[She is an ancient, old thing and yet it takes a second to connect what he says with what he means. While she was aware humans lay with each other, sometimes out of marriage, it was not the way of the elves.
She wasn’t even sure she could, never mind the implications of being told she can “use” these mortals whose murmuring slowly seems to become louder the more she focuses on them.]
That is not… a thing elves do outside of marriage. [In fact, it was marriage as far as Mithiel was aware. Not that she had tested the waters to see.] In any case, we are not good for mortals in that way. Joinings between us are few. [Beautiful, stubborn Luthien and her mortal Beren for example, both of which Mithiel had seen in the great forest of her birth.]
[The women and the men in the harem wait, as if wondering if they will finally be made of any use. Yet it seems not when Set shrugs and motions for Mithiel to keep following him.]
Your way makes more sense.
[That is probably the nicest thing he will say but the way people have sex and imagine things here are...well, ridiculous. He doesn't get it.] I don't see the point of keeping them but Thoth says since they were gifts, I must keep them.
People cannot be gifted, each belongs only to themselves. [She says sounding more confused than scolding or accusatory.] I feel like your friend is going to be confusing. He was very kind to me but he has that sort of face.
[At least for now she is glad to be away from the people that Set has been “gifted”, it seems like a messy thing to work through and she doubts he will ever be in the mood for it. Mithiel decides she might try to talk to them later, or at least listen in on them and try to determine if they enjoy their circumstances or not.]
Thoth is not my friend. [That should be known, he thinks.] He has served my family since the beginning of it and that is all. But he is useful. And you will interest him. [And that is not necessarily good and he will have to make sure that Thoth has no ulterior motives.]
Ah. [She says quietly. They must be truly not friends, for Mithiel would call may that she had a lesser relationship with friend. Or perhaps it was just how these “gods” thought? She supposes she can bother Thoth about any details that she cannot work out on her own. Her smile is small but warm as she looks at Set and wonders what his life is really like. He seems so withdrawn and she is not sure it is simply because he has to worry or wonder about her showing up in his kingdom, a completely foreign being that as far as he knows could be dangerous or otherwise make his life spin out of control.]
I will always be kind to you both. And to the rest of your house.
[It has not been stated but Set is also the god of foreigners and so he is her patron god as she stays here. It is one reason why those who come to Egypt often worship Set. Though it is still not something he understands, not anything he takes too much dedication to.]
If you are kind to me or not matters very little. As long as you respect me then we will be fine.
[He finally guides her to the bedrooms and shows her where she can stay. It is a large room with a bed. And then unsurprisingly, a servant comes to the room and bows, saying that Thoth had sent her to tend to their visitor. Set is thankful Thoth remembers these things. He turns to Mithiel.] She will help you with any small things you may need. Bigger than that? Ask Thoth and he will help.
Respect tends to come with kindness, your majesty. [If she sounds amused, it’s because she is. If only because sounding concerned every three seconds seemed to be quite useless. They are not friends either, so she doesn’t squeeze his hand as she wanders past him into the bedroom but she does let their shoulders brush together, just a moment of contact, a silent thank you.
It is a beautiful room, but of course they are in a King’s palace. She is examining the craftmanship of an interesting vase when another person comes into the room quiet as a mouse. She blinks. There were, sometimes, servants in Menegroth or apprentices who did things for their masters as payment for studying their craft but she was not the kind of elf who ever had a need for one. Animals were usually her only helpers, them or the trees themselves.
Her smile for the serving girl is warm and bright, putting more effort into some of that elven charm she had but rarely used.] It is good to meet you. [She says to the girl before looking to Set.]
Somehow I doubt I will have to go find Thoth. He is very interested in listening to me babble like a brook.
[Respect comes with kindness? Set wouldn't pretend to know. He's never quite gotten both. And he thinks respect can come without kindness, a simple cold acceptance. But what does he know?
The girl seems to blush at Mithiel's smile and bows her head once more. If you did not behave appropriately in front of Set, it was said he would kill you. Certainly it had happened in the past. She wouldn't take chances. What they didn't know was that while Set did this long ago, nowadays he would simply send them away and say he killed them. It worked to still make him look like the cruel tyrant.]
Thoth will probably seek you out before you seek him. Relax, use the girl for your needs, and I will show you the Nile after I change my clothing. [He was not in his full regalia and so if he would be seen, he needed that.]
