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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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And then start hurting orcs again early? She grimaces. Eventually we'll kill him.
Did you tell my mother the exact wording? She's good at noticing loopholes and lies and tricks.
Yes.
"I swear to you, before Melkor, before Eru, before the powers of this earth, that there are thousands of times as many orcs as Elves and Men. That orcs will not suffer for the next six days. That, should you bring me Maitimo Nelyafinwë within that time, orcs will not suffer for the next ten years. That if you accept my job offer, orcs will not suffer for as long as you serve us. I swear this on all of my powers to act within Arda."
"I swear that, if you are on your way with the proof that you're willing to negotiate, the orcs won't start experiencing constant pain in the agreed-upon sense again until you take action indicating breach of our agreement or until ten years have passed."
Wow, he's - that's playing very very seriously. Yikes. Um, doesn't sound to me like they get two weeks no matter what.
"I swear that, if you are on your way with the proof that you're willing to negotiate, the orcs won't start experiencing constant pain in the agreed-upon sense again until you take action indicating breach of our agreement or until ten years have passed."
Wow, he's - that's playing very very seriously. Yikes. Um, doesn't sound to me like they get two weeks no matter what.
It's probably risky for you to play along for any longer.
If you had allies to take Gorthaur, and you could get them to the right place in time - there's a desert between the mountains and the Men, right?
purposeful_glory
Yes. I stopped there for a while to see if being uncomfortably warm in general makes me go frosty; didn't help. Why?
If it looks like you're complying until you get there, and then suddenly you stay there and stop moving, I bet he either stops by or sends someone. And there's a fight that can't kill any bystanders and isn't on his turf. It probably still isn't worth it.
I wish I could leave Doriath. That I'm really good at.
purposeful_glory
...you're really good at what, impersonating an ex-prisoner of Angband?
No, talking with them. Daeron was working on a spell and it wasn't complete and the ones I have weren't innately suited but I spent a lot of time with them and could help them feel a lot more - in possession of their own heads.
purposeful_glory
Ah. Well, he seems to be settling in all right at Tumunzahar, at least as well as can be expected.
But you don't think he'd agree to walk out to the desert to set a trap for Gorthaur, even if you otherwise had the firepower to do it?
I'll ask Mother again but I think her answer will be that if Beleriand lost you both in one day the war would be over and lost.
purposeful_glory
Then it was lost before I came, wasn't it? I'd be on Midgard, pretending that my soul was a bobcat, and he'd be dangling from a cliff, and the war would be lost?
Yes. I told you that I was considering dying so I could plead with Mandos personally, it really was that hopeless.
purposeful_glory
Then letting him have the Men seems even stupider. It's hardly guaranteed that even if I hide in Doriath the Enemy won't decide I'm enough of a priority to make some intensely costly assault on the place!
Men live very short lives and aren't very smart and can't do magic. It's a horrible cost to let him have them, but I don't know that it's a strategic error.