"No, it's not. But once I can't trust him not to leave me to die, seems a bit of a stretch to trust him about his feelings."

He nods. "Yeah. That he's explained to me before. We tried too, for a while, because Fëanor was supposed to be our King and if there were really a personal sacrifice of ours that could make him a functional one - he could have said 'we're not coming back'. I'd have hated him, but I'd still have believed everything else he said to me."

A tired smile. "I know, right? I don't hate Maitimo. I don't think I could. I just don't know if I ever knew him."

"Thank you. I'll share these with people who can get working on them, once we have the appropriate tools, which the dear cousins still owe us."

"Do you want me to see if I can accelerate the delivery? I suppose there's technically nothing stopping some orcs for taking the horses and cargo over and then going back to your cousins even if I don't have an island ready for them yet."

"It's only been a few weeks, it'd be extraordinarily confrontational of me to suggest that they're dragging their heels. If the occasion to ask about it arises."

"Never heard of him. You can convey our greetings and respectful intent and so forth."

She writes that down. "He rules Brithombar, by all accounts he's very friendly, I'm going to ask him if the orcs can go through his region to the uninhabited island. Can you keep a secret?" And if you guess it before saying you can and you will Loki is going to laugh at you and tell you she keeps wanting to flirt with Lúthien.

"If it's strategically relevant I'll have to tell my father."

"I'll take that as a 'not in principle'."

"My cousins run things by having everyone manipulate each other in what they think are their interests. We're trying not doing that."

"Well, it's admirable politics, I can't fault you there."

"You haven't had much chance to interact with my father, but he's competent and cautious and it's safe to tell him anything it's safe to tell me."

"You all right?"

"Frustrated, a little. Usually I'd rant to Sigyn but Sigyn isn't here."

"I hope he's all right and you can tell him the whole absurd story when you get back to Asgard. Were you two -"

Loki laughs. "Well, I don't want you to draw excess conclusions, because in other realms people do not get married by accident or by any mechanism at all other than deciding to do so, then having a party about and some formal record of that decision! And we were neither of us full of particularly romantic feelings, nor monogamous, nor making plans for the future. But we are friends, and Asgard has surpassed its accidental children problem and we took advantage of that, yes."

"Terribly lonely couple of centuries?"

"It's looking like it. Monogamous permanent-soul-graft-marriage Quendi everywhere I go. In a couple of weeks this will be my longest dry spell since I abruptly discovered the appeal of boys."

"There are Men somewhere. I don't know where, but it was definitely in the divine plan that they'd be around by now."