Malak goes to meet the humans.

They're - kind of stressed, actually. It's been disruptive here ever since the Bragollach and the King's - behavior and now the princess of Doriath is here in the dungeons - metaphorically, obviously they're keeping her in a nice place, but it wouldn't be unlike Elu Thingol to do something stupid - wouldn't be unlike Lúthien to do something stupid either - 

- someone else interjects that Elu Thingol has already done something stupid, arousing the oath -

- the High King has a plan -

- the High King lets his cousin fuck him and the cousin in question's a madman, used to be a prisoner of Morgoth's, those are the hands we're in now that the old High King's dead -

- and at least in Nargothrond there are walls -

"...I feel like I am missing a good deal of context."

"...probably? You're foreign, right? Why do you talk like an Elf? What do you want to know?"

"Oh, if you say that in your language I'll be able to respond in the same, if it's more comfortable for you. Who is Elu Thingol, who is the High King, are these the same person, who is the High King's cousin and why is it such a big deal that they're fucking, it sounds like they're both men? When did the old High King die, was that in the battle of sudden flame? Are the other allied kings subjects of the High King or is the 'High' just for show?  And, just to be clear, Morgoth is Melkor, right? It sounds like they're the same person but plausibly one could be a servant of the other..."

"...Morgoth and Melkor are the same person, Elu Thingol is the King of Doriath and Lúthien's father, all the kingdoms of Beleriand except Doriath are allied under the High King for the war effort -"

"- some, ah, nominally -" someone interjects -

"...yeah, true, but all of them at least nominally -"

"The High King challenged Morgoth to single combat."

"...Is everyone around here as suicidal as the people you pick for your rulers?"

"Elves," the crowd says emphatically, and "we didn't pick them," someone adds quietly.

"Do you mean the elves picked them, or that only the aristocracy such-as-it-is gets to vote, or did the less-shitty-than-Melkor gods over on the other continent decide?"

"Vote? The Elves - pick them, I guess, I don't know how they did it in the beginning but it's hereditary now."

"Are there a bunch of different royal lines, or are all the different kings related to one another?"

"All of them except Thingol are grandchildren or great-grandchildren of Finwë, the first King of the Noldor. The High King who recently challenged Morgoth to single combat was Finwë's son. Thingol was an old friend of Finwë's but he has no sons himself so obviously never passed his kingdom on."

"...OK so this is actually pretty much a perfect example of why hereditary rulership is a terrible idea, you pick a family with a slight predisposition toward mental illness and then next thing you know kings are killing themselves left and right. Single-gender hereditary succession is even worse though I guess I wouldn't really want Lúthien running a kingdom so maybe it turned out OK this time but still."

"How's it done where you're from?"

"Well, the country I was born in... I don't actually know, I left when I was young and uninvolved in politics and now there aren't many records left. I lived in the Jade Dragon empire for a while, the emperor was selected by the dragons, I think they chose based on ability to govern.  In Kalzir there was a council of mages, the council chose replacements for retired or dead council members, there were rules against adding family of existing council members and everyone they selected had to have demonstrated skill in a certain field of magic, one field for each seat.  So you had the Lord High Summoner, Lord High Necromancer, et cetera.  It wasn't a great system but it was better than this."

How many humans are there?  How many are planning to go with Malak tomorrow?  How is the packing coming?

Eight people are assigned to go with them, there are about twelve around, everything's mostly packed which is why they're standing around gossiping.

Malak learns each of the eight's names, chats with them for a while, asks if they can take one of the packs with a bit of space left and pack up their spare weapons. It was nice meeting the four of them, see the rest tomorrow morning!

Damn, they feel kind of guilty about all this.

Nice meeting them too, does Malak have a place to get dinner? Sleep? Elves tend to forget about those things.

The elves put them in a room with a bed! And food has shown up occasionally, they'll be fine.

Okay. First light, then, so they can be well south by night.

Malak goes back to their room, moves all but one sheet of their unused paper to their pack--Checks to see it has food and a waterskin, too, they should have checked that before they picked a pack, stupid mistake.

It does.

OK, good.  They leave the pack and sword in the room, head towards Lúthien's room, timing it carefully. Are there any out-of-the-way corners or empty rooms near Lúthien's?

Not especially.

Well, this may make things slightly trickier.  The door to Lúthien's room is closed? (They check invisibly)