"Ah." A bit defensively.

He'll wait.

"I'm not sure what you want to know."

"It sounded like you got along okay with Elves before. Now you don't. Why?"

"They attacked us and want to wipe us off the planet in the service of the evil Elf-gods who also torture us after we die."

"They attacked first? When?"

"A year ago. Rockets came raining down out of the sky - aiming at schools and hospitals in particular - it was out of nowhere, and it was so pointless. And then the President explained what had happened - the evil Elf-gods told the Elves that the existence of orcs was an abomination unto Eru and now they were going to wipe us out. And so we mobilized, and we attacked everywhere the rockets were coming from and so many people were dying, and we were so scared of dying - and then Melkor came. And he said he'd found, at last, a way to keep our souls from going to be tortured by the Elf-gods when we died. He doesn't have a way to bring us back yet but the big thing is that he can keep us, and soon he'll have a way to bring us back."

oh fuck, these poor orcs.

"I can envision the appeal. Are all the orcs one political unit?"

"We weren't, but we are now. There were a series of alliances signed after we learned what was going on."

"Any attempt to parley with the Elves?"

"Yep. They refused to talk."

"Which Elves did you try talking to?"

"I don't know, it was in the papers - Doriath, with the Elf-god queen, the Falathrim by the sea, Mithrim, Ard Galan..."

Cam searches the corpus for newspapers.

There are newspapers reporting the refusal of the Elves to talk or cease firing the rockets. 

"How sure are you the newspapers are honest?"

"Before the war they always were. Journalists are supposed to take oaths to always report as accurate an understanding of the situation as they can. 

There have been a lot of bylines changed lately. 

The rockets I saw myself, the wreckage I saw myself. And the presence of a way to stop our souls from being tortured by the Elf-gods Melkor swore to, with a hundred thousand witnesses."

"I definitely believe that stuff blew up. I am not sure I believe it was Elves. And it sounds like Melkor could get a lot of mileage out of a very little truth."

"You think someone not the Elves launched rockets at us from the Elves' territory?"

"Or made it look like that's where they came from, can't Maiar do illusions?"

"They can."

"Are you by any chance under oaths that would prevent you from taking this information to its logical conclusion."

"I don't think I can answer that question."

"I continue to not be an Elf, does that help."

"If you were an Elf I'd be trying to kill you. I - the question you asked. I don't think I can answer it. Not won't."