Nod.

"I'm so glad I didn't ask, though, because it might have made you sad and I'm glad that even pre-magic I was trying to do right by you even if I was very bad at it -"

"It would've been maybe a good idea right before you tried the effect - so it would've been less of a worry -"

"Yeah, that would probably have helped." Squeeze. "We got so lucky - well, not with the timing. But with everything else - we're here, and safe, and someone's fighting Melkor...."

Nod nod.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

The twins grow up. They are possessed and charismatic and very good at listening to long lectures about trade negotiations. Dwarves and Celebrendes have something that extends lifespans in mice but doesn't seem to do it for people, and they're not sure why.  The ground shakes occasionally. The trumpets have stopped entirely. 

Annie hits, then exceeds, thirty.

Annie remains the most beautiful person in the world.

The twins want to go to war. This time they have their mothers' blessing. To stay away from the fighting, be careful, pay attention, and look out for the interests of civilians the Valar might have forgotten about. They are told that they will probably die. They want to go anyway.

Pity the music allergy is so intractable to deal with in this world, can't send them out with healing factor on. Annie hugs them too.

They assure Annie they are coming back, they just need to do something that matters first. They'll stay far away from fighting. They love her.

She loves them too.

And Celebrendes bounces up as they're preparing to leave and says, "wait, I have something that I am not at all sure will keep you safe but that I think you'll want -" and then she swallows a few times and says "and I was going to say 'don't tell Rirosseth', because when I was growing up it was a running joke that 'don't tell Rirosseth' was completely impossible to act on, but gosh I have mixed feelings about Rirosseth and about reminding myself of that and - uh, anyway, we think we're pretty close to pulling off heavier-than-air flight."

...they agree to wait until that has been tested.

Planes are the sort of things that make a difference in wars! They probably make less of a difference in wars that have gods involved but for some reason swords and gods are sharing a battlefield in the first place, so.

"Yeah, it has never made much sense to me either, and we wielded the swords for a while."

Heavier-than-air flight is tested. It does not work reliably but it works and if you cheat with enchantment it works even better.

Cheating on tech with magic is a good idea.

And now the twins leave, with probably not much improved odds of survival but substantially improved prospects of changing the course of the war, and their worried family waves them off, and the ground shakes occasionally, and word does not reach them for several years.

Pity phones never caught on outside Khazad-Dûm.

The victory of the host of the Valar is indeed announced not with phones but with - trumpets.

Damn fucking trumpets aaaaaugh.

Everyone is laughing and crying and cheering and she knows it's not reasonable to hate them for it but Annie is hurting isn't that obviously infinitely more important than the defeat of Melkor -

- (once Annie is not hurting she is able to identify this as untrue) -

"I really hope they can be curbed of that habit while I'm trying to deoath orcs."

"And the girls probably told them by now - if the girls are all right - so they don't even have the excuse of not knowing..."

"Is that more likely to mean they don't care or forgot or the girls aren't all right -"