"Lúthien. I don't think there's anything you can do but I'd like to hear your side of things and if you have a plan I'd like to hear that."

"I want to storm Tol-in-Gaurhoth. They have an army, they are planning to attack Melkor sometime, I'm half-Maia, it should be possible somehow-"

"Do you know that they're still on Tol-in-Gaurhoth and haven't been moved? Armies generally take time to mobilize, and you'll probably want siege engines and boats which..." Malak turns to the guards, "Do you happen to have those in large enough quantities and supplies readied to march off to war within the next, say, three months?"

"...no."

"So, that's no to the army, do you have a plan beyond 'Singlehandedly assault a presumably-fortified island which may or may not have the people you're trying to rescue, and hope that being half-maia is somehow enough'?"

"If they'd help me come up with one instead of just going 'no, stay here, you'll meet another nice boy someday - the High King did it -"

"That... does not sound like a very useful thing for them to say, no. Is there a reason everyone is calling him a boy? He's not literally a child, right? Um. Would you like a hug? People back home found them comforting sometimes."

She would love a hug. "He's way underage but humans age faster, it's different -"

"...Right. I'm aware humans age faster, how old is he actually?" Malak moves to give her a hug, are there bars in the way or just guards outside the door?

No one in the way. "Are our years even the same length? Twenty-six of ours..."

"...Oh I hadn't even thought of that. Three-thirty-two days? Wait, for that matter how long is a week, how many days has it been since they were captured?"

"A week's six days. A year's three hundred sixty nine."

"Hm, so they haven't been captured quite as long as I thought but not enough to make a difference.  And your human is, let's see... around twenty eight of my years? So yes, an adult, probably, I guess your humans might be different than mine too." Malak remembers that they were going to give her a hug, and they do. "Sorry, distracted by thinking about time. I would like to rescue your human and the King and their companions but I do not know enough about what we're up against to come up with much of a plan.  Assuming they are still at Tol-in-Gaurhoth, what does the Enemy have there?  Werewolves, I'd guess?  Or maybe the name is old, but werewolves seem like the sort of thing an evil god would recruit."

"Yes, werewolves, and probably not much else - orcs, I guess - it'd mostly be him himself that'd be a challenge -"

"Wait, the Enemy who is an evil god is likely to be there himself?"

"Hmm, no, he's in Angband, but Gorthaur's in Tol Sirion."

"Tol Sirion, which I assume is also called Tol-In-Gaurhoth? Who and what is Gorthaur? What are werewolves like and how many are there?"

"They're - wolves, magic, hard to kill, human intelligence? And Gorthaur's one of the most powerful Maiar and Morgoth's lieutenant."

"How powerful do Maia tend to be? What can they--Gorthaur in particular--do? How hard to kill are werewolves? Are they stronger or faster than normal wolves, or just tougher?  Werewolves in my world are vulnerable to weapons made of silver is that true here and do you have any?" The last question is directed at the guard again.

"Yes and yes but we're not helping with any more suicide missions," the guard says wearily. 

"Maiar vary a lot. Gorthaur can shapeshift, can probably just kill anything that's not magically protected that gets near him, can do music magic like you saw me do but more powerful and a wider radius -"

"Not planning any suicide missions, I have no personal stake in this rescue, if we can't figure out something that seems likely to work then no mission is taking place. Just getting myself appraised of our options."

"What kind and amount of magical protection are we talking here?  And what sorts of magical protection do we have at hand?"

"Really good enchanted armor might do it. I might be okay anyway. I don't know what the options are, Doriath is protected -"

"Unless you have good reason to believe "Lure Gorthaur to Doriath and free the prisoners while he's gone" has any chance of succeeding that's off the table. How observant is Gorthaur, any chance that a stealth mission might succeed?"

"He doesn't automatically see everything going on on a level that couldn't be fooled. Might be possible."