I don't think our presence changes that one. I was hoping it was just the other problem.

For more direct trade, maybe magic songs? It's possible that we have different ones from the Elves here and the composers would be willing to sell.

Might work. I'll communicate to everyone that you've arrived and what your aims are, at least.

It might.

We'd probably also be interested in engineering. If your people can design better walls than ours, paying individual architects is probably easier than paying for an army's worth of anything.

We built this cave system for the Elves.

And it's beautiful.

Not being an architect myself, I don't know if caverns measureless to man implies you can also do walls and towers girdling round.

Caves are easier and more defensible. Why are the Elves set on being aboveground?

That's a good question, actually. Why are we set on being aboveground?

For humans light would be a problem. But Elves can, sunless, see.

It's a lot less work if there doesn't happen to be a handy natural cave system. We can do belowground if they're offering.

I don't think it was an offer, just saying it'd be easier and presumably cheaper to find people for that.

How to get this through a telepathic relay who probably doesn't have the word....

Do you have a designated thing to exchange in different quantities for arbitrary goods and services?

Yes, of course. Elves don't, because they're idiots. You do?

I have the concept. Told it to some of the Elf royalty, but didn't push as hard as I might for them to adopt it. Even if they know they won't get a very advanced economy without it, they might just have different priorities.

What medium do you use?

Gold, typically.

The metal itself?

No, everyone's got different coins, but they're backed by it.

I was hoping you'd say yes. Could have made a mint.

What kinds of things do you trade for right now?

Food, mostly. Pearls from Cirdan's people. Access to mines in Elven lands.

Why pearls?

There are no Dwarven locations on or near a sea and there's a market for them?

I mean, why is there a market? If it's because they're pretty, the Elves are very good at pretty.

We and Elves have different tastes in pretty.

Understandable. Both look impressive to me; maybe humans are just easily satisfied on that front.

I'll be shocked if there's nothing to trade, even with most of our focus on the war. Irissë, think there's anything we've got? Or can produce starting from zero.

Do you guys trade in information? We could share stuff we learned in Valinor, chemistry and metallurgy...

I might be able to add to that. Physics, and what's your technology level like?

Our forges burn hotter and our weapons are better than those of the Enemy.

To Irissë, I can probably remember enough Earth technology to speed things along by a lot. At least in general terms. If we manage to reverse engineer better weapons, would it be a problem to depend on the Dwarves for the supply? I don't think Doriath knowing about it would.