There are differences, but being civil servants hardly means they lack the appropriate authority here.

She is slightly curious how such a system came to be. It is unusual of humans, in her experience. More often the claim of representing absent authority is in the name of gods.

Gondorians aren't very religious as a whole - sure, you should be polite to any forest spirits if you're contemplating clearing new land, but you should also be polite to any human living off those woods - and most don't find distant Powers worthy of worship so much as study, often historical in nature. Their trust is in civil institutions, by and large; he suspects the concept of a mythical good king is the closest they come to most culture's religious superstitions.

For how the system came into place... The stewards already existed when they pretty much literally misplaced their king, nearly a millennium ago - Steward Mardil Voronwë, twenty three generations ago, was the first ruling steward, but the third steward overall. The royal house had shrunk by the time King Eärnur vanished, and Mardil swore the king would return and that the stewards would hold the kingdom in trust for him, largely to prevent a civil war between the few people with a distant royal claim. Of course, by now, no one of known royal blood lives. Still, the stewards have no claim to greatness as anything other than civil servants, and no motive to claim kingship, while assorted cultural pressures keep them from discarding the entire idea of royalty.

(He speaks very, very carefully, but a mild disdain for the concept of royalty can perhaps be found in his tone.)

(They are amusing, the lies mortals will tell themselves.)

That does explain things.

It's an unusual system, though, he will acknowledge.

Well, it clearly works well enough.

Yes; they're proud of it, too.

Much better than shame.

Small smile.

Does she have other questions?

Not at the moment.

He's low on questions, too, and starts wrapping up the meeting.

When should she return tomorrow?

He gives her a time in the afternoon.

Then she will be back.

He looks forward to seeing her - his father's office is elsewhere, of course, but the guards can lead her there from the atrium (he stands to shake her hand).

Her grip is firm (and much warmer than a human should be).

His is normal human temperature, and just as firm.

He sees her out with a friendly smile.

And the next afternoon, she's back.

She's led to the Steward's Office instead, near the unused throne room. The procedure is much the same as with Ecthelion, who's also present, and Steward Turgon greets her more brusquely than his son, spending less time on pleasantries before negotiations.

That suits her fine.

Turgon initially wants a better idea of what sort of military aid the dragons are offering, and what they'd expect in return.

Dragons can fly, and individually, have better natural weapons and armor than humans. But they are vulnerable to concentrated fire by properly directed and equipped forces, and lack the population to sustain casualties. Humans... have numbers.

He seems to fairly quickly catch implications of that - dragons can't trivially hold territory, for one, but are more mobile as strike forces... Could possibly break a siege but might be wasted against well defended fortifications, especially if Sauron knows how to defend against them... Actual tactics and the strategies developed from them will depend on if humans or horses can fight alongside dragons, and if anyone else joins the proposed military alliance... Still, dragons have historically seen the most devastating use as shock troops, to his knowledge - raiders and siege breakers, especially. Raiding is generally safer, but lower impact per engagement...

Just so. Dragons can provide instances of great force, but the bulk of the army would be Gondor.

A major undertaking, then, especially if they can't gather further allies - and not one they can fully commit to soon. They'll want to scout, first, to confirm both her information and the status of Mordor's troops, and build up their military, before any actual engagements.