'Um...how does it work, exactly?' Bilbo asked quietly.

The crows' feet at Gandalf's ancient eyes crinkled in a smile otherwise hidden by his snowy beard.

'How does what work, exactly, my dear friend?' he asked.

'You know... retribution... redemption... what's that odd word they're using now...? Ah, yes. Karma?'

'I'm not sure I know what you mean...'

Gandalf puffed on his pipe and followed the direction of the hobbit's gaze to where Elrond stood at the prow of the ship, his hands clasped behind his back. The Lord of Imladris had been unmoving there for nearly an hour now, his dark hair lifted by the breeze, his gaze unendingly fixed on the horizon as the ship sailed west, ever west, seeking the Straight Way to Valinor...

Galadriel drifted over, settling between Bilbo and his nephew Frodo on their bench. The sea air had revived the older hobbit, enabling him to cast off many of his long years, and when Galadriel looked at him, into him, she saw the youngster who had braved trolls and goblins, wargs and a dragon to help his friends in the days long ago.

Indeed, as Bilbo mused now, he sounded very much like his younger self, Galadriel thought, and... ah, yes! There, in his mind, the forming thought...

It intrigued her.

'Bilbo, dear friend, what is it that so troubles your mind?' she asked, gently coaxing with the temptation of her wisdom. 'It may be that I can help...'

Gandalf shot her a bristling look, as if he already knew what was on Bilbo's mind and didn't want it voicing. Thus reassured, though, the hobbit looked down at his furry feet and began to speak.

'Well. Elves... when one... dies... I always understood they go to the Halls of Mandos...'

'That is so, yes,' Galadriel said. 'Where all that was done in their lifetime runs again through their thoughts; it is a time for reflection, for atonement...'

'And, if Glorfindel is to believed, some very good parties!' Bilbo commented, causing Galadriel to laugh.

'Yes, indeed. He once led the entire upper levels in a dance through the corridors... and almost out through the great gates, as well, but somebody realised in time. Reflection, then, atonement, and dancing. But mostly, regretting the wrongs done during life, purging the stains from one's fëa so one can be reborn.'

'That's what I thought,' Bilbo said, nodding slowly. 'My question is this... what if... when you don't die? Those wrongs you committed – not you personally, my lady, I mean those things an elf... any elf... did... then those stains stay in place? There's no atonement, because no death and... um... Judgement Day?'

'Well... no...'

'So... if an elf doesn't die... they just... get away with it?'

'Ah, now I wouldn't go so far as to say that...' Gandalf put in. 'One would have to live with the consequences...'

Galadriel was staring at Elrond's back, now, her eyes thoughtful and hard. Bilbo, too, was looking at the former Lord of Imladris.

'Frodo, my lad,' the old hobbit began slowly. 'Don't you think it's time the truth came out?'

Frodo shook his head.

'I... I just caught him at a bad moment, that's all, he needed to talk... I happened to be there. I should have kept it to myself, but... sorry, Uncle. I should have been stronger.'

'Frodo?' Gandalf said, 'You and I should have a little talk about this at least. Unless you will have your uncle speak out for you?'

'But I, too, am curious!' Galadriel said. 'Come, Ring-bearer! You have borne burdens enough without carrying this also in your heart...'

'It was after the War, while I was recovering. I came upon... upon Legolas alone, in a little copse of trees. He was...upset. We'd heard him talk about someone waiting for him, someone not allowed to come on the quest but we didn't realise... Elrond arranged it so Legolas had no choice but to agree. '

'What?'

'I know, it seems... thinking about it. There's Rivendell, full of powerful knights... Glorfindel would have loved to come on the quest, Elladan and Elrohir, not exactly unused to fighting. And Legolas? A wood elf, heir to the kingdom, with his own battles to fight and his father to support, his spouse standing by when Elrond announces Legolas will go 'for the elves'... but not his fëa-mate? They were miserable to be separated and Elrond must have known...'

Legolas' father and Galadriel's husband being kindred, there was an edge to Galadriel's tone as she spoke.

'Gandalf? Did you know about this?'

