"Everyone else read it as her punishing us for the Oath and subsequent catastrophes by giving her powers to everyone else, and as making us provide the needed materials - it was a lot of complicated magic - as a show of power, but I don't think that was her intent or that she was entirely aware it was the result."

"Yeah, I doubt that was what she was going for."

"We only got the Silmarils back with about ten minutes to spare, and if there'd happened to be an earthquake in the wrong place before Findekáno found me we would all have died, but it did work out. And by that point I think that was an acceptable risk to her because she had plans to bring us back."

"I will want to hear her version of this before deciding what I think of it."

"I'm quite sure you'll agree with her, isn't that how this whole thing works? I am really not trying to bias you otherwise; the story I told Fëanáro had no omissions save for softening some of the Enemy's crimes because he's, what, twelve?"

"I will probably agree with her but I don't yet know why I will agree with her. And, yeah, twelveish, although that's going to get confusing to count numerically now he's growing on normal time and not Valinor time."

"The only things I did not share were things that'd give him nightmares or things about my personal life, though during the war it was in fact wholly appropriate for children..."

"Yeah, circumstances force all kinds of revisions of what's appropriate for kids to know."

"Loki was a great adoptive parent of Men."

"That's what the Valar decided I was, a Man."

"It's what you look like! Our Men were born fully grown and were very vulnerable."

"Oh dear. I'm glad she found time to adopt them, that sounds awkward suddenly existing full grown."

"And the Enemy had made a go of adopting them first." He shudders.

"Um. What did he do?"

"As far as we know, not much of anything? He was turning some into werewolves, who are tougher and immortal and mostly think they got a good deal; he was teaching them to sing hymns to Morgoth but they weren't magic hymns, he taught them stonemasonry..."

"...huh. How long did he have them?"

"Three weeks. We expect it would have gotten worse."

"Seems like a good guess."

"So my father authorized a in-hindsight-unwise effort to stop him, and we won, and someone died for me but he's back now and rather scowled at me when I tried to apologize- I think Findekáno coached him..."

"Who's Findekáno?"

A slight squaring of the shoulders. "My husband."

"Ooh, did Arda get more socially progressive?"

"No, no, it didn't. I just, once the war was over, didn't have more reason to care what Arda thought."

"Well, good for you."

"Neither of our parents disowned us. It was a poorly attended wedding party - Loki, Loki's friend - but my father sent a thoughtful present."