"I'm going to show the orcs how the Quendi sleep in trees, but if you want more civilized accommodations you can just find one of the guards at the gate and tell her I said to find you a bed." He stands. "You're all right, you know that? Most people wouldn't have bothered."

"I am not most people," she says. "I appreciate the bed very much, and your assistance regarding the orcs."

"Right. Night. Tell Irissë she's on."

In the morning the camp is alive with activity, mostly by the shore of the lake.

Oh? What's up?

It looks like they're planting something in the muddy land by the shoreline. The orcs appear to be helping.

Not visible. Macalaurë and Tyelcormo are both visible in the crowd around the lake, though.

Loki goes over there, then. "Good morning."

"Morning," Tyelcormo says. "Want some fish? Do you mind giving us a schedule of when you'll be dropping in, so we can round up orcs without keeping them tied up for a week?"

"I'd love some fish. I have been operating pretty spontaneously but I can try to keep a schedule; what would be convenient for you?"

"If you came by every Elenya and Aldúya we could be sure to have something for you every time you do, and it'd give us a bit of time to catch new ones up to speed in between - mind, we can only use and would only feel safe having around a hundred here. Beyond that, maybe you can fly them way down south and hope they'll draw the conclusion your Melkor wants them to stay down there? What does your Melkor want?"

"Well, as noninterventionist deities go he's generally understood to be a very nice sort," says Loki. "I imagine he'd like the orcs to settle somewhere and have a thriving trade relationship with their neighbors and make sure that their children do not have the chronic pain issue or have to swear any oaths; oaths are not his standard modus operandi at all."

"Convenient," Macalaurë murmurs. And then, "I'm sorry, that's appallingly rude of me; you've given me no reason to doubt your honesty. How long would it take you to fly orcs sufficiently far south that even if they end up having inaccurate beliefs about what your Melkor wants of them they'll still probably be out of trouble?"

"I can't carry them in the air even if I turn them into birds," she says. "They'd have to learn to fly themselves, which took me a few weeks since I have no actual bird instincts. They might be able to do it faster since someone could pick them up for repeated attempts at takeoff and won't have to hide that they're practicing, but takeoff from the ground is impossible. How far is far enough?"

Mutual shrugs. "We haven't scouted farther south of Cîrdan's," Tyelcormo says, "which is only a few hundred miles south of here. That's not far enough. There's an island south of it, but it's small."

"Well, top swift speed is a little over a hundred miles an hour, so once they do learn to fly - they will need me to change them and someone to pick them up and repeatedly drop them until they manage not to hit the ground - they can get farther than that. I can go looking for a reasonable place to settle orcs next time I'm out flying without anything pressing to do. What and when are Elenya and Aldúya? Are those days of a week?"

"Unfortunately I can't think of anything less vain than naming it after me. Which day is it today?"

"Oooh, I like that, Lokiya. More useful than the Valar and almost as dangerous. Mind, Father might disapprove for obscure linguistic or historical reasons, so don't count on it yet. So it goes Elenya, Anarya, Isilya, Aldúya, Menelya, formerly-known-as-Valanya. Today's Menelya."

Loki laughs at this description of her. "All right. So day after tomorrow and then three days after that I will swing by to apply various magic to orcs who are undergoing their philosophical swordpoint conversions. If my Melkor sounds convenient do mind that I had an array of powerful entities to choose from; no one would have known any better if I'd said the multiverse power level topped out at the disagreeable fellow who snacks on planets."

"But you wouldn't have said that," he says, confused, "since it's untrue?"

"It is untrue," she agrees. "Although... I think a story about the most powerful entity in the universe who simply happens never to do anything substantial might not be so popular if he were rumored to lurk malevolently instead of supervise in a benign manner; so I might not have heard of him if he were terrible."

"Fair enough. We probably wouldn't make marriage vows before Eru if he weren't supposed to embody love and justice. Did you come here to watch your orcs plant things?"