someone were convicted that would be the sentence."

"...well we can't execute Cam but I guess we could execute the royal family if it makes everyone happy," Larya says dubiously. "For an afternoon, not for a week or anything."

     "Your species is fascinating."

"Thank you."

     "We'll say that the culturally acceptable Elf punishments are apologies and exile, it's your lookout. Maybe find some people in Valinor who could testify they don't want them imprisoned -"

"Of course they don't want them imprisoned!"

     "Maybe take it to Chua and then hold the trial, so she's not tempted to reject it on the grounds it produced results she disliked."

"Oh, we're not holding the trial until we're done with reconstruction and all the political settlements and resurrections and trade agreements and so on."

    "...what?"

...Larya repeats herself.

    "You can't do that!"

"Why not? James was upset about it too, come to think of it, but -"

    "You've got to hold trials right away, it's better for deterrence and it's - it's just the minimum standard of competence - not leaving people in bureaucratic limbo for months or - or seasons -"

"This is not time sensitive and the reconstruction and agreements are time sensitive. Why would you interrupt something time sensitive to do something that isn't?"

     "This is time sensitive!"

"...no, it really isn't. You could hold it exactly the same in a hundred years. Not that I expect to wait that long but since you could it isn't time sensitive."

     "Witnesses'll forget things."

"Maybe that's a species difference too? We won't forget things."

     "There's a lot of evidence on the benefits of swift punishment for deterrence -"

"There is no conceivable punishment which could have deterred them from this decision and it'd be inhumane to even try for one."

      "Sure but the precedent."

"That only matters if it happens again, right? It doesn't seem likely."

      "What do you do about murderers?"

"It doesn't come up very often but figure out why they did it, maybe make them swear to avoid some of the choices that brought it about."

      "Months or years later?"

"If there's something time-sensitive going on, sure."

     "What if they kill other people?"

"That really hasn't ever happened."

     "Never."

"That's right."

    "My god."

"Can you help me with -"

     "Yes, of course."

Meanwhile, Cam comes up with a stimulant cocktail that lets Iobel memorize her immortality spell.

Eeeeeeeeee!

"Did you get it??"

"I got it!!!"

"Congratulations!!" Hug.

Hug! "We're gonna live foreeeeeverrrrrr~"

"Forever and ever and ever! - is it specific to humans, do you know -"

"Mitros. Would I write an immortality spell that only works on humans in particular."

" - possibly as a first step if it added a lot to the charts."

"Well. This one does not specify humans. Not that familiars need one exactly, but still, I did not write a chauvinist spell."

Hug. "Congratulations, dear immortal queen. Too bad we can't give it to our alts."

"Well, Maitimo and Cam don't need it but Aitim is merely inaccessible. Are you not expecting him to pop up?"

"He'll probably be fine, but - I take it it depends partially what Telkam gets up to and -"

Nod. "...bad idea to mount a rescue mission?"

"I've been contemplating it. ...well, I've been contemplating charting some more stuff that might be useful and then maybe. We should get my father on those drugs, see if he can come up with - since we can't become daeva, something to make us less vulnerable -"

"I think we should open the door briefly once a subjective day so we have a hex every time. We can get your dad in here one of those occasions."