Made contact with the locals. They fled to some cave systems they know, north of here. Thirty-two miles. They sent their memories of the place, once we explained why we needed it. We can't see what's out there, it's got some illusions up, and so far they've tested the defenses but not really tried them. But - having a mountain in between that and us sounds really nice. 

Thirty-two miles. Leareth considers it. :Twelve hours: he decides. :If an attack seems to be coming in greater force, I can chance it sooner. And - I ought to speak with Nelyafinwë regarding my world’s magic and the options it might offer:

I'll get him. 

Do you want me in person? he asks Leareth a second later. I told Macalaurë to sing until you're fully recovered but I can probably fit in the tent too if it's helpful.

:I wish to speak to you of my world's magic – this is information that I very much wish our enemies not to learn. It is up to you whether you think the correct level of paranoia here involves speaking behind a privacy-barrier, now that we are no longer in Valinor: 

But they don't know for sure that the Maiar with them are on their side. Leareth isn't sure how much they can know that the people are definitely on their side. 

He ducks into the tent. Activates the privacy barrier himself, from his amulet.

:Thank you: Leareth redoes the linkage with the mated Quendi not-light-artifact, so it won't run down the power; it's a lot less magic than he would need to cast it himself. :I apologize, I am not at my sharpest. Could you remind me, what are the magics I have spoken to you of so far?: 

You can do Gates.  You can shield people against physical and magical harm. You can see other magic, and nondestructively interact with it. Your osanwë reads private thoughts. You can make magic items that do any of those things, or let other people do them. 

:Thank you: Where to start. Velgarth's magic is - varied. :The magic of my world is very versatile; the downside is that it is tiring and requires concentration, and there are no shortcuts; I need to know a technique or invent it in order to use it. I can also see things at a distance, both images and magic. Communication at a distance also. Heat and cold we also have used already. I can move objects, including very heavy ones. I can make detailed illusions to hide things, or to imitate things that are not there – in fact, I have considered adding a concealment-layer to your amulet, in case you are ever in a situation where hiding is better than running or fighting. You have seen fairly little of my offensive magic, but – fires, explosions, lightning, simply blasts of force, all are possible: 

He frowns. :And, in addition to reading private thoughts, my magic allows me to – not change them, precisely, but I can lay something called a compulsion, which will control a person's actions. I tested it unobtrusively and it works. If we are attacked again, this might be one of the least power-costly methods of defending ourselves: 

That's terrifying and he didn't anticipate it - more paranoid - no point in asking how he tested it, if he wants to say he will - 

Balrogs are Maiar. You think it'd work on them?

:I am not sure but I am certainly willing to try it. My world also contains powerful extraplanar beings of various sorts, which can sometimes be magically bound; I might try that shape of binding as well. Regular compulsions will work on orcs: 

Leareth looks down at the blankets, thinks. 

:I tested it with an extremely minimal and harmless compulsion on a stranger in the city: he admits. :I did not tell you immediately because - I wished to hold it in reserve for the contingency where Melkor suborned you or your father or somebody else you trust: 

He takes a slow breath. :And, at the time, I was still considering whether the interpersonal mistrust and conflict among your people was intractable on the timescale we were working with, and that I might wish to take over myself. I did not end up doing this, and – while I cannot swear to you that I will not change my mind, I doubt it. It seems a very poor allocation of time and skills for me to attempt to make the strategic leadership decisions here. Just as it is not in your interest to let anything happen to me, it is not actually in my interest to betray your family and attempt a coup. Not when I depend on your people for protection if and when I need to exhaust myself by fighting with magic. Not when you are very good at this, and have all of the context that I lack: 

He lifts his hands, palms up, lets them fall back to the blankets. :I cannot ask you to trust me any further than that, at this time. I know that. I am a powerful and ruthless stranger with unknown motives, dropped in your midst, and it is simply correct on your part to be paranoid. But – I will at least ask that you trust I am not stupid, and that it is in both of our incentives that the war be won: 

It wouldn't be a good idea. It'd break - our people know who they're following. There are thousands of years of trust there. If it were cast into doubt I don't think there'd be any reason for anyone to particularly listen to anyone else. 

:I have noticed. As I said, I am not stupid. Early on, I was...not sure how much of that trust was still intact, whether it would bear the weight it needed to. But I think that bridges were rebuilt, even, during what just happened. It helps in some ways, to have open war and a common enemy: 

He looks down again. 

:Something else. In my world, magic can be fuelled from - killing. The death of a sapient being releases a very large quantity of energy. This is honestly quite an inconvenient fact about magic; I would prefer that my incentives were not in favour of murdering people. It seemed less relevant when we still had the Trees. Now we do not. Even once I am recovered, if an attack happens in force, drawing on Huan will not be sufficient. Nor will it be sufficient for a Gate on the scale needed to transport large numbers of people between the continents. Blood-magic might be. And...it changes matters, that your people do not die permanently: He smiles slightly. :Also, there are conveniently orcs out there: 

On your world this is done by - destroying people? Permanently?

