"I might have low standards." Sigh. "How's designing the expanding bit to smuggle into Angband going -"

"That part's fine, although since it needs to be really hard to shrink again afterwards the experimental results are inconvenient to clean up."

"The Valar can probably just cancel your magic, so it'd be best to place it somewhere he won't notice it for a while or be sure what exactly to cancel. Or, even better, if it were large to start with and made small by magic -"

"Yeah, I can do it that way, we just have less control over when exactly it opens up."

"Harder to cancel remotely?"

"Yeah, expanding it remotely you just want a Protean-style pairing. Can't cancel things that way."

"I'll trust you on the magic."

"Tops in Charms every year." And she goes back to work.

" - okay somebody's fucking with the humans. Having Dwarves adopt them probably still works but someone is definitely fucking with the humans."

"What do you mean?"

"They have a religion. The religion is Melkor-worship."

"Well fuck."

"I knew something was up with the preagricultural walls."

"Temples. To Melkor. Demons attack in the night but they leave you alone if you pray to Melkor."

"What are the demons and can I put them in potions.'

"I haven't seen any."

Sigh.

"It's probably a terrible idea to pick a fight with Melkor-associated demons alone and we don't want to tip him off about magic yet at all."

"Will the Dwarves still be willing to adopt them under these conditions?"

"Aaron's not on right now and I continue not to be able to speak any relevant languages."

"Just thinking aloud." She makes a note to ask Aaron next time he's on his palantir.

"Anything I should do?"

"See if you can get a look at the demons."

"I am not sure that's safe without making it clear to the Enemy we've got magic, if the demons work for the Enemy."

"Only if it's safe, obviously."