He's talking with someone when she arrives, but they part ways a minute later.

So she lands outside, asks her way in, and trots in his direction.

"Loki Odinsdottir. Thank you. Are you still going to try to scout Angband?"

"Just did. I was hoping the smoke cleared after a layer of the stuff but I couldn't get more than ten yards' visibility even at ground level. Heard some orc conversations, wasn't spotted, but it wasn't very productive."

He nods. "It's all right. That's about what I expected."

"I was wondering what to expect in terms of delivery of your cousins' items?"

"I don't know how you travel, or what you can carry. Not the horses, one assumes. Some of the rest I can send back with you now."

"I cannot carry the horses or anything very bulky, but a few bags of the more compact things."

"All right. We have storage rooms here." He starts walking. "I suppose I should verify that you are taking these to my cousins instead of running off with them, but it makes little difference to me one way or the other. How about one of the tapestries, a map of the region, local population, and local borders as far as we've been able to discern it - that's not rightly theirs, of course, but as a gesture of good will - and a few of the magic artifacts? They'll need a palantir but if they use it to communicate with my father they might rile each other up again, and they'll need some things from the workshop but Father and Curvo have barricaded themselves there. And the grain and the horses are bulky."

"What is a palantir?" she wonders.

"These," he says, picking one up. "Anyone with one can see through any of the others, and communicate with anyone in possession of one. You can also use one to disrupt the others or send misleading messages through them, so we really cannot afford to hand them over, but Father gave one to Nolofinwë as a gift a millennia ago and that one is technically theirs. ...It can go in the second round of deliveries. You're welcome to look, but understand that if one of them were to go missing we'd have to stop using all of them under the assumption it's in Enemy hands, and that would greatly hamper our war effort."

"I will not walk off with it." She investigates the palantir.

"They're all in the same place now, they're an obvious target and we don't yet have the resources to defend multiple locations against a serious attack."

Nod.

"The plan eventually is to have fortresses along the whole northern frontier. Would you care to ask my cousins whether there are areas they'd prefer we not have any meaningful military presence?"

"I can ask. ...In the back of my mind I am contemplating agreeing to train exclusively mixed groups."

"The Valar tried, really hard, to force us to reconcile. It was not helpful."

"What did they try?"

"They held festivals at which my father's attendance was mandated, and my uncle's, and demanded that they talk through their differences in front of Manwë's throne. They exiled us until my uncle forgave my father. They held very lengthy and tedious hearings to unravel all of the accusations and hurts on both sides. They Doomed us all together." He almost smiles.

"These seem substantively different from my plan, but perhaps mine will not work either. I do not require any particular individuals to participate, anyway, there are thousands of you, the relatively unrelated to the dramatic proceedings could be the ones to receive the instruction."

"Let us know what you decide."

"You know, when I mention having ideas, you are allowed to comment on them more than once in a row."

"It seems plausible that you, personally, would benefit from the chance to take large numbers of Elves with no strong attachment to their current leadership and train them extensively. It seems less plausible that it would benefit us. I would counsel my King not to permit anyone to take part in such training."

"Well the idea would be to have them a more useful defense force against orcs, I don't have any other uses for a private army around here, but I take your point as to what it could look like."