"I would be delighted to tell her more about birds! I can talk to them now, you know. I promise I won't tell her about anything horrible I did with the ability."

Telumë can't help smiling. "The only consequence if you do is that she will be disturbed and not wish to see you again. I think she would be fascinated to hear of your bird-related adventures as long as you leave out the mis-adventures parts." 

He heads out. Stands in the hallway outside for a while, leaning his forehead against the wall. Surely it should ache less now that Maitimo is here, not more. 

The Valar will hear a petition from the governments of Valdemar and Karse about the Silmarils.

Fëanáro will give a speech about how he has given the Silmarils as a gift to the peoples of Valdemar and Karse for the war effort. He looks murderously angry but it is a good speech and he says nothing else. The Valar have some questions. He stands there silently and does not answer them. 

(She can answer them.)

King Treven of Valdemar rises to speak. He has the public speaking skills of someone tutored in it since childhood.

Valdemar's situation is dire. The occupiers have Arda magic, in the form of Sauron; without any corresponding advantage to combat that, fighting to get their country back will be very difficult. Sauron has tricked Vkandis Sunlord into joining his cause, perhaps corrupted Him entirely. He speaks a little about the atrocities they know have been and are likely still being committed in Valdemar's territory. He speaks of the courage and determination of the Valdemaran people - there are tears in his eyes - and how important it is to him, and the other surviving Heralds, that they somehow bring an end to the horrors.

Sauron wants to bring Melkor back from the Void, by slaughtering half a million people. If this happens, the war is lost - Velgarth is probably lost - perhaps Eru intended Melkor to exist here, in Arda, balanced by the other Valar, but Velgarth is different. Velgarth's gods are unprepared to fight off this invasion alone, or else the war would be won. 

Treven knows his Arda history. A long time ago, in the first war with Melkor, Eru saw that the Valar needed help, and granted them another god. 

If Velgarth has a creator god, They have never spoken to anyone and do not seem to be watching now or steering events. Only people, and the current gods, are available to do that. Valdemar has an alliance with the Shadowgod of their region, and also the Star-Eyed Goddess. They have said that they can't fight Vkandis-and-Sauron alone; even their ability to communicate with the humans here is limited. They're currently at an impasse. Neither side has the strength to win outright, but if Sauron retrieves Melkor, it's over. 

But in Velgarth, mortals can build a god. Albeit at a steep cost. 

They have the Shadowgod's approval for this. They have the approval of Mandos, who is working together with the Shadowgod on a plan. The plan will likely involve slaughter, because at this point they have fewer other options. Treven squares his shoulders, looks straight at the Valar, and says that he is certain the people of Valdemar, his nation, would consent to this, if there were any way to ask them. There isn't, since they are currently under the tyranny of Sauron. Mandos will help the Shadow-Lover bring them back. Mandos agrees to do this also for any Quendi who wish to volunteer; Quendi can give more energy with this sacrifice, saving other humans.

...The Silmarils are, in themselves, a power source. Treven isn't sure, yet, how many human lives might be saved by having them, but...many.

He will swear not to return the Silmarils to Arda, where they might be used for destruction there. The Valar can enforce this. But he pleads for his people to be allowed to accept this generous gift from the King of the Noldor, their allies, which might end up turning the tide of the war. 

The Valar withdraw to think about this. 

Fëanáro sits very still, staring angrily off at the horizon. Nerdanel has her arm around him. She sings. After a while he joins in with the harmony. 

The Valar return.

WE WILL PERMIT THE GIFT OF THE SILMARILS ON THE CONDITION THAT THEY ARE NEVER RETURNED TO ARDA. YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT WHEN THE SILMARILS WERE FIRST MADE, VARDA CONSECRATED THEM SO THEY WOULD NOT TOLERATE THE TOUCH OF EVIL. IF YOU DO EVIL WITH THEM, THEY WILL NOT TOLERATE YOU.

King Treven bows his head and acknowledges this. Thanks them graciously. 

Dara is tempted to ask for a definition of ‘evil’, here, but doesn’t, she really doesn’t want to sabotage this at the last moment. Maybe she can ask Varda in particular at some later point.

They're so stupid and narrow-minded and their decisions are just - reflexively grabbing something in the vicinity -

I know. But we've got the Silmarils for the war if we need them, that's what matters.

I had to give them away. 

I know. But it worked.

I want to leave Valinor immediately and never return.

That makes sense. Let's go, and check in with Vanyel and Telumë - and ask after Maitimo -

Who's that?

And they set off for Vinyamar.

Telumë tries to focus on his work. Doesn't go to see Maitimo, though he sends over books (on innocuous topics) and drawing supplies, and keeps him set up with humans who don't know anything sensitive and consent to risking manipulation by a known-to-be-very-evil alien prisoner.

Maitimo will remember everything, now, except for perhaps some future conversations with Telumë himself, if they settle on that arrangement. This makes him a bit more worried about Kalira - she's gotten very fond of the Noldor prince, she delightedly tells Telumë while waving her hands that he's the only person who gets how amazing birds are. He tells her that if she wants to keep being his companion, she needs to commit to this for the rest of the war, and will have to stay in this facility and not see her parents (who are both mage-scholars working on his god). She is eager to agree. He arranges for her to debrief with Melody every so often about what Maitimo has been saying to her. 

He feels Maitimo's emotions. He talks to Vanyel regularly. Writes down a lot of his thoughts on the tradeoffs between various options, here. He waits for Findekáno to be available. 

He gets back to Vinyamar. Vinyamar has been thrown into some disarray by the theft of its Silmarils but he can make time to meet with Telumë about Maitimo first.

