"I'd suggest that we find her and ask, but she's not on this continent, we'd have noticed. I'm worried about the other ones, but Angband first, Silmarils first. Perhaps Melkor killed her when she'd outlived her use."

"There are large but not that large spiders in the forests around Doriath, which may be related or not. I haven't investigated them yet."

"Hmm. Might be worth prioritizing. Just in case, you know, she had children, or can manifest as a thousand medium-sized spiders instead of one large one."

"More than a thousand, I heard," she agrees. "The next time I'm in Doriath, probably no later than next week, I will ask more about them and may venture out to have a look, see if they talk, see if they try to eat illusion-lights, that sort of thing."

"If it's less than forty thousand we could go on a mass spider-killing mission with half the host. Or invite the Nolofinweans to make it a contest, if the forest in question is shaped such that it is unlikely anyone ends up dead on their cousin's spear and then starts another Kinslaying."

"I'll mention to Lúthien that you might be interested in a pest control expedition. But they might just be inappropriately large arachnids of no relation, in which case I'm not sure what they're eating to sustain such a population but they probably aren't priority one."

"Shall I get out of your way?"

He's already spreading out the magnets on the table. "Did you have anything else you wanted to share?"

"I'll take that as a yes." She dismisses the remaining visual aids that didn't need to be stuck to paper and walks out.

They're singing, of course. The osanwë-summary seems to be "Maitimo is alive!! Maitimo is safe!" and everyone seems fairly enthusiastic. No Feanorians are visible.

As she leaves, more people are bringing magnets to the workshop.

She's not there before dark, but not long after; something is still cooking on several hundred campfires. Quendi eyes could probably have identified the people she's looking for at once, but she can't.

She flies lower in search of familiar faces.

Findekáno is - miracle of miracles - sitting down, around a fire with a few other people, and eating. Irissë is one of them; so are two strange men and a little girl.

Loki is momentarily tempted to land on Irissë's head. She resists, lands normally, and joins them. "Evening."

"It is," Findekáno says, but this time with significantly more cheer. "Loki, my brothers Turukáno and Arakáno and my niece Itarillë. How is ...everything?"

"Pleased to meet you. Maitimo likes flying," says Loki. "I think he was really actually happy about it for thirty uninterrupted seconds."

One of Findekáno's brothers stands up with a sigh, picks up the child, and stamps off. Findekáno watches him go unhappily. "I am glad to hear it."

"Should I not have said that out loud? I'm probably missing all kinds of etiquette on when to use osanwë."

"I should have asked privately if I wanted a private answer," he says wearily. "He betrayed us and caused my sister-by-marriage's death, people aren't going to be appreciative to hear that he's happily flying around. Even if they'd never have wished this on him."

"He was happily flying around for thirty seconds, he went back to being intermittently depressing after that. Anyway. His family know that he is safe but not where the rendezvous point is; he's exploring the continent; and Fëanor, characteristically, had an idea for convincing him that he's in base level reality; the good news is I can speed this up beyond the timetable of 'several hundred years' and the bad news is it involves leaking information on how to build a class of weapons - nothing that outclasses a bow in the first few stages of development but from there it can escalate. I'll tell you how to make them too but you will be delayed in taking advantage."

"You're - teaching Maitimo the engineering that will take our world up to speed with yours, to demonstrate to him the truth of your claim to be from a different one?" He smiles broadly. "I think that'd work. And he's not particularly skilled in engineering, it's not as if he'll take advantage himself and while he's still unsure he won't be taking the ideas straight to Fëanor for prototypes."