Aydanci's parents are already outside looking. He's big - already the size of an Elven child of twenty-five - but his father picks him up effortlessly and sets Aydanci on his shoulders for a better view. It is pretty. The Elves are all making quiet delighted noises. 

Aydanci doesn't make noise, he's always been a very quiet child, but he does stare in open delighted wonder. And quietly thank his father for picking him up to see better, because pretty.

And then it gets a bit too bright for him to stare directly at. But he's a smart child, so he makes a pair of shades, and they can go over his eyes so the light's not as bad. He looks a little longer at it, but then that's too bright, too, so he decides that maybe he should look at what everything else looks like in the light, and not at the light itself so much. This seems like a good plan. So he does that.

The Noldor have several fortresses now, strategically positioned across northern Beleriand, which is what this place is called. Aydanci is growing up beside Lake Mithrim, where they have been since he was a baby, and it is in the mountains and very pretty. The Sun reflects on the water. The walls are very tall and very safe and the buildings within them are gracefully made. Everything is currently bathed in bright golden light.

It looks so much nicer now! It was never ugly, ever, but to see any of it properly he had to go with his legion of shines to see. It was hard to see the beauty of the architecture when it was covered in hundreds of little moving lights, piloted by a child. And now he can just - look. No shine piloting required.

It's gorgeous.

"Is it always going to be like this?" he asks softly, delighted.

"I don't know," his father says, putting him down. "The Moon likes to go away and come back; maybe the Sun will do that too. They do it back on the lost world."

"If it works like that here it'll be like we have a little bit of the lost world with us!" Pause. "Besides me and Lári and the other humans, I mean."

"It will! I am so happy that the Valar figured out how to make it work safely in a completely different world."

Aydanci nods, wondering if it works like anything he understands. It could be a giant shine that's piloted across the sky, but that seemed altogether too silly. The Valar would probably have something a little bit less ridiculous.

"Was the light from the trees just like this?"

"It was the same color, but the gold and the silver were the same brightness and when they overlapped you got these stunningly pretty combinations. When these overlap the Sun's just brighter than the Moon." He sends the memory of a Mingling.

He nods, amazed and a bit sad that this thing no longer exists.

"It was very pretty! But also very bright. If the Moon and Sun take turns I think I like that there is a darker time, so I can play with my shines."

"The darker time works well for humans, too, since you sleep more than Elves and can't see so well in the dark without shines," says his father. "You can do things when there's light and rest when it's dark, that's how humans did it on the lost world."

This seemed a sensible way to sort his time. He nods again.

"It's nice that the Valar were thinking of us."

"It's lovely! I'd been wondering what they were doing all this time while we've been fighting the Enemy and there's our answer, it was probably very tricky building a good Sun and Moon!"

"Now that they're done, will they help more?"

"I certainly hope so. I am sure at least that the Enemy will try to drag the Sun and Moon out of the sky, for he hates and fears light and beautiful things, and they will probably be sure to stop him, after all that work they put in."

Aydanci thinks this is an entirely reasonable answer, and nods in that solemn way he has when an answer has satisfied him.

"Do we need less shines now that there is a Sun? I should probably keep making lots just in case the Enemy manages it..."

"You could make some extra-bright shines from the Sun and we can ask the King if they are needed or if they should be stored away in case of trouble."

"Okay!"

He goes off to do this. Immediately. He's very excited about the prospect, actually.

He can make such bright shines! Everyone around him is singing delightedly. Apparently a dark cloud has risen around Angband, probably because the Enemy does not like the Sun. 

Aydanci sets on the important task of making several bright shines! And the less important task of making a silly face at Angband's dark cloud. Yeah, Enemy. Take that!

And then when he has several large, extra-bright shines, he asks his parents to let him present them to the king.

His parents are happy to accompany him to do that! The King's palace is the prettiest building by the water. The King's whole family lives there including the Princess Lári who is human and Aydanci's age so Aydanci knows his way around the palace very well. 

He does! He'll find her, first, actually. Has she made any extra bright shines? What has she done with them, if she has?

She has been making shades for people and things that are bothered by the Sun! "HI, Aydanci! Did you see, the Enemy's grouchy!"

"Hi, Lári! I did! I hope he stays very grouchy and that the Sun shines right in his eyes."

"He didn't put up shades. Isn't that silly of him? I'd have put up shades."

"It's very silly of him," Aydanci agrees sagely. "There might be a reason, but I don't think I know what it is."

"I could ask my daddy, he's really smart. But he's busy. He didn't even come out to look at the Sun!"

Nod!

"That makes sense, I think. He's very smart, and the Enemy's probably not going to be able to put out the Sun like the trees, so he has the rest of forever to see it if the Enemy's defeated."

"When the Enemy's defeated. Want to climb up on the roof and get enchanted lenses so we can see like Elves and see if we can see all of Beleriand?"

"Right, yes. When. Yes!" Pause. "Though - I made giant bright shines and should figure out if there's anything to do with them first."

"Oh, yeah. D'you want to ask Curvo or the King, Curvo'll know if there are engineering things to do with them..."

