"They were big and they glowed. They didn't have a sun back then."

Leareth holds up a hand. :- Wait, I am sorry, I think that I need to back up several steps. Who is 'they', and...where is this place that lacked a sun, was it - underground before, or something?:

"Elves. Arda. No, it just didn't have a sun. And it's flat." He has not managed to fail to notice that this is supposed to be some THIRD world, though he doesn't know whether it'll be flat or not. Probably they have a sun. STOP THINKING YOU IDIOT five hundred and seventy SIX five hundred and seventy SEVEN.

:But you came from somewhere else, before that? How did you end up on this Arda?:

"Stork" is what he named it. "Snake monster." Which you just copied, you unimaginative, vile - five hundred and seventy eight.

Leareth does not argue the fact that he was not personally responsible for the snake monster. "What are Elves?" 

"Tall pretty people. Pointy ears. They sing." He misses his boyfriends and hopes like hell they don't show up, he hates it when that happens.

"I see. Why did Melkor kidnap babies." 

"Wanted servantmakers."

Leareth isn't really following that but he lets it slide. :I see. Do you know anything about whether Melkor has the ability to travel between worlds:

"Maybe." The other Valar can but it might take a few of them - they thought it through, when they were deciding to pursue the war instead of retreating to Stork for pleasanter humanitarian work -

:What was your involvement in the war before you were captured by Melkor: 

"Servantmaking."

Blink. :The same thing that Melkor wanted the babies for? I...think there is a meaning here I am not aware of. Is 'servantmaking' a skill, a craft - a type of magic -: 

"It's magic."

:Could you please give me the two-sentence explanation for what it does?:

Why does Melkor or Sauron or Thuringwethil or Creative Director Orc #58901 think that he's going to compose nice tidy sentences on demand? Fuck you, Creative Director Orc #58901.

Leareth's feeling is that he's gotten a lot more cooperation than he expected with this strategy and he's not going to push it, and honestly it seems very reasonable on this young man's part to be extremely fed up with him right now. 

:What was the status of the war when you were captured - were the Elves winning, losing, in a stalemate?:

"Overall holding our own."

:I want to ask how strategically important you, personally, were to the war effort, so I can get a better estimate of how urgently I would need to - find this other world, and intervene. I understand if this is not a question you would wish to answer on the assumption that I am Melkor, though: 

"Oh, he knows." The Elves only have him and Lári and Aydanci (Aydanci, he must - nononodon'tthink) who can servantmake. And Kib's never going to be good for servantmaking again.

:Can Melkor force people to do servantmaking: Leareth still really wishes he could get an explanation of what that is. 

:I don't know: It's not like he'd necessarily remember!

:Do you have an estimate of how many prisoners Melkor had already when you were captured: 

Kib refuses to philosophize about whether orcs count.