Aren't you the optimist.

The Dwarves have bids to learn about Amber's technology.

They probably can't prioritize short-term money much; not enough credibility to get good offers there. Anyone stand out as obviously likelier to be successful with the invention, or is it just a case of picking whoever offers the best percentage?

Given the necessity of a translator and the dark and the species difference it's really hard to pick up who might be successful. Percentages are probably the way to go.

Well, if someone here had invented the toaster and handled it so well that now toast is what sliced bread is going to be the greatest thing since.... Oh well.
What kind of percentages were on offer?

Amber borrows paper and reconstructs some steam engine designs. They're very outdated ones simplistic enough that they turn up in diagrams of How Steam Engines Work, but that should at least mean that they are how steam engines work. One has the cylinder and crankshaft setup and the other pulls liquids vertically with no interior parts more complex than a ball valve. Descriptions of some potential uses for turning fire into work come free, for obvious reasons.

She'll check for the buyer's benefit that the translator doesn't plan to try to use the verbal part of the description for anything, but now is not the time to test how Doriath feels about oaths.

They can get like thirty-five, thirty-eight percent. 

The translator has no interest in engineering and says impatiently that only Dwarves and apparently Men do that kind of thing.

Who needs patent law when you have cultural stereotypes!

Eventually she runs out of half-remembered steam engine related information. It's not as weird as "crash-landed on a new world and new civilization, quick what's the gestational period of an elephant," but still. Not the kind of thing that comes up often.

The Dwarf is grateful and tells her this was a good use of time. And leaves, so as not to use any more of it.

So they will eventually have a lot of money in the Dwarves' city, with any luck.

Back in the present, they really should find an excuse to see where Doriath grows its food.

That's easy; their translator will happily take them. The gardens are the pride and joy of Doriath, and it's easy to see why; a room larger than several football stadiums, terraced and full of trees and bushes, all of them implausibly lush and healthy and growing fruits and nuts Irisse remembers only from the personal gardens of the Valar.

Oh, yeah, there are harvest spirits.

This is so cheating. Perfect.

Doing the relevant magic shouldn't be hard, doing it discreetly might be. They can always come back later; the gardens are interesting enough in their own right that it shouldn't be suspicious. In the meantime boggling at the impossibility is both the normal response and probably expected.

Indeed, the locals are flattered, and show them all the tastiest foods.

Best place on the continent? Probably.

Certainly the most impressive. Irisse looks vaguely wistful. 

It's entirely possible that it's second for impressiveness. But its competition is on the maps and labeled NOPE, which hardly counts.

Is this what the rest of your world used to be like?

Yeah. It sounds snobbish but - Valinor was even prettier. 

Elves kind of need it. It's like not realizing you'd been holding your breath.

Humans don't have that. That must be why our cities are a lot uglier, but I don't think I'd trade.

I mean, we're coping. We can probably do fifty years of ugly, at need, and by then we'll have built ourselves something pretty. Not like this, you need a Maia for this, but enough. Maybe in the meantime we can get everyone a chance to come here. 

I think we'd run out of time before everyone got a chance.
But they said they'd send food, and we can't bring an especially meaningful amount with just us—we can offer to send a caravan instead of asking anyone to leave Doriath, and then prioritize people who need to see this the most.

Probably worth it, yeah. 

This is among the reasons everyone wants the Silmarils, they make everything around them the prettiest thing you've ever seen.

And good for them, but they also make kingdoms impenetrable.

That'd be stupendously valuable even on Earth. If beauty is mandatory here, I can see why they're so capitalized.

If only my uncle had stuck to jewelry instead of going in for magic swords and armor.

...would that have prevented all this, because otherwise I'm very glad magic weapons and armor exist.

Would have prevented Alqualonde, and the Doom, and he might not have had the impetus for the oath. I guess we would still have eventually needed them.

Maybe we should figure out what tech would benefit the most from being enchanted. I'd be surprised if the only thing your cousins' magic can improve is ability to non-reciprocally stick sharp objects into people.

It's not just their magic, we have perfectly capable metalsmiths. Fëanáro's a genius and most people with a real gift and the ambition studied under him and got themselves a spot on the boats, but we can certainly do it too. You can do, basically, anything you can describe carefully enough, but the level of description is crazy careful.