"I can ask both!"

"Okay! And then climb on the roof and look at the whole world!"

"Yes!"

Now, onto finding people to present the shines to.

She'll come with! In case they need more shines and then she and Aydanci can go make them together.

This is fine by him! She's welcome to come along. Because, really, she's his best friend.

Elves are great but they grow up so slow that Elves that were their age when they were five still look five! And they are now ten! And also they are two of the only humans from the lost world and so they can do servantmaking when no one else can and so they are very natural best friends. Also Aydanci is so much like her big brothers. 

Well, Aydanci is nine, but yes. All of those things. Also, Lári is nice, and Aydanci likes her family. They make sense.

He just has to find one to present the shine to! Where oh where could Lári's big brothers be. With the presence of the Sun they might be somewhere weird, he'll have to look.

This is not one of Lári's brothers. This is the other human, walking down the hall, followed by a golem.

"Hi, Akibel!" Akibel -who-you're-allowed-to-call-Kib-but-she-thinks-it's-such-a-pretty-name is the only important person who isn't Prince something-or-other. She asked the King about making him a prince or a lord and the King laughed and said perhaps if Kib asked. 

"Hi, Lári -"

- and then he notices she's not alone - "Aydanci! Hi."

"Hi, Akibel!" says Aydanci, taking his cue from Lári. She's the princess, he'll roll with it. "Do you know of any uses for a large, extra-bright shine?"

"You can call me Kib," Kib says. "Interior decoration, put it on a floor or something? I'd say refracting for crops but with the Sun we probably don't need to keep doing that."

"Okay, Kib. I will. Is it smart to keep one or two somewhere safe in case the Sun goes out?" Pause. "Or we can use them for crops if we build a fortress underground. Or, hm. Send one or two to annoy the Enemy?"

"Yeah, it's probably good to have some sun shines in reserve. I think he copied our anti-shine perimeter, though, so you'd have to get pretty close to get it in, that's not safe at all and somebody there could just puppet it back out again."

Aydanci looks disappointed with being unable to put large, bright shines right on Melkor's eyes. "Yes, right. Oh well. At least the Sun's annoying him."

"Yep. Hopefully it's distracting him from doing anything else."

"Hopefully. And maybe the Valar can help in other ways now, too. Since they're done with the Sun and Moon."

"That'd be nice."

"Yeah. Maybe we should send them a list of what would be helpful?"

"Maybe. I'd run that plan by someone who knows more about Valar than I do."

Nod!

... Aydanci now doesn't know what to say to the Important Human Grown Up. He will instead be shy.

"...What brings you up here today?"

"Oh, um. The shine. I made it after the Sun rose and wanted to see if it would be useful."

"And you're looking for Lári's dad or one of her brothers or something?"

"We were going to ask the King if he needs shines but then we thought we could just ask Curvo!"

"He's in his workshop," Kib says.

So they scurry off. "He likes you better," Lári pouts.

"What? That's silly," says Aydanci.

"He saw me and he was like 'hi Lári' and then he saw you and he was like "Aydanci!!!!!!"

"He doesn't even really know me though," Aydanci says.

"Maybe he heard you're really smart."

"It's weird though."

Is that the workshop? Workshop! Shines!

"Thank you Lári! Thanks, Aydanci! These'll be terribly useful. Do you know if you can get even brighter ones if you get them from a lot of mirrors set up together to refract the sunlight, like we had for agriculture? You should be careful not to hurt your eyes, but shines that are brighter than the sun could be useful for all kinds of things."

"We could try that!" says Aydanci. "If the mirrors are all shining in one place I bet it works! We can put shades on our eyes."

"Yes, do. Want to see what we're doing? We're dissembling the greenhouses and trying to figure out how to do crops with all this new light..."

"Okay!"

Time is precious, desperately so, but so is childhood, and for humans it's absurdly short. He explains as if it is essential that they know, as if they might themselves be kings and queens some day. There is after all a multiverse out there, and they might be.

Time passes, shines are made, and Aydanci seldom runs into Kib but always receives a smile as though it had to be retrieved from the back of a closet first every time he does.

He turns fifteen. His parents inform him that humans sometimes have more than one life, and get dreams about their past ones; these will seem like regular dreams but be easier to remember.

And when he has been fifteen for a while he clonks down the stairs in the growing-too-fast arms-and-legs way of a teenage boy who is going to be rather tall for a human - "Ata, Amil, I think I had one of those dreams, did I use to live in Valinor? I think I dreamed the Trees. They were so bright! But pretty!" He is rather more alert than he usually is in the morning out of sheer excitement, but he still yawns and heads for the tea after delivering this pronouncement.

"Yes! You lived in Valinor for about a Year, and the Trees were beautiful, it was a terrible evil when the Enemy destroyed them."

And they notify the King that Aydanci has started having his dreams.

And the King tells Kib.

And Kib schedules an appointment with Aydanci for the next afternoon to discuss... that...

...and proceeds to be a nervous wreck in the interim.

