:Sounds like him. Doubt he's got Healing – it's a different Gift from magic, in our world. What are the Valar?: 

Our world's gods. One of them is dedicated to - healing minds, and mostly pretty good at it for the kinds of problems that our people have, though this might be different. The complicating thing is that we're not sure whether they realize we can still Gate into their continent, they tried to close it off because of the war.

:Huh. I think we need to catch up on a lot of context, here. Might be better once Van's awake and we get where we're going. Er, have you heard anything from Leareth yet – I didn't follow what happened back there, was he getting out separately...?: 

I have not heard anything from him yet. I assume he would have tried to get out separately and maybe if he were very worn out not been able to immediately contact us afterwards. But - we should probably assume instead that the Enemy has him, which means the Enemy knows that he thought Vanyel could probably win this, which means he'll be very motivated to find us before Vanyel has recovered. 

:...Crap. That's bad. Um. I'll run really, really fast: 

I appreciate it. 

Vanyel wakes up properly an hour out of Doriath. (He's half-woken a few times, bouncing in the saddle, and Yfandes has soothed him back to resting.) :Where are we...?: 

:Not safe yet. Long story: Yfandes catches him up on the quick highlights. :Just be vigilant. We'll get an explanation soon. But...it's not good: 

By the time they reach Tumunzahar it seems less likely that Leareth Gated away and is just very tired. 

He spends a while arguing them in. Promises, eventually, that as soon as they have access to Valinor again he'll bring them the library of Tirion and that in the meantime they can have access to the Silmarils for research, as long as the King of the Noldor is there. 

Vanyel dismounts from Yfandes and nearly falls over. Spending multiple hours bouncing around belted to a saddle while semiconscious is a great way to end up very sore. 

:I'm sorry for not being more helpful: he tells Maitimo. :If we're safe here... I want to know what's going on, please. All we got from the person I assume was Leareth's agent is that you're at war? And he thinks I can help: 

Which he's going to do. Of course. Although, gods damn it all, Leareth could have picked better timing. 

Yes. One second - 

He activates the privacy barrier Leareth built into his amulet, assuming it functions the same way as the old amulet did.

It's triggered with the same osanwë command, and if he's forgotten the exact wording he'll probably be able to guess it anyway, it's pretty intuitive. 

There is no guarantee Melkor with Leareth in his possession can't get past all of this but it's probably better than nothing.

This world is called Arda. It has a creator who doesn't intervene much and fifteen gods. One of them is evil. Leareth noticed when he arrived that it looked like an evil god was orchestrating things and he turned out to be right. The evil god escalated once he realized we'd caught on to him; now we're at war with him. He's in a fortress in the north; we've been calling it Angband pending the first linguistics guild ratifying something. There are about a million civilians on this continent, and something like a million of the Enemy's servants, called orcs and magically bound to him. Leareth's been using them for fuel. In principle it ought to be possible to get them back later. It also ought to be possible to get us back later, and more straightforwardly, one of the gods who is not evil resurrects us when we die though he's not spectacularly prompt about it and we aren't confidently expecting him and the other not-evil gods to win a war with the evil one, if it comes to that - especially if the evil one has Leareth, which I think we ought to assume. 

Vanyel considers, briefly, whether he should believe what the man is saying. Then decides it doesn't matter. It's very obvious he's been snatched to another world; everything feels different, Yfandes can confirm that. If he's been snatched to another world on Leareth's request and also the person who Leareth was working with is lying to him about everything, then what exactly is he supposed to do about that? 

:...If you've known him for a while: Vanyel sends, slowly, :then - you probably don't need me to tell you how much of a disaster that is. Although. Can the evil god actually force people to work for him? Because I'm not sure Leareth would do it willingly. And I think he's pretty hard to trick: 

He closes his eyes. Takes a deep breath. Opens them. :Is there any possible chance of rescuing him?: 

It's not just that they need him, and need an enemy god not to have him. It's that, after everything else – and with the story of Urtho echoing around in the back of his mind – it's going to be the most pointless, stupid tragedy in the history of existence if he and Leareth end up fighting on opposite sides because Leareth brought him in to help and then, presumably because bringing Vanyel in distracted him, ended up captured. 

