Go ahead and dip into my money if need be for that, I'll tell the Dwarves. There keep being advantages to having me here, even with the goggles I'm not seeing it as viable to move everybody out before I'd have time to earn a new city-building fortune anyway.

We've made the same calculation with regards to splitting into more kingdoms. We want to do it, we regard it as morally urgent, but it's just not immediately viable.

Yep. When we're less under attack.

The right way to do something like this would be to have six or seven kingdoms with internal freedom of movement. Then I could be as authoritarian as I pleased with rather less guilt about it. And I think my people would still stay.

Makes sense.

After the war.

How goes weapons development?

I think they understand in principle how nuclear weapons are created. I think there are still technical challenges beyond acquiring the materials. This isn't something we do all the time so I can't give you a timeline. Got a site where we can test something once we have it?

If I have cargo before you have bulky prototype bombs I can get you some lovely uninhabited south continent desert.

We're also going to be doing bomb assembling, once we're far enough along on the technical work, in the desert east of here rather than anywhere near Himring. For safety's sake. We've been telling everyone the work is happening here. Can you make the workers invisible in a way that doesn't make it inconvenient for them to work?

I mean, I could make them invisible and then they could put on gloves, but no, the illusions aren't subjective, they won't be able to see themselves.

Illusion that section of desert? If no, we may just have to work underground a lot.

I could put a "roof" on the area of desert, but - Similar issues compared to the hidden valley she was pitched years earlier, maybe more tractable in a desert locale but not hardly foolproof. Better with the infrared and ultraviolet, though.

It's fine if he thinks we have a hidden city there, as long as he doesn't think we are building this kind of weaponry there.

I can put a few decoy roofs up too.

And have either you or Huan on the spot to kill anything that tries to come by.

Is it in osanwë range to call me in or would we be taking shifts?

It's around two hundred miles, two fifty. Perhaps you should find whoever here you feel most intimate with and spend more time with them.

I still don't know if that actually works normally for people who don't have their own osanwë. And I talk to you more than anyone else telepathic, although some of the Men's helpers could give you a run for your money there.

I can hear all my brothers from there, so we could have one of them there and then relay through me to you.

Sounds like a plan.

I have an idea for a new game setting, next time you're free.

Ooh?

Everyone has powerful magic, society is mostly kept under control with extensive use of very tightly worded loyalty oaths and everyone in charge still gets assassinated a lot, has teams of people sworn to avenge them.

Interesting. This is both teams, set up like this?