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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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They would. They do. There is a lot of crying.
purposeful_glory
She writes down the names and figures out how to connect names to the correct babies and apologizes again and ices them all.
A week later there is a human baby to join the orc babies. Someone asks her if the human baby can be named Loki.
purposeful_glory
...That's fine with her, if that's what they want to call the baby.
There is a human baby named Loki and orc babies named by dead orc parents and much of life in the settlement revolves around taking care of them. Crops are ready by midsummer with the crop songs, and the Elves think there'll be time for two harvests.
Lots of people are having nightmares. Not the werewolves specifically.
purposeful_glory
That's probably just normal nightmares, then. The Elves would've mentioned if they had a song for that, right?
The Elves don't have a song for nightmares. They have a song for very deep sleep which might work, if they're just ordinary nightmares.
That works, which resolves at least that they are merely ordinary nightmares.
Around midsummer someone knocks at night on the window of her tower.
Around midsummer someone knocks at night on the window of her tower.
It's the Maia she ice-blasted a few months ago. Hovering. "Hello," she says. "You didn't mention whether you in fact find ice blasting me satisfying, so I thought I'd drop by, talk if you want, cathartic rage of destruction if that's more your kind of thing."
purposeful_glory
"Balrogs do this cool exploding and then not being alive thing, I don't think you're gonna top that. Will you go away if I say please?"
"Yeah, definitely."
And she leaves.
purposeful_glory
...Loki skips a sleep and goes patrolling the settlement.
Quiet, peaceful, undisturbed. Everyone alive. She eventually finds Thuringwethil sitting at the edge of a lake, skipping rocks.
"I wasn't trying to fuck with you, this spring. 'send friendly orcs over to meet Men' seemed pretty harmless." She stands, starts walking toward the desert.
purposeful_glory
Loki sits up, outside, working, peering through a telescope now and then to watch her go.
She walks for a few miles, then turns into a bat and flies from there.
purposeful_glory
...Seems like a dumb choice of alternate form, if you ask Loki.
Summer turns into fall. The second harvest is ready. A Dwarven expedition makes contact, is pleased to meet some Men, would like to know if Men are interested in trading.