<...Are we...Going to tell them about the balrog?  By the way?  I know I heard them say Moria...>

<... Yes, in time.  I did not want to greet him with the news that his cousins are even more likely than he thinks to be dead.>

<And I also have some ideas.  It is said that osanwe can work with the mind of any person who is open to it.  I have not used it much here in Middle-Earth, and most people have used it little more, but it should be possible.  Gloin felt it when you tried to speak to him - despite how you were not touching him, and you had just met him.  So it should be possible for you to speak to Hobbits and Men and even Dwarves with osanwe.>

<Osanwë is all well and good, but - mm, sometimes you need to be able to speak, as much as I sometimes rather wouldn't - not to mention, the question of whether speaking so will even allow others to reply - my knowledge suggests it might, but that that would require much effort.  I hardly intend to neglect it, but I'm not sure osanwë is sufficient even as it is necessary.>

Gandalf nods.

<Absolutely.  Anyone can in theory reply - osanwe is possible for any person.  But most people are far less used to it than we are.  I, or an Elf who has practiced, could translate - but it would be better if there was a better way.  Besides, as you say - words strike you in a different way than wordless thoughts, and words in your ears differently than in your mind alone.  And, as the Elves keep saying, words are beautiful.

<Do you have another idea?>

<I have the vaguest notion of how I might accomplish a translation effect with magical shenanigans.  If it doesn't explode.  Unfortunately that's kind of a known risk of Void/Light interactions, though I do have some practical knowledge on mediating such.>

<... What sort of explosion are you thinking of here?>

<...Well, mythologically speaking, the Void/Light interaction is what created my universe, but in practice, considering that I am just a squishy mortal that can't, actually, survive all that much power being routed through me, the kind of explosions I'm expecting are the annoying ones.  Just...  Enough of a nuisance that I'd rather try and pin this down as an enchantment rather than formalize it as a spell.  ...It's not a question of power as much as finesse anyway.>

<... ah.  Unfortunate.  Do you have any clue how to do it 'as an enchantment'?>

(He's visibly echoing her concept without understanding it himself.)

<Oh, yes, definitely.  Just need to -->  And here, her thoughts trail off into things like "linguistic vector reflection", "λ-speech synthesis", and <-- really, this is like dropping a boulder from a mile up to hammer a nail but with no common corpus to use for an arcane analysis we have to go back to fundamentals -->

<...Oh, right, you probably meant making it durable.  ...It's a lot easier to enchant things when you're not - what's effectively a druid, trying to multiclass into artificiery.  I don't have such - far-reaching - results as Rings of Power available, not without putting in much more effort, both in - concentrating the power to begin with, and in setting up the infrastructure to direct it within the enchantment's framework - but it's a science more than an art to craft enchanted objects, and one I have some skill in.>

<That sounds like it would take much more time than we have today.>

<That does depend on how much time we have, but it's not like getting my osanwë to the point that it can sustain a two-way connection is going to be faster, given I've really no aptitude for shamanism.  ...We'll make do.>

Gandalf nods.

<Very well; it might be worth a try while the Dwarves eat and bathe after their journey.  What do you need?>

<Most enchanted objects are metallic because that's more fault-tolerant, in that if you do fuck it up you can just ground out the residuals, melt it back down, and start again.  ...Shouldn't need all that much working space, I'm just performing a minor miracle of reification here...  The trick's in the interactions more than the enchantment framework itself, I mean, so I don't need all that much room to scribe things.  And I figure we want a handheld form factor...>

<...I'm afraid I don't have much ability to know the local weights and measures, but certainly not much more than a palmfull of metal, plus any fittings, if I pull this off right, as I should be able.>

<Ah, Lindir can help, and I am sure he would be happy to watch.  I can show you to his workroom again?>

<Please; I'm sure I could eventually find it but I wouldn't wish to get lost.>

<Of course.  It is, after all, your first day here - and the house was made for Elf memories not human.  I have often seen new Rangers getting lost here as well.>

Gandalf leads Alicia through a set of halls that are imitating caves more than forests, before coming out at what she might recognize as the same forest-like hall from before with Lindir's workroom and the door out to the practice-yard.

