He raises his eyebrows at her mention of "powerful magic-users" (or, as she put it, "wizards")  That's not a concept he's heard people talking about before, but not precisely outlandish here... even though wrong...

<Many Dwarves were also powerful in magic, but the Balrog slew them.  But perhaps when Sauron is overthrown, some of us can address the lesser though still poisonous weeds in this garden such as the balrog.  The balrog has been content to sit in Moria for millennia; for now, Sauron remains the most urgent foe.>

He reaches his hand into his pocket and takes out one of his carved pipes, which he runs his hand over thoughtfully; and a small bag of pipe-weed.

<Is there anything else you wished to tell me privately?  I still have questions for you, if there is anything you wish to tell me privately knowing who I am.>

<I doubt many dwarves were armed for giant flamey thing with whips, nor for such a thing appearing inside and even worse behind their siege defenses, is what I expect was the problem there, but I do take your point.>

<...I can't think of anything other than what we've already discussed that depends on your being Olorin, so - ask your questions?>

<Your body looks like a child, but your spirit - as far as I can see, which is not as far as some - does not.  How did that come to be?  And, what sort of life were you hoping to lead before you came here?>

<...Yeah.  That gets a bit...  Complicated.>

<This isn't the first life I've lived, and it wasn't by my decision that I came to have a second, though I had more influence than most might on the specifics of where and how, despite some...  Imposed constraints.>  The crown weighs heavily upon her.  <...The works of Tolkien were from that first life, not the second - and there was (Or, so I thought to the best of our ability to determine, small coincidences aside -) no magic there, no true foretellings.  But across a wide enough multiverse, everything is true.  And clearly, I am here, now, so something either gave me some very detailed ~false memories, when it plucked my soul out of the timestream or whatever it did, or there was a bit more than I was aware of, or this is - some even grander coincidence, reified from an idle musing.  Perhaps all of those are equally true.>

<As for the life I hoped to live...>

<I like solving puzzles, I suppose.  Magical research is a lot like that.  I like helping people, which...  You know, the Ring tried to tempt me with that?  But it wasn't capable of comprehending how much I know I am not fit to be a god, and that was its plans' undoing.  Not that I'm stupid enough to ever touch the thing, I know what it does, but it could have tried to be a lot cleverer than it was - attempted to tempt me with knowledge, more than power, perhaps.  ...I'm still not sure if it's a mind-reader, though, because there were things it offered that it could not otherwise have conceived - but the question is whether, then, it spun something that would let my mind fill in the blanks....>

<But to return to your actual question - for reasons that are long and complicated and I don't want to get into them, a quiet life doing research - has never been a second life I could afford to expect.  There are some very scary things, in that general vicinity, and while I broke the wheel of Fate in my choosing, one was still rather entangled with my starting point.>

Gandalf half-fills his pipe, lights it, and puffs a smoke-ring into the air thoughtfully.

<Even stranger than I thought!  But if there are two worlds, it does makes at least as much sense for there to be three or more.  I wonder what indeed is the relation between them...  I called the book you had read Foresight; I am not sure that is wrong, but it would be a stranger Foresight than any I have heard of, by far, unless its author or one of his friends had previously lived here.  But perhaps it is something stranger still, and we know too little to do more than idly muse...>

<Do people where you are from naturally live more than one life?>  He smiles faintly.  <You may have heard that Elves do here, though not altogether without help from Mandos.>

<If you wish to live a life of magical research, I am sure Lindir is not the only Elf who would be happy for your help.  Or if you wish to go around doing noble deeds like slaying Balrogs - you would not be the first girl I have helped along that path.>  He faintly remembers several Hobbits and one Princess of Rohan.

