"What I said was that, if he says that there'd be political complications, then he is in a position to be confident that's true, and in fact the fact he's taken interest makes it true. I would not lie to a recent acquaintance if it would win us the war."

"I think I misunderstood you. Anyway. I feel like I can't bring him back right away even if I could, and I don't like it, and if you think there's something wrong with my judgement please do tell me, I don't promise to change my mind but I do promise to listen, and by that I mean actually listening and thinking about it instead of just hearing you say the thing and dismissing it. If I achieve my goals I am going to be far too powerful to afford the pride that would let me do that."

"I think obeying the local King is a reasonable step to take when one is in an unfamiliar land and has disruptive abilities. In your position I would save everyone I could, but I have issues with authority. I don't advise people on politics, and if I did it'd be to say "don't bother"."

"I like you."

"You have Maedhros if you really need to talk through the political implications of anything. It says something pretty fucking terrible about politics that not thinking anyone's real makes you better at it, doesn't it? Anyway I expect he'll be appealing to the King to change his stance on my father, actually, and also the King's annoyed with us and might just be expressing his disapproval of bringing Father back as a point he then has for bargaining on other topics, so it might get straightened out by the time you can bring anyone at all back."

"Here's hoping. I don't really like politics either, I'm just sort of horrified by everything terrible that's happened to you people and terrified of making things worse."

"...we're really doing all right. We've held a Vala at bay for four hundred fifty years. How peaceful is your world?"

"Well, anyone who tries mind control dies pretty fast, so even when there's a war on the idea of what happened to your brother happening to anyone is completely unthinkable."

"Not a bad policy."

"And wars almost never last longer than a few decades when we have them."

"This is half a war and half a - I'm not even sure what to call it. Hostile civilization-building? Even if we can't beat him, we can give everyone breathing room and there are so many peoples in the area with nowhere to go."

"Yeah. I don't think there's ever been anything at home quite like this."

"Anyway, when we arrived orcs were besieging the whole continent and nearly everyone was dead or dying or starving in a walled city that could barely fend them off, and my father was killed and my brother was killed and my other brother was captured all within a month of our arrival. That felt overwhelming. And now we have peaceful kingdoms where people live out their whole lives wondering if the Elves even have the Enemy they insist is so terrible."

"Is it weird that I'm already thinking of normal humans as short-lived, even though I've only been here for a few days?"

"I think I'd have felt the same way about them at - what are you, thirty? It's the difference in perspective more than the difference in experience."

"Twenty-one," she sighs.

"I'm not doing any matchmaking for your sister, then, I'd feel like a monster. All right. Shall we head east?"

"Sure." East they go. Navigating is easier with her new and improved vision!

There's a lake, and a fortress built into the mountain next to the lake. He suggests that she set them down next to it. "We're in my brother's territory. This mountain range doesn't have any good ways through it without going a hundred miles south. That's about all, I'd think? There's a Mannish kingdom on the other side, and they're in a drought, if that's also something you can do things about."

"I can get them some water. Changing the weather...not something I'd want to do without a great deal more meteorological knowledge than I have," she says as she sets them down. "Which brother? I think the ones I've gotten straight for sure are you and Maedhros and the dead twin and the not-dead twin."

"There's seven of us." He starts drawing a map in the dust. "Maedhros is in Himring, the fortress that has a good view of Angband. East of him are Curufin and I. I make sure nothing's on fire and that Curufin eats and sleeps occasionally. Curufin does metalworking and linguistics and engineering, trying to develop weapons that can take down the Enemy. West of Maedhros is Maglor, west again is here - Caranthir - and then south is Amrod."

"That was six. Were you counting the dead one when you said seven?"

"Yes. Amras, when it's necessary to speak of him in this language, though he never got to pick a name in it himself and might have gone with a different one."

"You had other names before?"

"Our native tongue is illegal on this continent, this time only sort of by divine decree. So, yes, we don't use our birth names."