"You have the sound-dampening ability, yes-"

"Done."

"I don't know who her accomplice or accomplices may have been either, nor do I have any particular advantage at finding out. I can ask what they'd like to see done, though; you will know better than I or they what your people will consider an effective deterrent." Looks like she's not liable to get to the Dwarves this half-week.

"Yes, obviously I will put to bear on that question all the resources I possibly can. Giving them a bird is also a good idea; the fact they'll gain from this may be more effective a deterrent than anything I can do."

"All right. I'll go give them a bird and ask what they want and optionally tell Sarpalarë that she's an idiot again. Anything about this conversation which should not be disclosed in full to them, is it just that you don't want to alarm your own before finding everyone you need to find?"

"She's not an idiot. This wasn't carelessness. You can disclose everything known to us about this in full to them."

"There are careful idiots, although maybe she thought starting a war was desirable in itself and went about it brilliantly. Anything else before I fly back?"

"I can think of cleverer ways of starting a war, too. Don't tell them that."

"Consider it stricken from the record." She scrubs it from the transcription.

"Do you need anything before you leave?"

"No, but thank you. I wasn't originally planning to stop here today at all; I was going to head straight to the Dwarves after telling the orcs they could go south."

"I regret that the visit was necessary." He stands. "Is this the reaction Fëanáro predicted from us?"

"No, actually."

"Do you have leave to share what it was?"

"Neither permitted nor forbidden. He was anticipating support of the 'lost scout' story, though. And may have legitimately expected or may have been caricaturing a more general attitude in the form of name-calling."

"The story isn't plausible, but I wouldn't have volunteered the information that made it obviously false if they'd sent someone who seemed to be looking for justification to escalate. And Fëanáro has wronged us all greatly and very probably wants me dead but he didn't send assassins."

"Well, he can't, unless you - based on the text of the oath I think you personally, via authorization or directly but he did say any person, not any group - threaten him or his first."

"He could have interpreted this situation as such a threat."

"He could have; I'm not sure how much epistemic diligence the oath demands but it doesn't seem like a stretch. So, whether Sarpalarë is an idiot in particular or not she certainly is not in display of good character traits. Maybe she wasn't after him at all, maybe she has a grievance with you."

"Asgard is not in such a situation of multiple internal political factions; there's only one queen on the whole planet. If some people ruling subsections of it in her name got into a situation like this they'd have to forward it up to her. If we had something like this with, oh, Vanaheim, there would already be an extradition treaty in place, extradition being the thing where you claim the right to try your own suspect instead of letting them do it - I think ours with Vanaheim in particular is very friendly, mostly because my father's from there and the circumstances of my parents' marriage were treaty-related. If it was with someone we've never had diplomatic contact with before, they'd hammer out an extradition arrangement. Or not bother, maybe - if someone from a backwater like Midgard managed to get off the rock and cause trouble on Asgard they'd have no government we'd consider worth treating with on an official level, they'd just never be heard from at home again unless it was Odin's pleasure to let them go."

"And how would you handle it?"

"I had actually tentatively bought Sarpalarë's story as far as 'poor selection of bows, went scouting with this one', although I was much more dubious that she, quote, 'served her king' in being where she was. I didn't know she would have been with a group or sent with some less ridiculous weapon, which is more concerning. I was going to swap her for a bird and let you handle her; do you mean what would I do if I were you?"

"I can't be anyone else in this sorry drama."