Beka is not sure what she was expecting as a result of walking into a snake monster but an Elf city would have been very low on a list of possibilities if someone had jumbled a lot of random words together into place-phrases and had her rank them. "Elf city" would probably have been under "spider void" and above "grape juice ocean". And yet here she is.
Local Macalaure is looking very fixedly at Beka. "Uh. This world is called Arda, it's flat, it has a sun and a moon because the Valar put them there, I specify these things because they don't seem to be universal. I - knew a you, she rescued Maitimo from Angband and brought him back to us."
"They made it back. The Enemy - reminded her of her oaths and they contradicted somethng she'd sworn me and - Kat's with Rebecca -"
"Her Kat and mine and the other pink Peka's are all yea high now, they get along great. Grey Peka's one is grown up now."
"What does she do?" asks new Peka.
"Daycare."
"- not grey?"
"The Katin's still orange. Moved to Anitam, fudged it."
"Getting to it, sorry. So a while after Beka died the wizards appeared - Theodore and Rebecca and their family. They're a species called humans -"
"So's Rabka," says his alt.
"And they are special wizard humans who can do magic things, including open a portal from the bottom of the ocean to Angband and then get the Silmarils out."
"And then they assisted in engineering and came up with something that could use the Silmarils to kill him. We can do it for you too if the Valar agree to portals."
"The Valar are not really the people I'd ask. - and Beka's world, too, Beka's world has an Enemy also..."
"Wait, she's not native to yours? And the Valar might not do it but they might and we haven't got other avenues."
"Pretty sure I'm not native, a buncha stuff was different. Like, this guy wasn't ever in Angband." Point.
"Did it happen the same way in your world as in Beka's - went to a parley -"
"We, uh, found that we could not afford to keep anyone who'd been in Angband alive."
"I mean, we did worry about it, but he seemed okay and then we beat the Enemy, so."
"Oh boy. Okay, we're Elves, same names as you. The space Elves have a different world - they found Amenta when they went spacetravelling - but they have the same names too. Uh, the Amentan set are Aitim and Makel and Telkam and - Peka help me -"
"Wait, Makel Alasi?" says New Peka.
"Yeah, he's married to Grey Peka. Aitim Makel Telkam Kantil Kefin Amel Amlas. Aitim's married with two kids, Telkam has a kid, Kantil has a wife and two kids."
"Aitim is married to his Findekáno," says local Macalaurë, making a face.
"Well, it's not really a marriage, is it, and they're cousins."
"Amentans don't do Eru-marriage, right?" says the new Macalaurë.
"They don't."
"So in what sense isn't it a real marriage."
"- they're both men."
" - Eru cares about that but that's a reason not to, if anything."
"You can't, like, reverse anything the Valar say and get wisdom."
"You pretty much can!"