"Yes, but overpowering the cast won't hurt."

Nod. "Maybe just a sip, get a feel for whether to cast it at all, and save the rest for when we might need it more."

"Can it tell you to drink more of it? If you haven't gone overboard and dosed too high in the first place, I mean."

"I think so. It's uncanny. If it were cheaper and didn't have the long term side effects I'd take it all the time and take over the world inside three months."

"Then starting with a sip makes excellent sense. Maybe even just a drop."

"Good luck."

"Potion's a few months out, but thank you."

- he reports over the palantir that if you go still further east there are humans.

What the fuck.

Yup! Just - wandering. They don't seem to have invented agriculture yet. Or clothes. Definitely not bathing. "Dunno if they're all Muggles."

"...Cast a Muggle-repelling charm, see if they scatter?"

"Muggles," he confirms a bit later.

"I guess that's sort of good, means the Enemy doesn't have any wizards."

"Yeah. Also the population problem ceases to be one, if we were still thinking about that. - these people have kids who are under three but no people between three and adulthood. And no elderly people."

"...what, did God just make enough grownups all at once -"

"If so he has really choice timing, he could've waited until after the war."

"I was being facetious mostly, I'm pretty sure the Valar and Eru are a different thing, there's like, no Jesus."

"What's Jesus?"

"Wow. Uh, Jesus was the son of God? You use the same years and everything, come on."

"I dropped out of school. God has kids?"

"Just the one. I mean except in the sense that everybody is spiritually children of God and stuff."

"Anyway these sure are some bona fide stone age humans and 'God' is as good a guess as anything for why they're here should I take them home or something."

"How many are there -"

"Lots? More than a thousand less than a hundred thousand? I haven't found them all yet."

"I'm not sure we can absorb that many."