It'll be good. He's a very good person, sensible, it's not as if you can make a bad impression and mess it up...

Of course I can make a bad impression and mess it up he barely knows me and he is not guaranteed to dream things in a flattering order or one that mentions me at all for the next twenty years -

That is vanishingly unlikely but, if it happened, would mean you have your devoted husband in twenty years. He's not the type to cling to dislike of you once he gets more information. And you're not going to make a bad impression.

I wish I could be as sure of that as you are. And as casual to throw around twenty-year intervals.

I recommend facing down a millenium of waiting! It makes twenty years look positively reassuring. But really, it's going to go all right. Good skill.

Sigh. Thanks. - He could dream something that involves knowing about you and Maitimo any time. I will lead with, you know, 'can you be discreet about something', but it's probably better to tell him up front than make him try to figure out who he can mention it to...

I agree.

And during the relevant afternoon, Kib's waiting in a nice soundproof stone-construction meeting room, and in comes Aydanci, punctual and confused.

Kib's pacing. "Hi, Aydanci. Heard you started having your reincarnation dreams - did you start on a nice one?"

"Um, yes."

"Good - that's good." Sigh. "I'm reincarnated too. Still working through all the dreams - they get more frequent and longer, I get five or six hours of them a night every night now, no more normal dreams. They can be sort of hard to put into context by themselves, since they don't appear in order. We - we knew each other, so, I figured I'd tell you the story of your life, and you'd be able to place anything you dreamed about."

"That makes sense," says Aydanci. "- do dreams repeat? What happens when we run out of life to dream?"

"They don't repeat - or at least haven't for me, so far. And I haven't run out so I don't know what happens."

"Don't other humans know?"

"It's... actually not a common human thing. We're the only people who I know to be reincarnations. I don't know how it happened or why us, but I had to figure it all out myself."

"Oh." Pause. "Okay, tell me the story of my life."

And so Kib takes a deep breath and describes the context of how humans appear in the lost world, Aydanci may have heard of storks but this is before they were invented, he was found near a city-state called Lapis and brought up by a creche there, apprenticed in servantmaking but interested in medicine, working on medical golems -

"I wish I had my notes on those," says Aydanci.

"I have all your notes for you. You can take them all home with you."

"Oh good."

"Anyway, when you were eighteen you were in the library and you met this girl called Aly who was working on a secret golem project, and you started helping each other even though she wouldn't tell you what she was working on. At first, anyway, you got to hanging out pretty much all the time..."

"Um."

"Question?"

"Do I happen to be - you said pretty much all the time, did I marry her?"

"...yeah."

"Oh Eru, is - is she okay, I, what, I can't be married that's terrifying, and I'm a terrible husband I forgot all about her - is she okay -"

"It's - it's fine, it's fine, shh," says Kib, "- I'm fine."

There is a silence.

"Oh," says Aydanci. "Well. ...Good." With a soft solemn intensity and Kib ever so nonslightly melts.

"...so, yes, you married her, you were twenty, and you were really happy. And I'm a little out of order here, she told you what her secret project was before the wedding, it was storks."

Aydanci has had storks explained to him. Aydanci is looking at Kib like Kib is the first sunrise of the world. "She - you, you invented storks?"

Kib smiles a little. "Yeah. Aly invented storks." Remind me never to doubt you, he remarks as an aside to Findekáno.

Happiness. Strong affection. Not a hint of surprise.

It's interesting how readable Aydanci's face still is, even though it's not quite the same face - it's used the same way - he is, mercifully, being a fifteen year old Aydanci who remembers nothing to speak of, not contemplating tackling Kib against a wall right at this very moment, but Kib can pretty much watch Aydanci decide that he is okay with being married after all and that his already nonexistent plans for dating some random person shall become more nonexistent.

"And you were really happy for - four and a bit years," Kib says, and Aydanci tenses up. "- it's not that there was anything wrong with the marriage - the lost world didn't have any healing songs, let alone friendly Ainur, and humans aren't as good at controlling our bodies as Elves are. Humans get sick. A lot. Sometimes really badly. And Aly got - very, very sick."

Aydanci waits for the next installment of the story of his life, dismayed.

Kib swallows and picks back up. "You took really good care of her. But eventually she died."

"...I'm so sorry," whispers Aydanci, horrified.

"It's okay!" says Kib. "It's okay, I don't know how but I reincarnated. Uh, obviously not a girl named Aly anymore, and I didn't remember anything until I was fifteen either, and I didn't have anybody explaining to me that the dreams were of a real thing so I went years figuring she was just some kind of recurring dream-character - but I'm fine - and you, you were very angry at that disease and now it is gone, you killed it."

"Good. I'm sorry I didn't get it sooner."

"It's okay -" honey. "You made a lot of progress with the medical golems before that," Kib assures him, "they were a big deal. And you eradicated some more diseases and made some more storks. But - you were - not really okay. There's... pretty much an eighteen year stretch of you not being okay, it's not going to be the most fun thing to dream, sorry."

"...what about after that?"

