"If he saw you as a romantic interest at all it'd be as a fascinating poetic mortal temptation, not as - not as however they see each other, and I'm not even sure they see each other healthily."

"I know! I'm trying to pretend my feelings out of existence. I'm really not going to try anything. I would much rather he--like and respect me as a friend and a powerful mage, than see me as--well, not mortal, I'm not going to die and he knows it, but the age difference."

"Is substantial. And does not correspond exactly to a maturity difference but certainly to an experience one.

I don't actually regret anything. I probably shouldn't tell you that, in the interests of being a good influence, but he was really attractive and it was a lovely few years and I think all of his romantic wounds were self-inflicted. I'd certainly warn someone off falling in love with them."

"Our circumstances are rather different. He does like and respect me, from everything I've been able to tell, and I do not want to trade that in for a few delightful years, even if I had time for romance right now, which I don't."

"Yes, that sounds very much not worth risking."

"So please don't tell anyone about this part of the conversation. It would be embarrassing at best."

She looks horrified. "Of course not."

"...I didn't think you would, just, better safe than sorry."

"Odette, I want to help you establish a well-respected human kingdom. There is absolutely no chance I'll share anything that would derail that project. Except, I guess, reminiscence about hair, but I can stop that too."

"Reminiscing about hair to me is not going to derail anything. I don't know enough about the political landscape to know if reminiscing to anyone else would--and, to be honest, I hadn't even thought of political ramifications when I asked you not to mention it, just personal ones."

"Oh, is he important? That's additional reason not to, then, you're important and the Elves do do political marriages.  I personally tell my business to every young girl I meet who I think would benefit from hearing 'if he's really pretty and you want him, have some fun' which is not all of them but isn't none. And I wouldn't share theirs or yours."

"He's important. I like your style of advice."

"The Elves tried teaching us how they see all that, too, but Men are just too different from Elves for it to have really stuck."

"I'm pretty sure it's garbage in their case, too, but they have the 'if you have penetrative sex with a member of the opposite gender then your souls will be stuck together forever' thing, so advocating caution is reasonable. Not that I'd tell them to their faces that I think it's garbage."

"The no unintended pregnancies is pretty nice."

"Apparently they don't menstruate, the lucky bastards."

She giggles. "Nope. Though pregnancy is a year; that'd be pretty bad. And the children take fifty to grow up! I'd go mad when I had a forty-year-old teenager."

"I'd rather deal with a third again as long pregnancy than some things," she shrugs. "And, I don't know, a lot of people complain that their children grow up way too fast. Out of all the worrisome features of Elves those are not my least favorite."

"No one's sure if they soul-bond with us."

"Do you mean no one's sure if it happens automatically or if it can happen at all, because according to Celegorm there exist Elves who have had appropriate kinds of sex with Men and not had the soul thing happen."

"...that's the bit I was unsure of. Aegnor was quite certain it'd happen if he desired it. Are there really?"

"Apparently!"

"Hmm. In that case, it seems Elf/mortal relationships would have voluntary soul bonding. That's something."

"How was he so sure he could do it?"

"He wasn't sure it wouldn't happen automatically. But if we did the Elven wedding ritual and said vows before Eru he was very sure it would work. He knew the Valar, growing up, I assumed he'd know that sort of thing."