"Well, it may not work. I did say might. My magic does work on starvation, though, which my understanding is self-repair does not?"

"No, it doesn't. Self-repair is a physical process operating on a physical body and needs something physical to work with; you can make your blood move, or clot, through conscious control, you can ask your bone marrow to produce it faster, but you cannot spontaneously generate it. Likewise with starvation. How does your magic do it?"

"It has a high-level understanding of what being 'healthy' looks like. Healthy does not necessarily include being full; I cannot make starving people comfortable in this way. But I can undo deterioration that has already been caused by lack of fuel the same way I can close a wound or replace a lost layer of skin. Sorcery isn't incapable of creating matter. ...Also, I cannot in fact do those things."

"Hmm. Is there any chance that touching you will actually somehow be fatal?"

"I doubt it, and wouldn't care to try to explain such a thing to your children. I've healed Elves before with no ill effects so I know it works on the species, at least. But I don't know what's wrong with you in the first place, so I cannot be absolutely certain."

"All right." He reaches out to shake her hand.

Ker-heal.

His expression and posture visibly change; he breaths, deeply. "That... worked. It looks like I'll have time for you to explain the mechanics of your sorcerous alphabet to me after all. How do I say "I am deeply impressed by the skill and talent of Loki Ottinsdottir" in Asgardian?"

She smiles, and presents an audio illusion of Sigyn's voice saying that in his accent, then repeats it in her own.

He is fascinated. "So would he say "The small house is Asgardian." as so? "Be comfortable?""

She illusions these sentences too. "Although, referring to houses as Asgardian is odd. One might say the architecture or one of its features were Asgardian; in other contexts you might refer to Asgardian homes; but a house doesn't have a nationality in the sense most readily attached to the word 'Asgardian'."

He nods. "Be as comfortable as you can. Be as Asgardian as you can. Be as small as you can. Be as small as the house?"

Giggle. "Grammatical. Increasingly bizarre as utterances."

"I'd like to go to my workshop; I'm significantly more functional when I can spend most of the day in there, and now I can again. Thank you. Would you like to walk there with me? This is a sentence in Asgardian, which is self-referential and exhibits most of the phonemes. Be as self-referential as you can? "

Loki bursts out laughing. "Grammatical. Slightly bizarre but I can imagine you saying it for its content anyway. I will accompany you. Although I do not mean to stay here all day; I want to discreetly investigate Angband, see if I find it seems as unassailable as others have reported."

"What are your capabilities like? What's Asgardian for 'architecture'?"

She makes an illusion of the capital of Asgard and floats it along as they walk. "I've been trained in combat since I'd mastered the task of walking; I suspect I am stronger and more durable than an elf, if worse in the senses; and I have illusions and I can fly and the healing spells can be cast on myself; and I brought with me one of the finest weapons of my warlike and technically advanced culture."

"The powers of this world are collectively called the Ainur, of which the Valar are the greatest; they can all adopt forms of their choosing, though it takes a long time and most of the ones who have bodies have a single one they use persistently. Many of the Ainur who serve Moringotto take the form of warped and distorted creatures of fire. If you are near them they'll burn you; if they strike you they'll leave serious burns to your skin in the areas they touch; damaging them sufficiently will make them retreat, but we have yet to kill one. They generally don't aim to kill, they try to take prisoners. There are Elven slaves in Angband who may be made to open fire on you. There are orcs, which I assume you've already encountered. The whole place is shrouded in magical darkness and in the middle of a impassable mountain range. The mountains can crumble at the Enemy's will. There are other creatures he has bred or is breeding, but we know very little about them."

"I have not killed anything that was a creature of fire in particular; it's been frost giants and assorted giant reptiles for the most part. But the healing spell will work on burns. I have met orcs; I routed some thousands of them when they ran upon being blinded and deafened. While I'm investigating the place I'll see if my illusions can beat the darkness; I can make them cling to real objects and would be able to navigate that way if the darkness yields, even if I can't see the real things."

"What's Asgardian for 'safe'? 'deadly'?" He opens the door to his workshop. Curufinwë is there, and nearly drops something in astonishment. "Are you still working on distilling water?" he says, "because I had another idea for that and want to work up a prototype."

Loki provides the words. "Hello, Curufinwë," she adds. "Is distilling water an unsolved problem?"

Loki cackles. "Good luck," she says, and then she seeks an exit.

They're talking engineering problems for as long as they're within her earshot. Word that Fëanor just walked out of his home and to the workshop is clearly spreading swiftly through the camp.

Can she find Maglor?