"...still kind of a risk, because his family can pressure him. His twin can pressure him. But I'd at least consider it."

"Well, if they've got the Silmarils the war's probably already over anyway. However that affects the decision."

"When the war's over I am not optimistic about keeping magic secret from them. All of their people'd tell them, and some of their people will eventually learn."

"And they won't before then only because we're aiming to be isolationist?"

"Yep. And because while the oath's active their people might not tell them, there's at least a chance they could be convinced to stay quiet about it."

"And then they'll be a setback to reforming magic. If them finding out is unavoidable, though, it's not like we'd want to delay winning the war. Doesn't change our priorities."

"We can probably stay isolationist for a while after the war, I just have mixed feelings about doing so."

"Them finding out probably isn't an unsolvable problem. I've got an idea or two for making it less of a disaster. But it's all risky and keeping it away from them as long as possible sounds the much better bet."

They're nearly back. What ideas?

If we tell them the rules magic enforces and the ones it should, and don't differentiate between them, they end up thinking they have to scrupulously follow things like people mattering more than family units and following an assigned role not being the most virtuous thing. Then all the practitioners here are still setting the traditions unanimously even without us having a monopoly.

That's something. 

And we might have to do it three days from now if the parley goes the wrong variety of wrong.

You think they'll discover us that fast?

Hope not. But if there's a rescue to be done, managing anything without being spotted sounds hard.

...do you have telescopes?

No. What are those?

A set of lenses, you look through it and it makes distant objects look closer. Could be useful for affecting things from far enough away that they definitely can't spot you.

We have lenses, though we mostly use them to look at small things. I'll see if one can be disassembled to do that instead.

I do have a telescope, not a very powerful one but it might not need to be. Maybe we could improvise with shaped blobs of water.

Let's give it a go next time we're over there. And they descend and find Nolofinwë's tent.

Is there a procedure for charging in with urgent news that we can't publicly admit we know?

Telepathy is super convenient, he got to dismiss everyone else on whatever excuse he liked and we're now clear.

Oh. Right.

She goes inside the tent.

Bad news, Your Grace. The Feanorians are sending Maitimo to parley with the Enemy. We've got three days to figure out what to do about it.

What? Why? How are they even communicating terms - what did the Enemy offer them -

A year to evacuate the civilians and a Silmaril. And apparently a peace treaty so he can prepare for fighting the Valar, but they can't take that and if he's offering evacuation he probably doesn't expect them to.

This is very unwise.