"Probably. He sucks, though."

"Which means what to you?"

"The world is very terrible and none of the good things in it are of his making, and most of the evil things are."

"I've never talked theology with a braids and really wouldn't've expected it to sound like this if I had," remarks Isun.

"I've made...bets with Dwarves about whether the Valar exist, if that counts as talking theology. The Valar unambiguously exist and ambiguously suck and are not what I'm talking about."

"- how'd you settle the bets, have you got one in your pocket?"

"They came to Beleriand and fought Melkor eventually. So I'm told. I was dead by then but we priced that in."

"We didn't know how long you'd been dead," says Isun.

"Well, what year is it?"

"1356. - Second Age."

"And what year was it in the First Age when they started calling it the second?"

"590," volunteers Kimli.

"Then I've been dead 1440 years."

Kimli whistles, but Isun tells his brother, "That's strictly less impressive than having been not dead for the same amount of time, you know."

"Huh, why didn't I think of that."

"I have no idea what you died of, I just don't know why Kimli's excited about it."

"Oh, just, they were saying they couldn't manage if he'd been dead more than, what was it, a century or two."

"We're not as dead as humans, when we're dead."

"Evidently not or Restoration wouldn't have done anything. What's your name, what do you do?"

"I've had a lot of names. I - mostly sit around being dead. Haven't decided what I'll do now. Do you have my family too?"

"I think all the yous have the same family but their ghosts didn't show up."

Nod. "I - guess I'll translate for humans until I have some savings, then."

"And what then, we can probably front you the money if you're going to do something interesting once you have savings -"

"Well, live in a Dwarf city, once I can afford it, but that'll be a long time. Some of the names I've had were not popular."

"Why?"