Lindir is actually in the hall, a frown on his face as he's talking with an Elf-woman named Taurel.  "Of course I will advise Elrond - but tell me when people are ready, and I will come; I do not wish to sit around at a table with new-come Dwarves reluctant to share their crafts -"

He breaks off mid-sentence, seeing Alicia and Mithrandir.  <Ah, Alicia!  Do you have something more to show me, or be shown?>

<I suppose I do, at that - it has come to my attention that my osanwë is insufficient for reliable communication with every party to whom I might wish to communicate, and it occurred to me that I might be able to make something to rectify that, with time, effort, materials, my particular knowledge, and, I must admit, a bit of luck.  I haven't exactly had to make a translator before and even if I had made one in the more common style of my people, the framework they were operating in was wildly different - mostly a sort of direct comparison of dictionaries, rather than what I'm going to have to pull, considering that I know precious few words of Sindarin, for example, and haven't the time to learn the rest, let alone adding other languages like Westron - and certainly while I imagine there are elves that could learn my native tongue, with sufficient exposure, it would take entirely too long; I don't have - we don't presently have - years, not even the short ones, to spare, before things that must be done need their doing.   ...I should note, I will have to ask that you not look too closely at some parts, as much as I would let you if I could afford to do so; sometimes the mere act of observing things changes them, and if this project is to be finished before it will be needed - I don't really believe I'll get this right the first time, so I can't afford to introduce more variables to the process.  That should just be the infusions, though, not the crafting itself...  Insofar as what I'll likely do is any sort of crafting compared to 'drafting a mold in real time'.  ...I mean, that is sort of crafting, but the way I do it is mostly maths...>

Lindir raises his eyebrows in surprise, and grins.

<Are you planning for it to aid in osanwe, or something else?  If it needs to read a knowledge of Sindarin from someone's mind, I would be happy to volunteer - or what else are you planning?>

With a nod at Mithrandir, and another at Taurel, he strides back to his workshop and throws open the door.

<And what do you need?>

<The thing I am attempting is for it to, through a complex sort of conceptual alchemy I don't have time to get into right now, collate the words of a communication into a higher-order λword that then passes through a reifier into what will be for most purposes the listener's common tongue - though I certainly shouldn't say we won't be needing a copy of procedural knowledge of Sindarin, I don't know if this is going to work yet, we might have to improvise - and oh, of course I could make an osanwë-focus -- later, one thing at a time, that's not even my field anyway ->

<Ideally, metal, because it's harder to rework other materials if it doesn't set properly; I won't need much to describe the enchantment around -> She tosses an approximation of the shape and size out, already starting to mathematically define - well, something like a bullhorn, really, but the functional surface is smaller so she can make up most of the cone with an arcane surface rather than a physical one if it's necessary - <- but I wouldn't want to risk the surface to rust in the longer term, even as there's some inherent durability improvements in making an enchanted object ->

She could probably cannibalize a bit from her tiara, if that's necessary, but she's really not sure if that's needful.

<Ah!>

Lindir's eyes open wide in fascination.

<Curufin used to claim his father could have done something like that - but he had any idea how... and I do not see how even Feanor himself could possibly have done that; language is so rich - if you can do it, I would be amazed and want to know how... What metals do you want?  I know not how they work with your magic.  I have iron, brass, bronze, tin, silver... we could find enough gold if that is what you need...>

