"I think our chances of winning are better without him. With him, there will be a civil war sooner or later, and some of his sons who know it's wrong and would do anything to avert it will nonetheless obey his orders in conducting it once it's started. And with him, we can't get the local populace involved in the war effort. If the war were winnable all the more reason for him to die immediately."

"Potentially winnable by resources we have and they don't, also Fëanáro may hopefully have been convinced to delegate leadership" would be suspiciously specific.

"Trying to kill him sounds like a good way of starting a civil war. You realize this puts you at odds with everyone on both sides who wants to delay that."

"Nolofinwë's not going to imprison me, I'm his niece and he knows I'm right. The other side will obviously kill me if they get the chance, and we'll see who's faster."

"Civil war as soon as possible, then. That doesn't make it sound better." 

"Killing him prevents the civil war. I flee to Elwë, Nolofinwë says that our grievance is now settled, Maitimo decides whether he wants to kill Findekáno or die at his hand, picks 'neither', and there's no war."

"Or you get caught and the grievance doesn't get settled, or you don't get caught and Maitimo isn't the one making the decisions, or they know in advance that opinions like yours are common and they decide to take preemptive action.

I don't know the political situation. Arrived yesterday. But I arrived from a place full of humans, who apparently kill each other more than you do. And revenge murders tend not to work out."

"They do know my opinion, I told Fëanáro to his face. And they won't catch me. If Maitimo's not running things I'll reconsider."

"...if you tried something analogous on my world you would have no chance. Are assassinations just easier here?"

"No one's ever done it before, I don't think my cousins will think to have all the right precautions in place."

"You said Findekáno's is using wishful thinking to avoid blaming himself for Alqualondë. Can you tell me you aren't doing the same thing so you get to kill the person who deserves it?"

"I will have very powerful allies across the sea. The King across the sea is the brother of the King of Alqualondë. I think my estimation of what I can do is right; if I'm wrong, it's only my own life I'm risking, because Curufinwë certainly won't start a war over his niece trying and failing to stab him, that's just be embarrassing to him. And I'm confident in my estimation of Maitimo, you can ask other people for confirmation of that."

"Kings don't take well to assassination attempts. People who call themselves kings either. There nothing at all he might do short of a war, or is he just going to shrug and move on?"

"I don't know what he'll do to me. I know he won't start a war with them, unless he's planning to already, in which case the way to stop him is to kill him."

"Assuming he knows you were acting on your own, it's still pretty unlikely that there wouldn't be people imitating you. If he can, I don't know, expand borders into somewhere you were planning to use, or deny aid when you need it, the fact that there's an occasional murder attempt isn't likely to help. It's not just war or nothing unless he's very uncreative."

"He is, when it comes to politics. And I won't try it if I'm not pretty sure I can succeed. But, yes, trying and failing would be a bad outcome, agreed. He cannot be in charge of a significant military force. He is a disaster in Noldorin form."

"What would it take to convince you not to? Getting him to let someone else lead? Maybe we could take advantage of that moronic oath, offer an alliance or whatever else might help them get their Silmarils back in exchange for Maitimo taking over their army. There exist disasters that can be solved without murder."

"I'd agree to that, yes. Findekáno will have a seizure."

"He will?"

"He -" You know what, actually, that'd be stooping pretty low. Ask him.

"Oh, I thought you meant something political." Is it stooping low enough to be offensive to ask about?

He already knows about Fëanáro having hopefully delegated as much as possible including the army; if Maitimo is the obvious person to delegate to there should maybe have been a seizure.

...yes, definitely, but you're the one trying to maneuver Maitimo into power, you should probably have full information.

The oath thing was hypothetical; I wanted to check if you'd accept non-murder even if getting Maitimo in charge of their military sounds unlikely.

I'll ask Findekáno if it looks like there's a way to manage it worth trying.

Have fun.

Fun. Not exactly the goal, but I wouldn't object. See you.

She heads out of the tent.

Hey. Sleep well?