"...Which conclusion I suppose is not airtight, since the Enemy is known to recruit otherworldly help, but should at least contribute to the overall plausibility of my story. Five years, wow, if that's a real estimate he'd better have a lightbulb. Why would they even be trying to invent caster wheels with a war on, seriously?"

"Mass production of the guns, perhaps? And my father did the Silmarils in a single year. Single Valian year, but still. When a project requires raw engineering talent and minimal interaction with other people, he is astonishingly good at it."

"Caster wheels are for carts. Which don't have to move very fast or on uneven surfaces or under heavy loads or generally behave in any way suited to mass producing anything. One puts them on library carts and rolling chairs. Yeah, I was too optimistic about this plan. I think I could manage if I had access to my planet but that's a ways off."

"Morale is hardly trivial. What did you think of the fortress outpost plan?"

"I'd consent to live there if they think it wise."

"Dwarves in the meanwhile if I double-check with the non-Doriath ones and they say they'll have you? It'd mean fewer visits, since they're far away, but you'd have Dwarves to talk to once you picked up their language and I could write you a basic glossary or something."

"I would enjoy that greatly."

"Okay. On the to-do list with that, then." She rearranges notes. "And a Findekáno transcript. I was this close to telling him the thing but apparently swearing him to secrecy is a tall order. I was half expecting to have to produce a secret, I would've had to tell him about Lúthien or something."

"Lúthien who you desire? I think you should go for it, there's a decent shot Elu'll be glad you're distracting her from any desire she may have to get married. And I will read the Findekáno transcript."

She pulls out the transcript. "Desire's a strong word, and I lean so heavily towards boys that there's basically no chance I'll retain interest after I get anywhere! That's what happens with me and girls, I pick them up and then I put them down. I like her, like, as a person, not just as a decoration, and some people get complicated about being put down, so it's better not to start. But it would have made a good relatively harmless secret if he'd been starting to guess things I didn't want him to guess about why I asked the question."

He reads impassively. "I agree."

Eventually he steps back, face still neutral. Then - "you are right, of course."

"I do that a lot; what about?"

"I am not healthy for Findekáno and wronged him by pursuing him."

"I don't think pursuit was your error here. If you're going to praise my accuracy do it with things I said."

"My conduct towards him, then."

"Iffy. As I reconstruct a model of it based on what I know, which doesn't involve having ever actually seen you together. I don't think the fault was all yours or that if you one day go 'wait a minute, this is actually reality' and go fall into his arms you couldn't salvage something properly sweet and constructive out of it. But I did notice it and you may have detected that I'm a busybody."

"It's not your worst trait."

"...What is? Have you been ranking them?"

"You work for my enemy and are trying to help him kill everyone I love? I thought I was pretty open about having complaints there."

"Okay, how about traits we can actually agree I have?"

"None of the ones which you might agree to really apply if all this is a lie. Overconfident, too spontaneous, don't take risk very seriously- you flew into Angband, saw a couple people, and immediately decided to rescue them on the spot, without considering whether this was a trap, or what it would reveal to the enemy of your capabilities, or if it'd prompt them to change their prisoner security - all considerations which should have vastly outweighed the suffering of two people."