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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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"You think they expected my brother would kill her? Or his children, if she'd -"
purposeful_glory
"I commented 'suicide mission', Tyelcormo said 'it would have been' - but she didn't tell them anything besides her stupid, rehearsed story even when they took her alive, didn't tell me anything other than that, repeated it with a straight face all through today, I don't think she can tell you anything else."
"I would like to think that even if I have subjects who'd obey me if I asked them to kill my brother I have none who'd obey me if I asked them to swear to it."
purposeful_glory
"Maybe the infiltrator wasn't pretending to be working for you. Maybe they drew on a personal connection of some kind, would she be an easy target that way?"
They look at each other.
"You need to talk to Artanis again," Nolofinwë says.
"You need to talk to Artanis again," Nolofinwë says.
"They would have studied archery together," Irissë says, "if she was good enough to make that shot at all. There's only one advanced women's program with Oromë a century - I wasn't in it, there wasn't anything they could teach me - and anyone'd believe it if she said she wanted Fëanáro dead."
"I spoke to her the first night," Nolofinwë says, "and she swore that to her knowledge they hadn't spoken in the last several months. Which settled it. Obviously. But -"
"I spoke to her the first night," Nolofinwë says, "and she swore that to her knowledge they hadn't spoken in the last several months. Which settled it. Obviously. But -"
"She offered, but I didn't insist - she's my niece -"
"Rather complicating matters, yes."
"I'd hoped," Irissë says, "that once she realized there was an imposter trying to destroy us she'd have tried harder to find a way to help."
"I'd hoped," Irissë says, "that once she realized there was an imposter trying to destroy us she'd have tried harder to find a way to help."
"No, not her, our assassin. I haven't told Artanis anything, I was going to tell her to come here but it occurred to me that maybe we don't want everyone important in one building with an enemy in camp."
purposeful_glory
"This one's already soundproofed and we have a reason to be in it."
"If someone impersonated her to get the assassin to do it, they're presumably watching her extra carefully?"
purposeful_glory
"Maybe. I could go up to her invisibly but I'm not sure what to ask."
"I wanted to see Sarpalarë's reaction but I think we're currently getting a preview."
She doesn't look exactly serene, but she's not talking either.
I'm tempted to tell her, Nolofinwë says, that if I have to kill her she can at least explain herself before she dies, it won't hurt for that long. I am not going to say that and I don't know if it's a reasonable thing to ask.
I'm tempted to tell her, Nolofinwë says, that if I have to kill her she can at least explain herself before she dies, it won't hurt for that long. I am not going to say that and I don't know if it's a reasonable thing to ask.
Unless they're possessed with my brother's peculiar idiocy, they can't pursue them and currently aren't held by them, though they may complicate reembodiment.
The Silmaril oath contains the line "and to the Everlasting Darkness damn us if in this deed we fail", which is unprecedented - you never commit yourself to actually succeed at something, even if it's something trivial, and certainly not if it's 'acquire the Silmarils'. That was incredibly stupid even by Fëanáro's standards. No one else would risk it.
purposeful_glory
This has somehow managed not to come up in my hearing before. But it is presumably beside the point. Sigh. I wish I knew the words of Sarpalarë's oath, if that's what it is - and it keeps looking likelier. I could help her find loopholes. Hard to do that guessing in the dark.
It was the moment at which I decided not to try making Fëanor work as a King. It's hard to describe how dangerous it was and is. But it's beside the point of all concerns except personal fondness for family, since it will only affect them after they die.
"Sarpalarë, can you tell us the wording of the last conversation you had before heading out to find your team again?"
"Sarpalarë, can you tell us the wording of the last conversation you had before heading out to find your team again?"