Good point. So much for mostly not having to worry about them.

I'll turn around and look from the air. Won't be able to see everyone, but it has to be worth checking.

Mind that the Silmarils are in Angband.

Oh. So at least eight false alarms and probably more, and I won't be able to tell one connection from another. I guess it'd be worth asking Maitimo whether the Silmarils are unusually important to this or that person if there are any I don't recognize.

I think it's worth it, yes.

So she turns around and overflies the Feanorians. Well, whichever subset of the Feanorians happen to be visible from the air right now. Anyone fraternizing with a person or obsessed with an object in Angband?

Seven of them.

Seven: Notably isn't eight. It's not just that the eighth isn't visible from the air; some of the seven are indoors and the connections are visible anyway. There are just that many spirits flitting back and forth. So that's what happens when you swear an oath to have no higher priorities ever.

But there isn't anyone marked as suspicious, so she flies back.

They look safe?

The ties to the Silmarils were even more obvious than I expected. Other than that nothing.

There were only seven. Hopefully it just means someone's out of the camp at the moment.

They were sending an envoy to Doriath. I think Maitimo'd have mentioned if something happened...

I am not at all sure of that. It'd go against the image as competently handling a bad situation.

But an envoy to Doriath does seem like the kind of thing where they'd want one of their royals. Maybe it's—the one who'd want to meet the Dwarves. I think Irissë called him Moryo and I have officially lost track of which name belongs to whom.

He'd be an interesting choice of envoy, but yeah, might like the Dwarves. Okay. So we've got someone with a connection in Angband - is it the same type my cousins have, can you see that?

I can't really distinguish varieties; I think theirs was just an exception because of the Oath. But no, it's not the same as your cousins'.

She sends him a comparison. As usual with the Sight, what it looks like to her isn't the same as what it looks like to him, but he can at least see the difference in her view. Each looks like a narrow channel with indistinguishable spirits flowing in both directions, but the Feanorians' ones are more direct and glowing brighter than normal connections do. The suspect's tie to Angband looks like any ordinary link.

So they didn't somehow sneak one of them into our camp with a disguise song.

....Enemy might have done that.

A disguise good enough to impersonate someone you've known for hundreds of years? Even if they accidentally spoofed the Sight by getting enough of a relationship with everyone the target knows, they should still have more than the one tie to Angband.

Right, good point. And the Enemy can't be playing that, he doesn't know it exists.

There's got to be a simpler explanation. Maybe it's not the Enemy at all, just some one or thing or place that happens to be north of here.

It's a long shot.

I'll keep you apprised of what the King decides to do.

I wish I had an easy solution.

I don't suppose you can spot from the connection when someone's communicating? Seems like the kind of thing enchanters could do, but I don't even know if it can be picked up just from practicing or not.

I still can't tell different kinds of connection apart, and I've been looking at them a lot. But that's all I've been doing.

Me neither. Then the Sight might not do much more from here. Hopefully telling us who to watch is enough.

Hopefully.

And the report, a few hours later: found the team he most recently went out scouting with, said there'd been a discrepancy we were trying to sort out and asked them to swear to the truth of the report they'd signed off on, and swear that they had never since arriving on the continent interacted with the Enemy or anyone who served him. Which they did.

That's good. Might just be an object.

But, oaths can be fooled. What if he just didn't know?

Not impossible, but hard to think how it would have happened...

You were considering disguise songs, and we only know this isn't that because disguise songs shouldn't show up this way to the Sight. Non-practitioners should be strictly easier to fool.

Still means the Enemy would have to know who to approach. I'd like to think that's implausible.