"I can't. I'm from another realm altogether. If you prefer that I not appear to be speaking your native language, I can write in any language you care to specify, if you've picked up writing here?"

"It is obvious that you're using a spell and not speaking our language. If we can speak to you in the Elf-tongues and you can respond in your language which your translation magic will make sound familiar to us, there's no problem."

"I will understand you just fine in Elf languages if you prefer to use those."

The Dwarf nods. "Very well. What brings you here?"

"Partly, I am just trying to become acquainted with more of the peoples of the continent. The reason I am here today and not in some weeks' time is that Nýi, who I spoke to in Menegroth, said that you might be willing to harbor an Elf that I rescued from the Enemy. His family are new to the continent and have never had contact with Dwarves before; and he believes that he may still be being shown falsehoods by the Enemy's mind control and accordingly does not want to go among anyone familiar lest he reveal to the Enemy his expectations about his loved ones."

"Hmm. What are you offering?"

"I do not know what you may have need of. I shared some of my realm's knowledge of metallurgy with the Menegroth Dwarves, and they were pleased, but may have already sent word here in which case it would be redundant; other people have appreciated my ability to carry messages at great speed in flight and my healing magic. Certainly if you accepted my rescuee as a guest he would be willing to work for his keep as long as he was here, provided it was not in such a way as to hypothetically reveal anything new to the Enemy if as he imagines you were all figments of a hallucination."

"Let's come in and talk metallurgy and healing magic," the Dwarf says, and opens the doors a bit farther.

"I can't see in the dark. Will you mind if I light my way?"

"Oh," the Dwarf says delightedly, "we light it, for guests. So you can appreciate it." And he turns and shouts something, and someone else takes up the shouting, and the whole mountain seems to rumble. "Tell me what your interest is in metallurgy."

"Unfortunately, I didn't have a time to study anything in preparation for my trip to this realm, which was accidental. What I have is what I happen to remember and I have not focused strongly on metallurgy; but my culture is older than the ones here, and has had a lot of time to experiment and learn. So I remember fragments of this and that which may be new to you but incomplete, most of it as applied to creating weapons. Some of it seemed novel to the Menegroth Dwarves, and I have written down what I told them and which things those were."

"Older than the ones here? How is that?"

"It's very, very far away, so it's not operating on the timeline of creation here. My current hypothesis is that the realms I knew before I came here are all in a parallel reality entirely, that no matter how far you traveled through the Void you'd never be able to get there."

"Then how did you?"

"Accident. I was trying to go somewhere else, and through either bizarre magical malfunction or extremely sophisticated sabotage, instead of landing on Midgard with my companion I landed here alone."

This, surprisingly, cheers him tremendously. "That's the most interesting accident I have ever heard of. Well, we'd love to learn how realms with malfunctioning or sabotaged cross-continent transportation devices do metallurgy, and if you're willing to pay for your friend we're not particularly frightened of Elves, so by all means let's discuss this."

"What did you trade for those in Menegroth?"

"I didn't think to ask for anything, but the nice thing about information is that if I give it away I continue to have it."

He nods. "Still, it would have been courteous of them to offer. Though I suppose Menegroth doesn't inspire generosity."

"I got the impression that the relations were a little strained. With what sounded like legitimate reason."

He shrugs. "Elves. They work as hard as needed to have the lifestyles they seem to desire, which is their prerogative."

"Can you expand on that?"

"We typically admire people for technical achievements, for thinking of new things or doing things with exceptional care and diligence. There is nothing wrong with a person who does exactly as much labor as is necessary to lead their preferred lifestyle. It would be wrong to critique such a person. But we would find them uninteresting. Elves are entirely uninteresting. They like leading a lifestyle that requires very little effort, so they do very little effort, and so they do, to us, very little relatable or commendable or of interest."

"You might admire my rescuee's father if you met him. He's an exceptional engineer, moves much more quickly than most others of the species in figuring out and deploying new ideas. Some of his children inherited the drive, although not the particular one the Enemy captured; his talents are I think mostly diplomatic in nature."