Behold.

"Do you have means by which we can communicate with scientists we send to a planet."

"Experiments on faster-than-light information transmission that don't involve me on the receiving end are underway but have not yielded results and may not do so for years. When I am around I can conjure their correspondence for you like anything else." He incinerates the map. "I also can't take anyone offplanet right now because there's a pending parley invitation before which time evacuation will likely be taken as a particular provocation."

"And you think it will stop being taken as such? Please do not share those maps or the associated information with anyone. Elves are vulnerable to the Enemy."

"Haven't," Cam agrees. "I don't know if it will or not but the Enemy's proposed end of the bargain - which is probably but not definitely bullshit - is a year to evacuate, and it is possible I will come up with a bullshit-detection method I can trust between now and then."

"We imagine he would only offer that if he were getting something even better. Bullshit detection seems more straightforward, if you can summon things like 'maps of this kingdom'."

"We're concerned he'd deliver illusory and therefore nonbinding oaths... I might actually be able to work around that now that you mention it but I will want to consult with some people before assuming I can."

"If you secure leave to evacuate people we'll send some scientists and then perhaps others will decide to join them."

"That's good to hear. Would you mind communicating my existence and dispositions to other Dwarves insofar as you can so I don't have to be shot at quite so much?"

"We will do so. Can you read communications if they're encrypted?"

"If the communication is never set to recorded format unencrypted, then no, although I can get the ciphertext."

"Please do not access our internal communications or anything in our language."

"Wasn't planning on repeating the mistake."

"There aren't many who'd consider it a mistake."

"I have no qualms about violating the Enemy's privacy. You guys on the other hand were an innocent casualty of my imprecision and I apologize."

"If you get leave from the Enemy to show some scientists another planet, they are eager to go."

"Great. I'll come back in that event. If you need to get ahold of me, 'letter to Cam'. I can read Quenya but not Thindarin without computer translation if they're equally easy to come by. Anything else we should talk about before I go?"

"The Elves think the Elf-gods might help. Is that so?"

"I find it unlikely that they will help and much more unlikely that they will help in a timely manner."

"That's pretty much what we'd thought, too. All right. We will communicate this to everyone who would desire to know it."

"Thank you, I appreciate that."

And Cam goes away again to see if Maitimo can weigh in on his anti-oath-spoofing idea or if he has to go get Huan to test it or what.

The Ossiriand team is improving assembly lines and handing out necklaces and Maitimo's thinking he might end up needing to run this place, the whole anarchy thing works better for them than it has any right to but it's really not a good idea.

"Anarchy works in Hell, but Hell's special," is Cam's comment. "Want to run by you an anti-illusion-oath idea."

"Now you're just making me want to rule Hell," he complains. "Go."

"It may be that I can conjure up specifically the records of genuine spoken word," Cam says. "Sort of the same way I could get all the writing in a language or all the paintings in a medium. We'd have to record him talking, and then check everything he said, and I'd want to be very definite that he couldn't sneak an inaudible 'not' or something in between words real fast, but I think it might work in principle."