The wizard made a non-committal grunt.

'Gandalf?'

'Elrond was already giving much support to the Fellowship. And the Elvenking needed representation, or it would have been Elrond's party all the way through. As for Legolas' spouse... someone had to take the news home...'

'But he worried, all the time, about his father, his family, his friends... and he was my friend, too...' Frodo said softly. 'Yet Elrond always appears so wise...'

'Elrond's always been very kind, of course,' Bilbo said. 'I'm sure he's done his best. I do wonder, though, what kind of reception he's going to get...'

'Explain?' Gandalf suggested.

'After all, there is a Mrs Elrond... presumably she's been waiting... and... well, it's been a long and a lonely life for him, and in Rivendell I have, perhaps, seen things I shouldn't...' Bilbo said, dropping his soft revelations like explosives into the sudden attentive silence. 'If anyone needed a little solace sometimes... I think it's the human in him... there's another one of those phrases... 'mid-life crisis'...'

'Bilbo? What are you saying?' Galadriel asked in the most innocent and silken tones while in her secret thoughts she explored amongst the images of Bilbo's memories...

'Just that... there have been other ships, since Elrond's wife sailed, and you know how elves like to gossip. If only one of them repeats a tenth of the stories... well, Elrond's going to be in big trouble, that's all I'm saying...'

'You're suggesting he was... unfaithful...?'

Bilbo shrugged his shoulders unevenly.

'No, well... I'd assumed their marriage ended when she sailed, really, just thinking, it wouldn't be nice to hear about his other... adventures... but...'

'It is not like that for us. Elrond's vows to my daughter...' and belatedly Bilbo remembered that, yes, indeed, Elrond's wife Celebrian was Galadriel's daughter... '...were eternally binding! I will not allow him to get away with this!'

Galadriel rose to her feet. Her elegant fingers stretched out, tremulous, and a breeze not of the sea's making stirred her golden hair. Darkness grew behind her eyes and she seemed taller, outlined in power as she took a stalking step towards Elrond's unwitting back.

'Just one little push...' she murmured...

'No, no, no!' Bilbo hurried to his feet and caught Galadriel's skirts, startling her to a stop even as Gandalf whisked round to block her way. 'No, it's not right; my lady, you're not a cold-blooded killer...'

'My blood, Master Baggins, is anything but cold at the moment...'

'Galadriel! Think about this!' Gandalf's commanding tone swiftly softened. 'My lady, I understand... But if you do this, if you push him off the boat... it will be another kinslaying... and we have not yet fully recovered from the first ones! No, indeed...'

He grasped his hands around his staff.

'Let me, my lady!'

'But wait, wait...' Bilbo said quickly. 'Think about it, really... he dies, he goes to the Halls, he repents... attends one or two of the parties, has a nice time, comes out... purged. So... presumably, nobody can complain, afterwards?'

'What do you mean now, Bilbo?'

'Would... would he not suffer more, if... if every day he had to face his wife's anger? And... well, it's not just the infidelity, is it? There's the little matter of her only daughter, the beloved Evenstar of her people, marrying a mortal and choosing a mortal life... well done, Elrond, you're unfaithful, you condemn your daughter to the circles of the world, never to see her again... Which, do you think, is going to be worse? A few decades in the Halls of Mandos... or every day, a lecture...?'

Gandalf lowered his staff. Galadriel took a step back, bowing her head as she exhaled.

At that moment, Elrond came up from his meditation on the horizon and turned about. Eyeing the curious tableau before him, he winged up an eyebrow.

'Is something the matter, my friends?' he asked.

'Oh... no, no...' Gandalf muttered with a grumbling grunt.

Galadriel put a soft smile on her beautiful, timeless face, and stepped forward to link arms with her errant son-in-law.

'Why, nothing, Elrond... come away. We do not want a sudden gust of wind to blow you overboard, now, do we? ' She smiled triumphantly at Gandalf and Bilbo as she dragged Elrond towards the middle of the vessel. 'Not when my daughter will be waiting to welcome you. You two will have so much to talk about...'