"How bizarre. And the other races you've mentioned -"

"Sluggards appear to be incapable of doing much of anything except singing; Thieves have no respect for and indeed no understanding of the concept that anything in the world might not belong to them."

"A particularly annoying trait in slaves, I'm sure."

"I'm sure it is! But I've never worked with them, they're mostly relegated to mining work. They're pretty good at digging things up."

"Has there ever been any peace between the Alteri and the Defilers?"

"Not as such. There was a period shortly after their discovery when they sought to destroy us slowly, by ruining our society through their own tyranny, but since we rebelled against them we've only been at war. They're completely impossible to negotiate with."

"...what sort of tyrannical proposals did they have in mind?"

"Well, they tried to legislate away our families and our marriages. They think families and marriages are terrible."

There is some discussion of other things the Defilers apparently think are terrible - gender, love, commerce, all civilized forms of government. The Defilers are just pretty terrible all around.

"That's horrifying!" They're genuinely horrified, and say as much. "What kind of monsters object to families? No wonder you went to war!"

"Yes!! They're horrible!!"

Well, everyone can agree on that!!!

Do they have any advice on how to find Alteri who will keep an agreement to fight Melkor. Perhaps.

Hmmm. Well. They could demand that the Alteri fight Melkor before being given lightleaper technology, that should work for just about anyone.

There is some discussion - this time they do use their spoken language.

"You can't just advise them to withhold technology, you have no idea if they're even trustworthy - "

"If they ask an academic question then I'll give an academic answer."

"This is clearly a political negotiation - "

"Well then someone should have vested one of us with political power! Ancestors, Lamavea, the great houses still hadn't rebuilt the lane between Nadranae and Lisk last we heard, if you intend to convince them that politicians always keep their promises then you can be my guest -"

The Alteri who was having the first conversation in Confederate One continues it; apparently at least some of them can hold multiple conversations at once. "I suppose there are probably other ways of negotiating a useful treaty, I'd have to think, my area is really more organic chemistry..."

"I know!" says her counterpart miserably. "I worked in chemical engineering before the war, and now we've all to do whatever Lord Maedhros says. Such a waste, war. Hopefully soon it will be over and everyone can go back to chemistry or whatever other people do."

"Oh, some chemistry is really fairly useful for the war effort! Though I've never had the chance to contribute anything particularly valuable on that front, I'm really more focused on medicine myself. We all have our roles."

Maybe they can compare notes on medicine? The Elves have until recently always had the Valar do that but it'd be nice to do themselves.

This Alteri would be delighted to do that!!

" - Salna, you can't just give them all that information on Alteri physiology - "

"I'll be careful not to tell them about any particularly hazardous materials and to make sure I'm getting equally valuable information on any ailments that they might suffer from."

Ahem. Salna is delighted!!

So are the Elves!!!!! (And really, they have Alteri here, if they weren't friendly they could still learn Alteri physiology.)

(Well they couldn't learn it as well as they could from Alteri physicians. Really, it's not as though they cut a few people open and then learned everything they needed to know. They've had to cut lots and lots of people open.)

The Alteri are happy to compare notes and learn all about whatever science the Singers are willing to share with them.

The Singers are willing to share approximately everything; they aren't planning to send these Alteri home until after the war. 

Hmm, either they're very trusting or planning to kill them. 

" - Sanae, are they planning to kill us?"

Not particularly.

" - you know, we should really have brought more than two psyons, it's going to be so hard to find a way to compare notes if we only have the one."

"Hm. Yes. I don't suppose we could stop them from killing us if they wanted."

"No, I don't suppose so. We could do a lot of damage on the way out, though, send a message."

"Maybe their government never listens to them either, and they've been waiting for years to share their research with someone who doesn't drift off halfway through."

"That'd be cruel, you're guests. And we don't kill even prisoners, unless they're orcs, no way around that. We're not expecting you to be in communications with other Alteri until peacetime and by then we'll have nothing to hide. The Valar really wouldn't brook with you starting any nonsense. Once everyone's met them it'll all be fine."

Well, all right then, if they think their government is really that reliable.

(Really, everyone, it's important to stick to spoken communications as necessary.)

They are happy to learn about science and about Singer society for the forseeable future.

How would their government be unreliable in a way that got a bunch of guests killed? That'd be really unreliable.

Yeah, that would sure be really unreliable!

("Hasn't that happened multiple times with - "

"Hush.")

....no Elf would serve a government that unreliable so Elven governments are more reliable than that.