[That was cute, even though she could tell the girl was uncomfortable. It could be Set’s doing, but she imagines it is nearly as strange to see such a foreign being as herself here even if she was no Vanya with golden hair and truly glowing skin, nor a Noldor, darker but sharper and hard to escape.]
I will be ready when you are. [She was ready now, she had no intention of letting go of her cloak or clothes and changing unless it was absolutely required. It was all she had of home, and even if she were tossed back into Arda where she belonged it would still be all she had of home. All that was not dragged down into the sea or looted by Dwarves and monsters when Melian abandoned them all.
Though she does not allow the serving girl to fetch her new clothes she does let her get a small platter of food, less because Mithiel was hungry and more because the girl looked like she might vibrate out of her own skin if she were not given a task. So they eat (Mithiel insists she eat with her) and sit and chat, as much as she can get her too. When the serving girl is too uncomfortable with a topic, Mithiel easily switches to another. One may not want to talk about their king but birds and beasts and what lay beyond the walls of the palace were much easier to discuss.
[The servant seems happy to talk though she is very quiet for the beginning. There was only so much she could say and do, considering her position, and she served the gods. She had to be on her best behavior. But Mithiel was easy to talk to and so she began to earnestly discuss what wildlife and plants there were here.
This is what Set happens upon when he comes back, now fully dressed in his royal golden armor fully. He has been decorated and the gold shines. The servant notices Set as she is midway through talking and quickly bows to the ground, eyes never looking up. Set glares for the sake of doing so but says nothing else.]
If you are ready for your visit to the Nile now then come with me.
[Mithiel tries to hide the concern and distaste that burns though her when the girl bows so low. Elves did now bow even to their Kings. It as strange and made her wonder if all of the people here would do the same thing. If they had walked into the Harem before, would all of those people have done the same?
She isn’t sure she wants to know. ]
I am ready. [She says, rising, wishing she could somehow comfort the girl as she steps past her and towards Set. Her clothes still don’t look like they are fit for this climate, especially her shoes with their soft leather and no real soles but she knows they will be fine.]
I heard you have very large lizards in it… crocodiles? They sound like small dragons.
[Set considers how Mithiel is dressed but does not say anything. After all, she is not human and so what does Set know of her? Of what she might need?
He turns and starts walking off. Not giving her any direction, his long, thin robes brushing past his legs as he does. ] They are large. But I don't know what dragons are so I cannot say what similarities they have. The crocodiles are not your biggest concern. It is the hippos you should concern yourself with.
Dragons are creations of Morgoth. Many of them breathe fire. Some speak wickedness into the world. They are great and lizard like. The greatest of them all was so large he blocked out the sun when he flew and smote three mountains when he fell. [She comes along, as quickly and silently as ever.]
I suppose neither of us would enjoy getting chewed on, no matter if we may return or…. Whatever it is that may happen to you. The underworld? [Whatever that meant she was sure she still didn’t understand. She didn’t have too. She did wonder if her soul would find Mandos when she was in this entirely too foreign world but she tried not to focus on it or let the worry fill her tired heart.]
You have been stabbed? [That gods might hurt does not surprise her. Valar did seem to feel just as much as elves, yet how they handled things was often different.]
Ah. Like the sea serpents? Though ours are too big for it to matter if they are venomous or not. Or so I am told, I never saw the sea until it came rushing under my feet.
Hmm. Like Tulkas. Or so the songs say. I have never seen him though I suspect he helped in drowning half the continent.
A lot of it is. Especially the monsters made flesh by the one who should not be able to make at all. The other whispered that he twisted things rather than making them from nothing, but I could not say. I never wandered far from our wood.
They also said that Morgoth was as great as any mountain and that in his coming east he waded through the sundering sea. He did not swim or use a boat or fly like some can.
I do not know that they meant to. The Valar–though they love Eru's children–they often do not see all ends and do things in the same foolish ways we might. Only I could never sink a continent dragging a prisoner home and they could. Perhaps they thought they could take Morgoth back to Aman and leave us only a superficial wound and then accidentally broke our rips and punctured our lungs instead as they dragged him away in chains.