<Oh, no, no, though it is a common enough trope in works of fiction, which, well.  Who knows, really, given all this.>

<...And as to my plans...  I may wish what I like, but...  I have a duty.>

<I - bear a responsibility to the world I arrived from, much as...>

<Much as you might, in some senses.>

<So I will...  Have to see what can be done, on that front, ere I turn my mind to a future here.  But I am hardly going to leave the problems in front of me, either.>

Gandalf smiles and nods.  <Well chosen.  I would not know how to begin to approach that, except to see if your arrival here left anything at the riverbank, or to speak with the Valar - and I doubt either of those would help...>

<And for how to proceed in light of your knowledge, 'twould be best to speak with Elrond, and... I am curious, which other people who would be wise to include do you remember?>

<...There are few I can be sure of, and most of those already slated to be invited or due to arrive, if I even know them by their names.  Frankly I'm a bit surprised I could recognize Aragorn's; I'd no idea it was Sindarin.  He's definitely involved, but you know that.>

<...I know Galadriel will be invited.  She gave a very evocative speech on why entrusting the One Ring to her would be a terrible idea.  And - well, inasmuch as I know anything of her I would say she is one to admire.  But I certainly do not know who of those who might be here when Elrond calls a Council, will specifically be of help in interpreting what scant foreknowledge I even have.>

<As far as the matter of my arrival, and, hopefully, my return, goes, I know what I did, at least, and I have some hope that I will be able to replicate such a thing in a more - controlled, manner, now that it is definitely a thing that I know can be done.  It is, however...>

<It is something that I am sure of, that no primordial force of the world I devised carries inherent moral stain, beyond that of the things one uses it to undertake.  I do not, however, know if Eru Illuvatar agrees with me, or if I am even playing by Eru's rules as such things go - there is a sense in which I could be carrying a part of my world with me, and I do not know if what I would call Void magic, is even the same thing as the Unlight which killed the Trees.  I do not think so.  But...  I do not know.  It is not as if...>

<Mm.  If we analogize the Song to the Light of my world, then the Void is the staff-paper upon which the Song is written - or, no, rather the ink in which one writes.  But the ink can write many Songs, could write things that are not Songs at all.  And to know that truth, and to even know of the Unlight...>

<I would never.  But it is not beyond me that I perhaps could, and...  Well.  I do not wish to find out if it will feel like I am, even when I am not, around this many Elves.  I'd rather not - remind them of their losses yet again.>

Gandalf remembers very little about the Darkening of Valinor, but he's sure he would remember the Unlight if he felt it again.

<I have not felt from you anything like that.  I am sure Lindir and Glorfindel... or, at least Glorfindel... would mention had he felt it.>

<And yes, Aragorn, and Glorfindel and Erestor, and ->

A sound of loud laughter and singing comes from behind a nearby hill, on the side of the valley toward the mountains.

<- ah, someone is arriving.  Perhaps a messenger from the Beornings?>

<...Well, I'm not doing anything like that right now, is the thing, isn't it -->

<Oh, hm.  I'm guessing you'd want to do something about that.  Or Elrond but I don't know if he's busy.>

Meanwhile, the back of her mind is going "Tom Bombadil???" just based off of the merriment quotient, for all that she's not actually sure that was his thing.  There was definitely a thing.  She's just not sure it was his.

If Gandalf is, in fact, going to do that, she brings down the shield with another brief flare of purple.

Gandalf is going to puff one more smoke ring from his pipe, slowly stand up, and regretfully extinguish it.

<The Elves have never learned to appreciate the joy of pipeweed, but I digress...  I am sure several someones are greeting them - and making merry songs around them - but I would be interested to see as well...>

He puts his pipe back in his pocket and starts walking around toward the front of the house.  <Then perhaps we should speak with Glorfindel next - which may be helpful anyway, as he is familiar with balrogs.>

And he also actually killed a balrog, died himself in the fight, and was resurrected... but he prefers not to share that with strangers.

