The small band travelled in darkness most of the way to Thorin's Halls. Before leaving the safety of Celondim, once he had shaken the sleepy cobwebs from his head after being awakened in the very early hours of the day, Lindovor summoned one of the Order's scouts nearby, Sarnai. The Elder Man instructed her to ride ahead along the roads to look for any potential troubles. Eventually, the Scout doubled back and joined Alkawen and Lindovor on the road to the seat of the kingdom of the Longbeards who built the halls on the foundation of the ancient Dwarf city of Nogrod.
Upon arriving at the well fortified colony of the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains, they found Dwimmer waiting for them near the stablemaster. Wise and white with age, the Dwarf immedately led them to the trade shop of his comrade and friend, Hoggstari.
Once assembled, Hoggs recounted the tale of the adventure to the lair of the great spider and the box found within. He went on to explain that as he was placing the exquisitely created but seemingly empty box on a display shelf, he'd accidentally dropped it. As it landed exactly on the point of one corner, one side of the box split revealing that the wood of the box was actually a laminate and in between the two slivers of wood was a paper thin slice of mica which had been concealed! When held up to a light source, such as a fire, what appeared to be writing, could be seen.
Neither Dwimmer nor Hoggstari could decipher the writing but it had the appearance of some type of Elfish script. It was then that they agreed they would need the help in the translation. After some debate, Dwimmer convinced his friend he knew of one dekhel who could be trusted, the one called Alkawen. With that, a message containing the secret code word, 'vermillion' was sent to the Elf .
While the other four looked on, Alkawen walked over to the fire and held the slice of mica up to the flames of a warmly glowing fireplace in the main hall of Hoggstari's trade shop. As the orange glow passed through the nearly transparent sheet of muscovite, the outline of words appeared, long forgotten words.
Maintaining an expressionless face, the Elf, turned to the small group. Hoggstari pressed her to tell him what she saw and she did tell him what she saw. "It mentions a song, it is written in ancient Quendian," she said matter of factly. The other four in the room looked from one to the other with puzzled and in one case, Lindovor very surprised glances.
"If I may suggest, I believe you should give Dwimmer the remainder of the box you found, Master Hoggstari. With his skills and the tools of his trade, he may be able to separate the remaining wood sides. It is possible there are more pages hidden within." It was Hoggs natural inclination not to trust he was being told truth, he suspected or more likely hoped it was a treasure map. Reluctantly, Hoggstari agreed, likely because of his trust in Dwimmer, not because he trusted the Elf. Dwimmer took the remainder of the box and set about his task.
Alkawen agreed to stay in the trade shop until Dwimmer's work was completed. She reasoned it would allow Hoggstari to relax, just a little, knowing she'd not taken some hidden secret treasure map knowledge and left to find it on her own. The other reason she kept to herself. She had been truthful, the words did refer to a song, but what she had not said was the song spoke of a great weapon, the most powerful weapon ever known. That part, she was completely certain like the mica had once been, it was better it be concealed for now.
