And I don't see how Doriath is better off with known enemies than untrustworthy guests, so it shouldn't disintegrate earlier...

Yep. Maybe it'll even end up being helpful, Silmarils probably attract interesting elementals.

Light sprits sure would come in handy.

Amber can't look directly at the Silmaril, what with her eyes having thoroughly adjusted to the postapocalyptic permanent midnight, but the area around it does seem to be swarming with those.

(Not to mention the impregnable kingdom trick Maitimo thought the Fëanorians could do with a Silmaril. That could be even more handy.)

Well, Maitimo hasn't told anyone else about that.

Nope. And it's really satisfying to know that if that were public knowledge, the Enemy probably wouldn't have tried this gambit.

Should we go talk to my cousins -

Maybe. Probably.

Doriath does have a palantir, so we aren't needed as messengers. Do we have any spin we'd want to put on it? I feel like the Fëanorians probably share our interests on this one.

I want to tell them to not be stupid but I don't know that the telling would decrease the stupid -

Probably not. Would it risk increasing it?

Maitimo is a lot of things but not spiteful.

Then sure, why not.

Maitimo -

I'm not going to change my actions on the basis of any threats you make.

I'm not making any threats, they're considering letting you come supervise it within their kingdom. Please make that work.

I would love to make that work.

He relays this to Amber.

That could have been hypothetical.

Does the oath actually allow it, or is freedom of movement a deal-breaker?

I don't see what he gains by misleading us - actually, yes, I do, but he can also just straight-up lie -

He can lie to us over osanwë. Melian's not letting him in without oaths that they aren't at war, lying there is harder.

He can play around with his own head a fair bit before he gets there. Not sure I shouldn't let him.

Then if he gets through... he somehow manages to take the Silmaril out of Doriath and that's bad but there still isn't a war. Yeah, definitely let him.

Yeah.

Sigh.

It might not feel it, but this is shaping up to be the best day of the war. Enemy disembodied, summoning trick confirmed effective, and a Silmaril rescued.

Assuming that we don't instead have a war on our hands - and that means assuming the Enemy was stupid - 

Or underinformed. There's karma, that's one reason for Melian not to fight that he didn't know about. He might not have known the exact words of the oath enough to guess about this particular third option.

Or he could be stupid or desperate. Those too.