I don't know very much about what the Enemy can do. It doesn't seem impossible that he can duplicate things he has seen, and Leareth can force people to work for him. I - suspect that rescuing him is not going to be any easier than killing Melkor and may require it but - we were hoping to do that anyway, right -

:So he's told you about compulsions, then: Vanyel massages his temples. :I'm going to try to help, obviously. I'm not nearly as experienced as Leareth, he's almost two thousand years old – did you know that part? – and I'm in my early thirties. But I have fought a war before. And I'm a hell of a lot more powerful than he is. Also. There's something a mage can do called a Final Strike – it kills you, but it does a lot of damage on the way out:

(And he is not going to think about blue-white fire filling the horizon on the other side of a Gate, seventeen years ago–)

:I'm not sure: he sends, slowly, carefully, :but – depending how gods work, in your world, my Final Strike might be enough to take Melkor down. And Leareth's immortal - did he tell you that? If I kill his body, he'll come back: 

Vanyel...won't. But that's fine. 

He said you'd say that. 

Admittedly he thought the situation would be significantly less dire than this but - no. Our first three plans are going to be ones that get at least one of you out alive, because otherwise we can't fix Velgarth. There have got to be ways to cause very big explosions without losing a whole world. And I'm not entirely sure very big explosions will kill Melkor anyway.

:He said I'd say that? Huh. I guess he knows me pretty well at this point: Vanyel looks down at his hands. :It's not - on you to fix Velgarth. If all we can do is save your world, that's... I wouldn't blame you for it. But: He isn't sure how to find words for the emotion he's feeling. :But if you want to try to do both, then I appreciate that a lot. And I would prefer at least one of us getting out of this alive. So we should figure out what the other options are: 

It's not on me to fix Velgarth any more than it's on you to fix Arda. But not any less, either. 

What's the problem with your magic, how do we go about fixing it -

:I'm not sure exactly. Basically, I can use magic, but my control is off. I - fended off a really big explosion, Yfandes says she told you that part? I was unconscious for a month. My mage-channels – that's the part where magic actually goes – are all right now, but there's something wrong with the part of my mind that interfaces with that, I think: 

He fidgets with his sleeve. :Probably I should tell you the whole story. It's relevant to - who Leareth is, and it might be relevant to fighting Melkor too. How much did Leareth tell you about himself?: 

Very old, by the standards of his people, who mostly live very short lives and don't remember them when they're reborn. - my people do not die except by accidents or violence, and he's not very old, for one of us. He was planning to fix his world by making a new god, and planned to do this by killing ten million people, and had set up most of the infrastructure to do this. - that's not the plan now. If there are other worlds then there are probably ones with resources to solve things some better way. He tried to assassinate you or kidnap you various times, but he's under the impression you're friendly now. 

:It's complicated. But - I respect him a lot, and if he's right – about what needs to be done to actually make things better in my world – then it doesn't matter what he did to me personally. My main issue with him has been that I'm not sure I could tell if he were lying about everything including his motives. He's hard to read and he's got more practice at everything than I do including making compelling arguments. Er, do you have an impression on whether he's sincere? It...sounds like he's put himself at a lot of risk for you. I don't see why he'd do that if he'd been lying about what he wants to me this entire time: 

He put himself at a lot of risk to help us, over and over. He was - when we were thinking about the plan once we've fixed Arda and Velgarth he was sad that they probably aren't the only worlds that have problems, that we'll have to keep working.

I don't think he's lying.

- and if he is we'll find out soon, because he'll presumably work with Melkor. 

Vanyel nods.

:Anyway, I went digging for information on his past, and I found a lot more than I was expecting. I have the notes, even, they were in Yfandes' saddlebags. Er, did he ever mention someone called Urtho to you?: 

Headshake.