Well, I'll apologize, at any rate, and make it clear that nobody's getting the pretty version, just the compressed kind. Which things do you want to do which effect?

Can we have five of each?

As long as I'm offending him anyway. And she puts spells to jewels and sorts them into the sides of the box and baffles it.

Thank you. It's a very intelligent use of your abilities. Findaráto says he'd be happy to give you a few more to try, if you're interested. Starting a fire and moving a boat, I think particularly, and he's wondering if the boat one could have effects on a flying bird.

I would love to have them. Is he going to mind if I give fast unaesthetic copies to people who would benefit from the functionality?

I explained that bit, and he still sounded interested, maybe discuss it with him further? If you say that even Macalaurë went along I am sure he will, but it might be nicer to just persuade him it's a good thing in itself.

Also looking back on the interaction I don't think Macalaurë would have been so enthusiastic about helping me hack spells if he'd known I was going to do this beforehand. Where is he? Have we even been introduced?

I didn't know it was a thing! I had this problem with the Dwarves, too, the other way around, one wanted to trade for a look at my science notes and I thought then I wouldn't have them to trade later and he told me he wouldn't just go share my ideas and I told him I was used to assuming everybody in an entire population of Quendi could hear me and would be able to get the information later from one another even if they weren't paying attention. I'll apologize to Macalaurë. She shakes her head, writes down that she should do that, and then says, Introduce me to Findaráto?

Hello, pleased to meet you.

Findekáno says - actually, Finno, perhaps you can say it again? I got a bit lost in a few places. He sits down. He's carrying a small stringed instrument.

I can 'record' sounds I hear. And then loop them so they keep playing without my attention, and take them apart and put them back together, and affect their volume and location and speed. Turns out it works on musical spells.

So we could give everyone a personal heat source.

Making that many would be a bit of a chore, but yes, if you give me a song that'll do it.

It's also not currently necessary. There are a lot of applications of that sort of ability. I'm trying to think what the fairest way might be - people can come to you with songs and you'll give them a number of copies they request, in exchange for keeping one yourself? Or a number of copies according with how valuable the song is to you?

Are we assuming here that I can then copy the song elsewhere, too, or just that I can have it for my own use?

Oh, you'd want more than one copy yourself? Perhaps you could ask people if you can keep one copy to later distribute for each copy you make for them? I'm personally willing to have every pebble on the continent attached to a permanent heat-song but I wouldn't feel that way about the rest of my work or expect anyone else to.

That complicates things. Ugh, she REALLY owes Macalaurë an apology. They're still really useful to me as personal use but they have particular potential as trade goods, which I'm otherwise short on - I travel too much and I give away a lot of information just because I want people to have it. Copies-for-copies is potentially workable, though.

Yes, they clearly have enormous potential as trade goods, which is why no one will sing in your presence if they can't trust you not to trade their songs for your gains which they will never see. I - with tremendous respect for your abilities and the unique position they put you in here, a safe and reliable magical song takes Years of work to develop and refine, I think you may be underestimating that.

It makes sense, I just hadn't previously run into intellectual property as a concept anywhere here but among Dwarves.

Song is communal. You just need leave to copy it. One might even say that song can be communal because you need leave to copy it, because you can share your work without feeling as if in any sense you're surrendering it.

I suppose it doesn't help much that I'd only carry a fast copy, barely recognizable as music, compressed just to the point where if it were any shorter and less aesthetic it would actually stop working?

As I said, I'll give the whole world the means to stay warm. I am sure there are things that people would develop knowing that you'd share them with whoever you pleased.

Yeah. Well, I'd rather have a song for my own use only than not have it all, and I'd rather have limited copy permission than no copies.