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Confirmation reaches them in the spring that Elwing of Sirion has the Silmaril.
It takes as long as the spring only because they weren't looking. They can stretch the oath that far, they can be disinterested in knowing - but now they know, and so there it is. Elwing of Sirion is twenty-three. Half-man, so fully grown. Sirion is a city of refugees. Elves and Men and, since there are Men, children. Elwing herself has infant children.
They debate whether to send messengers. Debating is allowed, even protracted debating. The Oath, these days, is loud in their minds, and louder when they're pushing it like this, but they drag out the debate for a few months. Messengers will probably be shot on sight. The last time Elwing of Sirion received news of the House of Fëanor it would have been the news that her brothers, twins, aged seven, had not survived the sack of Menegroth.
They send messengers anyway. The messengers are shot on sight. They have good armor, Fëanorian armor, and return home injured but not lethally. Maglor's songs no longer stitch them together. War makes you worse at healing. Maglor's songs are more powerful than ever - he can knock back a wave of approaching enemies, he can make a blade's next touch deadly, he can make them faster and more impervious to danger, but he can no longer do healing.
Maedhros, when he thinks about this, thinks that perhaps there needs to be part of you that is not broken for healing spells to draw on. Or perhaps the Enemy is amused to strip that away first. Perhaps the Enemy finds it suited to the theme as the Oath tugs and yanks and twists them into violence against the lands they once defended and the peoples they once sheltered.
They send messengers to Sirion again. The messengers deliver a plea for the Silmaril, an offer of anything at all in exchange. The messengers do not return at all.
The Enemy is many many hundreds of miles from here but at night Maedhros can hear him in his head. Is it so implausible that I really let you go? the Enemy likes saying. You serve me better free than you ever would have willingly.
The Oath allows them to work slowly. They begin planning the sack of the refugee camp even more slowly than the Oath allows, so slowly that its currents are constantly tugging at them. Any slower and the currents would erode all the things they care about which are not the Oath, and it would be a disaster to go to Sirion once they've been stripped of their capacity to care about anything that is not the Silmaril. So they do not hold out forever. But they work as slowly as they can.
"We think that's what happened with this one. Most people, even people who really don't like me, would have the good sense to offer the Silmaril in exchange for my surrender or something like that and then take out their dislike on me once the oath is out of the way."
"I am not sure. Perhaps they'd permit me to jump with it into a live volcano, or something in that vein. Perhaps they'd take it away once I surrendered, and then I'd be in horrible agony but no one else would have been hurt. Even if I knew they'd take it away when I surrendered, while it was in my hands I'd have fully free choice, I could decide to surrender even anticipating that."
"The Eldar are not quite as horrifying badly designed as fairies but there are still some major drawbacks to the 'cannot swear falsely' thing." Is she done eating by now?
imeanforever
Yep. "I think our design causes extremely bad incentives but it never wedges us in a way that's in principle insoluble."
He stands up. "This is soluble. The costs are unacceptable but it's not that there's no course of action permitted to me. Anyone will be able to help you find Maglor if you so desire."
imeanforever
"I - I wandered around yesterday and I don't have the impression anybody wants to talk to me."
"I ordered them not to bother you. Not fairy-ordered, just command-in-an-army ordered. I can tell people you'd appreciate company, if you would, and they'll certainly answer questions you ask them."
He must have conveyed his instructions at once, because while people are still awkward around her they pointedly try to smile and do not turn away.
imeanforever
...that's not actually that much better, but, okay, hi, random person, she's looking for Maglor?
Maglor is downstairs in a spacious hall she hadn't seen. He does not look surprised to see them coming. Or perturbed. He raises an eyebrow as if there is some humor in the situation which no one else can see. "Promise."
And he starts singing. It is a song about a bright place far away, and as he sings it the room brightens; it is a song about children, and as he sings she can see them in the center of the room, clinging to each other, bright-eyed, disheveled, giggling; a rainstorm comes and wild howls up around her, real wind, nearly blowing her away, and the children laugh and dance in the rain,which splashes everywhere - she can feel it on her face - though when he stops singing the hall is dry.
"That is a demonstration. Most of my music is for war."
"That is a demonstration. Most of my music is for war."