"At home there are those who can give their word and not be bound by it?"

"I'd never actually met a person without free will until I came here and I'm still sort of disturbed by the implications above and beyond the oaths thing."

She shrugs. "Melian says - and I assume so do the other Valar - that our fates are tied to the universe, but Melian doesn't understand how to walk and talk at the same time so it's possible that despite their wisdom the Valar are missing some things about how we work. I've given my word twice in my life, and not regretted it; it's a powerful weapon, and shouldn't be wielded lightly, but it means much that trust can be so bought when otherwise it might not be achievable."

"I don't deny that it's a powerful tool, but I have an account of the consequences of trying to deviate from the sworn word and I'd have to be superbly certain of my wording, and my circumstances, and the import of what I was trying to do, to make that bet. I'm not sure I've ever been that confident of such a thing in my life. And since functional oaths can be coerced I'm on the whole glad not to come packaged with the vulnerability."

"Fair enough. Takes all kinds, I suppose, and if you've seen them coerced that's a good reason to find them frightening."

"Orcs. All of them, every single one."

"Oh," she says softly. "Oh, no."

"Young enough that they barely know what the words mean, which is why if they can be caught in a cooperative frame of mind they can use the same wording to swear something totally different and more neighborly and go from there, but it's still no small constraint even then."

"The Valar should have done something," she says angrily. "Our deaths aren't their concern, fine. That is their concern if anything on Arda is, they should have acted immediately, yes it would probably have destroyed the continent but still, there must be thousands of them..."

"Hundreds of thousands, probably, and more all the time. Melian wasn't that concerned. All I got out of her and Elu was gracious permission to continue doing what I was doing. Permission to ask Círdan if I could settle the ones I've converted near his city."

"Well, she damn well should be. I'm of half a mind to march on over to Doriath and have words with her, only she's already doing as much as she can, it's the rest of them falling down on the job."

"And they're even less accessible than the one in a forest full of archers who shoot first and ask questions only when they miss, a lot."

"What on earth did you do? If you walk up to the borders of Doriath you'll get the sullenest, grouchiest person currently on duty but I don't think they've ever shot at someone who didn't charge in armed or something."

"Well, it took me a couple instances of 'have you considered not flying directly into the middle of your destination' before I really got the hang of knocking, but all I did was land, be invisible, and look around and say hello. I think they may consider 'able to turn into a bird and be invisible' 'armed'. Fortunately I said 'hello' at a considerable distance from where I actually was and did not become riddled with arrows."

"Ah, yes, appearing in the middle of their territory with unknown powers would probably do it." She shakes her head. "It is good that there's a place of plenty and safety in Beleriand."

"Yes. For all my criticisms I'm glad of that. Anyway, after they realized they weren't going to shoot me they told me which way the border was and I attempted to discuss sorcery with Melian through an intermediary before she decided I was all right in spite of my bad first impression and free will."

"You should be able to learn a great deal from her. She's very talented."

"And I hope to, as soon as she attends to her surroundings again."

"I bet she's back to rights by the time you next visit, now that the war's less pressing."

"Lúthien was going to try to notify me via long-distance osanwë, but since I have no osawnë capability of my own I don't know if I can do long-distance or not and I haven't heard from her."

"I can't hear Lúthien all the way from here, but then I don't know her very well."

"She seemed to think we'd gotten well acquainted enough over a few conversations; I don't know what the baseline is, though."

"Well, baselines don't apply to Lúthien very well anyway. She's half-Maiar, that changes quite a lot."

"What is the baseline? If I learned to do long-distance osanwë with some of my contacts I could spend less time in transit."

"I could hear my husband anywhere, though I can't hear him now in Mandos. I have a few friends in Doriath I can communicate with if we're both concentrating; I knew them all for centuries, but everyone I know at all I've known for centuries. I can hear the kids anywhere but they've never been more than forty miles from me."