"I'll be sure to note it to the Valar if we receive human visitors."

"Being a designed species seems very convenient."

"Yes."

He sighs. "Magic makes up much of the difference. When it can be deployed properly."

"I applaud your interest in doing so despite the opposition."

"People are dying," he says softly.

She nods. "I'm going to attempt to hurry the Valar now."

She switches to Quenya.

"I swear by Manwë and Varda and Ulmo and Aulë and Yavanna and Mandos and Lórien and Estë and Nienna and Vairë and Oromë and Vána and Nessa and Tulkas that I have found a world populated by an inherently mortal unchipped species, that it is my opinion that time is of the essence in bringing them aid, and that if I receive no contact from home within the next Valian day I mean to authorize a magic-user here to attempt to bring my husband to this world so that he can attempt to send one of us back again as a test of the use of his powers for transit."

"Thank you," he murmurs.

"Of course."

"You said they specialize?"

"Yes, but I included them all anyway just to be safe."

"Sensible. What are their specialties?"

She lists them.

"...Interesting," he says when she's done.

"It's a little haphazard."

"It certainly...has an aesthetic."

"Yes. It does."

He raises an eyebrow.

"The Valar and everything else were set in motion by a greater being called Eru whose motivation was aesthetic and whose aesthetic is tragedy. He has been convinced to cut it out. He now judges poetry contests."

"...Ah."

"Yep."

"I hate to ask, but how sure are you that he's been convinced to cut it out?"

"The Valar have received extra power as he's stepped it down, nothing tragic has happened since then, and he does judge a lot of very sad poetry and such, but if he did wish to fake it he could. I think faking it would be stylistically inconsistent at least as regards the people I knew about but it wouldn't floor me to learn that this place was a secret side project."

"It would also not floor me to learn that the plan was some kind of horrible war between the Great Mages and the Valar," he says soberly.

"I can suggest that they evacuate the place?"