"Well. I reincarnated. A stork got me, since there were storks by then. I grew up. And then I got eaten by a weird portal monster that plopped me right in downtown Tirion when it tried to eat me."

There is a startled pause. "I have to say," Aydanci finally remarks, "that is not where I was expecting this narrative to go."

"Well, I had to get here from the lost world somehow," Kib says. "Somehow was a snakey portal-faced thing. It ate more people before someone managed to kill it, but as far as I ever heard I'm the only one who ever found a way back. Anyway, there I was in Valinor, very surprised by a place having its lighting handled by shiny trees instead of a sun and the inhabitants being telepathic Elves instead of humans like I was used to. But the Valar could put the worlds in more sustainable contact, so for a while they did that." Deep breath. "The dreams are in a random order. I didn't - I didn't have any with you in them for a while, except a couple tiny snippets I didn't figure out. I only realized Aly was real at all when I had enough memories to be able to sort of read Harthanic, which she'd learned and I hadn't the second time around."

"... I can't imagine I would hold anything that happened in the interim against you."

"You didn't," Kib says at once. "You didn't. And you'll know what it was whenever you dream it, which could be next week or something, so I'm going to tell you up front, but it is from pretty much everybody else a complete secret and you've got to be discreet. Okay?"

Solemn nod.

"The King picked out your parents for you and he made sure they would nonjudgmentally tell you things like 'sometimes, humans marry people of the same sex' because otherwise it would have been really awkward when you got your dreams. Thing is, this was not instantly accepted fact in Valinor; Elves have different rules. I landed expecting that 'oh, I only like men' would be minor trivia only of interest to similarly inclined men, and I mentioned this minor trivia, and boy did I get told off. But since I had been so indiscreet I met, well. Similarly inclined Elves."

"...Oh."

It is not an upset "oh", it is a "....processing", so Kib lets him process. When he seems to be done - although he still has a "huh, let me reevaluate everything" look on his face - Kib moves on. "Complete secret," he says. "...but once I remembered I was married, I showed up on your doorstep accompanied by the King, well, before he was the King; and Findekáno. And you said you had some experience with unexpectedly losing loved ones and didn't want them to have to do that for," cough, "uh, the crime of having good taste."

...Aydanci giggles at the last phrase, then - mentally backtracks and says, "Wow. That would be a secret."

"It is. Hush-hush," says Kib. "I was actually not that good at not being obvious about it. So when I brought you back to Valinor and the Valar decided we were okay to be married on a technicality because I'd been a girl at the time, I went around gushing about you constantly partly because I felt like gushing about you constantly and partly as cover." That gets an affectionate smile and a nod of approval at the cleverness of this plan. "So we got a house and were ostentatiously married - you didn't go out that much, you were in your forties and humans who'd visibly aged were a curiosity and people stared at you, plus you'd kind of spent eighteen years staying home all the time being lonely and introverted and didn't have much reason to break the habit. Some - some time passed, and then the Enemy killed the Trees, you'll have heard about that - and -"

"...And I died during the Darkening?"

"Yeah," murmurs Kib. "I was out, it was early and you were still asleep and we were running low on tea, and it went dark and -" Kib takes a moment to breathe. "And I heard you screaming. Enemy'd been through our house and - and hurt you. Almost everybody was gone to some idiotic festival the Valar had thrown to improve morale, all the way by Taniquetil, there weren't any Maiar around to help, no Elves in singing distance - somebody osanwëd me a healing song but it didn't work at all, or didn't help enough, I could only see by shines I ripped off a clock and don't even know which it was for sure -"

"Oh - oh I'm so sorry -"

"It's not your fault! I'm sorry, I, er, you could talk a little bit, you wanted me to promise to be happy and I may have. Threatened that if you didn't come check up on me I would promise no such thing. I'm... not sure if that was functional in reincarnating you or anything."

"I don't blame you for, for wanting me back. Whatever the means, I'm alive. I don't know how much right I have to speak for my past self when I have a fraction of his memories, but I don't think he'd hold anything you said against you."

"Okay," says Kib, letting out a breath. "- thanks. And - Servants recognize people across incarnations. Aly had a magpie, when I showed up at your house he went right up to me and did what I told him - and the storks knew who you were - so - I told a stork to tell all the storks to bring you to me. And one did. And the King found you a set of parents."

"Because the Valar were closing the portals, and to do otherwise would have stranded me on the lost world."

"Yeah. ...I thought about doing that. It's not... especially safe, here. I thought about leaving you in Valinor, too. But I don't know if the dreams come when you're developmentally a teenager or if when you're chronologically fifteen. And Lári was aging slower than humans normally do by a factor of ten. You'd have been a baby. And if I'd left you on the lost world you'd have had no way to get to me and - well. Last time you weren't okay without me." Sigh. "So here you are."

Aydanci nods. "Well, thank you. Here's where I want to be. Even with the dangers."

"Good. So - that should let you place whatever you dream about. I should be able to answer any more questions as they come up."

"I - suppose my main question is, well. What now?"

