"These are descended from ones brought over from Valinor and live for centuries. We can still lose them in war."

She nods. "I've never tried to resurrect an animal, or heard about anyone trying it--it could be as difficult as resurrecting a human, or it could be trivial if animals don't have souls. If you start running low it might make sense to try, logistically speaking."

"I would be very interested in that."

"I'll do that. At some point when we're not on a battlefield, I think, it would be really embarrassing to die because I got hit by an arrow while I was focused on an animal's corpse, even on top of the fact that I would be dead."

"I was assuming that your magic deflected arrows, that's why we've tolerated you zipping around without armor. Are you saying you could just randomly get killed by an orc with good luck or good aim?"

"Not if I was paying any attention!"

"Pay attention."

"Yes. That's why no experiments."

Elves are tireless, and she apparently has no problems with the pain that this much magic should cause, and the day is exhausting and violent but not even particularly dangerous. At the end of it Celegorm coaxes both Maedhros and Odette home. "It's been two days," he says to his brother, and "you didn't have a midday meal again", to his magic mortal, and Himring's an hour in the distance but Maglor gives them a parting speed boost home.

"I need to start bringing something portable so I can eat in the field."

"Lembas is pretty portable. I'll be sure we have some tomorrow."

"Yeah." Um, it just occurred to me, should I be worried that the Enemy will notice I'm out on a predictable schedule and take advantage?

We could head to Aglon tomorrow. If he has other dragon-sized tricks up his sleeves, I'd really expect him to have deployed them in the first rush - he was clearly aiming to get this battle over with quickly. Or do you mean he'll send his worst at night since that's when you've been sleeping?

The latter.

Probably not a bad idea to sleep in tonight, take tomorrow morning off, and go in for the afternoon and overnight.

Yeah, that's probably smarter than not.

And they head in, eat a late dinner, sit in a plain stone room in Himring and in Celegorm's case listen to the battle thirty miles away. "Do you want to copy our hearing, too?"

"I hadn't thought of that, but yes." Probably the actual pointed shape of the ear isn't integral to how the hearing works; Maedhros's seems to be fine. Unlike with the eyes she's careful only to shift the insides and not the outsides.

"Well?"

"It's--" her hands go up to cover her hears. "It's a lot. Give me a minute."

He nods. Silently.

They're handling this so it must be handleable--it can't be more complicated that osanwe, right? Why is she even hesitating. Maybe it's because this is probably more of a brain thing than a mind thing, and that makes it easier to fail...she needs to know as much about the neurological difference between Elves and Men that make them able to hear like this without trouble.

Elves have about thrice as much mental attention as Men, though more of it is caught up in sensory experiences and they probably have actually significantly less conscious attention. They use this to manage their greater sensory acuity and also to have more senses in general.

Lovely. Well, she hasn't really noticed any ill effects from her vision...but renovating her mind like that is not a decision to be made lightly. She returns her hearing to normal and shakes her head. "Not now," she says by way of explanation. "I don't have the attention for it. I might change that, later, but I would want to put more thought into it."

"Sure. As long as one of us is with you we can tell you anything important anyway."