<I mean, smoke in the lungs is a nasty thing that causes nasty after-effects no matter what is actually in your pipeweed,> she says, noting her air filtration enchantment spinning down, <Even if smoke tricks are neat.>

<...Getting advice from someone who has actually faced a balrog, when we might also face one, seems wise.  But...Well, if there is a messenger, then there is surely a message, and we should likely learn of it.  There's plot afoot.  Even if we must thusly brave...merriment.>  She is an introvert, y'know?  She's no good at parties!  <...I jest, but truly I hope that I will not be expected to participate in the singing myself.  I'm shy.>

<Ah, I had not noticed smoke doing that...  And I would think I would have gotten used to my body enough, before picking up the habit, to notice...  Interesting.>  It's surely a better reason not to smoke than any he's heard from Saruman or Glorfindel or anyone else.

<And do not worry.  Hardly any of the Rangers sing, either; they will not expect it.> 

<It's probably Narya's...  ?fault?>

<Or, it would make sense if the Ring of Fire came with immunity to smoke.>

Gandalf nods thoughtfully.  <And all the Elven-rings tend to hold back the ravages of time...  It would fit.  I am tempted to suggest that Elrond take up pipeweed as an experiment, so I can see his face when he hears it.>

And as they go, he ponders what Alicia meant by saying she devised the primordial forces of the world she had been in... and whether she meant to share it in her osanwe.

Her spirit feels human.  Strange, but human.

But - some people say that after the song of Arda is finished, humans will join the Ainur in making a Second Music.

She says she doesn't know Illuvatar's opinion on her world's design... so maybe she hasn't exactly done that, but something sort of like it?  Which perhaps humans can do?

She feels more prickly than he would have expected someone would feel after singing in the Music - at least, someone who hasn't lived through all-but-uncounted Ages since then.  But... he doesn't remember how he felt during those Ages either.

So what does this mean?

Nothing much.  Yet.

When Bilbo had found the Ring and was keeping it secret, it was obvious, but he didn't mention that to Bilbo.  That was Bilbo's business if he wanted to play games about it, as long as it wasn't harming anything.  It was also obvious Bilbo was lying about how he got it, but he didn't mention that either... he wanted to see more clues about why.

So he'll keep treating Alicia much like he has been, but he'll keep a sharp eye out for... anything else in this vein.  And maybe probe about more serious subjects about the nature of worlds.

Meanwhile, they get to the front of the House and start walking up the road toward the mountains.  They aren't on it for long before they see an Elf calling from a treetop, "Dwarves!  Only a few of them!  From Erebor!"

(Gandalf translates.)

(There is a part of her that didn't.  There is a part of her that very much did.)

...That was a good talk.

Maybe more than she rightly should have been talking about, she supposes.  But it was - good, nonetheless.  And the ability to think <Smoke the pipeweed, Elrond, it's for !!SCIENCE!!!>, and burst into very quiet giggles - really, more a high-pitched squeak, but it was because it was funny, so there - certainly didn't hurt, either.

And now, there's dwarves.

<...I can hardly say for certain, being as I certainly don't know any details whatsoever, but I do believe they're here at the right time to be the dwarves who ~should~ be present at the Council of Elrond.>

Gandalf noticed her squeak, and a little of his own grin was in response to that.

<Indeed.  I don't suppose you remember anything about these dwarves or what news they might bring?  They seem too small to be an ordinary trade caravan.>

<Unfortunately, no, I do not.  I know really very little about any of this, for all that I know a random selection of details I really shouldn't.  I don't even remember all the darn Rings.  I do remember approximately half a poem about them!  And their number - three for the Elves, and, come to think, the Elf-rings being special because it wasn't just Sauron who made them but also - Celebrimbor?  I think - seven for the Dwarves, nine for the Men who became Ringwraiths, and, of course the One Ring - "One Ring to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them" - but not names and traits and everything like that.>

Nod, but <Celebrimbor alone made the Elven-rings; Sauron alone made the One Ring; they made together the others...  Poetry sadly suffers in language-independent osanwe.  I am told that is one reason the Elf-fathers invented language in the first place.>

He smiles.

<...And clearly my recollection isn't necessarily accurate either even when it's not things like names that I know were Anglicized and are thus useless to me because the names are in the questionably original Westron!  ...At least I'm armed against - whatever Sauron might try throwing at me.>