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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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purposeful_glory
...Can she get a bird Elf to go see if there is by any chance a city being assembled via music hereish, and if there is not continuing west to ask about that at the Fëanorian camp?
Also: would those Dwarves they have a relationship with be willing to be a fallback position for fleeing persons?
Also: would those Dwarves they have a relationship with be willing to be a fallback position for fleeing persons?
The Dwarves will try but wow this is a lot of Men and orcs and they have, like, thirty beds for full-sized people? More notice would have been nice.
A bird Elf returns to confirm that there's a stone Noldorin city in the shape of an eight-pointed star in eastern Beleriand, though it seems to be being assembled by a work crew of several thousand Dwarves rather than by music.
A bird Elf returns to confirm that there's a stone Noldorin city in the shape of an eight-pointed star in eastern Beleriand, though it seems to be being assembled by a work crew of several thousand Dwarves rather than by music.
purposeful_glory
Loki apologizes for not bringing it up earlier.
The city may be interesting - and if it looks far enough along and accessible enough maybe it can be a fallback point too - but if it's being built by Dwarves Macalaurë probably doesn't have that one song done yet.
Maybe Loki should've had a conversation with turns-into-a-bat. She's not sure to what extent it is possible to intermittently work for the Enemy, but maybe turns-into-a-bat (why is her name so hard to remember) has pulled it off.
Loki goes looking for the river Maia. Not with color beyond the shadow-detecting radius, but by zooming along the river calling out occasionally.
The city may be interesting - and if it looks far enough along and accessible enough maybe it can be a fallback point too - but if it's being built by Dwarves Macalaurë probably doesn't have that one song done yet.
Maybe Loki should've had a conversation with turns-into-a-bat. She's not sure to what extent it is possible to intermittently work for the Enemy, but maybe turns-into-a-bat (why is her name so hard to remember) has pulled it off.
Loki goes looking for the river Maia. Not with color beyond the shadow-detecting radius, but by zooming along the river calling out occasionally.
And she finds the river-Maia far south. Hello!
Lovely! It hasn't had much time to do anything different, I just saw you.
purposeful_glory
I came by because I'm trying to get ready for the possibility that the Enemy's going to attack my settlement soon. It's been relatively quiet because Thauron hasn't been able to keep a physical form for the last few years, but he may regain that power soon, in one to ten years' time, and while it's possible his attention will turn elsewhere it seems likely he'll come after the Men, since that's where he was when he was driven away. I'm not a Maia, and I'm not as strong as he is, and I'm worried.
I'm sorry. If he bothered my river I'd be very scared and angry.
purposeful_glory
I don't know if he's likely to bother the river. I'm wondering if you could tell if he's coming - in case he has a way to beat my shadow catcher? I met a Maia who could tell me where Thauron was from a certain range, even when I couldn't see him, I don't know if it's a general ability.
I would know when he was around my river. But if you two have a feud, and I help you, he'll be angry and probably destroy the river.
He would know someone told you, and then he'd check who was around.
Thuringwethil's around sometimes. Melian has a forest.
purposeful_glory
Melian's definitely not leaving her forest and probably wouldn't let my people all come barging in there. I'm not at all sure what to make of Thuringwethil but maybe I'll see her.
She likes you. She talked about you at me for days and sounded very annoyed and she doesn't usually get annoyed that easily.
You don't think so?
purposeful_glory
It wasn't my first guess. I didn't actually talk to her very long because I assumed based on past experience that the Enemy probably sent her to do some sort of injury to my psychological stability or schedule or both.
Oh. You could ask her if she was on a contract for Melkor the second time she went to see you but I don't think she was.
You don't want to go visit her? I don't go visit her, the river doesn't go there. She'll probably come say hello to you again in a few decades.
She gestures, sends a mental image, of a mountain range a way west. Where she lives, probably?
purposeful_glory
I didn't know where she lived. Thanks for the directions.