They are in fact fucking idiots, do keep that in mind.

Noted.

The obvious way for him to turn on them is to just capture or kill the ambassador, but he's got to be aiming higher. Maybe he's got some other plot.

I assume both parties swore to terms of parley. Even my cousins are probably not that stupid.

How do you swear to terms without getting close enough that you need to already have them? Intermediaries swearing that their person swore?

Probably? This hasn't really been necessary - and now that I think of it that could be fakable - 

I guess they wouldn't have much reason to repeat how the message was delivered. But if it was something fakeable they have to know it was. How sure are you about them probably not being stupid enough to go in without a trustworthy oath?

Betting anything on my cousins not being stupid is always a mistake.

Well.

Maybe once we know when this parley is supposed to be it'll be late enough that our side arrives. Then there's at least more we can do.

Nope. Three days.

I don't suppose they've mentioned their really ironclad reason to trust the guy named the Enemy?

They haven't mentioned any reasons, let alone ironclad ones.

Maybe they have some. If not– convincing them not to go is probably the next best thing to impossible. Wish we knew what the trap was, we could maybe bail them out directly if it's a few surprise valaraukar but not much more than that.

You could try convincing them it's a trap, but not without drawing a lot more of their attention to the fact you exist and are interesting. I could try convincing them it's a trap but that'd be - very unpredictable results. Bailing them out might be the way to go.

And you being seen here is even more interesting than me.

Maybe the King will have some other idea, or even a really good reason to leave them to it.

Reason to leave them to it would be if Feanor's leading it.

Which they'll hopefully decide on any minute now.

I get that him being dead or gone would make things simpler, but if it turns out to be the kind of trap we can help with I don't like the idea of assassinating him by omission.

I have mixed feelings about it, to put it mildly. 

Yeah.

Or maybe the Enemy doesn't know about the oath and meant everything at face value, or at least isn't planning on double-crossing them until later. We can always hope.

Ha.

Or hey, maybe they'll out-think him and come out ahead on their own.

And waiting for the Feanorians to do their end of the thinking.

The Feanorians do not conclude that this is a terrible fucking idea.

They are also not sending Fëanor. 

Maitimo we do need to rescue, she says, no ambiguity there. I do not want my cousins stupider.

Do they at least expect this to be a probable trap?

Yup. Just think they're smarter than the Enemy. I think. I kind of want to try talking to Maitimo but it is so not worth the risk.

We're already crossing the Ice faster than they expect, and I don't think they know yet that we haven't already started. Maybe you could happen to have gone on ahead for some reason? Make contact officially.

The Eldar are in fact too sexist to send me for that purpose. But we could try it.