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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.
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purposeful_glory
Turn it over to you. The point of involving me in this process at all is to minimize his distress to the reduced extent I can.
Then I suppose go ahead and reach out to him first.
purposeful_glory
So Loki goes in and finds a Dwarf who will ask Maitimo if he is willing to receive her for some of what's left of her various bidding war proceeds.
The message comes a few minutes later. "He says 'yes'. Scowled something fierce, but, well, Elves."
purposeful_glory
"Elves," Loki agrees blandly. "Thank you."
And she goes to Macalaurë and says, "Wave your hand or something when you're done with the part I'm not supposed to understand and I can loop and baffle it." And turns her Allspeak off.
And she goes to Macalaurë and says, "Wave your hand or something when you're done with the part I'm not supposed to understand and I can loop and baffle it." And turns her Allspeak off.
"Father says as follows: 'Loki's productivity might be unaffected by whether you're being tortured, but mine isn't, and you don't have leave to turn yourself over to the Enemy no matter what good you think it achieves. I didn't say this sooner because now you're probably even more inclined to mislead us about how well you're doing, but now it seems necessary so now you have it. We're going after Thauron. You're to join the party, since Thauron claims he can track you; you needn't speak to or acknowledge them. Stay out of the fighting but if there are no survivors notify someone who can notify me."
purposeful_glory
And when he waves at her Loki loops-and-baffles and turns her translation back on. "Here goes," she sighs, and she heads for his place.
"Thank you. Ah, you should probably assume there are spies here, and if Maitimo agrees you should take him out in a way that doesn't see suspicious."
purposeful_glory
"I can soundproof his apartment and then have a conversation about going for a fly which could plausibly segue after that into kidnapping," she suggests.
"That sounds good, yes."
He's sitting in the corner of the room, pressed tightly against the wall. "Yes?"
purposeful_glory
"I'm sorry, first of all. Again. Since you threatened to go catatonic if anybody from your family spoke to you I've got a recorded message from Macalaurë which I took down and will play with my Allspeak off." She soundproofs the place, detranslates herself, unbaffles the loop and scoots it back to the beginning.
He listens impassively. After a moment his fingers flutter to indicate it has stopped playing.
"Very clever. And, yes, fine."
purposeful_glory
"We're supposed to have a conversation that makes it look to any local espionage that I'm convincing you to go out for a recreational flight so that I can switch to kidnapping later once we're out of your room, which I had soundproofed."
"I see. If they can't hear us, why bother?"
"If the room is soundproofed, what conversation do we need to fake?"
purposeful_glory
"We are going to leave your room and then fake the conversation on the way out."
"Okay.
Can I have a minute?"
Can I have a minute?"
"There's no reason to refuse you this, you don't learn anything from it and if it's real it'd be worthwhile. No reason at all except I desperately don't want to do it, and that's cowardly."