:Not their souls. Those come back. But - a soul is not all that a person is, in my world, and in the usual order of things they return with none of their memories: 

He shakes his head. :The gods sometimes do a thing where they return souls with memories, to serve as their avatars or as magical beings. Thus, I know it is possible, and I hope that someday I will be able to do it with everybody I have ever killed. I...will need to win a number of battles, first: 

Which he's going to do. Someday, somehow, no matter how long it takes. I made a vow. 

That's not - a trade he would advise anyone to make, a path he'd recommend they start down. But he's missing a lot of context. And anyway, Leareth is here, now, where he can't hurt anyone, not permanently, and where he's shown little inclination to advance his goals at their expense.

Unless he's lying. Usually Maitimo does not need to consider the possibility that people are lying to him but here he probably should. And it's very unfair that he can't consider it privately, he can feel that fact about the world bending his judgment, because the parts of him that other people can see are always, always arranged to be reassuring, trustworthy, certainly impossible to improve upon as an ally with mind-altering magic, and want to arrange themselves that way even if they happen to be all of him - 

- he can think about that more when Leareth is sleeping.  

Well, I assume we can't take orcs alive but if you can use the ones surrounding us, that seems fine. And if that's too far away we can ask for volunteers.

It's not a trade Leareth would prefer to have made either – he can't even remember the start of the path, vanished into the fog of lost memories, but his records of the early days after the Cataclysm have his ledgers, balancing the numbers, convicts executed for blood-magic or children dead of starvation, and he doesn't want that to have been the world, but it was. 

He isn't a good person. Not by anyone's definition. And now isn't the time to try to defend his worldview and decisions to Maitimo.

:I ought to be able to use any that are near the shields: he sends. :I am considering what other magics might work against Balrogs. And...I think that I ought to obtain memories of the cave location now. If we are under attack and overwhelmed before I am rested, I can at least Gate you and your father and a few others to safety, and you can organize the locals from there:

Leareth looks away, toward the opening of the tent, the camp bustling outside. :Other relevant information that you should have. I am not mortal in the way most people in my world are. I - found a loophole, one might say. If my body dies here, it would be very costly to my plans back home, I lose more of myself than Quendi do even via my method, and I would be effectively lost to your war effort – I am not sure I would be able to replicate my journey here, and certainly could not do it quickly – but I would not be gone forever. So I am willing to take risks, if I think they are justified, and you can ask that of me also: 

His lips twitch. :I expect I make more sense as a person if you know that I have lived several dozen lifetimes, and have the knowledge and experience that entails: 

Well, that's a relief, he says lightly. We will still try very hard to keep you alive.

What are the odds that's all the revelations - no, he can think about that later. 

Here's what the people in the caves passed along. And he sends their sense-memories.

It's not all the revelations. Not by a large margin. 

:All right - then my plan if an attack comes in force before we are ready is to Gate your father, you, and whatever number of others can make it through a small Gate, to those caves. If they wait twelve hours, I should be able to Gate everyone. It is not immediately obvious to me the best way to fight a Balrog with my magic – I can try both compulsions and bindings but I do not expect them to work. What is known about Balrogs?: 

Maiar are - they're smaller than the Valar, magically, but they're also smaller along another dimension. They mostly only care about one specific thing. Some Maiar guard one particular river from harm, or ensure the thriving of one species of mushroom. Or are a dog. Sometimes their interest overlaps sufficiently with normal Quendi things to care about that they can be best thought of as an eccentric person, but often that's really not the case. 

Balrogs are Maiar who decided to be enormous beasts that are perpetually on fire and have long whiplike limbs.

Huh. That's...a choice. :I assume their bodies are a kind of construct, and their true being is a field of magic? What happens if one destroys the body they are wearing? I assume it does not destroy them permanently, but it might take them time to regrow one: 

It does, yes. The way it was explained to me - and I'm not really a researcher - (and insecure about it, his father would trust him a lot more if he were legibly smart, if he were capable of making original research contributions in any of the hundred fields the Quendi invented) - is that in the body, the tiny bits that we are made of come together in very complicated patterns which must be precisely right for life to exist. And around a Maia or a Vala, the tiny bits don't fold according to the same rules that they do elsewhere in the universe. The magic messes things up just enough that it doesn't work. So a Maia or Vala who wants an organic form must build it up themselves from scratch and hold all the patterns together correctly with their will, and it took them millions of years the first time and still takes most of them a very long time now.

Nod. :If I had the Trees, I think I could draw sufficient power to shred the physical form by brute force. Since I do not, I will need to be cleverer than that. I will consider my options:

He catches a yawn. :...Perhaps after I sleep a little longer. Do you have any other questions for now?:

No. Sleep well.

:Wake me if there is an attack: Leareth lies down and closes his eyes.