"Up to you," Kib says instantly. "I mean, I realize that you have been raised by Elves and therefore probably assign very heavy weight to the concept of marriage even though humans don't do the soul thing, but I don't have expectations about it. It's not impossible you could go decades without having a dream I feature in at all, and I don't expect the fact that I told you the story of your life will have magical effects of any kind, and it is fine if the answer to 'what now' or 'what ever' is 'nothing in particular'. ...But I will stop making a point of not being places I expect you, since the point of that is likely obviated now."

Aydanci considers this, and nods, and says, "All right. I uh - do assign very heavy weight to the concept of marriage, but I very much appreciate - this. Not expecting anything of me in particular." ...He smiles, shyly. "That doesn't mean I'll, er, exercise that option forever, but having it is appreciated."

"Heh." Nod. "Well. Pleasant dreams."

"You too," says Aydanci wryly. And he ducks his head - considers - and goes and gives Kib a hug.

And then slips out.

Kib collapses into his chair. Well, that went. Really well.

I am very glad.

Fuck, I missed him.

I know. I'm so glad it will work out.

Took the part about you and Maitimo really well too. ...Didn't mention how Maitimo's been doing, but that can wait, he won't dream it.

I think Maitimo wouldn't be pretending if he didn't want people to believe the pretense.

I might in fact have had to compose a sad song if the fifteen-year-old version of your husband decided that he wasn't sharing.

If he'd done that I might literally have pulled a 'you'll understand when you're older'.

He laughs. I hope the romantic dreams don't take too long, then.

Maybe a little longer. He's fifteen, a couple years older would be better. ...But I told him I invented storks and he looked at me like I was, well, the objectively best person in the world, and if he does decide to pounce on me earlier I might not be able to bring myself to peel him off.

I feel like Maitimo and I were on the receiving end of the 'I'm not jailbait and I know what I want' talk at some point.

And objectively best person in the lost world. We're going to have to give that title for Arda to my uncle, much as I dislike him, if he figures out how to kill a Vala.

I was eighteen! This is meaningfully different in human development! He hasn't grown into his elbows yet!

We didn't know anything about human development and just had to take your word for it! You were grown into your elbows, though.

I know things about human development. Totally not being a hypocrite.

Well. Congratulations. I hope he has age-appropriate dreams right up until the elbow-related milestone where you feel comfortable wanting him.

Thanks.

You should tell Maitimo.

Now, do you think?

Is there a reason not to? Other than that, going by precedent, you'll be very sad afterwards?

He'll find out when he gets the half-batch of notes tonight anyway?

I hadn't realized you still separated them now that he's the King and privy to all our state secrets.

I do not consider the workings of my mind to be state secrets.

Fair enough. I'm happy for you. Good skill, send it to Maitimo later.

Love you.

And Maitimo's packet that evening contains a writeup of the conversation with Aydanci. It went so well Aydanci is so great!

You have very good taste!

This makes some options for the violent endgame of this hallucination more likely and others less likely. He does not make this observation aloud.

Yes I do. And good parent-picking, full marks.

I have to earn my keep somehow. 

Well, they got him exactly like himself, only a little visible 'wow, really really raised by Elves, aren't you' which is not particularly doing me a disservice here.

Awwwwwww.

Giggle. And then I get to feel slightly hypocritical for hoping he doesn't want to pick up where we left off until he's, like, a little older, but like I told Findekáno fifteen and eighteen are genuinely different things.

This world's years are longer than yours, even outside Valinor! About fifty days longer! If the length of a day is the same, which I actually haven't checked, you were only fifteen of this planet's years.

Lost world days are a little longer.

Oh, all right. I will refrain from suggesting you are hypocritical.

Thank you.

Do you have to go or would you like to lie down here for a little while? After a year of still hugs he decided this was something he wanted, with several layers of intervening blankets.

I don't have to go. Kib goes and wraps up as much as is called for. Flomp. Holding still.

I'm very happy for you two.

Thanks.

You have excellent taste.

Mmmm-hm. Contented sigh.

He sighs, too, and promises himself that this scenario should last at least a few subjective years longer, and leans over to kiss Kib on the forehead. It is not a very romantic kiss because there are a lot of blankets very deliberately in the way and also he is crying.

- you okay? ...I know you are not okay, I mean more like, are you below baseline in some way I could conceivably do anything about.

I am above baseline. Something good happened to you. 

Okay. I love you.

And I wish Kib and Aydanci much happiness together.

I'll do my best.

Hey, that one's not even a hard problem.

Yeah, should be able to manage. ...He confirmed what you said about how he'd feel about being yelled at while he died.

He's an exceptionally thoughtful and reasonable person but no one at all would hold that against you. I bet when he dreams the memory he will feel very deeply loved.

Yeah, you're right, I knew you were right, just.

When I got to the part where 'so you met this girl named Aly' he guessed that he married her and wanted to know if she was okay and I switched to first person earlier than I'd meant to. It was so cute.

Awwwww.

So I said I was fine. And he said, 'Good.' Like - well, it was fairly indescribable but very heartwarming.

