"Probably not. My choices since I got here have had worse results than usual, but I think that's a result of poor information more than worsening judgement. I suppose having someone around who can listen to my ideas and talk me out of anything too extreme would be nice, but that might not work so well if they're terrified of me."

"I would be happy to give you more complete information, or you could just go take this whole mess to my brother in Himring, that'd be the best thing to do."

"My desire to not be around many elves for a while was genuine, is Himring an elvish city?  I suppose if the journey is long enough I can practice meditations along the way and may be OK there. Speaking of, do you know if those can hide the presence of a mind entirely? Apart from that, probably the most useful information for me would be the Enemy's capabilities - abilities, numbers, and dispositions of his soldiers, emphasis on anything I'm likely to encounter on my way to Himring, in this area, or around Tol-in-Gaurhoth, notable lieutenants and their abilities, again with emphasis on those areas, divine capabilities of the Enemy himself, emphasis on anything long-ranged, scrying, teleportation come to mind, does he know if you speak his name or something, I think some gods back home did that.  Also, any more glyphs I should avoid stepping on."

He pulls out a map. "Tol-in-Gaurhoth is here, there are Enemy patrols as far south as here - the meditations should let you make your mind undetectable, yes - there are blueprints of Tol-in-Guarhoth somewhere, let me ask someone to bring them - an orc isn't the equal of a single Elf in a fight, but there are probably a hundred thousand of them in the area - a werewolf is, and there are maybe two or three hundred of them -" and a strategic outline from there -

"Were the elves I disabled earlier typical fighters of yours? Would they have been about a match for a werewolf each? About how many orcs to one elf? If you can use those four for comparison it would save time, otherwise perhaps I could spar with someone? Meditations can hide a mind from a Maia even, or just elves?"

"No, the vast majority of people in Nargothrond are civilians, not soldiers - they could probably still take an orc, though - I doubt you could hide yourself from Morgoth in Angband but from Thauron maybe - Maiar vary tremendously - I don't think anyone wants to spar with you either, especially -"

"Oh, that's good, I'd have been really shocked if I was that much better than everyone here. I don't need to spar anyone if you can give me an estimate of a werewolf's capabilities in terms of the four I fought. Or just - how much stronger or faster than regular wolves are werewolves? Are they tougher aside from resistance to non-silver weapons? Any magical abilities besides being wolves and presumably shapeshifting? Is lycanthropy contagious? Are people worried I'll hurt them if we spar, or do they just not want anything to do with me?"

"Werewolves are probably five times stronger and faster than normal wolves, and significantly more durable even if you have suitable weapons. If they have other magical abilities they haven't demonstrated them - Thauron is very very gifted with illusions and frequently uses them to give his allies the appearance of other abilities, particularly invisibility - he might catch you in his fortress even if your invisibility does not interact with our magic if, for example, he has a door illusioned somewhere and you walk through it and it's a wall - healers are overstretched and people are stressed in general and don't want anything to do with you -"

"Hm, and my magic doesn't seem to interact with local magic so even if I could figure out True Seeing it probably wouldn't help with that... Invisibility is insufficient for now, anyways, I never bothered to figure out smell before, that will take some time. I understand people wanting nothing to do with me, I will be out of your hair shortly."

"I know you will. Other things - every free nation in the world except Thingol's is allied against the Enemy, the alliance has fracture points you can definitely stomp on if you wish and doing that will probably mean Melkor wins - do I need to convince you that's a bad outcome -"

"Well, I was taking it on faith for the present, but given the existence of binding oaths some sworn testimony of his evils would be wonderfully clarifying and remove any need to ask orcs for their side of the story - though they seem pretty harmless maybe I should try that anyway. Anyways, I don't want to blow anything up, tell me where the glyphs are and I'll step carefully around them."

He does that. "And - hmm, all right - the Enemy created the race of orcs by torturing and forcibly breeding Elves and crosses between Elves and other things, orcs are all bindingly sworn to obey him as soon as they're old enough to talk, when he takes civilian prisoners he invariably takes them back to Angband to torture in time-dilation in variously creative ways including repeatedly hallucinating rescue, such that when actually rescued those prisoners usually don't believe they're free. He has killed millions in this war so far and plans to kill all non-orcs in the world except some humans he'll keep around as slaves and particular enemies of his who he'll probably torture indefinitely. I swear everything I've told you today is true."

What an interesting response.

"Thank you. I may need Huan's help testing inolfactability - wow, you have a word for that? Most languages I know don't - I guess I can come by here for that or if I desperately need some information Lúthien doesn't have or want to drop off more spell notes, I'll be sure to do that before doing anything even slightly risky. You don't seem inclined towards rescue attempts but I should emphasize again that they are extra futile if I happen to get captured."

Malak stands up, brushes themself off, stretches their arms.

"I think that's everything. Are we free to leave, now? I assume you have the keys to Lúthien's shackles?"

Yep! They are free to leave.

"Again, I'm sorry for the trouble I caused. I don't like you, personally, but your war seems about as just as they get and I'd rather we be able to work together towards winning it."

Malak gives a slight bow, then heads with Lúthien back to the gate. They're not going to ask for supplies or weapons - not after that.

No one interferes with them.

Then out the door they go.

"So, Lúthien... Do you know anything about wilderness survival? Any chance that we could pick up supplies at Doriath on our way to Himring or Brethil or wherever? Oh, and in about an hour this spell's going to run out and I won't be able to talk to you so we should figure out our plans first I can handle telepathic communication if absolutely necessary but I've been doing that a lot today, and you can't read?"

"Can everyone read, where you're from? And yes, I can get us food - if we go to Doriath they'll try to hold me there again - thank you, by the way - and we're not going to Himring or Brethil we're going to Tol-in-Gaurhoth -"

"I'm not going to Tol-in-Guarhoth without a plan and I won't stop you from going alone but please don't, from what I've heard of Gorthaur he'll probably just capture you and torture you and Beren in front of each other and he will be worse off than he would if you waited. About six out of ten people where I'm from can read, but nobility can almost invariably and your father's a king... I learned to read by the time I was eight, my father hired tutors."

"Writing wasn't invented when I was eight and it's mostly a Noldor thing even now that it exists and the Noldor are nuts so no one follows their example - if you just make me invisible I can get in and out -"

"Werewolves. They will smell you. I can fix that but it will take time, and I can't keep you invisible when I'm not touching you, I can fix that too but again that will take time.  Probably a couple months at least."

"By then -"

"I know. Waiting is hard. Really really hard. When someone you love is held prisoner it takes every little bit of willpower you have to not go rushing in there right away but if you don't hold back, you will die or worse and Beren won't be helped a bit. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, but the best thing you can do is wait."

Hug

"I might be able to take Gorthaur even without your magic -"

"You are half-Maia. As far as I can tell, Maiar are the most powerful things around here short of the Enemy himself, and he's one of the strongest Maia and has an army of werewolves. Give me one month, I can probably figure out inolfactability and hopefully the mind-hiding meditations by then and maybe we can go in together."