"That would do it."

"Teleportation's normally Conquest but I have really good Sympathy resistance and not that great Conquest resistance so I'm not comfortable planning to use Conquest. But Sympathy teleportation should work."

She nods. "As long as you have a plan and some sensible contingency plans, I'll take your word for it on the magic."

"My sister and I grew up in a world at peace. We would be absolutely thrilled to get your perspective on plans and contingency plans."

"The Elves do not know as much as they'd like about the capabilities of their Enemy, and generally operate on a pretty reactive policy of "when something mean comes out of Angband, we'll squish it". There have been occasions of more subtle stuff - impersonators were present in a city of Men at one point, persuading us to leave the Elves to their Elf-politicking and abandon the war - and I don't think the Elves know how that happened or have a plan to prevent it."

"I am pretty good at squishing mean things that come out of Angband. Do you know how that happened and have ideas for how to prevent it?"

"We don't. No ideas at all. And it was long before my time so I can't piece together more now. We did react, when we learned of it, by doing the opposite of what the impersonators suggested, so perhaps he won't try that tactic again; or perhaps he's been doing it ever since, more subtly."

"He did something similar to the Elves at one point, and that's why there's tension between two factions, I think. Do you know what the impersonators were and who they were impersonating?"

"Yes, it's a famous story, they were impersonating an influential man named Amlach, who was one of the leaders of the dissent against Elven rule. There was a council in Estolad during which he gave a very persuasive speech arguing that the Elves had invented or exaggerated their war and the crimes of their Enemy in order to win the compliance and obedience of Men - because it is of course the necessity of Elven arms and magic that keeps civilizations of Men dependent on those of Elves - and that we should strike out on our own. Many were persuaded. Then the next morning he said he hadn't even made it to the council."

"He was alive to do that?"

"Seems....extremely careless, right? I have never been able to make head or tail of it."

"Yeah. The Enemy...doesn't seem to think in ways that make sense, though. I mean. He acts like a storybook villain, basically. He literally tortures his own foot soldiers."

"Are you sure? Why?"

"My sister found out by magic. Apparently the Elves already knew, although I couldn't guess how. I have no idea why."

"Elves are - odd. Their lens on the world is very storybookish. It wouldn't occur to them to wonder why, I don't think; the Enemy is evil so he does things which are evil. And so forth."

"I can't say I really got that impression, but you've known them for longer than I have. It's also possible that different groups of them see things differently--from what I heard you mostly knew Aegnor and Finrod? And I've been dealing with Feanorians."

"I have not met the Feanorians. They are notorious among Elves, so it is safe to guess they're a little different."

"The impression I mostly got was that they're very good at what they do, and Celegorm was refreshingly direct and frustrated by the idea of politics. And at some point in the past they made one or several mistakes that got people killed."

"I don't know how much it'll speed your city to compare impressions of Elves, but the one the Lord Aegnor had of them was that they held everyone in contempt and were very bad at acknowledging wrongdoing and had in fact killed a lot of people not entirely by mistake. And also had unusual-for-Elves outlooks and priorities which most people found nearly as objectionable as the first bit."

"I didn't get much of an impression of contempt, but, hm. I don't necessarily agree with all of the rest of it but, hm, I can certainly see why he would have the impressions I disagree with?"

"I think they are loved by their family but with a sense of - regret at the magnitude of the differential between what they are and what they could be."

"Yeah. Remember when I said Morgoth had done something like the impersonation thing to the Elves at one point? Well, I don't know that he was actually impersonating anyone. But. He did some pretty bad damage."

"It's hard to respect and understand Elves well enough to work with them while also having a clear enough grasp on their failings to keep yourself and your people safe. Sounds like you're managing, though. Contingency plans for attack - here's what we had in Ladros..."

Odette listens attentively, commenting as appropriate.

Andreth has lots to say. She mentions Aegnor and Finrod several more times, always as sources for some piece of strategic information.