"- like how those expansible trunks work? I can do those."

"And I could have an orc put it somewhere where it wouldn't be noticed instantly - we should maybe consult Felix if you can spare another drop -"

"The batch isn't anywhere near accounted for yet, just opportunity cost is all."

"I think Melkor's top priority."

"That's not in question, what might be is if we go to Felix with this plan as context or with something else as context, it only had time for a few words given one drop."

"Spend an hour seeing if we come up with anything better first?"

"Yeah. And see if the Quendi have any ideas."

The Quendi observe that Ulmo should probably be consulted on schemes to drain the ocean into Angband.

...this is not unreasonable. How do you consult Ulmo. Should he be sent an owl.

No, you go to the ocean and sing to him. He sometimes takes a while to answer.

How long a while.

Well, used to be within weeks but that was when they hadn't Kinslayed his favorites.

Gosh. Uh. They can probably think up a non-ocean-related plan if Ulmo feels like requiring a year's worth of concert before deigning to reply.

"I mean, if this is the best plan, waiting a year for it's probably worth it."

"Uh."

"Does the Felix expire?"

"Not in one year. Maybe in three to five."

"What's the next-best plan?"

"We didn't have one specifically in mind, just liked this one enough to run it by you. Whether waiting a year for the best plan is a good idea depends substantially on how much it is best by."

"I suppose if lots depends on the potion, yes."

"I think the principle holds in general, but yes, the potion is also in temporally limited supply. We could attempt to create and harvest eggs from an Ashwinder but that is normally best left to trained professionals for values of 'best' meaning 'amateurs set absolutely everything on fire trying that' and even then we'd still need six more months and a substitute for the - anyway."

"Maybe once the engineers aren't tied up with immortality and Silmaril-weaponizing they can figure out a way back to your world."

"That'd be nice. Twins'll be graduated soon."

"If they make it through the summer. Our cousins will probably look after them."

Finis makes a face.

"Fredrick knows everything. Don't know what he'll be able to do with it, but he knows."

"Why does Fredrick know everything?"