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Tumunzahar makes Menegroth look like a contract project. Which, the Dwarves assure her, it was. The stonework is astonishingly careful and beautiful, silky to the touch up close while from a distance it gives the impression of stretching on forever above, a sky of stone with crystals for stars. Vast natural cave systems are connected by dozens of perfectly smooth, gently sloped broad stone pathways from which the fall, if she fell, would be several miles down. There are handrails. "We use those to move materials carts," someone explains to her, "we're not going to be reckless."
There's an amphitheater, a place where a hundred of the stone walkways twine around to create space for a hundred thousand people to sit in close proximity, and someone is giving a lecture or a demonstration at the base of it, the seats closest to him filled with eager, tiny, bearded Dwarf-children.
And they spiral down, and down, and down, past waterfalls and egg-sized gemstones left half in the rock and halls of crystal. Everything grows gradually more ornate and more perfectly maintained and the clang of hammers fades behind them. "People say," her guide says, "that we only have a council instead of a single King because there were nine winners of the competition to design the throne so we couldn't just select one person to sit it." And they push open the doors to reveal, indeed, nine thrones so elaborate it would be hard to choose between them, and nine squat bearded people sitting them.
purposeful_glory
"If your version of altering the plan involves werewolves savaging people I'm not sure we're going to find any common ground," says the rock. Maybe this is Thauron; he doesn't have Maitimo to play with anymore, could have branched out. He's fast for a Maia if he's already fucking with Men this comprehensively though.
"Only very occasionally. Keeps them motivated. I expect we have the common ground that we are interested in ways for you to walk away from here alive, tonight, if nothing else, and I've found that is often quite enough to start laying the foundations of a deeper friendship."
purposeful_glory
"You've correctly divined one of my interests, not that I give you much credit for the guess. Why might it be among yours?"
"You have free will.
You have free will and don't seem interested in having this history play out according to Eru's terms. I thought I was going to have to wait for those -" he gestures broadly at the direction she came from - "to have any chance of knocking history off its intended rails but you have free will and seem as interested in that cause as I am."
You have free will and don't seem interested in having this history play out according to Eru's terms. I thought I was going to have to wait for those -" he gestures broadly at the direction she came from - "to have any chance of knocking history off its intended rails but you have free will and seem as interested in that cause as I am."
purposeful_glory
"Eru's a neglectful hack of a designer with no personnel management skills and you won't find me defending him, but if all it took to get the right answers was disagreeing with fools it'd be easier to do."
"We really don't need to want the same things more broadly just to collaborate on the cause of averting the tragiheroic arc of Arda's history."
purposeful_glory
"See, you say that, but I can't help but think you have an informational advantage which in any sustained collaboration would wind up trending in favor of your preferences. Which seem to involve werewolves savaging people."
"I do and it will, unless you're smarter than I think you are. The alternative is that I kill you and then things definitely trend in favor of my preferences, if I am also accordingly far more constrained by the strings of fate."
"I think that you think of yourself as too smart to agree to this. I think, but am less sure of it, that you are not smart enough to have already pieced together why the Valar pardoned Melkor and why I am offering you a job and why those questions ought to have the same answer."
"There are more orcs than Elves and Men combined. There are a thousand times as many orcs as Elves and Men combined. And all of them - even in the Halls of Mandos, to his horror and frustration - are suffering. And this is a consequence of their nature, and Melkor could change it on a whim.
That is what he promised in exchange for his parole, though the Valar did not tell the Elves because they hadn't admitted to the Elves in the first place that suffering could exist even within the Halls.
They don't suffer because it's necessary. They don't suffer because it serves our ends. They suffer because Eru wanted Melkor to be the embodiment of all evil in the world.
And now, Loki, do you see why I think you might accept my offer of a job?"
That is what he promised in exchange for his parole, though the Valar did not tell the Elves because they hadn't admitted to the Elves in the first place that suffering could exist even within the Halls.
They don't suffer because it's necessary. They don't suffer because it serves our ends. They suffer because Eru wanted Melkor to be the embodiment of all evil in the world.
And now, Loki, do you see why I think you might accept my offer of a job?"
purposeful_glory
"Well, you've picked up an idea of the sort of compensation that might interest me, but if Melkor can't muster so much as a whim to stop being so darned evil all the time I'm not sure why I should expect him to hire me on as, what, Executive Orc De-Sufferer?"
"Because we want what you have to offer far more than we care about that. Or do you mean that you wouldn't be able to trust us? I am prepared to swear, Loki, and my master is prepared to swear, that for as long as you serve us no orc suffers."
purposeful_glory
"I've never actually had it verified by a disinterested party that swearing works the same way for anybody other than Elves and orcs. And you're being very vague about my proposed job description."
"You're welcome to go verify that; the offer is not temporally limited, and no doubt our paths will cross again. Our goal is to kill the Valar. The job description is mostly to play as much role as possible in our instrumental planning so that where needed it can deviate from script."
purposeful_glory
"Oh, so that will work, I had wondered. If you want to kill the Valar why all this fucking around with armies of orcs and packs of werewolves?"
"Well, until you sign on, we need Men to do anything other than play our designated part. This is more unbearable for us than for the Elves, because we know our fates to a much greater level of detail. We are still in a position of relying on armies to control territory, though hopefully not for much longer. The werewolves are a hobby of mine. They're transformed Men, so might be able to have interesting free will once they're powerful enough to actually change the course of the war."
purposeful_glory
"And the territory control matters because of that thing where you dig in and build up magical oomph?"
purposeful_glory
She hopes that being off its turf wasn't the only reason why the Balrog was an easy target. "What's the endgame? Dig in, hope the Valar aren't bracing themselves too hard, vast continent-destroying warfare, suppose you win, then what?"
"Eru has a lot of pet projects like this one. Shall we split them fifty-fifty? You can have a share of the galaxy as a performance bonus if you end up being instrumental to our victory."
purposeful_glory
"Who has been giving you such detailed personality assessments of me? That carrot implies a long string of successes much greater than killing the local Valar, though."
"I have a high opinion of you and think, were you dedicated to the task, we could achieve it together. And my agent in Nolofinwë's camp was not competent but had good hearing and was there for a long time, which was really all that was required to understand what motivates you."
purposeful_glory
"Maybe I should cultivate an aura of mystery next time I'm visiting a strange planet. But my question was more limited in scope. Endgame for this planet? Anybody who survives the continent-destroying warfare? Or is the plan scorched earth, take off into space?"