The inside is much nicer; the whole place is wood-paneled, and on the walls where windows should have been there are blocks of translucent stone with some light source behind them so it looks as if sunlight is streaming in. They go down a long, wide, marble staircase to an underground river, tamed and zigzagging across the ground. Maitimo's there. "Hello, Loki," he says.

"Hi. I brought you a draft of the rock song. And I need someplace to put ten thousand Men, some werewolves, and some adopted orc kids before Thauron stops shattering into ice bits" (maybe he'll think that's as funny as she does) "whenever he tries to take physical form. Both I and the Nolofinwëans who have been helping me out are optional."

"Conveniently I have a city."

And his face changes in a way that's hard to describe. "I'm sorry, Loki, I am being rude. I thought you'd come visit eventually and meant to meet you at the gates when you did. We've been moving rather frantically here ever since we got your messenger, but that's no excuse. By all means sit down. I am not particularly surprised that you've acquired werewolves and adopted orc kids, but do tell me the whole story."

"Iiiii'm just going to take that at face value," she says after a moment, and she sits. "Uh, Thauron turned some Men into werewolves while he was there, they seem to be basically infertile shapeshifting Men, I stopped letting them turn volunteers after they all had weird nightmares but that's been the extent of worrisome werewolf-related anything. I've been getting parties of orcs as, let's say presents, one group brought their babies. The babies are half grown now. Got to give a 'you're adopted just like me' talk. - Vár's dead." I might have tactical teleportation before he gets out of Angband and that might let me beat him on my own, but I might not.

"That's good," he says. "My condolences anyway." You think the Enemy can hear us here?

Doubt it very much, but the information's sensitive and you're telepathic. "Yeah. I met a let's-say-neutral Maia called - I can't ever remember her name, hang on -" She looks it up in her notes. "Thuringwethil. Turns into a bat. She's the one who told me about the sigil. She works intermittently for Thauron, I caught her reading the party of orcs with the babies from a ways off, it wasn't a very good first impression but then I met a river Maia who told me where she lived and we had a friendlier conversation."

"Vampire bat," he says. "Specifically. If it's important. In general one can trust the Maiar about as far as you can throw them, but you're getting quite capable at throwing. What did she have to say?"

"Complaints about fate, mostly, the sigil thing, I'll show you the transcript if you like, she swore she hadn't lied to me at the end of it."

"I'm all right, thank you. So you want to move Men into Beleriand where there's at least some hope of defending them against Thauron? Yourself and the Nolofinweans optional? Where are you planning to go?"

Shrug. "The Nolofinwëans can go back to their host. I could go with them, or park in Doriath, or move in with the orc colony, or see if Brithombar would let me move in, I'm not short of favorably disposed people."

"The Men have some kind of system of governance and dispute resolution?"

"It's, well, new, since they are... and involves a fair amount of sport wrestling for lower-level disputes... but yeah, I've been very carefully placing myself as protector-and-dispenser-of-supernatural-goodies, not queen, and the Elf helpers as consultants, not nobility. If nothing were going to attack them I'd expect we could all disappear and they'd be confused but not fall apart."

"All right. If you have the means to get them here we can have a quarter of the city for them. I don't know how the needs of Men differ from the needs of Elves, and this city is built to the aesthetic sensibilities of neither, but it will keep them safe. There's as much below ground as above it, and the Dwarves think that earthquakes wouldn't topple these buildings."

"If necessary I can just have a flock of ten thousand birds show up. Possibly bring them in batches. Oh, about the identity verification measure, Maiar can just contest my illusions if I'm not propping them up; I'm happy to make one if you want it for some other reason or if you're going to combine it with Maiar-repellent, but dismissing it won't serve to guarantee I'm me."

"I was actually hoping you'd be willing to illusion the city for the sake of its populace. I asked the Dwarves what was safest and made absolutely no concessions to other concerns in construction. But my people will be very reluctant to live in a place like this, and I don't know about the Men. If you're willing to, I have drawn up how I'd have designed this city had I set myself the task in Valinor. Windows and such delights. And a palace that people find inspiring rather than intimidating."

"It is kind of severe, albeit in a very elegant way. I'm happy to pretty the place up, although I'd worry that if I make things on the interiors that look like windows they, well, won't be, and people would mistake the view for the actual exterior."

"In this building I just have windowlike things with light, no view. Probably someday there'll be a business in customizing them." He stands, walks over to a table, pulls out sheets of paper with detailed sketches. "This is what I'd like the exterior to look like, if it's no trouble."

She looks it over to get a firm mental picture.

"I earned most of the money I spent on the city, but rush labor is very expensive and I decided to insist on it. The Dwarves won't let me take out loans on my name or on my word." He's smiling. "If you happen to have more of Cáno's songs to sell them at some point I would appreciate it."

"I've got the rock song, which you can have as many of as you like. Otherwise nothing new, but I assume I'm still allowed to fund your projects with further sales of the songs thus designated." And I have the 'oomph song', which I am supposed to play pretty close to the chest, but if you can think of a discreet place to sell... and some songs can double if they're synced and insulated right.

Thauron seems to find the Dwarves beneath his attention. Maybe it's just that they have too grounded a sense of what good deals look like. "I assume so, yes. And Tumunzahar trades with other Dwarven kingdoms. It's not urgent. As you can see I'm nearly finished. Do you need to walk through the city to illusion it?"

That and the immunity to mind control. "To illusion it in a way that matches up with the real locations of anything, yes. Oh, do you want a shadowcatcher? I've got a ways around my settlement stained blue so if something invisible that I didn't make invisible walks over it, it casts a shadow on the blue."

"If it doesn't trouble crops, yes. Let's tour the city." He starts walking up the stairs.