"What do you mean?"

"You're in unimaginable agony? And I'm safe and happy and a princess?"

"Oh." She smiles. "Yes, that's true. But I think that makes it more reasonable to worry about you, because you have things to lose, and I don't."

"That would mean that the happier someone is the more you should worry for them, and I don't think that's true."

"I don't think so, necessarily. The worrying about you that I and my reconstructed emotions are doing is about the possibility that something might happen to make you less happy. It is not possible to make me less happy. If worrying is about how secure someone is in their happiness, and I don't have any happiness to be secure in, then it's logically consistent to worry more about you than me but perhaps worry even more than that about some other person who is both less happy and less safe than you."

"Are you sure there's no way to fix it?"

"It seems very unlikely. Not impossible, but very unlikely."

"Okay. Sorry, I interrupted your story."

"It is fine," she says. "If I believed it urgent that you hear the story I would tell it urgently. Should I continue?"

"Please!"

"I was telling you about what Melkor did with his time in Valinor," she says. "He encouraged strife and unrest. He encouraged and aided the forging of swords, and created an atmosphere of distrust so that people would carry them, using lies and illusions and rumours and subtle manipulation. It was approximately during this time that Curufinwë Fëanáro created the Silmarils. It's my understanding that he had an ambition to establish an independent settlement of Noldor outside Valinor. My picture of the surrounding politics is incomplete but it seems to have been a divisive notion."

"Huh. The Valar would not have thought that wise, I don't think."

"I think it is a very reasonable ambition to have. But I am sure my perspective differs from theirs."

"What was wrong with Valinor?"

"I know that one of the motivations involved was concern for the fate of Men because Melkor incited that one by giving extravagantly upsetting talks about all the most concerning Men-related facts he could come up with. For the rest, I can mostly only speculate, and speculation about other people's motives is not my area of expertise. But... I respect the desire to become independent of even a well-run paradise. Independence is a worthwhile aim."

"They sure have a dreadful sense of timing, though."

"Do they?"

"Well. If they levelled Angband, maybe not. But distracting the Valar right after Melkor provoked a war seems unwise."

"Hmm. I am not sure whether or not they could have known that they would be able to level Angband. My instinct is that they did not, but my information is patchy. I should try to tell it in order. The ongoing conflicts gradually escalated, and eventually the conflicting parties held a conference to try to work out their differences, and Melkor planted false evidence that someone would try to do violence to Curufinwë Fëanáro at the conference, so Curufinwë Fëanáro showed up to it armed and armoured, and heard Nolofinwë Arakáno telling Finwë that two loyal sons yet remained to him, and drew his sword and openly threatened to use it if Nolofinwë Arakáno did not desist, which seems to me a counterproductive impulse. And indeed it got Curufinwë Fëanáro exiled from Tirion. He went away and founded another city and half of Tirion followed him, Finwë included, leaving Nolofinwë Arakáno regent in Tirion, and then I don't know what happened until the point at which Melkor brought an abomination from beyond the Void into Valinor to destroy the Trees. I can't see what could be gained strategically from never talking about that entire interval even to his own loyal subordinates, so I can only conclude that Melkor had unfathomable personal reasons for not discussing it."

"He drew a sword on his brother because Melkor implied someone would try something? That's terrifying."

"It doesn't seem terrifying to me. But then I'm used to a context where it's normal for unhappy people to become violent. From my perspective he showed unusual restraint."

"Well, he's an Elf, you've been around orcs. I'm sure orcs would do something awful."

"And yet," says Shirask, "the person who arranged the circumstances of that conference is the same person who arranged the nature of orcs."

"Sure, but he raised them from childhood for many generations. You were raised by him yourself and wouldn't do something like that."

"I will never condemn anyone for being less able to resist evil than I am. My ability to resist evil is exceptional and should not be a comparison point."