"...how did you get a reputation saying that people wouldn't be okay if they surrendered, if they would?"

"Aforementioned dead kids, and general tendency of people to assume the worst of their enemies, and we don't show orcs quarter but we don't have a choice on that one."

"Those are the mind-controlled servants?"

"Sworn to obey her. She sometimes gives orders like 'carry no weapons, go and make a nice peaceful settlement near some Elves, don't fight back unless they kill you and your children' - but if we don't do anything about them she can, remotely, at any time, give them different orders and they don't get a choice."

"...ah."

"They swear as soon as they can talk."

"...no loopholes in that either?"

"Sometimes we'd find some, try to work with them, then she'd learn and change what the next generation swore."

...nod.

She wakes up.

"- Rirosseth's awake." Pause. "My weird sense goes through things. It's kind of creepy really."

"Well, it's good to know about." 

This is Annie, her world's magic system comes with powers paired with drawbacks and the unspeakable agony is one of the drawbacks, still don't know the trigger, she's also deaf and blind but can read and write and hear words, I gave her the history, the kids haven't introduced themselves yet.

She stands up, takes the armor off. 

"It goes maybe a hundred yards crisply and fades from there."

She comes in to find them. "Hi, Annie! I'm lucky Lírnith was here to explain things, that must have been an absurdly confusing situation to awaken to. Rirosseth. It's good to meet you properly."

"Lírnith's been very helpful."

"As much help as anything is, at least, right?" She looks at the kids. "Hi."

No answer. 

"They didn't talk to me either."

"When Elves are out fighting," she says to them, "and we need to be very sneaky, we can osanwë to tell each other where we are. Dwarves can't, so they use hand signals." She draws her hand to her chest. "That means 'give me some space now'" - different gesture - "and this one means 'be close to me'."

The children look at each other.

One of them copies the give-me-some-space gesture. 

"Annie," she says, "would you like a tour of the fortress?"

Lírnith stands too.

oh help it was complicated enough being in love with you when you weren't being sweet like that with terrified children

"Sure."

So the three of them leave. She falls in beside her sister. "I confess I don't actually have much of a tour planned. There's a courtyard -" gestures - "and lots of empty rooms, now, if you want to pick one..."

"It might make sense to put me a ways away from everyone else because my magic sense thing goes through walls and people might want more expectation of privacy?"

"We can do that."

"...okay. Am I correct in thinking that you're just sort of - keeping me around in case my otherworldly powers turn out to be more useful than just occasionally making me collapse and letting me talk to people -?"

"If you have somewhere else you want to go you're not our prisoner."