"I feel like that would make them less receptive to common sense, if you mean what I suspect."

"Two kinds of people. The kind who get more sensible when the other fellow has a sword in hand, and the kind who get less so." Munch. "I've never met anyone who had more common sense with a sword in her own hand."

"Who gets more sensible when threatened with a sword? Conciliatory, apologetic, perhaps, but sensible?"

"Remember that they're playing a game with real stakes? Remember that it's not peacetime anymore and we have to actually work together? Remember that everyone you meet has risked their lives for their family same as you have?"

"Hmm, maybe. I've mostly been able to avoid brandishing swords at people."

"Commendable. As long as you're ready to when needed. So where are you from again, in more detail than 'very far'?"

"My home realm is called Asgard. What kind of detail are you looking for?"

"What do you eat, who grows it, who's in charge, how much trouble would you get into for saying common sense in their presence, are you safe or at war, are there children..."

"We eat a lot of meat, and some grain and vegetables and fruits, which are grown by farmers. My mother's in charge, I got in enough trouble for a very little common sense that I got temporarily banished while she thinks over what's to become of me and that's why I was in transit to have a transit accident, we are technically at permanent war with the frost giants but the battles are often hundreds of years apart, there are children."

"Sounds all right. Hope your mother wises up soon, but you know, royalty. It's too bad - I had this thought that maybe if we put women in charge it'd go a little better, but guess it's exactly the same. Oh!" she straightens. "Círdan's back."

"I don't think the gender makes a difference, although caring intensely about which one is which is in my opinion a negative. Is he coming here or should we go meet him?"

"He'll come by, but I don't have any more lobster - he's early - so maybe we should go meet him."

"Okay." Up Loki gets.

She starts walking. "Who'd you rather have as King? Elu, Finwë's kid, your mother?"

"Can't I just say 'me'?"

"Yeah, sure. What are our orders, King?"

Loki laughs. "For now, I just want to talk to Círdan about some of my ostensible subjects."

"Hello," Loki says. "I'm Loki Odinsdottir. I have messages from Fëanor and his crowd -" She pulls them out of her notebook, remembers at the last moment that literacy is not universal, and reads them aloud instead of turning the illusion around midair. "The other host of newcomers says -" She reads that one too. "They'd both appreciate, also, your opinion on the value of declaring fealty to Elu."

Cīrdan looks thoughtful. "A pleasure to become acquainted, Loki Odinsdottir. Please tell our new friends that would simplify a great deal, but I'm loath to try to persuade them, should they be opposed, because I can imagine it might be the sort of decision they'd come to regret. I will discuss it with Elu, if there are concerns they think such a conversation would alleviate. I appreciate the news that so many of our northern kin survived the war and subsequent disturbances, and commend the newcomers for dealing justly with everyone they have encountered. We should sit down, I'd appreciate a night to think about the rest of my response. Is there anything else?"

Loki writes this down. "There is," she says, following him to wherever they should sit down. "The island south of you is uninhabited, is that right?"

"I was actually hoping for your permission to send some settlers there. Soon, if possible."

"I don't own the island," he says. "Anyone may settle it, though I'd be happier if they were apprised of our intent to use it as a fallback of last resort and to work with us on that, perhaps by storing food or supplies there."

"I think you'd find them potentially amenable but I'm concerned you'd object to the nature of the settlers. I - and Fëanor, he had a key insight - figured out a way to convert orcs into approximate harmlessness. They're accumulating in Fëanor's camp and need somewhere else to go."