"Yeah, it won't take that long with the designs prepped anyway. Do you want them all at once or spread out over a couple weeks?"

"Might be suspicious if they all go up the same day, but if that's easier for you don't worry too much about it."

"No, spreading 'em out works for me, short breaks rather than killing half a day on it."

"Perfect. Thank you."

"Should I put the closest ones up first so it looks like people are spreading out from here?"

"That would make sense, yes."

"All right. You want status reports as they go up or just one when they're all done?"

"If my scouts are competent I'll hear about it anyway." They at last have gas masks sufficient for some people to venture out. "Don't bother about status reports."

And shortly after that, a hundred or so people gather in the desert under an illusory city to figure out how to build a nuclear bomb.

Good luck with that.

"Talent, we like wishing people," Fëanor says. "Not fortune. But thank you."

"I wish you cooperative neutrons and no accidental detonations. I think it's even less likely I can affect your talent by wishing about it."

He shakes his head, but not particularly with annoyance. "I'd expect that being wished good talent from an early age affects talent in the society with the habit."

"Calls for a controlled study."

"Once I have enough subjects and enough land to divide them all into non-interacting communities and impose rules like that I am going to have so much fun."

They send her regular bomb progress reports, though they're very hard to follow.

A bit, yes. Although she does remember all those books now. She skims them.

Three years out, one of the reports says, once they have their supplies and enough handle on the problem to start making predictions like that.

Just close enough that she probably shouldn't turn it into a race... although their prediction might be optimistic. She puts in more hours. No Quendi girls left to pick up.

The smoke drifts away over the winter. Morgoth sends orcs out onto the continent, but from other angles, leaving Himring a wide berth.

Loki takes the whirlwinds down when they no longer serve a purpose. Is it a good idea to have bird scouts following orcs to see what they're up to?

Orcs seem up to "wander, settle, have children, lead normal lives," unless they happen to run into Elves, in which case they invariably ambush and try to kill them.