[She could only speculate. The depth of the damage was not understood at first. It took time for the land to crack and crumble where people still dwelt. It took time for even the long-sighted Eldar to see the land collapsing where the evil had been routed out. And they had frankly had many of their own problems at the time which did not help them understand in time.
Not that they could hold back the tides or raise the land. That was the dominion of the Ainur and all who had come had fled them now. Even her Queen who had felt little love of her people if her foolish, too tall husband no longer drew breath east of the sea.
Mithiel sighed.]
I suspect it is of little comfort, but nothing of your world makes much sense to me either. You do not feel like the ainur I have met yet you must be of similar make. If nothing else, we are united in confusion.
['We might'? Set doesn't think he would be so foolish as to flood a whole continent. Nor any of the gods here. He thinks anyway. Though the Nile floods, it's always for a reason.] I don't see how you can't know you would do that. Your...Valar? They do not seem intelligent.
[Set, that's rude. But he is always frank, even as he's grown past the angry being he once was, he is still frank.]
Thoth will figure something out. He is good at things such as that. Apparently better you or I. [Not meant as an insult.]
You should wait until I tell you how my King died. It is the most utterly ridiculous nonsense. All of them. I wonder sometimes if the Avari–those of our people who stayed in the east–were not the wisest of us all. We call them unwise, and the Noldor call them worse because they neither saw the light of the trees nor did they even attempt the journey but I am not sure our people ended up better off for leaving the lands of our awakening.
[Mithiel had been born in Doriath, she wishes now that she had died there too before all of it came to ruin, but still, she had felt the tug both east and west when her home still stood. She never did fully believe what was said about their most eastern cousins. It was only a pity that Morgoth had tormented them most of all.] But I am prattling on again. You may end up feeding me to these hippos of yours.
No doubt. I am ...sheltered, I suppose, despite all of the death and war I have seen. I do not pretend to understand more than I know. Thoth seems like he has a knack for working through problems. [And managing people. He probably has a whole host of skills hidden in his clever head that Mithiel could not easily guess at.]
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She wasn’t even sure she could, never mind the implications of being told she can “use” these mortals whose murmuring slowly seems to become louder the more she focuses on them.]
That is not… a thing elves do outside of marriage. [In fact, it was marriage as far as Mithiel was aware. Not that she had tested the waters to see.] In any case, we are not good for mortals in that way. Joinings between us are few. [Beautiful, stubborn Luthien and her mortal Beren for example, both of which Mithiel had seen in the great forest of her birth.]
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Your way makes more sense.
[That is probably the nicest thing he will say but the way people have sex and imagine things here are...well, ridiculous. He doesn't get it.] I don't see the point of keeping them but Thoth says since they were gifts, I must keep them.
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[At least for now she is glad to be away from the people that Set has been “gifted”, it seems like a messy thing to work through and she doubts he will ever be in the mood for it. Mithiel decides she might try to talk to them later, or at least listen in on them and try to determine if they enjoy their circumstances or not.]
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Thoth will stay kind to you.
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I will always be kind to you both. And to the rest of your house.
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If you are kind to me or not matters very little. As long as you respect me then we will be fine.
[He finally guides her to the bedrooms and shows her where she can stay. It is a large room with a bed. And then unsurprisingly, a servant comes to the room and bows, saying that Thoth had sent her to tend to their visitor. Set is thankful Thoth remembers these things. He turns to Mithiel.] She will help you with any small things you may need. Bigger than that? Ask Thoth and he will help.
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It is a beautiful room, but of course they are in a King’s palace. She is examining the craftmanship of an interesting vase when another person comes into the room quiet as a mouse. She blinks. There were, sometimes, servants in Menegroth or apprentices who did things for their masters as payment for studying their craft but she was not the kind of elf who ever had a need for one. Animals were usually her only helpers, them or the trees themselves.
Her smile for the serving girl is warm and bright, putting more effort into some of that elven charm she had but rarely used.] It is good to meet you. [She says to the girl before looking to Set.]
Somehow I doubt I will have to go find Thoth. He is very interested in listening to me babble like a brook.
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The girl seems to blush at Mithiel's smile and bows her head once more. If you did not behave appropriately in front of Set, it was said he would kill you. Certainly it had happened in the past. She wouldn't take chances. What they didn't know was that while Set did this long ago, nowadays he would simply send them away and say he killed them. It worked to still make him look like the cruel tyrant.]
