Yeah. I'd hope they'd miss something but they could probably get someone to tell them what they'd need to the point where they could carve a few corners out of a mountain and have it stomping across the landscape.

Has that happened in your world? How is it countered?

Hasn't happened but there is not an upper size limit on golems, they don't need to have moving parts for puppet testing if you're confident enough in your articulation programming, and even if we aren't dealing with Melkor here I am imagining there exist Elves patient enough to carve a mountain a bit.

Yep. I have a harder time imagining Elves ruthless enough to force a child to awaken it, but I can't say it's impossible - given, you know, averted future in which I do all kinds of things I would have confidently asserted Elves don't do...

This is not necessarily a horror scenario for the kids themselves. You teach the kids to wake golems, you bring them to the mountain, you go, 'okay, kiddo, wake up the mountain!', I'm not seeing high return on the 'mountain golem' scenario for a child abuser.

Fantastic.

Okay, so we've got probably three Years to find these kids?

Less than that if they are not in Valinor. Some of them might be servantmaking already if they did not grow up slowed down.

Fuck.

We shouldn't have let that man leave - Macalaure has a lie-detection song -

He has a what? That would have been nice!

I mean, it is not subtle, he has to come and personally sing for ten minutes and then things a person says which they don't believe ring weirdly false - didn't think it was worth the production. I'm sorry. Next people, we follow the kid and we don't let the smuggler leave. I will need to tell the King something if I'm detaining people.

What'll he do if you tell him some kids are unaccounted for?

Panic, because in the environment he grew up and rose to power in that'd mean the Enemy'd kidnapped them to breed for orcs. Probably want to go to the Valar. I'm not sure we shouldn't go to the Valar, but - it's very irrevocable. 

Well, at least human kids would be very difficult to breed for orcs.

There are already hundreds of thousands of orcs, not much need anymore. Not that that's anywhere near the worst thing the Enemy did to prisoners.

If we wind up having to go to the Valar do we need an excuse for not having done so first thing?

If we do it within a couple months that'll seem immediate, to them. If we wait longer I'll probably have to do the wide-eyed 'I grew up in paradise and cannot conceive of evil' thing, but I'm very good at that.

And you pretend you didn't mention it to me, since I didn't grow up in paradise?

And can't claim that you can't conceive of evil, you're married to a man. I wish the Valar were just a tiny increment less fucking dangerously stupid -

They'd be so great to have around if only.

They can probably just find the children! They can definitely do things like make servant-making temporarily not work to be safe while we sort things out! They can re-arrest Melkor! And it is also possible they'll just make Arda fatal to humans or something.

I have been assured they don't kill people!

They haven't killed people! They strike me as likelier than me to end up killing people en masse, and we both know I apparently will!

You, says Kib, are going to do something that is not that, thank you. If this is a realistic concern I could take Aydanci back to my world while you drop the news, come up with an excuse to bring Lári, wait for the all-clear?

I think they're likelier to seal Valinor than go homicidal within it, so - depends on your priorities? They are by far likeliest to react reasonably, they just don't have very person-like priorities or values so I am not completely sure.

How much mileage can you get out of picking and choosing which you tell?