And immortality's sorted, you two have forever, my father thinks he can win this war in a hundred years....

It'll be lovely.

It will. When it's peaceful we'll petition the Valar to open the portals again and with the new assembly line methods we can have golems doing all work in the lost world, so it'll be post-scarcity too.

You think they'll open up?

We will have just killed one Vala...

Do they even react like normal people to threats? And even if they do, it would be nice to get the thing without having to hold the whatever to their incorporeal heads.

No, they don't respond normally to threats. I do think once this world's safe they'll be persuadable on the portals, though.

And then everything will be so quietly busy I will get around to writing my novel.

It'll be lovely.

Mm-hm. Siiiiiigh.

That was probably the sound of Thauron remembering - or checking and realizing - Maitimo does not believe any of this. Oh, well. Lovely while it lasted. He relaxes into the pressure he can feel even through blankets.

I'm either gonna doze off and you'll have to have the golem shake me awake or I'm gonna have to go in like the next five minutes, yawns Kib, this is very cozy.

By all means stay.

'Kay.

He does in fact doze off.

The random nouns are random, and nouns. "Precipice. Inspiration. Leather. Cloud."

And he wiggles in his sleep and Maitimo doesn't sleep but that's okay.

"NECTARINE -"

And he wakes up with Maitimo's forearm with the severed hand on the back of his head shoving him into the pillows and Maitimo's other hand on his mouth. 

"-mph -"

Sorry, your screams from my quarters will cause almost as much trouble as they would have back in Tirion... I might at this point be able to get away with 'I'm your King and survived Angband and will do what I want', but when I'm not actually doing anyone it seems a silly battle to pick...

It's okay, I'm awake. He is back to holding very still. Any month now I will be all out of pox to dream through.

He tries to cuddle him but it is not very effectual because he is shaking.

- I should probably go back to my room.

If you'd like.

I was assuming you'd have a golem wake me if I hollered - I should have just actually told mine to do it if I raised my voice, so you wouldn't have to -

I think you probably overestimate the difference between 'how I feel normally' and 'how I feel when I'm afraid the scenario might end or get suddenly worse very soon'.

Maybe.

Most of my aversion to you touching me is that finally letting my guard down that much would be an entertaining place for Thauron to show his hand, I only had a few actual physical panic responses and I untrained all of them with deliberate practice and if you didn't turn into Thauron you could have me just fine, I wouldn't be very fun but you would not be causing psychological damage and I wouldn't be higher-than-background levels of panicked and suicidal...

Wow, yay, I'll clear my schedule.

As a clarification. I'd have phrased it differently if I wanted to give it a try. Which I might, eventually, but I'll probably bother Findekáno when I do, he's likelier to go along with it.

Sigh. Okay.

Which part of that provoked the sigh?

Whole thing. It is a sighing sort of thing. I don't have arguments or anything but I sure can inhale and exhale.

Okay. Good night.

You want me to stay or go?

I want Kib to do whatever makes him happiest.

Okay, Kib is doing what doesn't require him to get out from under these blankets. I can tell a golem to shake me if I yell but I'm now meant to be of the belief that it makes no difference?

Makes a difference to me whether you want to be here. Doesn't make much difference whether you're in fact here, except to the degree I can expect the two to correlate, which they'll do less if I make a sad face and ask you to stay. Or a strained one and ask you to go.

I mean, it doesn't make a difference to you if you have to wake me up or Charp does it.

No, that's fine. Aggressively quieting you isn't very intimate anyway.

Okay. Love you.

Love you, he says, just to see if that makes Kib's face melt into a stranger's, and even when it doesn't he does not sleep the rest of the night.

Unclear if Kib even registers the difference; he's already breathing slower.

In addition to spending a truly unfortunate amount of her life dying of the pox, Aly sometimes made what sounds like really delightful love to her husband.

Lucky carefree happy Aly.

Mhmmmmmmm~

- and in the morning Kib wakes up.

And he is already up and dictating letters over osanwe and flipping through stacks of memos. Morning. I love you. It's safer in the morning; it'd be less Thauron's style to end it now.

...Love you too. And he disentangles himself from his many blankets and stretches and gets up.

And Maitimo watches him leave.

After a little while to process the revelation that he is the reincarnation of Kib's husband, Aydanci goes and checks with Kib to see if it's okay to tell people. ...Apparently practically every adult Aydanci knows already knew. It was news.

But Lári doesn't know. Aydanci goes looking for Lári.

"Aydanci!"

"Hi! ...Do you remember way back when we ran into Kib in the palace and you thought he liked me more?"

"He totally did."

"Yeah. It turns out, there was a reason. I'm, uh, a reincarnation of his husband."

"...woah. Weird. His husband?"

"Yeah." ...He could add the clarification that Kib is a reincarnation of his wife but. Maybe he won't.

"Well, do you like him? Are you going to marry him?"

"I mean. Probably? Or I sort of already am married to him unless I don't want to be? I like him so far but I'm waiting until I'm a bit older and have more dreams about my past life."

