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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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Irissë bites her tongue. Nolofinwë smiles. "I expect, by Asgardian standards, quite generous. He is a Vala and wouldn't miss you for several years at a time."
purposeful_glory
"Anyway, maybe he didn't know how to expect my whereabouts except by arranging for something I'd want to attend to be going on."
"Or at least decided to make the best of something you'd be certain to be present at, once the first plan failed. Or maybe the archer was supposed to shoot down a bird, who knows?
How likely is it that our shapechanger can kill you in your sleep, if they try it?"
How likely is it that our shapechanger can kill you in your sleep, if they try it?"
purposeful_glory
"Well, I'm no longer planning to sleep as a perfectly visible slow-flying bird. It depends a lot on their capabilities, though."
Nolofinwë nods. "Well. There are too many moving pieces here and I'm not happy. I'd like to find and stab our shapeshifter, conclude our trial, and let your location be unpredictable again, but I don't know how fast I can do those things.".
purposeful_glory
"Me either. And if there's a Maia lurking around here I don't want to leave you alone; I'm probably," she flings illusion sparkles into the air, "the only person it definitely can't impersonate and probably stand the best chance in a fight. Though I might appreciate someone minding me while I sleep so they can wake me if something happens."
Everyone present except the prisoner immediately expresses willingness to do this. "If I tell everyone to sleep armed," Nolofinwë says, "they'll have a better chance in a fight. If I tell them not to, the impersonator can't jostle and unnerve us into killing our own."
purposeful_glory
"You should ask Fëanor's representatives to osanwë their friends; this tactic in the Enemy's active repertoire is... troubling."
"Good idea. Can someone head over there? I don't know them well enough to make sure they hear, and not someone who looks like them - you're quite sure that the people who arrived escorting her were Fëanor's?"
purposeful_glory
"I don't know them personally myself, but Tyelcormo was there partway, bird formed, and they wouldn't have had a chance to make a swap after he departed and I landed among them. I don't think a fake Tyelcormo could have been plausibly planted just so as to be turned into a bird and taught to fly, although maybe a shapeshifting Maia could do that part without help and something's befallen the real one."
"If he seemed in character, it was probably him. All right, I'll go over and tell them to tell Fëanor that Maitimo's paranoias may reflect actual enemy tactics."
purposeful_glory
"...I'm worried about the orcs, now, too, but perhaps I oughtn't leave until this is resolved here. Can you also ask Fëanor's people to check in with anyone they know with the orc escort?"
Nolofinwë nods. "Why oughtn't you leave? Because we're overmatched? So is everyone else; if you think you're needed elsewhere, go."
purposeful_glory
"I don't know if the orcs have anything to worry about and there's a way to check without flying down to find them."
"Well. We can force a confrontation right now, easily enough, if time is pressing. I can storm down to Artanis's and demand to know why she met with Sarpalarë before she left, and you three can look for faces in the crowd, and I can then ask everyone to arrest both doubles of anyone we see with doubles. It'll get people killed but I think it would end this."
purposeful_glory
"Time may not be pressing. I have not seen more than one set of doubles at a time, nor do they have enough force to attempt to overwhelm instead of sowing haphazard discord. The orcs may be fine. I just want to ask."
"All right," he says, and leaves the building.
purposeful_glory
Loki goes out too. Scans for duplicates. Makes a note of where Artanis is.
No duplicates visible at the moment. Artanis doesn't seem unusually tense. It's getting dark.
purposeful_glory
Loki puts a dot of brown on the sole of (this) Artanis's shoe. Should look like a fleck of dirt apart from the fact that she'll be able to move it with her mind on demand.
I'm not crashing yet, but if I'm planning to sleep under guard where should I do that? she asks Irissë.
I'm not crashing yet, but if I'm planning to sleep under guard where should I do that? she asks Irissë.
Our place, probably.
These supposed-Feanorians say that the Feanorians have been notified, and that the orcs have been notified in turn, and that everyone is fine, Findekáno reports a minute later.
These supposed-Feanorians say that the Feanorians have been notified, and that the orcs have been notified in turn, and that everyone is fine, Findekáno reports a minute later.
purposeful_glory
Well, that's strictly better than not that, Loki says dryly to Findekáno. And then she goes and parks outside the family home to sit and watch things and do spellwork.
A minute later Findekáno comes to sit beside her. I did something stupid.
I'm well within range to hear Maitimo and I was worried, with all of this going on, so I told him about it, and to be careful, since he's alone and practically unarmed, and he was listening but not sending anything at all so then I just told him about the area, and the trial, and how if we'd just been more sensible in the first place we'd all know how to fight by now and we wouldn't be in so much danger, and he said, very - expressionlessly, which makes perfect sense - 'do you want another apology'? and I didn't say anything and he said 'don't do this again' and It think that's what I would have expected, if you'd asked me in advance. But.