"So?" Vanyel says quietly. 

IT SEEMS LIKELY TO ME THAT, EXTRAORDINARY AS IT MAY SEEM, THIS WAS SOMEHOW ORCHESTRATED WHILE MAITIMO WENT ABOUT HIS CONVALESCENCE IN AIWENORE. WE WILL WISH TO INVESTIGATE OTHER POSSIBILITIES AS WELL.

“Of course. We will testify again in front of the court. Is it at all possible to have Rolan give his testimony secretly again? Maitimo not realizing how we were using him is the only reason we caught this as much as we did.”

I WILL DISCUSS THIS WITH MANWE BUT I THINK IT COULD BE ARRANGED SOMEHOW.

“Thank you. When is this likely to happen? I want to take some precautions against Maitimo talking to other villages with osanwe in the meantime, unless you already have a plan for this.” 

I HAVE ASKED HIM FOR HIS ASSURANCE THAT HE WILL NOT DO SO.

PERHAPS HE GAVE IT FALSELY.

"I certainly worry he did. I would like your permission to place a very large osanwë barrier around the village where he is - if his assurance was truthful, it will not even inconvenience him at all since he was not going to speak to others anyway. Also I'd like to stick around nearby-ish just in case there are any more disasters. And I can help with rebuilding if and when that gets settled, I'm unusually useful for that." It's not really the best use of his time but if he has to hover nearby anyway...

YOU MAY DO THIS.

Then he will. And Rolan will stay in the area too, under illusion, skimming the surface thoughts of the several villages nearest Maitimo's - does anything stand out as suspiciously convenient for the goal of 'cause chaos or injuries or political problems'?

A lot of people heard about the dam break and are pretty freaked out! Some of them heard that the Velgarth mages did it. Some of them heard that Sauron did it. 

Also there's a woman who is wondering whether she should go to Aulë while he's here about her Foresight dream. It had water crushing a village, in it, which makes her worry that the rest of it might come true soon too.

Vanyel spends a while being indecisive about it and then goes to Aulë with this bit of information. "I'm concerned it could point at some other scheme Maitimo set up when he still had osanwë reach to the other towns. I can talk to her myself if you're occupied." 

I THINK I WILL GO SPEAK TO HER.

"All right." It doesn't seem like there's much point in Vanyel going too, then, Rolan can eavesdrop on thoughts at a distance. 

Aulë goes to talk to the woman.

She's been getting prophetic dreams, the kind that Elves sometimes get; clearer than a regular dream, but even swifter to vanish on waking. Two parts: first, the water crashing down and swamping the village. 

And secondly, Fëanáro with the Silmarils in hand, surrounded by allies whose faces she can't make out, making cities so so bright that suddenly everyone in them is dead.  

That isn't reassuring at all. 

Vanyel uses the communication artifact to reach Jisa in Vinyamar, who can convey it to Stef as well. It's not perfectly secure and he doesn't have a prearranged code, he'll just have to hope that they're right about the Velgarth mage sighting being obviously faked.

<Tell Findekáno> he suggests. <He'll be the most levelheaded about it. I'm - it's sort of suspicious, right, I don't see how the dam and Sauron attacking sooner could possibly be related - unless Sauron has a way of knowing every time Telumë and I leave Velgarth - but if it's real and this the only advance warning we're going to get...> 

And Stef slips away and heads to Findekáno's office as soon as possible, Jisa trailing him. "Vanyel contacted us. His meeting with Aulë went as well as we can expect, I think the Valar might actually believe us and let Rolan testify secretly, but. We have some additional concerning news." 

"Great," he says unhappily.

"Jisa?" Stef waits for her privacy-barrier before he continues, explains the second part of the Foresight dream. "I'm - I don't know, something feels fishy here, on priors it looks like a Maitimo-plot somehow - timing and location, right - but I don't see how. If he had communications with Sauron, surely he'd be doing more with that, and also Rolan would've at least seen hints of it. But, it could be an indication that we're about to end up in the really bad scenario, where Sauron moves before we're ready." 

"Our understanding of the way Foresight worked in Arda before we made contact with Velgarth was that it always came true. It's not like yours, where sometimes it's averted. But lots of people Foresaw various aspects of the war with Melkor that didn't happen, and while we can't categorically rule out that there won't be a second war with Melkor - I think plausibly Foresight is sometimes wrong, now. It's possible that she saw it but it's not going to happen.

But it's not a great sign."

"Huh. It's making me think of what Van said about the Star-Eyed Goddess and the Shadowgod - how their Foresight is all messed up by having Sauron around. Maybe we're doing the same to your world, disrupting things so they're not on the track they would've been, and that makes Foresight unreliable." Shrug. "Still not a great sign. I should warn Telumë, find out the status of his preparations. Just in case. And...tell Dara that probably Rolan should stay in Valinor for the next while, I think we need the intelligence he can get us." 

"I'm not going to tell Fëanáro yet," Stef says, sounding unhappy about it. "It's kind of fraught not to, but - I really don't want him to overreact." 

"That makes sense. He took earlier Foresight dreams about the war really poorly, anyway."

"That's what I'm worried about."

And he'll stay in touch with Vanyel, draw in everything he can from the region. Watch. Worry a lot. About everything but especially about Vanyel, who may be better equipped to defend himself than anyone else in both worlds but it's still terrifying knowing he's on the same continent as Maitimo. 

And the Valar convene a trial on Taniquetil. They would like Fëanáro and Nerdanel to be there, as it is both one of their subjects and also their son on trial for murdering a dozen people. They consent to one Gate so that this can be arranged without too much time lost to travel; they are noncommital about whether they will permit a return Gate. 

"I do think we ought to be there, though."