"Not just that. I also wanted to ask if the kingdom's available for a refuge for children, from the other populations, in an emergency; and I wanted to know where all the other populations are settled so I can make intelligent suggestions about what places are open or at least sparse."

"That's Father's duty. Explicitly so, she wouldn't comment on it even if she were there." She frowns. "He'll probably refuse you, there's been debates about letting in children."

"I wasn't overwhelmingly optimistic but it seems worth asking, the request takes so little time. Oh, and a few of Olwë's grandchildren are with the newcomers."

"Oh!" Her eyes shine. "Oh, Loki, thank you! I have cousins!!!!! And he'll be so happy to meet them, he speaks of his brother frequently and would rejoice in the chance to show his grandchildren what we have here. What are they like?"

"I spoke only to one, Artanis, who seems very intelligent and, hm, blunt."

Her face falls slightly. "And less than delighted? Well, they don't have as much reason to rejoice in us as vice versa; that's rather the price we pay for fencing ourselves in here. I'll look forward to meeting her. Artanis. How many others are there?"

"She has three brothers. I do not think Artanis has been in a good enough mood to find anything outright delightful," Loki says. "She did seem interested in coming here if she is welcome despite the 'borders closed to all of them forever' business."

"Oh, Father'll relent for Olwë's grandchildren. They had a 'no one with free will' business, didn't they? It's rather a pattern, he says something terribly harsh and then lets us talk him down to leniency. You can call it absurd, if you like, but it usually produces just results in enough time. Our greatest failing is that producing just result in enough time isn't good enough anymore, and the process of governance in Menegroth doesn't get half the best result with half the time to consider it."

Loki nods. "The pace of things here has seemed odd to me here. Asgardians live a long time compared to many races, too, and grow slowly and spend a long time physically young and without imminent fear of the eventual fate of mortal creatures, even if we don't outright persist forever; but time means more to us than it seems to for Quendi. And I am a particular quick specimen."

"We're here for ever, for all the Ages of the world. My mother remembers millions of years as they'd be measured now; everything happens in a blink, for her, and rushing it is both utterly contrary to her nature and exhausting and painful. But we know that now it's necessary, and we're trying. To accommodate your rather breakneck pace through life, if not to match it exactly."

"Well, I can't stay here longer than two nights this time, even if your mother doesn't wake up in that interval to talk sorcery; but perhaps you could coach me in the etiquette of addressing your father about the other matters? I'd know how to do this in Asgard; or for that matter on Vanaheim where my father's from, but I don't know the procedure here."

"Ooooh, later you have to tell me how to do it on Asgard or on Vanaheim. Not that I expect I'll be allowed to go there, but it seems worth knowing. Anyway, don't look at my father right now, it'll seem like you're trying to interrupt his current audience and catch his attention. Go to Mablung - in the blue, right over there - and tell him your question and ask to be presented to the King and he'll do it in what he thinks is the order of importance of the queries he's been presented with and then he'll request of the King an audience for you and then you can just thank him for listening and ask whatever it is. If Asgard has more protocol than that he'd probably be flattered by it, but it's not typical."

"Well, on Asgard I'd skip a couple of steps by virtue of the monarchs being my parents," says Loki. "Thank you. How long a wait should I expect?"

"Unless anyone has anything time-sensitive, not longer than an hour. I can fetch you something to eat while you wait?"

"That would be lovely, if you don't mind. It's not irregular for you to be fetching and carrying?"

"I decided to sort of go for irregularity as my whole role, here, it lets me do things faster if they need to happen. I'm silly and get easily enchanted by an idea and then run around collecting the pieces for it, and everyone knows it, so they're unsurprised by whatever request I might show up insisting I get fulfilled immediately. I'm not sure how I'd transition from this to being taken seriously, but I'm not sure I could ever be serious enough to get Father to budge by arguing with him rather than by charming him and I'm not sure what else seriousness would be for. Would it cost you political credibility to be fetching things, back home?"

"Mm, not necessarily. If for some reason you did visit Asgard I could fetch you things so as not to involve servants in whatever conversation we were busy having; but I wouldn't do it by default unless it seemed faster."

"If I ask people to bring you food they'll definitely be fast about it, but then I won't get to see the chefs and thank them and be seen in the hallways and smile at people and convey that you're our guest and so forth. And if I only did it when it was important then everyone'd know when I was doing something I thought important."

"There's a definite elegance to that. I tended to steer my reputation towards the end of no one thinking it odd if I spent a day alone in my room, instead."

"People would be very concerned if I did that."

"Whereas I could get up to things without being missed - up to and including things that involved climbing out my window, scaling the wall, and going into town in disguise."

She looks enchanted. You will have to tell me about that some time when my father can't hear us, a thought echoes in the air between them, and then she says, "I'm going to go get food" and races off.

Loki goes over to the fellow in blue and solicits an audience and waits.

Lúthien is back before the audience is granted. Every single item on the plate she is holding looks to be a kind of fruit; at least three are glowing gently. "There was a baby boy born today," she says excitedly as she returns, "and I was solicited for names and encouraged to kiss him and I danced until the mother felt less tired, though I could hardly have made her happier, and I hope I didn't take too long getting back."