"You're in a position to know that about the people of Doriath, but what about people elsewhere?"

"I bet people are mostly good everywhere. Maybe not Dwarves."

"Why not Dwarves?"

"They're just super weird and don't do things without personal benefit, rather narrowly defined."

"That doesn't seem so bad."

"If they were bad people they wouldn't be allowed in Menegroth! They're just not good people."

"Hmm. I wonder why not."

"Maybe it's an Elf thing?"

"I am not sure if that makes sense," Shirask says consideringly.

"Why not?"

"Many things about people don't make sense to me, it's hardly a unique distinction, but - how would it come about that Elves were mostly good people and everyone else wasn't?"

"We live longer, maybe it takes time to become a good person? Or the knowledge you'll have time?"

"Hmm..."

"Or maybe some Dwarves are good and they just don't come to Menegroth."

"Maybe. But then I would wonder why they didn't."

"It's a long way."

"Do good people travel less? That doesn't seem to follow."

"In order to go to all that effort you'd need a really strong motivation. Like gold, that's what motivates Dwarves. So if there are Dwarves less motivated by gold I wouldn't have met them."

"In what way are Dwarves motivated by gold?"

"It's the only thing they care about and the only way to get them to do anything."

"That's... bizarre."

"It's different than how Elves are, for sure."

"It's a puzzle. Perhaps when I don't have better things to do I will occupy some of my time trying to solve it."

"Never seemed very strange to me considering all the strange things about Dwarves."

"Well, Dwarves as a whole are very puzzling, the gold thing is only one aspect. Are there other strange things you haven't told me about?"