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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.
He wasn't actually evil back then, unless he was doing an exceptionally good job hiding it, but yeah, figured you'd find that a dealbreaker. I'll get over my broken heart.
purposeful_glory
Cool. Good chat. Later.
And Loki flies home and explains the runey brick thing and sends an elfbird to go tell whoever's building that eight-pointed city, and their host, and their cousins' host.
And Loki flies home and explains the runey brick thing and sends an elfbird to go tell whoever's building that eight-pointed city, and their host, and their cousins' host.
The Elves are angry and feel stupid; every book in the libraries of Tirion had a slightly modified version of the rune, and they'd used it to no effect and concluded it didn't work, but Melkor must have gone through and altered that in the early years of his campaign to make trouble.
purposeful_glory
Oh, is that what happened. Man, what a dick that guy is. Well, she has the functional version, she saw it glow and everything. Come on, folks, let's get a perimeter up so nothing can sneak by. Except you, messenger elfbird, you're going to go make sure the good news gets where it's going.
The Men are sprawled across a very large distance, but there are also a lot of them; with everyone working there's a brick perimeter in not too much time.
purposeful_glory
That works as warning but not as deterrent and not as orc repellent. She recommends they build it higher, but they do have other things on their minds and realistically it's not going to be a twenty foot wall up in a year.
It's a few months later when the guards come racing to tell her that the bricks briefly stopped a bat from flying by. Said bat arrives on her windowsill a minute later.
purposeful_glory
"The bat is - probably - the same Maia who taught me how to do the bricks," Loki says. "Thank you for letting me know."
And she goes to say hi.
"I keep forgetting your name," she tells the bat. "I don't know why, it just slides right out of my head."
And she goes to say hi.
"I keep forgetting your name," she tells the bat. "I don't know why, it just slides right out of my head."
"Lots of people came up with new names so the Incarnates could say theirs. I can be Batgirl if it makes you happy. Sauron says you can have five years' truce if you come work in Angband, with the hopes that once you see each others' projects you can discover whether there are others on which you have ground in common, and if you name your terms more specifically he'll send proposed drafts for the wording of an oath. He also says that he's enjoyed the last few years tremendously. He also says that, realistically, if you can't think of a way to find common ground in five years, he's at that point going to kill you, albeit regretfully."
purposeful_glory
"Well, in that case it seems like a bad idea to plan on being somewhere he can get at me in five years' time."
"So insist on a wording that lets you be well away from Angband when time expires. Otherwise he tries to kill you now. And at that point your choices are 'run for Doriath' or 'run for Valinor', honestly."
purposeful_glory
"Does he seem to be envisioning that I will be socializing with him much in Angband? That would probably be more of a drain than the suicidal Quendi because he can manage 'interesting conversationalist' and has demonstrated mastery of getting under my skin."
purposeful_glory
"I should probably consult with a bunch of people on this one. Last time I thought about making a deal with him somebody else noticed flaws I didn't. But thank you for conveying the message."
"This is honestly way more excitement than this side of the continent normally sees. Probably gonna get me killed but you know what it's not going to do? Get me killed in four hundred fifty two years. See you." She leaps out the window.
Negotiating with Sauron is a terrible idea. They are unanimous.
...not negotiating is also probably a terrible idea. But still. Uh. Stall for time, plead with Ulmo?
...not negotiating is also probably a terrible idea. But still. Uh. Stall for time, plead with Ulmo?
purposeful_glory
...She thinks somebody else might have better luck with Ulmo than her, but if somebody wants to be birded and sent to plead with Ulmo she can spare them.