She looks confused. "No, it's always been that way. That's how the Elves do it."

"Um, OK. I guess you've just always had reasonably good health care. Where I'm from, for a very long time, about half our children died before they were five. Because of this, we had a lot of children, in the hopes that at least a few of them survived. This meant there was a lot of variance. Some people had six kids live to adulthood and some had none. That isn't true any more, though."

"Oh, we don't have children die. The Valar made this continent and made us suited to it and so we live very long, healthy lives. And we have Elven blood, that helps too."

"Wow. That's great. Do you never get sick?"

"We can get minor illnesses. It's gotten worse as we've declined spiritually. We don't get very sick."

"And is that true of everyone on the island, or just Elrosians?"

"Oh, just us, I think. I'm not sure. Gimlith, do you get sick?"

"Yes," she says, "and die in infancy and in childbirth. As the Hadorians did, in our earliest histories. As all Men do who don't have divine favor."

And now the mortality topic has gotten awkward. Time to change the subject. "So, how do we get to the guest house?"

"Oh," their host says, "this way."

Carmen follows.

The house is not actually small at all; it's three stories and quite spacious, and their host flits about giving an architectural history which Gimlith at least pretends to find fascinating.

Carmen actually is interested. Not interested enough for her to remember half this stuff tomorrow, mind, but interested enough to follow along.

After that, they go inside and get a similar talk about the tapestries.

At this point, her interest is flagging, so she hopes this won't take too much longer.

When she realizes she has to head back to the house, lest she'll be missed, Gimlith collapses on the nearest couch with a grin. "Elves like to move outrageously slowly in planning and diplomancy, so Elrosians like to copy them."

"I suppose I can understand if Elrosians want to copy their high-status fore-bearers, but why are Elves like that in the first place? Do they lack motivation to be swift and efficient?"

"I think it's because they live forever. Relationships matter more than the topic at hand."

"I suppose, but being sluggish in diplomacy still feels foreign to me, as someone who doesn't age. Maybe it's because war was such a huge cause of mortality for my people for so long..."

"Or because your people have no memories."

"Oh, the people who negotiate treaties and such are the ones who can focus on that. But, yeah, I suppose that would make us more inclined to urgency."

"I'd expect so. Honestlly I can't imagine it. Half of how I get things done is by making connections with things that happened a really long time ago or that I overheard or that a friend specialized in a different area told me at a party..."

"Oh! I do sometimes remember things if I'm reminded of them. I just don't have most things easily accessible. And I'm great and drawing connections between history and other topics, which seems to have served me reasonably well. Anyway, my people specialise a lot, so we usually don't have much of a problem with this."

"Well, your society sounds less awful than ours. I just wouldn't want to be you. I like remembering my life."

"Eh, I know the broad strokes, and that's good enough for me."

She smiles. "There are books here, if you wanted to try picking up Sindarin from them."