Thoth will probably seek you out before you seek him. Relax, use the girl for your needs, and I will show you the Nile after I change my clothing. [He was not in his full regalia and so if he would be seen, he needed that.]
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I will be ready when you are. [She was ready now, she had no intention of letting go of her cloak or clothes and changing unless it was absolutely required. It was all she had of home, and even if she were tossed back into Arda where she belonged it would still be all she had of home. All that was not dragged down into the sea or looted by Dwarves and monsters when Melian abandoned them all.
Though she does not allow the serving girl to fetch her new clothes she does let her get a small platter of food, less because Mithiel was hungry and more because the girl looked like she might vibrate out of her own skin if she were not given a task. So they eat (Mithiel insists she eat with her) and sit and chat, as much as she can get her too. When the serving girl is too uncomfortable with a topic, Mithiel easily switches to another. One may not want to talk about their king but birds and beasts and what lay beyond the walls of the palace were much easier to discuss.
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This is what Set happens upon when he comes back, now fully dressed in his royal golden armor fully. He has been decorated and the gold shines. The servant notices Set as she is midway through talking and quickly bows to the ground, eyes never looking up. Set glares for the sake of doing so but says nothing else.]
If you are ready for your visit to the Nile now then come with me.
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She isn’t sure she wants to know. ]
I am ready. [She says, rising, wishing she could somehow comfort the girl as she steps past her and towards Set. Her clothes still don’t look like they are fit for this climate, especially her shoes with their soft leather and no real soles but she knows they will be fine.]
I heard you have very large lizards in it… crocodiles? They sound like small dragons.
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He turns and starts walking off. Not giving her any direction, his long, thin robes brushing past his legs as he does. ] They are large. But I don't know what dragons are so I cannot say what similarities they have. The crocodiles are not your biggest concern. It is the hippos you should concern yourself with.
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But what is a hippo?
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A hippo...is big. They are territorial and will kill you without a second thought.
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I will take you at your word. I am not sure that death would be stranger than appearing in a foreign land. Elves do not truly die like men.
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Only men die like men. Gods do not die the same here.
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Are there any other great beasts of concern?
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Snakes. They are reptiles with no limbs but some are poisonous if they do bite you.
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Ah. Like the sea serpents? Though ours are too big for it to matter if they are venomous or not. Or so I am told, I never saw the sea until it came rushing under my feet.
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Sea serpents? No. Is everything in your world so big?
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A lot of it is. Especially the monsters made flesh by the one who should not be able to make at all. The other whispered that he twisted things rather than making them from nothing, but I could not say. I never wandered far from our wood.
They also said that Morgoth was as great as any mountain and that in his coming east he waded through the sundering sea. He did not swim or use a boat or fly like some can.
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Set tries to pay attention, he truly does. But he cannot make sense of much of what she says.]
Everything you say makes little sense.
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[She could only speculate. The depth of the damage was not understood at first. It took time for the land to crack and crumble where people still dwelt. It took time for even the long-sighted Eldar to see the land collapsing where the evil had been routed out. And they had frankly had many of their own problems at the time which did not help them understand in time.
Not that they could hold back the tides or raise the land. That was the dominion of the Ainur and all who had come had fled them now. Even her Queen who had felt little love of her people if her foolish, too tall husband no longer drew breath east of the sea.
Mithiel sighed.]
I suspect it is of little comfort, but nothing of your world makes much sense to me either. You do not feel like the ainur I have met yet you must be of similar make. If nothing else, we are united in confusion.
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[Set, that's rude. But he is always frank, even as he's grown past the angry being he once was, he is still frank.]
Thoth will figure something out. He is good at things such as that. Apparently better you or I. [Not meant as an insult.]
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[Mithiel had been born in Doriath, she wishes now that she had died there too before all of it came to ruin, but still, she had felt the tug both east and west when her home still stood. She never did fully believe what was said about their most eastern cousins. It was only a pity that Morgoth had tormented them most of all.] But I am prattling on again. You may end up feeding me to these hippos of yours.
No doubt. I am ...sheltered, I suppose, despite all of the death and war I have seen. I do not pretend to understand more than I know. Thoth seems like he has a knack for working through problems. [And managing people. He probably has a whole host of skills hidden in his clever head that Mithiel could not easily guess at.]
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