It's delightful, though I think I'd like it about a hundred times more if I had the power to turn back. Father added undoing your magic to his long list of priorities, but I'm not even sure if that's the sort of thing one can treat as an engineering problem.

Sorcery and technology can interact but my sorcery's weird. Do you want a break?

Not at all, it's not getting bored of it so much as feeling like if I did there's nothing I could do about it. How're Dwarves?

Dwarves are great! I really like them! They don't think much of Quendi but seemed to agree that your lot sounded better than the ones they've met out east.

Give it a year, Maitimo'll have them enamored of us.

As I told the Dwarves, I'm not sure he's in an ideal diplomatic condition, but perhaps.

That's why it'll take a year.

Ha. They're also potentially interested in opening trade.

Unless they like Noldorin jewelry or some stones that are common in Valinor and rare here, we're five years out from producing anything valuable enough by volume to be worth shipping. Is that why Maitimo wants us to pack up and head east?

I suppose he could have predicted it but I don't think so. They might like the stones, though, they seem very big on stones.

Then we're in, especially if they can get their forges to better temperatures than are manageable with our resources here and will either sell us weapons or workspace. I mean, I'm not qualified to negotiate anything in any detail at all, but I'm sure what the answer will be.

I bet they'll sell you weapons. I can almost imagine them selling you workspace just because it seems like they'd find it a novelty to watch Quendi hard at work.

Well, I'm about as useful in a forge in normal form as bird form, but I can't imagine Dwarves are so gifted they won't be impressed to watch my father at work.

You in the general sense. And while I've never actually watched him build a thing I imagine you are right.

You're watching him build a country, but admittedly that's very much not his preferred medium.

Countries often happen more or less on their own. I'll be impressed if he builds an unusually good one.

Well, we're more aiming for unusually-enemy-besieging. But fair.

I will also be impressed if he manages that but more with his army than with his country.

Rather takes countries to muster and supply and arm armies.

Sure. But I judge them on different criteria. He could have a perfectly functional army and the home front could languish indefinitely without indoor plumbing. ...I should explain indoor plumbing.

You mean water and waste disposal systems that aren't from the Valar? You should ask Nelyo to explain them to you, he spent three Years getting all of the necessary permissions and land rights and interest for them.

Oh, is that the interminable-sounding meeting he was talking about or were there several of that duration? Then yes, he likely remembers more about the functioning details than I do.

It took forever because you needed practically everyone in the city in agreement, since it had been built and planned without one and no one was willing to have an unsightly one. He worked on it rather tirelessly, and insisted it was boring but I think was having the time of his life.

Aww. Did Valinor eventually get plumbed?

Yes. And we built it into the foundations, here. Nothing's actually working because there were more urgent priorities but we won't have to rebuild anything to get it working.