"Huh? No, that was a coincidence, I was just...being reminded me of the Valar made me think about the Mandos problem again."

"Yeah, that's a tough one."

"Probably I can get a batch of people out before he realizes there's any need to try to stop me. But. After that."

"The Valar are vengeful on two levels. If provoked enough for war they'll smash continents and kill everyone who lives on them, and if someone is utterly in their power they'll toy with them as they please. Anything that's powerful enough they can't toy with it and not worth smashing continents over gets let be. I don't know if you're worth smashing continents over."

"I really hope I'm not. I hope stealing a lot of souls doesn't make me worth smashing continents over."

"Yeah I didn't think you wanted a fight with the Valar. Probably not. I mean, Morgoth isn't worth smashing continents over."

"My concern is that Morgoth is making trouble over here and not where it would actually get the Valar's own noses dusty. I'm confident enough to try it, anyway."

"That's my concern also. I think it is worth attempting."

"Yes. Not until I'm as sure as I can be that I'm going to pull it off, though, because if I only get one shot at this I can't afford to miss."

"I think that's the right approach."

"I've been trying to think of what milestones I could possibly use to tell, but I haven't been having a lot of luck."

"I don't know enough about your magic. Being able to gather information about Valinor? Being able to gather information about something as far away as Valinor, like the Sun and Moon?"

"I'm slightly leery of poking around Valinor before I'm ready to tip my hand, but the Sun and the Moon should work if they really are as far away."

"I mean, I don't have any sisters, but it should be."

"...What?"

"Oh, women can do mathematics, figure out the answer to something like that instead of just approximating in your head."

...

"Not where you're from?"

"First of all, where I'm from there's no idea that there's a gender gap in the ability to do mathematics. Second of all, even if I assume that this is actually a thing here and not just a stereotype, I assume you're allowed to talk to female elves besides your counterfactual sisters."

"Lines of questioning that obviously lead to 'can Odette do remote magic in Valinor' are ones I want to keep in a very very small circle."

"Fair point. I am, honestly, a little baffled by the idea that men aren't supposed to be able to do math."

"It's not 'not supposed to be able to', it's just don't. Aren't there things like that in your world? There's not a rule but in practice there's a very very strong gender gap and all the capable people are one gender?"

"Why is the first thing that comes to mind 'bearing children.' Um, historically there have been a lot of ideas that things like that existed, but none that held up very well when challenged."

"When the war's over perhaps I'll ask Curufin to prove a point by becoming a standout mathematician. Though I think that'd just prove a point about the house of Fëanor, not about gender."

"How is he such a great engineer if he doesn't do math?"