"If you were a bird, you'd go to Melkor and he could read your mind and he'd want you to be a spy. Unless I could get every single one of the orcs and make sure there weren't more orcs, it's not better for him to have spies than warriors."

"Is that what you want? To get every single orc and make sure there aren't any more orcs?"

"...Depends on what you mean by 'orc'. I don't want there to be people who are in pain all the time. I don't want there to be people who have to hate and fight Elves. There might be other things that are true of the orcs that there are now, that I don't want. But if there can be orcs who don't have those traits then it would be good for those orcs to be, and be happy."

"Yeah, it would." It tries to get up again. "I could swear not to do anything that wouldn't make you happy? I'm not sure what would happen, I might just die the minute that promise collides with the other ones, but it'd be better than dying now."

She lets it up, the better to pace. "I don't know what would happen either. I think I need to talk to someone who knows more about oaths than I do. Unfortunately, short of going and seeing if Melkor feels like talking without having to read my mind or kill me or something like that, all of those people are Elves; and I definitely can't leave you here unattended."

"I'd run away."

"Yep. And you know a lot of things Melkor mustn't know, now. So I suppose I could turn you and your friends all into birds temporarily and tie you up and carry you to the Elves, which I imagine you'd find very unpleasant but it'd mean I could keep an eye on you while I asked them about oaths."

"I don't know anything."

"Yes you do. You know that I can turn people into birds, and stop orcs from hurting, and be invisible; and that there are other worlds. Things like that."

"Because then you have more information to use to think of ideas. There are things you know that I don't, and if something I know plus something you know is a good idea, and if you don't know exactly what to tell me or you can't tell me, then I can put those pieces of information together by telling you. I couldn't risk it if I didn't know that I can kill you if I have to, but I'd still rather not."

"I can't think of any more ideas."

"Well, maybe you plus me plus some Elves can."

"They'll kill me as soon as they see me. And I'll have to try to kill them."

"You will be a bird and tied up to boot," she says, "so you can try all you like; and you will be a bird and I will explain before anyone realizes that you are not, and I will object if an Elf tries to kill you before thinking it over."

"Then I guess I won't be able to try to kill them." It looks around at the spot her voice is coming from. "What are you waiting for, strange one, my permission?"

"Anything you want to say before you can't talk for a while," she says. "...My name is Loki. Do you have a name?"

"Not yet, haven't seen any enemies or been in any fights yet."

"You have to earn your names?"

"Yes, of course. There's too many of us to do it otherwise. Is that not how your kind do it?"

"No. We're named when we're born. Some people have the same name, but there are still enough names that usually people can tell who you mean. I did have to earn being considered an adult, though, I had to go kill a creature that was bothering a town without help or magic."

It nods."Uh. You said before I can't talk 'for a while'. If - if your Elves can't help, or don't want to, will you change me back before you kill me? I don't want to die a bird."

"Yes, I can do that for you."

"Thank you. You should probably do the bird thing now, my heart is very fast and I really want to run away."