He clearly really enjoys technical discussions.

Unless other business interrupts them, Malak is both willing and able to continue this...not indefinitely, but at least all day.

That's enough time to make a lot of progress. "Nothing here I see destroying Melkor, though."

(Malak has forgotten to renew their shapeshift and has been looking their normal self for the past hour or two)

"Killing a god is not a trivial prospect. We have gods in abundance back home and the turnover is generally pretty low, it can be done but it requires a very powerful mage. Um. I have had some thoughts on how to get around that, but I'm not going to share the specifics with you now."

"- okay. Maedhros isn't optimistic we have a century, but thinks we definitely have a decade, if that affects your planning."

"A decade should be more than enough time to settle any doubts about the reality of all this and decide who can be trusted with god-killing capabilities."

"Great. Then by all means take it."

"Well, I'll hardly just be sitting around the whole time. For one, I need to determine who to trust with this - no guarantees it will work, by the way, it just seems like it would be the best shot we have so far - and that will require speaking to people. Perhaps after we check on Sauron I will go to Barad Eithel and meet the High King, then maybe Himring, then maybe dwarves. I may try to see if they'll let me into Doriath to talk with Melian and Thingol though from what I've heard odds of that are not good."

"They really don't like letting people into Doriath. The rest of those choices sound good."

"I could swear to a degree of nonhostility at the border, and I suspect if I really wanted to enter they couldn't stop me but that wouldn't be terrible conducive to diplomacy. Speaking of, Beren may in fact still be committed to giving Thingol a Silmaril but if that happens I am much more confident in my ability to steal a Silmaril from Thingol than from Melkor so please don't kill him over it or anything like that."

"You can't swear to things bindingly. And stealing a Silmaril from Thingol would have quite a lot of collateral damage."

"I can look like an elf and not tell them about my inability to swear bindingly, even if they assume I'm a Maia shapeshifted to look like an elf they should still assume my oaths hold unless they have reason to suspect there are more possibilities. Do you mean that he would go to war to take it back, or just that you don't anticipate it being doable safely?"

"Melian could tell you weren't, almost certainly. And I don't think it'd be doable safely and don't know if he'd go to war to get it back but wouldn't rule it out."

"Hm. Will still try to talk to them if possible. I'll also encourage Beren to hold off on the Silmaril-stealing, he already agreed to be more patient about it than last time...

"Anyways, I should probably deal with all that biology stuff - food, water, sleep - And then tomorrow can someone let me know when Huan is back? Oh, and that meeting with someone who's good at faces...

"Do the people guarding me know I can teleport or is that going to start a panic?"

"Might freak them out a little. I'll have your meetings scheduled for tomorrow."

In that case Malak will accommodatingly change shape and braid their hair and walk back. They eat and drink and sleep and spend their morning going through the magic they know and looking for places where the spells can be compressed. (They can't, much, Malak already optimized them pretty well and that was when they had their equipment and were smarter.)

And someone comes by who has lived in Nargothrond a few hundred years and would be happy to try to identify people!

"Hi! Pleased to meet you. So, what I have is seventeen elves who we saved and are as far as I know still alive, sixteen who we saved but committed suicide, and about forty more who I couldn't save but are probably dead. Those last ones will be a lot harder to recognize and it might be upsetting. Where should I start?"

"- I guess with the people who are still alive."

Malak bounces seventeen faces.

"Thank you. - and the others?"

Sixteen more, then...

"I didn't get as good of a look at the others and it was when they were still in the dungeon. Not healed at all. They might be harder to recognize and it will probably be really unpleasant to get the images so if you need a moment first..."

The elf takes a moment.  Malak bounces all the faces they didn't save.

Nod. "Thank you."

Malak isn't quite sure how to respond, so they don't.

After a minute he gets up to leave.