Thanks.

If you guys really ripped into him he'll probably not be doing things like that again. The Maiar can run out of access to whatever divine energy they draw on in the first place.

Huan estimated minimum five years before he leaves Angband. I cut him up and when he got close enough I surprised him with a ton of ice. He and Huan were going for a while after that.

He smiles, a little bit. Five years means we can scout for permanent settlement sites undisturbed, maybe send out some emissaries.

There's still Balrogs and orcs to contend with, I assume they move independently. Oh, and a permanent settlement - your cousins are moving, they're leaving you the Mithrim camp with all your stuff in it, estimate for that is also five years.

Wait, really?

Yep.

Is the other side of the continent much safer? Nicer? More defensible? More mining?

Closer to where I'll be - I'm going to take over Thauron's manage-Men's-racial-infancy project. And Maitimo wanted them to.

Hmmm. Well, I don't think we'll try racing them to it. I should ask my father.

I recommend just taking over their camp. It's perfectly nice.

And clearly there's something on the other side nice enough to motivate them to abandon it, or something up here that makes it not so nice.

There isn't. Proximity to Dwarves over there, I guess, which is more use for them than you. It's going to set them back a while. As far as I know they're taking a loss because Maitimo asked for a favor at a moment when he was really well-positioned to extract them and he wants the two factions not so near each other and your cousins can take the move better. Do you want to ask me while I run Macalaurë's lie-detection song?

I absolutely trust that that's the reason Maitimo gave you.

Well, I'm not aware of any other features making the eastern corridor desirable besides those I've mentioned, I've seen the place, and I don't think you ought to start drama or look a gift horse in the mouth. Calm down.

We're obviously not going to provoke a confrontation, don't worry.

I'm not going to be popping back and forth between your camps once or twice a week any more and you're making me worry!

The entire of our political history is 'they do something confrontational or awful, we ignore it'. The only exception turned out to be quite literally Sauron! You can't drop news like that and expect us to go 'how generous, they must feel guilty', but that doesn't mean we are going to pick a fight.

Loki rolls her eyes. I will be so disappointed if I fly by in half a year and everything is on fire, you have no idea.

They'd also crush us. There won't be a fight.

Metaphorical fire.

The ships were not lit on metaphorical fire, and are we seeking vengeance for our dead loved ones? No. Have they apologized? No. Will they? No. Has it caused any problems, and will it? No.

I'm not worried enough to abandon the Men and babysit you, but I register concern.

Concern registered. Did you tell my cousins that you asked Maitimo whether you should hand him back over? Did they care at all? Did they hesitate to use him as bait?