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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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"Sauron is not very good to his prisoners."
purposeful_glory
"I know."
Creativity. Fuck.
...
Please send me a conveniently available werewolf.
Creativity. Fuck.
...
Please send me a conveniently available werewolf.
The werewolves like the snow. One of them comes bounding over, in wolf form, a short time later.
purposeful_glory
"I've had an idea," says Loki. "It's not going to be particularly pleasant. If it works you get to live. If you try to hurt this wolf or run off I will stop you. Is that clear?"
They look around at each other. None of them move.
purposeful_glory
"I'm making an exception to the voluntary turning rule because these people here are inhibited in their ability to volunteer things," Loki's illusion says to the wolf. "Please go ahead and gently attempt to turn that orc." She picks one and points.
And the wolf bites him, as gently as can be managed, and the orc shudders violently and remains standing there. It usually takes some time to tell whether it worked.
Nothing. Which isn't uncommon, even with Men.
The orc is trembling and shaking. One of the other orcs puts a hand on his shoulder. The werewolf bites him three more times.
And a wolf! The first transformation is always involuntary and doesn't seem particularly predictive of future ones. The other orcs watch nervously.
purposeful_glory
"Apart from being quadrupedal, feel any different?" Loki asks the new orcwolf.
Boy isn't Thauron going to feel like a moron if he left her transmissible free will.
Boy isn't Thauron going to feel like a moron if he left her transmissible free will.
Wolves can't talk, and it might take him a while to turn back from the first time.
The wolf nods. But then, one would expect to feel different when turned into a wolf.
If a wolf can look confused, it looks confused.
The helpful werewolf bounces back to human. "What are these?"
purposeful_glory
"They're orcs. The Enemy's principal troops. They brought me a message from Thauron - nothing to do with you guys, it was about something else - and now I am trying to figure out how I can avoid having to kill them. If I let them go without figuring something out they'll spend the rest of their lives trying to kill Quendi."
"You can't kill them," he says, distressed. "That's really bad! I don't think Thauron wants that.
Have they disobeyed you?"
Have they disobeyed you?"
purposeful_glory
"Thauron must have expected it, or he wouldn't have sent them. I used to have a way to make it so I wouldn't have to kill orcs I found, but he cut it off, doesn't work any more. They've been very cooperative so far, but that's because they're afraid of me; they are actually incapable of changing allegiances - unless what you just did worked."
"Oh.
I can switch back and bite the others. If that helps save them from dying, that's kind of our job, it's what we're for."
I can switch back and bite the others. If that helps save them from dying, that's kind of our job, it's what we're for."