Well, sort of. I think Thauron and I both underestimated each other and my revised estimate is that if he hadn't done that he would've killed me.

I don't think he was trying to, Macalaurë says, though maybe he would have been trying if he'd estimated you rightly. He didn't kill the bird until he was sure it wasn't Maitimo - he very well might value capable people enough he'd rather have them alive and as enemies, if his ambitious are as grand as he claims.

So you think he's going to try to aim me without actually employing me.

At a guess, yes.

Great. Maybe I should park in Doriath and do nothing but spellcraft until my eidetic memory's ready.

Weren't we going to try to do something about the Men?

I was mostly not serious. If Huan comes back and says Thauron's retreated to Angband it's worth it to go give them more to work with than unhelpful neighbors and their preinstalled language so they aren't so staggeringly vulnerable to suggestion. And I want to check on Vár. But I'm going to have to be a bit paranoid going forward.

I'm not even sure it's a good idea, Tyelcormo says, but is anyone going to check on Maitimo?

Sigh. I'll need to turn him back at Tumunzahar anyway. Will you be too inconvenienced if I do that first before turning you all back at your own camp?

If we have the opening I'd rather go on to the Men before you send us home and turn us back. Whatever you want to accomplish will go twenty times as fast with twenty people.

The Men are a longer-term project. - Mopping up the werewolves maybe sooner than later. I would love help with it but it's not just a little while as long as we happen to be in the neighborhood, they don't have nearly enough foundation that I can give them the accumulated science lectures and send them on their way, they need way more work than that.

And we can't commit to the next few years out here, we're needed pretty badly at home.

Yep. So we can go address werewolves and then I can bring Maitimo back to the Dwarves and then meet you there?

Sure. Uh, can you? Where is Maitimo?

Understood.

If you want to go on ahead I can meet you at the gate but I don't know how long this'll take.

I will be at the gate when you arrive.

That seems to be that. She relays this plan to his brothers and wheels Menward, osanwëing the course.

The Elves are singing. Over osanwë it's not magic, but it's still beautiful and compelling and in this case deeply sad. We don't need to direct it at you, Macalaurë says, if it bothers you.

I'm fine.

So they sing the whole rest of the flight. The associated memories are mostly blazing gold and silver and set in Valinor. The ones towards the end, set in sunlight, seem weak and watery by contrast.

And here are Men. Are there also werewolves? Is the invisibility curtain still there?

No werewolves are apparent, but it's now morning. The area where the invisibility curtain was looks like a deserted valley.

And if she throws a rock at it?