"Yes. Though - possible in principle only for the greatest of our inventors, and possible for him only in Valinor with all its resources at his disposal. The Silmarils were blessed by Varda, Vala of starlight. Fëanor says it cannot be done again at any cost; even if he's wrong, I'm not sure who'd figure it out."

"Fëanor had no idea a sorceress was coming. Although I will need to learn more about what it is I must do before I can begin to try to do it, in the same way I had to study anatomy and light and so forth to create the spells I have now."

"Do you know how satisfying it would be to see his face? I mean, I realize that this would change the lives and prevent the slow decline of everyone I know and care about, and that that's a good reason while wanting to outshine Fëanor is a bad one, but still. You're right. He had no idea you were coming, and you're better than him."

"It might turn out that sorcery refuses to interact with your wasting-away or something inconvenient like that," Loki warns.

"I'm not counting on it, don't worry. It's an odd sort of whiplash. Two years ago we thought we had forever. Then a year ago we thought we'd come fight this war and perhaps die trying but, if not, be able to make something of our first chance to live outside the garden of the gods. Six months ago we were doomed to fail and suffer and die or wish we had, three days ago I thought none of us would even see the other shore, and now - can your magic solve a problem that we'll face ten thousand years down the road?"

"It takes a long time to invent a spell," Loki says, "but not ten thousand years."

"Well, it sounds like your bifrost and your own immortality are obviously both priorities. And a spell so no one on any plane the Bifrost can take you has involuntary children, of course."

"...It is entirely possible to get quite accustomed to and build a society around the having of involuntary children," Loki points out. "Midgard would not consider this anywhere near their most urgent problem were you to poll them. And non-spell solutions have already been created, just not distributed."

"If they don't realize how important it is, they're wrong. You can't - it's like people being erased when they die. If there's a culture that thinks it's all right they're just making a mistake. If they're used to it they'll get unused to it. It's really, truly that bad. I hesitate to ask what Midgard would consider their most urgent problem."

"Well," says Loki, "they have a very serious disease problem and perhaps half of the involuntary children do not reach adulthood unless I happen to have recently passed through their village."

"The Bifrost will undoubtedly take me hundreds of years bare minimum. It is enormously complex, likely used several forms of magic I do not have in its original construction, and I do not have it available to study. I will need a place to work and a way to support myself while I do it and some reasonable assurance that local politics and warfare will not set my notes on fire. It is only practical to first spend some smaller number of years arranging stability - even if I thought that running amok on Midgard in contravention of Odin's policy on the realm would not get me promptly stopped."

"She might or might not stop you. She has intervened on Midgard in the past - frost giants, particular enemies of Asgard, were active there. I have asked her about her policies and received answers, if not good ones, and wrote them down, but I did not pack my entire lifetime of notetaking and cannot retrieve the memory well enough to speculate confidently. The last time I was on Midgard I did small, discreet healing and trusted that the all-seeing Heimdall who had kept all my practice secret would continue to do so; but Odin would not have known to ask, then."

"If she decided to stop us, though, you're confident she could do so."

"There are more Asgardians than elves, and they have longer memories of war than yours. And Odin wields a non-sorcery magic which is not much discussed in its mechanics nor often used but is by reputation - immense. It is possible that you could build up to the point of being able to challenge Odin on a mission. You are not there at this time."

"I have been considering suggesting that the noncombatants should separate from the rest of you. Possibly traveling ahead, invisibly."

"If they meet the enemy they'd be slaughtered."

"That is the primary argument against, but can he see invisible things?"

"I don't know. I'm disinclined to take the chance. He could also just flood the area where he knows we're travelling with a couple thousand orcs and trust that if they swing their axes around they'll hit something. What's the argument for?"

"They will not be in the line of fire if you and Fëanor's people do come to blows. But I am assuming here that Fëanor knows to expect you and the Enemy may not."

"I have to assume that Fëanor thought we wouldn't make it. It may be that no one expects us. You think they might have expected that some of us will make it, and be waiting to ambush us?"

"Yes, but I may be making incorrect presumptions about his tactics or his estimates of the difficulty of the crossing."