At that he's interested. Oh?

Magic songs! If I listen to them I can 'record' them as illusions, store them in separate parts so they don't go off constantly, speed them way up, and stick them together for very quick on-demand casting. Or permanent ambient casting. I have one for accelerated perception and one for shorting sleep and a healing spell which is a little redundant but will work at range.

He grins. Clever. ...these are Macalaurë's? Is he sharing?

Well, he didn't load me up on any more than that - the healing one as provided by a third party - because he's reluctant to 'trust everyone I trust'. But I like the ones I came away with very well.

Fair enough. And the idea is to attach them to objects, so you can get artifacts without all of the difficulty in making artifacts?

I guess that would work too; I have them set up with rooms they can step into if they want to skip a night of sleep or speed up for a while. I'm carrying them around in pieces behind a sound baffle.

We'll take that too if Macalaurë isn't going to resent it for several centuries. Or, actually, even if he is.

I figured. Where do you want them? Any songs I can collect here?

Lots of songs that keep people warm, which I doubt frost giants have much need for. We haven't designed any for fighting yet. I was working on a find-Maitimo song before you found Maitimo.

...I'm not sure I can't freeze but I'm sure it takes more than ordinary environmental conditions to do it, that's for sure. I'll set up the ones I've got wherever's convenient.

Can you put them on a piece of jewelry? Then we can carry them.

Sure, but they do have to run continuously so you won't be able to handle them without being affected.

We can presumably wrap them in some kind of muffling fabric.

If you don't want them loud, sure, that'll work.

Let's not have them loud for now.

All right, bring me something and you can pick your volume. Oh, I suppose you could have a sound-baffle box?

Even better! You can just turn a jewelry box into a sound-baffle and the things within it into carriers for whichever songs you have. He starts walking.

She follows him. I'm starting to think about a combat training regimen. I told your cousins to give me thirty who can then pass on what I teach them when I'm not around; you're welcome to match.

Thank you. Cáno has a song that makes it hard to lie, doesn't he? Can we copy that one for talking with Sarpalarë?

He didn't mention it. Do you think it'd be competitive with her oath or that she's legitimately inclined under that to be uncooperative?

I think she is, under that, terrified. I can't imagine she couldn't be any more communicative if she wanted to be. And - hmm, if we're trading songs, we have things we could offer Macalaurë for that one. It'd advantage them far more than it'd advantage us, but I think that horse is out of the barn.

I don't have any good solutions to the fact that they are better able to make use of things, in general, than you are. But if you'd like to make a trade I'll orchestrate it, especially if I get a song. I want songs.

I wouldn't slow them down if I could. We may need them. Anyway, I'd need to ask the people involved - in Valinor copying someone else's composition without their leave, or sharing a copy you had with permission, was one of the most serious insults one could deliver, I'm not at all sure anyone will want to trade - and let you know.

Oh dear, I didn't realize I'd trod on a cultural problem. I mean, the fast versions are probably impossible to usefully decompose into playable songs, they're only good for the effects, but still...

Yeah, I imagine Macalaurë was much more being upset about his compositions being copied than about his cousins gaining strategically, and it's why I initially hesitated, but - he doesn't have much ground to stand on, and I assume he knows it. So we insulted him very seriously. He pulls out a jewelry box. We'll apologize when they do.