"Naught is left.  The chamber of iron is torn apart.  The Silmarils are taken."

Lirtë pats Lópa reassuringly. She kind of expects that her horse would have also considered her to be too dangerously insane to accompany if she'd attempted to ride her towards Melkor, let alone with 'some other great evil'.

Now if only she had the first idea what a Silmaril was, and why it was worth mentioning in the same breath as the King. She'd certainly heard the word before somewhere, but it was the kind of thing she'd been deliberately ignoring. For which she was now kicking herself, as it appeared 'run off into the woods once people wouldn't just immediately return her to her parents' was no longer the viable plan it might once have been.

...a creeping suspicion was beginning to set in, though. They'd been expected to be in the house with the King. They knew him well enough to know what mood had taken him. A song about gems blessed with Varda's light...

Then suddenly, the Elf standing in front of Mandos rises.  He doesn't bother looking at them, but anguish and anger are leaking through his osanwë - as if he's beyond caring about the impoliteness.

He lifts up his hand before Manwë and declaims:  "Cursed be Melkor in his coming and his going, in all his lies and his deceits, in every word that he speaks, which are all lies.  May he never find anyone to be tricked into friendship - may all know him as Morgoth, the Dark Enemy of All - may the Everlasting Darkness come upon him!  Witness this, all you Valar!

"And cursed be everything that aids him in his dark schemes - and connives at his lies - your festival, your summons - the Darkness take it - or I might have been there to save my father --"

With a wordless cry, he throws up his hands (Lirtë gets one glimpse of his face) and runs off into the darkness.

Nelyafinwë also gasps in dismayed shock.  "Alas -" and runs into the darkness after him.

Tyelkormo stares at the Valar, a new dismay leaking through his own osanwë.  "Surely you have a plan - but have you any plan for Father, now?"

...'alas', indeed.

Okay, the whole Valar thing is interesting, but Probably Her King Now has just run off into the darkness and she has a horse.

The terrible crushing unlight has subsided, so she is slightly less careful at rousing Lópa than she'd otherwise have been, although the rage and shock and sorrow that are resounding together throughout the area are not exactly helpful.

But Lópa gets up, and she leaps silently aside her, and they are away after the fleeing pair.

In the starlit dark, Fëanáro's anguished osanwë is like a beacon.  She catches up before anyone else - and might've ridden him down, if Lópa had been less attentive.

He gives her a brief dismissive glance, but doesn't say anything.

"Would you like a ride to wherever you are going?" she offers, as the first thing she thinks of which might be positively received. She wants to ask questions, but this doesn't exactly seem to be the moment.

He cries, "Can a horse gallop across the Sea?"

"Not right at this moment, to my knowledge," she replies, as calmly as possible, "but we could convey you to Formenos, or to the scene of the crime?"

As long as you know the way, she doesn't add. She can probably manage Formenos, now there is starlight.

"Formenos?  Formenos is no more.  Just ruins and a corpse.  What is the use?  Better to go to Mandos -"  He laughs, hollowly.  "- But that is no use either; the dead do not speak to the living, as I know full well."

"Do you have a plan, then?" she asks, hoping she doesn't sound too presumptuous, but not wanting to let him declaim his sorrow into the night without end. "For if you do not - your family do, and would appreciate your aid in carrying it out."

"Their plan?  Yes, what is their plan?  Vain tears before the dead husks of the Trees?"

"I know not their means," she admitted, "but they had come to collect you from the Valar, to venture to Middle-Earth with all haste and fight Mel...Morgoth." She remembers just in time that he had encouraged the use of a specific name.

He looks at her for the first time.  "And you?  Are you with them - with me?"

"Yes," she says, almost impatiently, because what else is she going to say?

She considers elaborating - 'you are my king' is there in her mind, but it actually seems like an irrelevance - she's not really there because he is probably her king, she's there because his family let her join them on the road and because this is the most interesting thing that has ever happened to her.

"Good."

He nods, taking that as settled, and looks over her shoulder.  "Come over; no need to lurk in the dar-" he pauses a moment.  "- starlight."

"Father."

Nelyafinwë comes over and puts his hand on Fëanáro's shoulder.

"We did not know you were there, or we would have spoken differently."

"I did not know Morgoth would be there, or I would have done much differently."

He sighs.

Oh good, not only did she avoid entirely screwing up the negotiation, now his son is here to take over. She'd been wondering where he'd got to.

She does regard them with a little worry, however - she was fairly sure Lópa was up to the task of carrying one more, be he ever so heavy, but the two of them are both rather towering and she's not sure all three are going to be a workable prospect.

A minute (and perhaps some private osanwë) later, Fëanáro looks sharply at Lirtë. "So, what brings you here?  Are you tired of my half-brother's kingship?  Excited to go to Middle-Earth?  Or just wanting to see whether the Valar would finally do something about this darkness?"

"I was abroad during the Unlight, and your kin welcomed me on the road." She isn't certain about any of the rest, so she might as well just tell the truth.

She feels the urge to justify herself further or sound more proactive, but she finds that she wants to see if he is satisfied by her first answer.

"And that's it?  You're happy to go home to Tirion and sit in the dark waiting for the Valar?"

"Obviously not, or I would not be out here in the dark seeking to reunite you with your kin - whose plan involves nothing of the sort."

"And for yourself?  Why didn't we meet you before?"