"Not too long at all," says Loki, accepting the plate and peering at the fruit and popping one of the glowy ones into her mouth. "That's lovely about the baby, what did they name him?"

"Orgol, it means 'lion'. Those are tasty but very very filling, I usually eat them last." Oh! - her thoughts add - That reminds me, we could probably smuggle some food out of here if any of the other Elves need it.

...Nolofinwë's host could use food, but getting it to them would be a problem. I can't carry much as a swift; a couple bags that can disappear the way my clothes do, nothing bulky. "Which should I eat next, then? I don't recognize most of this."

"The blue ones are savory and nice to start a meal with. I have no idea what food consists of in Asgard. We grow everything underground so it's all magic."

Nom. "Asgardian cuisine is heavy on the meat and alcohol. But there are fruits and vegetables and bread and cheese and eggs too. Usually nothing very complicated; the standard recipe is 'roast it with salt and onion and possibly two or three spices', with 'turn it into a stew' and 'make a sandwich of it' distant seconds."

"Meat turns out to be logistically challenging for a million people living in a cave system. The Dwarves do it, somehow, but we've never been able to make it a significant part of the diet. And nowadays we kill any deer that enters the forest." She frowns. "I feel guilty over thinking that fundamentally aesthetic considerations like welcomingness or forests with deer should take precedence over the lives of my people. But the way things are now is an ugly way to live."

"The Dwarves? I haven't heard of those."

"Do we strike you as the type to do underground excavation and stonework? Or metalworking? The Dwarves live in the eastern mountain ranges, or travel, but a few hundred of them live and work here in Menegroth and greater numbers took part in building it. My lilies went to the edge of their community, the day we met. I can introduce you? It sounds like you're juggling a great deal as it stands."

"It didn't occur to me that you wouldn't be able to do underground excavation and stonework if it seemed expedient," Loki says. "And I didn't know if it might have taken long enough for it have been done by Maia magic. I am juggling a lot, but I'm hoping to solve at least some of the problems I encounter by encouraging people to help each other; maybe the Dwarves are not in particularly dire straits and have a little to spare. That or they are having terrible troubles of some kind and I should prioritize them."

"Melian can make caves, she can't make them look like trees. Once they do look like trees she can make them come alive. She's not as limited as I, since I'm only half Maia, but it's the same principle by which I can dance to make people revitalized and happy but can't make them revitalized without making them happy. I can introduce you to the Dwarves after your audience. They are about three feet tall, very ugly by the standards of our people, and on civil terms with us as a people but unfriendly ones with most of us as individuals. Which is mostly our fault - we hunted them for sport, before we realized they were sentient."

"...I could imagine that being a very straining sort of first impression, yes."

"Formally we've made amends. But informally, yes, very much so."

"Well, it bodes well for their ability to get along constructively with strangers who haven't personally done that."

"I mean, I have not personally done that. It's still my fault, these are my people. But yes, you weren't even here and it can only advantage you."

Nod. "I keep telling people I'm not a diplomat but I seem to wind up doing it all the time anyway."

"I'm sorry," she says sincerely. "If the world would hold still for you what would you like to be doing?"

"Oh, goodness. It might depend on how hypothetically I came by the power to hold the world and how long I could do it for... I'd invent a lot of spells. I'd sabotage the Enemy. I'd explore everywhere without being shot at for it and know where everything was. I'd run to all the other realms and curate the accumulated wisdom of a thousand worlds and bring back vast torrents of knowledge, here and everywhere that's struggling."

"Thank you," Loki says to Mablung and the king, and she steps forward. "I have three questions. First, the four grandchildren of Olwë with the host of newcomers; would you receive them if they chose to visit?"

He looks startled and delighted. "Olwë had grandchildren? We hesitate to answer, not knowing whether they participated in the outburst of random violence you describe, but we remember our brother with the conviction he would not have done wrong, and would certainly see and speak to them, and come to understand whatever occurred. Extend our invitation."

"I will be delighted to convey it to them. Second, I am aware of more than one group seeking a place to settle, but I have been in this realm only a short time and do not know enough about what parts of the continent are already claimed to make intelligent suggestions to them. I would be grateful to have any information you would share with me about what space is open and who might be willing to have neighbors."

"We will grant leave to the newcomers to settle only to our northeast, which is unoccupied. The rest of the continent is already inhabited, and we will not have our people pushed out by dangerous arrivals who've apparently made many enemies."

"I was thinking also of the converted orcs," Loki says. "I will suggest to them the empty island south of here if nothing else."

"The ruler of the lands adjacent to there is an old friend of ours, Círdan. We will grant you permission to ask him for leave to resettle your orcs on an island within reach of his territory, but he has our full support should he decline to grant it."

"I understand, your majesty," says Loki. "Will you tell me where to find him?"