"Yeah. That makes sense. 

Is it kind of a lot of pressure? He's just been waiting, your whole life..."

"I - not really? He doesn't expect anything in particular. He just told me the story of my life, so I could put the dreams in context, and he isn't going to avoid me anymore but I don't think he'd bother me if I asked him to go away."

"That's good. At least he's pretty cute!"

"He invented storks," says Aydanci, this being clearly more important. "In his past life."

"You mean in the lost world?"

"Yeah, there."

"Wow."

Fervent nodding. Storks! The inventor of storks!

"That's amazing.

Are you going to get dreams about programming and get way better at it than me.

Are you going to get sex dreams."

"Um, I was a servantmaker in my past life so... maybe? They come in random order. ...and. Maybe?" Blushing. "I guess?"

"I wonder if I'm a reincarnation. I hope not. No offense. Seems - nice if you have a husband who invented storks. Really weird otherwise."

"You're older than me so you probably would have gotten at least one dream already if you were one. I thought maybe it was common for humans because my parents just said it was a thing that happens with humans sometimes, but apparently it's really rare and Kib doesn't know why it's him and me."

"Maybe because he invented storks so when he dies they see his soul going off wherever human souls go and they snatch it and bring it back."

"...I don't think golems can see souls."

"I have no idea why it works but if it's only him and you and he invented storks and he told the storks to find you..."

"...the next best guess we have is that it had to do with him yelling at me to come back when I died. So maybe it does have to do with storks."

"Either way. Cool."

"Kinda, yeah. He thought about leaving me in the lost world but I'm glad I'm here instead."

"Why would he do that?"

"It would be safer."

"But then there'd be fewer servantmakers here and the Elves would all be in more danger."

"Yeah. That's one of the reasons I'm glad I'm here."

"Also being the only human would be so boring. Also this way we had parents."

Nod. "I like having parents. And I'm glad you don't have to be the only two humans."

She hugs him. "I'm glad I know you. You're really smart and nice. And I'm glad the Elves are safer because we've got more servantmakers."

Hug! Nod nod nod.

"I hope you like him."

"He invented storks."

She giggles. "Yeah, but he could be, I don't know, grouchy. Or boring."

"He didn't seem grouchy or boring when he was telling me the story of my life."

"I bet he's great. And you did marry him last time. But still."

"He said we were really happy up till the part where his past life got sick and died. And then after he reincarnated he found me and I went to Valinor with him. I remembered the Trees, first dream."

"Were they pretty?"

"They were so pretty. But I thought they were too bright, I had shades over my eyes."

"That seems reasonable enough. Elves can't do shades or shines so things in Valinor should be the right brightness for Elves."

"Yeah, that's who it was designed for."

"Lucky they found the lost world, though."

"Did you know how that happened?"

"No, but the King said that Kib was the first traveller from it and he met Kib because of course he did, and they were so confused at each other for a while because humans are different than Elves so many ways, and then Valinor helped the lost world and now Kib was helping the Elves."

...secret thing is secret. "That's true, but the way he traveled is bizarre. There was a snake monster, in the lost world, with a portal for a face, and it... ate some people with its portal... but Kib's the only one who found a way back so he doesn't know where the others went."

"A snake monster?"

"That's what he said. I don't think he was making it up either."

"Weird."

"Yeah. ...So I guess if you see a snake monster don't go in its face."

"Noted!"

Aydanci giggles.

Aydanci starts hanging out with Kib, more, but it's not effortless - Aydanci barely remembers anything that isn't Kib being an aloof Important Grownup, Kib doesn't want to make uninvited overtures and "telling excess stories about being happily married" seems like it might qualify, they mostly wind up talking shop and making meaningful eye contact that doesn't turn into meaningful anything else.

Sometimes Aydanci has a dream about the eighteen years of thinking Aly was dead. Making golems, thinking Aly dead. Picking at his dinner, thinking Aly dead. Writing strongly worded letters to politicians about vaccination programs out of coldest deadliest need for revenge, thinking Aly dead. Staring at the ceiling unable to fall asleep because his Aly is dead. When he gets those he goes and sits with Kib, sits a little closer, leans on him - once says, "I'm so glad you're all right" - hugs him -

- but it's not really trivial to bridge the gap from being very glad that Kib is all right to knowing how to express this with kissing or anything. (Aydanci suspects that his kissing impulses are wired funny, at least compared to Elves, he doesn't know how humans normally work, maybe having all of his fluttery feelings about he invented storks and not about his pretty brown eyes is human-normal. And how do you kiss somebody about their having invented storks? He must have figured it out before but he doesn't remember -)

- he's seventeen and the dreams are a nearly nightly event before he gets any of the expected sex dreams. It's set in Valinor, in their house, a few weeks after they moved into it, and they've had time to relearn each other (it's familiar, in the dream, he remembers remembering where to put his hands and press his lips and remembers knowing what to expect -) but not enough time to have fallen into a pattern, not enough time for the shine of Aly-miraculously-okay, Kib-miraculously-alive, to have worn off.

