Amber!

Thanks. It's very important but not immediately time-sensitive.

Now's as good a time as any. I have more supplies for you to take back, too.

May as well while I'm here.

Are there any practitioners here who were born before Valinor? I don't know yet if there's a problem, but if there is it's catastrophic.

...no, not yet - worth avoiding?

Definitely. If anyone or any of their descendants was ever captured by the Enemy– magic cares about blood lines, it's not the most important thing but there are a lot of orcs– it's possible someone could end up the head of a "house" that includes all the orcs.

Eru.

Thank you for the warning.

I would have said it earlier but only made the connection today.

Do you know what oaths orcs swear? They might not be responsible for their own actions. Then it'd be safe as long as the Enemy doesn't stop using oaths, or change them to be less extreme. Following orders doesn't absolve people, but enough coercion can. 

Don't know. I think one of them might be not to talk to us or assist us in any way, based on the way they react when we try. 

How do they react?

"Us" might include me for this purpose, depends on the oath, but even that doesn't have to matter if they can't tell who I'm with...

Panicky, terrified, but vaguely compliant until they get a look at one of us or hear our voices, then they just hiss insults and snarl until we kill them. 

That's– unfortunate, but promising if I'm the one doing the talking. They wouldn't recognize me as anything other than not an orc.

Yes. Could make a difference. Worth a try, probably - do you know their language - 

Not a word. Does your father have notes? I'll need at least enough to know "I swear I haven't lied to you" or there isn't much point.

I'll have someone get the notes right now. You could do 'I swear I can make oaths over osanwë', let yourself work with more specificity later.

I'd rather just repeat the one about not lying whenever I have to, just because there's no reason to reveal that I can't lie over any medium. Either way, they can't make oaths over osanwë and I need to trust what they say too.

Notes are on the way, you should have enough to stitch together promises of honesty - though mind how far those get you -

Yeah. Someone made a very good demonstration of that.

I'm not too worried about that with respect to the oaths. There's a factual answer, I can ask for direct words. Is there anything you've been wishing you could ask an orc? I'm not expecting to be pressed for time, just cooperation.

Wording of their oaths is the big one, it'd be lovely to know why sometimes escapees of Angband snap and kill people but I doubt your average orc knows that. Maybe if they're okay - they say the way you get an orc out of an Elven soul is constant suffering - seems like it over osanwë but different brain architectures and involuntary mindreading makes it less reliable, it is possible they don't experience it as pain...

So it's possible "they" are just wrong? There are a lot of orcs.

I am well aware. And - I expect they're right about the process, hard to guess if it's ongoing. 

I'll ask if I can.

Thank you. I have another few weeks' updated engineering notes, too, while you're here...

Aaargh, accepting things from the Feanorians.

Thanks.

Do you want to talk about it because resenting me indefinitely is also an option, one which I imagine comes highly recommended, but it seems like you're not really enjoying it.