"One other thing I meant to ask.

Elves, even when evil, usually aren't the kind of evil where they kill their own people for no reason. Do you know why Elves who were Melkor's prisoners would be different?"

Shrugs. 

"Thought not.

You can go. And if Melkor does catch you, tell him I said it's war. He's being evil to Elves, and for all I know probably 'Maiar,' and even orcs. He's not just up against Elves anymore. If he's hearing this then the attack failed, but I'll try more things to bring him down. I've been waiting for a chance to directly call him Enemy, and right now I only wish I could say it better."

Solemn nods. And they walk away, and then after a bit break into a run.

Chased by exactly zero Elves.

At ground level at least. There are inevitably practitioners from both Elf factions ready to kill them and anyone they talked to if it looks like they've been apprehended early. But Amber's busy exhaling at the tension disappearing now that her part in this gamble is over.

Nicely done.

Thanks. May or may not have been a blunder, but I'm happy with the execution.

If it means the war ends quickly...

It's true about the orcs being in constant pain, getting rid of him fast is even more important than it was yesterday.

Yep. 

How soon do you think we'll start to notice -

If it works, depends on how much of a setback it was. Unrealistic best case Angband falls apart as soon as they get to him.

If it doesn't work, when we start seeing them deploy magic against us.

Great.

For now we wait and build up counters, I guess.

Yep. And stay in touch with the other host -

That.

It's our last chance to claim demesnes without Enemy practitioners objecting, who goes where might have long-term consequences— but if we do that near here at all then our three orcs find out demesnes are a thing. Ugh, should have thought of this earlier.

The time pressure was - 

- in hindsight we should have killed this batch and, if we wanted to make this play, done it in a month with others.

I was trying to find a way to get them back alive, so that I could say I was, maybe if I had compartmentalized better—

We can still claim demesnes, maybe work toward an impenetrable fallback city, but no sequence of them ringing the front line.

Let's get going on a fallback city.

While hoping it's unnecessary.

Hoping doesn't do much, unless there's some magic you haven't mentioned.

No, just a saying. Hope for the best and plan for the worst. For planning purposes we didn't win the war five minutes ago.

Of course we didn't. But hopefully it was worth it.

Right. So, city!

If we go east then none of Melian's people have a prior claim on the land, that might matter later. But it's also less accessible and makes less sense as a fallback position.

Yep. Does that matter, once it's a demesne?

Which part?