There's no requirement to invite everyone in, just that you'll be hospitable if you do.

I advise you not to. My father and brother are working on a solution but it won't be an immediate one.

A solution to whatever the Enemy does?

Yes. We don't know if it's mindcontrol or if he gets oaths from them but either way.

I don't know any way I can help with that, but good luck to both of them. Curing oaths sounds near impossible.

Can't be done and might not be beneficial; I rather like having the capacity to quickly establish trust. Depending what the oaths are there might be a way to make people under them not dangerous. I'll convey your hopes for the project; I think your skepticism's already shared by everyone working on it.

That was something else I meant to ask about. From what you said last time I was here you're the one running the camp, and apparently your father's working on conventionally impossible tasks. Is that any kind of a formal arrangement or a temporary equilibrium?

Informal, and how temporary depends a lot on my cousins, them being one of the primary points where my father and I are at odds.

Meaning it depends on how much they come to his attention, or is there some specific thing that upsets it? If it's the second one they should probably know what it is.

I am less confident than you that they'd prefer to have me running things.

That's a lie, Findekano says to her. 

It's saying so little that it being true wouldn't mean anything, she says back.

Well, if they do want that, is there anything they'd be likely to do that would risk it changing? Presumably you prefer to have you running things.

And you prefer me running things?

Yes.

Findekáno, what happens if we–I–just tell him about Artanis? He'd have no shortage of incentives not to tell Fëanáro.

She was saying that stuff to my uncle's face, it's part of why he left us. Or do you think she's actually serious?

I thought so. Negotiating down to not if Maitimo's running the army doesn't seem like the kind of thing someone would do if they were posturing.
But of the two of us I'm more likely to be wrong.

I think it's much likelier than not that she'd stop at some point short of going through with it. But I am not certain enough of that to be thrilled. I suppose it might be safer to tell him, if you think there's anything he can do.

Like telling us how to avoid his father taking the reins?

Yes, because you know how Artanis threatened your father? She got bargained down to saying she wouldn't do it if you're in charge. I believed her.

Good of her, he says wryly. I didn't expect the abandonment to make her less murderously inclined.

I cannot guarantee to my cousins the safety of anyone who makes an attempt on my father's life.

Oh, she's well informed of that, but my point is that you see why I'd rather you be as solidly in power as possible.

Telling him that my cousins would rather have me in power, or that you would, would be very counterproductive, then. You can tell him that he seems to have delegated reasonably well, or that I seem competent enough at logistical details. If my cousins are hoping he'll pass on the crown - he won't, at least not to me, for the foreseeable future, and I am very restrained in the degree to which I could intervene for them if they do anything stupid.

If Artanis wants me in power badly enough she is welcome to try something and then I will execute her and then my father will probably trust me. 

That sounds like it would be a bad message to pass on to someone who already thinks she's being self-sacrificial out of necessity.

The title isn't the important thing. It's possible to have arbitrary amounts of authority without being king. But the more you are, or at least appear to be, running the show, the less likely stupidity is. Assuming I'm not just taking Artanis too seriously in the first place, of course.

This doesn't add up. His father's the least trusting person I've ever met but the ships would have done it, and they were on pretty good terms even before that. 

Maybe his father's even less trusting than that?

I did hope the magic words comparative advantage might have helped more than this.

How many war crimes can one man demand from his children before he decides they are in fact reliable about doing whatever he says?

Depending on the man, no upper limit.

And executing an assassin isn't a war crime on Earth, so they might only be up to two by those standards. No, wait, going to a truce while planning to break it is. Never mind.