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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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And then the wolf is an orc again. He's smiling slightly. "Ow. That hurts but it's nice."
purposeful_glory
"Did it by any chance," she says, "infect you with free will?"
"Yes."
The song says otherwise.
The song says otherwise.
"I'm not even sure what you'd mean, or how I'd tell," the orc backtracks.
purposeful_glory
"If you have free will your oath wouldn't bind you," she says. "I'm sure you could think of proof."
"None of you are Elves. But I can go be friendly to Elves. I don't have any problems with Elves." The last sentence is false.
"I can go be friendly to Elves," he says. "I can go run around as a wolf in the snow. I'll do whatever you want." None of that is false.
purposeful_glory
"I cannot afford to keep an eye on you all the time, intimidating you into good behavior, and this settlement would be poorly served to feed you if you can't be trusted to work without supervision - without specifically my supervision, moreover."
"You could let us go. We haven't done anything."
purposeful_glory
"Oh, did he specifically send me fresh orcs with clean hands?" To the werewolf, "Thank you for your help. You should go."
He looks hesitant, but walks off.
The orcs are cowering unhappily.
The orcs are cowering unhappily.
purposeful_glory
"So that was my idea. I might think of another one eventually but I cannot stand around all day trying to think of ways to save you. Anybody have another thing to try?"
"Those are Men, not Elves. We can live with Men."
purposeful_glory
"There are Elves around. Getting rid of them would involve leaving you unsupervised and there would still be other Elves around."
"We don't have weapons. There's not much we could do to Elves."
"There isn't anything," the initial spokesperson says, after a minute. "I am sure he sent us as much because he's curious if you'd kill us as to deliver the message, and they won't miss us, and you won't let us leave. There isn't any other way. Your friend was very silly to think you'd rescue her."
purposeful_glory
Loki sighs. (The illusion doesn't.)
"Then you," she says, "like every orc who hasn't been promoted to my personal attention, like every Elf who has died and hasn't met with Mandos's approval - will have to wait until I've got more resources at my disposal. Last requests or words or anything?"
"Then you," she says, "like every orc who hasn't been promoted to my personal attention, like every Elf who has died and hasn't met with Mandos's approval - will have to wait until I've got more resources at my disposal. Last requests or words or anything?"
"If I asked you to get a message to my mother, you wouldn't do it, would you?"
purposeful_glory
"I'd write it down. If I encountered your mother in a conversation-amenable context I'd tell her. I can no more go looking for her than I can go rescue Vár."
"And if you encountered my mother in a conversation-amenable context it'd be right before you killed her. No messages." Her voice is steady for how much she's trembling.