Telumë is very grateful for this. He Gates across to Vinyamar with Vanyel and they head to Findekáno's office. 

"I am - sorry you're in this position again."

Which is better than being angry at him over it, Telumë thinks. 

"I did not wish to be," he says quietly. "However, complaining about the unfairness of the universe here is not going to get me very far, and - I have evidence now that I am better placed to be sufficiently paranoid and block all of his avenues to cause harm than anyone else. So. These are the options I have considered so far..." 

One: yes, he's aware the arguably-safest option here is to kill Maitimo. However, he's - kind of concerned that he isn't sure how the afterlife situation will work in Velgarth; he understands that going to Mandos is voluntary? If Maitimo's spirit doesn't follow Mandos' call, does he just...float around nearby? End up in the Velgarth spirit world, home to various god-avatars including maybe those that speak for Vkandis? Is it at all possible that he could go to Sauron and find a way of interacting with him? This seems implausible but so have lots of other things. If they do end up deciding to kill Maitimo, he wants Vanyel to speak with the Shadow-Lover again first.

Two: desert island. Safer in some ways. They've got a place; it's near Nayoki's homeland on the western coast, on the other side of five hundred miles of impassible Pelagirs wilderness. The difficulty is that it's not, really, territory Telumë currently controls. Getting the island cleared of humans Maitimo can manipulate will require either lots of military force or lots of diplomacy, and keeping Maitimo supervised and guarded will require an ongoing commitment of resources. Also, it's under the remit of the Haighlei gods, who...well, Telumë isn't sure how Their goals will interact with Maitimo's evilness, but he's a bit nervous about putting that to the test. And the Haighlei gods have very strong feelings about lifebonds. It's possible that an apparent one-sided-lifebond will alarm them enough to fix it and make it symmetric, or do something else he hasn't even thought of yet.

Three: keep him here in the north, under considerable mind control. Maitimo prefers this; he said so, under no mind control at all except the spatial-block that lets them keep him alive in a small set of rooms. This arguably involves a smaller resource commitment than the island, since his people are around anyway. Maitimo would have a reasonable quality of life, he thinks, now that they're not optimizing for interrogating him; he could go for walks in the tundra with guards, assuming it's not too hideous for him to handle, he can read and draw and sing. If any Quendi are still willing to be his companions, Telumë would be happy to have them.

If Maitimo is willing to trade a lot of mind control in exchange for ever seeing his husband - Telumë shrugs. It'll make it less likely he can get up to evil? Also, this is probably the option that gets them a fixed Maitimo soonest, after the war is won, whereas if they kill him they're stuck waiting for Mandos to reembody him. Telumë knows the timescales involved there aren't that significant to Quendi, but they are to humans. (They're significant to him.) 

What does Findekáno think? 

"...so there's the argument that whatever he prefers is what lets him do the most harm. I ...don't know that that's true? I get the sense he does have some other things going on, and separately I get the sense that Sauron maybe prefers deeply concerning marital relationships to higher-expected-harmdoing on a desert island far away. But it seems at least worth considering. 

Having him somewhere else in Velgarth that we have to clear of other people seems dangerous and wrong, to me.

There's - the argument that it's probably doing you harm, to keep him like this, to - you're planning to continue seeing him? Are you planning to sleep with him?"

"That is one of the things I wanted your advice on." He shakes his head. "I - think you are right, there are - parts of him other than Sauron's values. I...have a sense that he thinks he has done most of the damage he can, at this point? Drawn on all of the levers he had and burned them in the process." A pang in his chest. "It may do me harm to see him. That - could be part of why he prefers it. This is something I would want to pay attention to on an ongoing basis - have others check whether my impression is right... We both know I am not especially unbiased on this subject. But, I do think there is something good and valuable for both of us, in seeing each other, even if - even if Sauron has poisoned much of it, perhaps enough that it is not worth it." The war has already taken so much from them; it feels deeply unfair that it might force his hand into killing his own husband on top of all the rest. "If it does cause me harm, I - think that it is harm I can absorb without affecting the war effort. If others judge me to be wrong I will change my mind." 

"I think in an objective external sense you are probably making a mistake and should probably kill him and should definitely not see him. But - I don't know that I could do it, in your place, if it still felt like there might be another way, and - it sounds like you have reason to think there is - what precautions are you thinking about taking -"

"We would block his osanwë. Have Thoughtsensers frequently reading his mind, not all of the time but certainly if he were interacting with me. Likely place a number of specific compulsions against trying to harm anybody physically or running away, particularly if he wishes to go outside. There would always be well-protected guards with him. If I was going to see him - I think this would not be that often - I would block his memory for that time period, at least if we were planning to talk at all. I might offer that if he wishes to see me and remember it, I can compulsion myself to avoid any talking. We cannot really lay compulsions on him against manipulating people, but the people who guard him and keep him company will be quarantined and have no contact with the rest of my organization for the duration of the war and will regularly see a Mindhealer. I told him that this would not be subject to negotiation, and that I might add additional precautions at any time."

He looks down. "...Thank you for your honesty, in telling me that I am making a mistake. I - this is a very odd way for me to feel, one of my most fundamental traits as a person is my willingness to be ruthless. But. I - am not sure that I could make a choice to kill him when I was not utterly sure it was necessary, and then - keep going for the rest of the war - when my core memories are built on him specifically. If he were to slip anything past us, any kind of surprise, I - could decide to kill him then, I think. And I would cope," he thinks, he hopes so, "but - I might need some weeks to - figure out how."