Okay. Well, we'll be meeting orcs soon enough at this rate. Expect we'll keep you well back of the fighting.

Within or without fire range of the opposing force?

Up to you. We can take orcs, just not as cleanly.

If there's likely to be arrow fire I could burn incoming arrows midair. Maybe not all of them but still.

Then we should probably have you in range to do that. The fighting's honestly going to be a bit of a mess, there's never been a war in Elven history and few of us have ever even seen anyone die. We've been drilling but I don't think it's the same.

Welce is really peaceful. It's been generations since there's been a war. - Orcs don't count towards 'Elves don't kill people'?

No, they don't. They all serve the Enemy, there's no choice about it, at least not without powers like yours. And hopefully someday Mandos will fix them. But we do kill orcs.

Mandos being the one who does not respect the private thought distinction?

Mandos is the god of the dead.

...and also the one who reads minds without permission?

Yup.

Lovely. Meanwhile when I was eight and suddenly came over all on fire I went on a sharply restricted hug diet until my family had time to get used to the idea.

I'm not a fan of Mandos. But I think he does try to heal the dead, so it's better than nothing -

I won't be able to do anything for an orc without being in mind-stuff-range either and it's probably better than ceasing to exist when one dies but it is a bad way to run an afterlife.

Yeah. And we're going to lose a lot of people to it. Hopefully not for too long.

Nod.

He doesn't say anything else but he keeps thinking about it. Worth it, of course. It has to be.

She doesn't comment further on his thoughts. Just finishes refreezing the second stretch of path. There.

Great. Back so you can sleep? They'll do like five to seven miles a day, at this rate, three weeks to cross the Ice.

Yes. I will usually be able to do more than this in a row, I just landed when it was evening for me.

Two weeks, maybe. No problem.

Supplies'll hold that long and everything?

We have supplies for half a Year. We were starting to think the ice actually impassible, in which case we'd have been in real trouble since I don't know if we could backtrack all the way to Alqualonde and persuade the Teleri or invent seafaring boats and build enough of them fast enough. Now it''ll be no problem.

Persuade the who to do what?

Teleri: Elves who live by the shore. They have boats that could cross the ocean safely. They spent Ages developing them and I think it's at least a little difficult, enough boats to get an army across an ocean. We were going to beg their help if we couldn't make it across the Ice.