"I think I like riding horses. The learning curve would probably be less fun if I didn't have magic to keep me from falling off when I make mistakes, but--there's just something nice about having another living creature beneath you like this."

"Riding into war with someone is definitely better than going alone, and horses are definitely better company than humans."

"I haven't met enough horses to know, but I'll take your word for it."

"You might have to be able to talk to them to fully appreciate them."

"I'd believe that."

And they kill things all night. By Elven eyesight, it's no harder in the dark.

Since the enemy has magic, she periodically checks to make sure that nothing magically room-temperature is sneaking up on her, but it's not, so that's good.

War is mostly boredom, occasional terror. This is boredom.

Better than the alternative, as long as you don't let it convince you to let your guard down.

And the sun rises and they rotate out troops.

And Odette flies out to see her sister. But first spiders.

The dome is cracked in several places, and has fallen in in the middle.

Shit. Did it kill anyone?

There are a few squished spiders.

Fuck.

Well...people aren't going in and murdering them, at least, and there aren't usually earthquakes. She repairs the dome and promises herself she'll talk to someone about improving it.

And from there it's an uneventful flight west.

Odette remembers to quiet her flight, since sonic booms out of nowhere are probably alarming if you don't know the relevant mechanics, which the Elves may or may not. As she descends, she calls out to her sister, Illia? I'm here.

(Odette joins Illia's thread from here to here)

"Hey. Feast like a king? Sister okay?"

"She's fine. I think she's going to accept the Queenship out of sheer desire not to be redundant, if they were serious and the offer isn't retracted for some reason, she's not really doing anything I couldn't right now. I'd love to be loyal and disparage their food but no, it was amazing."

"We're technically their vassals, I'm pretty sure appreciating the food at the king's table is acceptable even here."

"Well, you still needn't fear that I'm going to abandon you in their favor. Might make excuses to visit more often than I otherwise would've, though. Fingon says I'm to request better food for Maedhros's own good."

"Fingon has stupid opinions about Maedhros' own good, but I'll see to it that we get better food."

"I...think he was maybe joking? Not sure. Anyway we ended up discussing various things before I left and he struck me as...reasonable? He's pretty cool. He seemed kind of worried about bringing your dad back but not in a way that seemed likely to end in self-fulfilling prophecy, if that makes sense."

"I am very glad to hear it."

"So I'm going to drop some large rocks on Angband to see if it does anything and then deliver my sister's notes on the printing press to your brother. Uh, not Maedhros, the engineer one, Curufin. ...I should eat first."