<Really it's not so much the metal as what I'm going to do with it, although my brain is throwing up the bit where - I think brass commonly has arsenic in it and arsenic is bad for you?  So - not iron either, iron rusts especially without additives I don't know how to isolate or replicate and who knows what Mordor could do to it if I end up there - silver?  Silver seems fine.  ...Don't know much about tin.  Pure copper actually produces a protective tarnish at least when it's just saltwater and not, like, acid rain - oh that might be a problem, Mordor is horribly industrialized, ecologically, I should absolutely make something for Frodo and Sam just to take that problem off their chest, a Decanter of Infinite Water is practically a party trick, but then - Mordor, and the fucking Eye and I don't know how good hobbit sneakiness is when it comes to - but veils - one project at a time Alicia and I'm going to have to see if anyone around here can - but then there's the fucking backdoor ->

<Anyway the trick to doing that, is that I'm not doing that, not myself, I'm - giving the universe a fill-in-the-blank problem and letting it naturally arise from - the harmony of the Song, to put it in your terms?>

<...I don't expect Fëanor could do the thing I'm planning on doing, but that's because from my perspective he's already shown profound aptitude in doing the exact opposite approach, of - immersing himself in the Song like a boulder in a river, a power I have no hope in mastering - beyond the lightest touch of it I can muster for - legacy reasons; with his making of the Silmarils, he's - He really is an unparalleled genius, and if anything I think that was his tragic flaw, compounded by - well, the Valar have made some questionable decisions in their time like inventing kings, if I recall correctly, and that really didn't help - and why am I saying this to you of all people, you who were there for too much of that tragedy when I am just this upstart outsider who doesn't even have the decency to be an Elf ->

With a Herculean effort, she wrenches her train of thought around by main force.

<I say too much of what little I know, or think I do, and...  I would apologize, should I have offended.  But I certainly believe that Fëanor could have done something similar by entirely divergent means.  And that is not what we're here to do, regardless, so - silver would definitely work for the enchantment's functional surface; I don't think it tarnishes in a particularly destructive way...>

Lindir shakes his head. <"If you end up -" No, Imladris is as safe as most anywhere in Middle-Earth; the Enemy cannot harm you here.>

He looks thoughtful when she mentions "the harmony".  <I have not found the Song to be willing to supply language.  You need to invest something of yourself in what you are making... and if you do not know the language, I would not expect it to work by that means?...  And, ah, thank you for your sympathy.>  He looks into the distance for a moment.  <You are the first mortal I have heard who has mentioned Feanor as anything except a name in distant songs.  Thank you indeed.>

And then he shakes himself and dives into a cupboard.  <Silver, ah... here!>  He produces a bag with some silver coins and rings in it.  The coins are mostly Arnorian minting, though there are some Dwarven and a few Gondorian and a few still with Gil-Galad's star-and-spear.   <Will this be enough?  And do you wish help with the forge?>

She's - being thanked?  She was not prepared to be thanked!

<...The Enemy shall not breach Imladris, but - I do not know if I can bear to stay when others leave to do what must be done, even knowing the risk I take by doing so.>

<...I believe this should be more than sufficient mass.  As far as the forge goes - It is a common skill of mages of my homeland to heat - and cool - things by application of magic, and managing temperature in a general sense is a simple enough extension.>

<As far as the question of how I hope to achieve language without first understanding it myself - or, worse, shoving a piece of my soul in this thing, that's positively unsanitary ->  She's joking, it's clear, but she also is not -

<Well, firstly, osanwë itself proves the concept.  Communication can occur on a conceptual level.  From that example, but not truly of that example, we define a λspeech that communicates, as an inherent property of its nature, and transform the speech that this device picks up as its input into such a communication, then harmonize with the [knowledge-fëa-being-nature] of the listener to cause it to be rendered in the tongue they would most expect to hear and understand ->

<I am not sure that I can truly explain how something is λ, but - there is a purity to it that permits impossible things - that all but demands them, really.  To λ-be is to be something that will only ever behave how it behaves, because it is impossible for it to do otherwise.  To then shine a Light on it, and collapse the impossible into the real by force of an impossible reality in turn...  It will work.  The principle of explosion created my homeworld from its λbeing.>

<Admittedly, to say that is to horribly mangle the concept, but it's kind of funny that introducing a reifying force to P ∧ ¬P results in literal explosions.>