"And people trust Maiar oaths anyway?"

"Most Maiar can't do illusions, let alone well enough. And I've never been in a position of needing to trust one. I think the Enemy must have faked some oaths somehow in Valinor, while he was setting himself up for this."

"Oh?"

"Either that or the Valar never asked him to deny intent to return to mass-torture-and-slaughter, which is stupider than I tend to assume they are."

"Faking it to a Vala seems like it ought to be harder than faking it to a regular person."

"And yet they paroled a mass torturer and murderer. DId you have any time to make progress on suicide triggers?"

"The next steps are 'see if the basement dwellers die' and 'try in a live volunteer, possibly even if they do' - I should have a control basement dweller, I should have thought of that."

"We should have suggested it. We'll leave that out of the epic song. Won't be ready to go in three days, in any event?"

"Not for mass deployment."

"Mass deployment wouldn't be the point. I don't think I should go to a parley without one. Though if you're there you have the means to do it anyway, probably."

"Yes, given certain assumptions, although I have never actually killed someone before and may not have the instincts you'd want for when to do it."

"That surprises me. Guess you mostly have better options."

"I was murdered at age twenty-two and between then and being summoned here I have spent literally all of my time in a dimension with nobody who could possibly die, or under at least modestly competent bindings!"

"Well. I'd be delighted to end this without killing anyone more except the Enemy, but I don't have any idea how to do that.

How likely are you thinking it is that the Enemy got backup-hijacking working?"

"Don't know. I'm not sure what other things he could have efficaciously chosen to lie about if he were choosing a lie, that's a factor."

"I don't know enough about orc culture to know what else would excite them. 

Mandos doesn't torture souls, incidentally, though the process can involve isolation for thousands of subjective years which under some definitions ought to count."

"Counts under formal definitions even for much shorter periods, where I'm from."

"The main things we need my father for are an assessment of whether he could have gotten the Silmarils working in that manner, an assessment of how indestructible they are and what kinds of Angband-levelling they can tolerate - a black hole would definitely destroy them - and whether given that he now has you he can remake them. And to learn the language orc-oaths are in so he can find loopholes, there always are some."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Are you taking the orcs to our city?"

"No, I'm just bringing them along so they can be addressed, they're staying in their shuttle."

"What's the range you can address them from?"

"Lightspeed delay's the limiting factor, visual range if I want to manifest anything new in with them, do you want me to leave them a bit inland?"

"Sounds good.

I also think you should go ahead and infosec-hazard Dwarf locations because there's no way Doriath's letting any of us in now."

"'kay."

All Dwarf-produced maps...