And it'd think that's still you, and it'd be so irrelevant by then that you'd have even less reason to care about its opinion.

The other elementals, presumably already used to anarchy that it runs, keep their distance.

Ad she repeats the challenge for a second time.

And it gets transmitted to potential recipients, with extra emphasis added. Irissë's claims are especially noticeable to Findekáno, as the owner of a nearby demesne.

"No contest."

"No contest." This is so much fun.

It does traditionally involve contests, but rigging the game so effectively it doesn't even happen is fantastic.

More singing, and the killing of time so the final repetition isn't right on top of this one.

Is it bad form to run it too short?

Kind of. The point is to give people three chances more than it is to say the sentence three times; doing it right away would be barely better than doing it twice. Once would be enough, since you'll be able to truthfully say you've met all the challenges, but appearances matter.

Macalaure'd adore this. 

Who?

Cousin of mine. One of The Cousins, so he can't ever do it, but he loves the dramatic and does beautiful rhetoric and choreographs his every moment in a way that I feel like your spirits would enjoy. And he'd be delighted to have an audience.

Most of us have to work at that. They'd love him, if it weren't for all the everything.

All the everything is a good way to put it.

Unfortunately. They could be fantastic allies if there were less everything.

I can't wait to show up and let them wonder how we managed it so well.

I am really looking forward to that.

She makes the third challenge.

"Hello."

The speaker presumably approached at some point, but is definitely present. Humanoid, long-haired and long-limbed, all straight lines and angles. Armed and armored, with equipment visibly inferior to what Irissë is familiar with and obviously not a matching set.

"Hello." She should probably say more than that but what -

What - 

"You're an Elda. Aren't you." The newcomer's skin stays perfectly smooth regardless of rapidly changing facial expression while they spit out the word.

"I'm supposed to decide if I want you as a neighbor, but it doesn't have to be a hard choice."

We make good neighbors. Except for to the Teleri, but I wasn't even involved in that-

No, she can't say that.

"I'm Irissë," she says, "it's not nice to meet you but it's fairly exciting, and in the interests of fair sport you should at least know that we have allies in defending this territory. If you're planning to challenge me for it."

"I haven't had a use for a name in a long time.

I don't care about here; it's what comes after I'm wondering about. If you come much farther you might find you have more enemies than allies. Not that I mind if you're at each others' throats."

"We are kind of expecting that. We are planning to fight until we all die, so the amount of death on our end is pretty fixed; if you're in favor of us taking lots of the other side down with us, you could be a bit more specific about what we should expect."

"Orcs, of course. Past here it's their land."

"Yeah. That's why we're trying to get over there. Are there - particular orcs you want dead? Or just all of them, in general?"

An unsettlingly symmetrical shrug. "I like seeing them afraid. And I know better than anyone how much they fear Elves. Probably it's even worth it to let you over, so I don't plan to ask a penalty you can't pay."

"Is afraid better than dead? Because we weren't really planning a campaign of terror, just some efficient mercy-executions, but I guess that's negotiable." Dubiously.