They really are going to keep going with that for a while, huh. She sets the fish up to smoke and the venison up to become jerky, singing along while she works, and goes to look for Findekáno.

He sees her again and tries for a smile.

...yeah. Well, hugs can't hurt, right?
How're you doing?

Grieving, eager to see this war through.

Yup: hugs.

Next step in the plan is for you to come to my world and help me get more magic forms, if you want to become a mage, or for us to figure out who else to ask, if you don't. Not urgent, but if you want to be doing something, it's an option.

I would like to but cannot afford to be gone for too long. How long would it take?

There's a spot I'm almost sure will have a tribe in it that should be in osanwë range of a place I can teleport to, unless the tribe that's there is one of the tribes that doesn't have a Speaker - checking won't take long, half an hour maybe, but it might take a few trips for us to be there at the same time they have a mage casting anything.

That should work.

All right. She takes a moment to think. Should be safe enough if you stay with me, but you should have something to bring you back just in case. Hold on. She disappears, returns with string and a pebble, combines them to make a necklace, casts. Squeeze it to teleport back - she demonstrates, landing a few feet to the side - and when you're done with it you can break the spell by breaking the string near the stone.

He squeezes the stone.

He's teleported to a few feet from where the kobold is standing.

Great. Now to the location where the mages might be?

More or less - I can't get us that close. Or, I could, but it'd take a while and they'd be upset about it. I know all the Speakers well enough that I should be able to let you talk to them at range, though, and they can explain their mages to you that well too. She offers her hand, like he's seen her do with the scouts.

He takes it.

And here they are in the forest, in a clearing with a convenient stone to sit on - she pops back to her cave for a moment to get her blanket to spread over it, for warmth.

Okay, there are thirteen Speakers, I'm going to go in order of who I'm most hoping it is. The first one is actually not a kobold at all... and she starts sending memories of her interaction with them, memories of their interactions with other people, her thoughts and observations about them...

That one isn't in range, but her second choice is.

Found them.

Oh, good. Can you tell what they're doing?

He sends what he's getting from the person she described.

They're just finishing their dinner.

All right, good. You want to tell them that you're a friend of mine - send a memory of me, or 'the youngest speaker' if you want to do it in words, but it'll work better if they can see who you're talking about - and that we need their help. They might think I'm dead; if they do, tell them I said 'no, just visiting'.

Osanwe is actually better suited to visuals than words. He transmits this.

It's a few minutes before there's a response. They do indeed think she's dead; the 'just visiting' line gets a prompter one. What did they do, go visit the elves? And an accompanying visual of a group of kobolds, most of them either terrified or mourning, some grimly determined; the Speaker is mostly irritated about this, with an undertone of concern.

No. They found us. We're called Quendi. The elves don't know we exist and it's going to stay that way.

Good for you. They're a little bitter. What do you need?

He relays this.

She sighs. Tell them my Gift was magic.