There's an amphitheater, a place where a hundred of the stone walkways twine around to create space for a hundred thousand people to sit in close proximity, and someone is giving a lecture or a demonstration at the base of it, the seats closest to him filled with eager, tiny, bearded Dwarf-children.
And they spiral down, and down, and down, past waterfalls and egg-sized gemstones left half in the rock and halls of crystal. Everything grows gradually more ornate and more perfectly maintained and the clang of hammers fades behind them. "People say," her guide says, "that we only have a council instead of a single King because there were nine winners of the competition to design the throne so we couldn't just select one person to sit it." And they push open the doors to reveal, indeed, nine thrones so elaborate it would be hard to choose between them, and nine squat bearded people sitting them.
Melian's definitely not leaving her forest and probably wouldn't let my people all come barging in there. I'm not at all sure what to make of Thuringwethil but maybe I'll see her.
It wasn't my first guess. I didn't actually talk to her very long because I assumed based on past experience that the Enemy probably sent her to do some sort of injury to my psychological stability or schedule or both.
Hi. River Maia says hi too, and says you may not in fact have been sent by Morgoth and/or Thauron to do injury to my psychology and/or schedule.
You turned the entire continent blue to find me, chase me down, murder me with ice, and then kill them all except the children. That was not what I was expecting you to do. So the second time I just stopped by to say hi.
I can see how the mission might have been presented in an innocuous light if he were disposed to frame it that way. Also it was not the entire continent.
He's got an informational advantage I don't like in my hostile negotiating partners and the last time I was playing along with a possible deal it turned out he'd kidnapped my friend and then went on to torture her for years. What does he bribe you with?