He wakes up groggy, but the memories slot into place without him needing to be fully conscious to help them along. When he wakes up he still remembers remembering even where there are gaps in what he actually remembers.

He has breakfast and an extra cup of tea and goes to see Kib and kisses him. They don't get any work done that morning.

The ring of fortresses around Angband is completed, with shine communication in place between all sites. Lári pauses her aging at 18 (or as close to it as can be figured, given how long she spent as a delayed infant in Valinor); Aydanci waits a couple years past that. He doesn't dream the wedding but he dreams a snippet of anticipating it, of being so delighted that Aly! wanted to marry! him!, and from there they wind up planning a vow-renewal of sorts. Tasteful. Autumn.

I can, and am very tempted to, ensure that people don't give you trouble over it.

Trouble over it? Like what? There were idiot remarks in Valinor, we can cope with those...

I mean that they owe you their safety and should bring you both presents.

People neglecting to bring us presents is not something I would naturally class as 'trouble'.

I expect there'll be comments. Probably not more than that.

You may exercise your kingly discretion, of course, but it is not going to ruin our day if we are able to find places to put all our gifts without having to assemble new organizational furniture.

Well, I'll be sending one. Congratulations.

Thanks.

It is a lovely vow renewal. He sends a lovely present. There are comments, but not many of them.

They ignore (or in a couple irresistible cases sass) the commenters. They delegate thank-you notes to a Charp, after. They're busy.

And Fëanáro develops something he expects to be able to dent Thauron. (Whether the dent will be embarrassingly shaped has yet to be empirically tested.)

They mass manufacture it nonetheless. They're in a bit of a rush - Thauron appears to be setting up his humans to go to war with a neighboring Dwarf kingdom - but it's only worth extending their forces so far afield for a decisive victory, and they're going to need a way to get the weapons within poking distance in the first place. Fëanáro is toying with gunpowder.

The servantmakers servantmake. The war golems are adaptable enough to be handed new weapons and taught to use them, but the new strategic concerns do need to be delivered by someone with root permissions once per make of golem.

They verify a hundred different ways that the impeding war is no illusion.

And they head out. Ten thousand people and four hundred thousand golems. They should be able to injure Thauron from a distance of half a mile with projectile weapons, and if that doesn't work they can at least leave him no chance at retreating. And then hit him a lot with things designed to strike at the things Valar and Maiar are made of. (If it goes cleanly enough, it might be time to move on Angband. But. One thing at a time.)

Kib's parked in the shine comm room. It's just a little faster to have the shines puppeted before they're programmed on their way than to have to step them around by prodding them with inscribed objects, but it is that little bit faster.

The humans they're hoping they won't have to hurt at all, assuming a spectacular battle with some Balrogs and with Thauron and then three warservants per person is enough to get them in a cooperative mood. The Dwarves they debated whether to tell in advance that they were coming. Decided not to. Killing Thauron is just too important.

When the ground around Kib starts shaking the host is six hundred miles away.

...this isn't. An earthquake-prone area. Anybody know what's going on?

He didn't manage to animate a mountain. Or, well, he didn't animate a mountain; hard to say if he could have managed it. But these are several hundred feet tall. And there are dozens of them.

...Shit. Okay. What have they got on hand to deal damage, anything sufficient to break an instruction will do the trick - moving parts or no? That'll affect whether there's a fight over the use of the chassis as puppets afterwards -

(Shines race off, color-coded, distress distress distress -)

Yep, moving parts. They've got some of the weaponry that the departing host left with. The golems are not visibly covered with instructions. The weapons are not visibly doing anything.

If they're not visibly covered in instructions maybe they're puppets in the first place? Some of the Enemy's servantmakers hidden somewhere? Kib tries to co-opt one.

No change. The golems rip apart the walls.

Hello, Kib, a voice says. Do I get to murder your husband again? It's more fun if he stays dead.

The shine comm office is not designed to have an escape hatch into a tunnel or anything so convenient. Kib's cornered. Somebody osanwë Aydanci and Lári that they need to get the fuck out, the army didn't take all the pterodactyls -

It's scattered and panicked and not wholly in words, but - Yeah, done, they're both heading south, Macalaure's got them illusioned -

I'm kinda pinned

Troop movements. They're trying to get to him, trying to hold enough of their force back to get everyone else out, trying to cover the whole operation with an elaborate overlay of illusions -

The door opens.

Charp interposes itself between Kib and the intruder, but realistically what's that going to do.

Not very much. A hole melts through Charp.

The man is tall, pretty, remarkably relaxed-looking. Could be an Elf, except he's wearing his hair loose. "Akibel!" he says. "Do you know, this is the most trouble I've ever gone to for a job interview. You should feel complimented." Behind him there's a roar and the earth shakes some more. "Oh, but we should conduct this back at my place."

Too late should've had Charp kill him before the door even opened - there's nothing else here for it, Charps don't even come in puppetable form -

He wakes up in Angband.

Kib picks a strategy.

And he flings himself at it without a moment's further thought.