"Ponytail's no trouble. Don't know how I'd make it stay put with a ribbon since I've never tried that, but I still have my elastic." She goes back to the room she slept in, locates the elastic, and comes out beponytailed.

Then they can walk back on over to the linguistics guild! People stare a bit on the streets.

"Why're people staring at me, is it just that I'm a human?"

"Humans aren't that rare. Probably it got out that you speak a new language and you're from very far away and Lord Celebrimbor thinks you're interesting."

"He was avoiding telling me exactly what his status was yesterday."

Now she's uncomfortable! "Well, it's complicated."

"Would it be easier to explain telepathically?"

"I don't think so, not really. Probably someone who knows more about things than me should try, if it's important to you."

"It's not that important as far as I know but I don't know why it would be so complicated and/or secret."

Uncomfortable shrug. 

"It's nothing, like, bad, is it?"

"I really think you should ask someone else about it probably. It's not any question about Lord Celebrimbor's character or qualifications, if that's what you mean?"

"Is it about... hm... is there someone else who wants his job, or vice-versa? Is he... sitting regent for someone with dementia or something? Is... there a conflict with another state which has something to do with his status?" She remembers to send a telepathic translation for "regent" and "dementia".

"Oh. Not any of those exactly, though I suppose if we made him King it would cause problems with our neighbors? But that's not - it's not as if he'd be King if only they didn't mind."

"Do you have a king?"

"No."

"What do you have instead?"

" - Lord Celebrimbor."

"Are you using 'Lord' to translate a specific title or did you just grab that off the word 'landlord' and figure it was close enough for somebody who... is... in what capacity in charge here?"

"He built the city with the Dwarves, as far as they're concerned he owns the bits of it he hasn't sold to someone else? If he says to do something people do it? If there's a dispute that affects the functioning of the city people bring it to him and abide by what he says, unless they're Dwarves, and even then they'll take him more seriously than anyone else? When diplomats visit they visit to make agreements with him."

"Okay... is he not king because this isn't a big enough place to be king of? Is it not okay for someone to be king of some Dwarves and some Elves at the same time or to be king of only some of the people in a place?"

"No, Eregion's the whole continent, this is just the biggest city, but he makes decisions for the rest of it too. It's - it's really very complicated, weren't you going to teach people English?"

"We're not there yet. Also you're getting English practice. Is this information embarrassing? Is it dangerous? It's not just too complicated for the words you have because you said telepathy wouldn't help."

"We're almost there," she says, after pausing long enough this is almost true. 

"Should I ask the whole guild?"