Ellisaria snorts.

"And occupying yourselves with destroying the works of others."

"We're not much worse than humans, there, or even elves. Humans have ransacked plenty of works when society gets a bit unstable, and for elves, well - the First Age did, unfortunately, happen - and even the dwarves have sacked cities. Everyone takes turns being the local asshole."

"I have had to burn out more orcish infestations than any other race."

"I won't argue that the current leaders are presently the local assholes; that much is obviously true. I'd argue about that being inherent to an orcish nature, or about all of our cultural values being bad."

"Then when you get new leaders perhaps I shall reevaluate my opinions."

"Sadly my assassination program requires an awful lot of walking in between regime toppling."

"Do you actually have an assassination program?"

"'Program' is a bit of an exaggeration, but, yes."

"How many of the leaders are on your list?"

She starts counting on her fingers. "Hmmmmm, depends on how you define 'leaders,' I'm also waiting for a good time to take out one band's entire chain of command so someone I like can step in... I'm also not bothering with ones who're gonna imminently get stabbed by other people... Or anyone spinelessly taking orders from on high, unless their death'd cause more problems than leaving them in place... I've also been taking out a lot of middle management, now that Sauron is trying to centralize the orcs, who aren't really leaders but are definitely weak points. I've got... Pretty much all of the Mordor generals I think are any amount of competent, is my next goal."

"Sauron?"

"Big spooky guy? Likes to represent himself with a flaming eyeball? Big bad of the Second Age?"

" - The cockroach!" Brisingr chirps. "So that's his name. Soreun."

"Hmm. Mordor."

"The land enclosed by that big mountain range just East of Gondor. His old stronghold."

"Ha. Good."

"You have plans for it?"

"One might say that."

She seems a bit amused by the idea. "Sauron himself is probably hard to kill - I've heard he has some magic that lets him reform even if his body's destroyed."

"If the task were easy, it would already have been done."

"He has enough enemies, yes."

"How much do you know about Mordor's geography and disposition of forces?"

"A lot about the geography. My knowledge of its forces is about a year out of date, but had been thorough."

"I have a proposition, then. As you will not be welcome in Moria, instead come with us and help plan our attack on Sauron."

"An interesting idea."