The lake had an eerie feeling to it. It was a cold morning, sun barely up and not yet warming the quiet land. It was so foggy that one couldn't see more than feet forward toward the lake until a blurry figure of dark curls and blue skirts broke the thickness. It was like the woman, for it was a young woman, totally forgot there was supposed to be a lake underneath her steps when she kept just running towards the middle. If she remembered probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, since the water seemed to freeze momentarily under her feet until it retained its original calm, seemingly undisturbed shape.
The fog clearing out of the woman's way revealed and old fortress which would have great many years ago intimidated its visitors with might and beauty. Now it was filled with ghosts of memories, the stone crumbling and the nature hiding it's death traps, the air heavy within the rumble of a castle warning anyone to stay away. But even despite the warnings, the young woman ran towards it frantically and with determination, clutching a red leather bound book containing secrets of a time long lost and forgotten in the minds of men.
The castle was even more depressing from the inside. The elements had done it's work in many year and it barely had any walls or roofs left. The paving was cracked and dead grass was sticking through from where it had tried to survive but in the end couldn't. The woman tripped multiple times during her journey until she reached the courtyard. Her eyes filled with such a deep pain for a moment that anyone who'd looked her in the eyes would have felt a lightning struck of paralyzing emotion from just a wink but it was replaced by flickering hope and determination on a second.
"Hello! Is anyone here?" the shout that pierced the quietness was a tint desperate, "I'm in need of help and this is my only lead!"
She kept going her way towards what possibly used to be the grand entrance of the castle. She passed a flagstone and for a flicker of a second the pain was back in her ocean blue eyes again. The many freckles stood out in almost a sickly pale skin and her lips were chapped from not drinking enough water in the last three days.
"I need to find him! Help me please! Anybody!"
"Not anybody can help you. Not with this."
Her head whipped around so fast the neck almost cracked and she found herself gazing at the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. The woman was tall and almost ethereal in her elegance, but there was a deep aura of sadness, loss, tiredness and age around her. She was more beautiful that any princess or queen the curly haired young girl, for she felt like just a girl in this presence even though she had come of age over two years ago, had ever seen in her life. The woman had even bluer eyes than her, even blacker hair than her and even fairer complexion than her but not in a sick way. She was even taller than almost every man that the girl were friends with and if she didn't know better she would say the woman was faintly glowing.
It took several minutes for the visitor to find her voice again and even then it was hard to get comprehensible words out of her mouth. In the end she decided to just introduce herself first but didn't even get to do that before the ethereal woman spoke again.
"No, don't tell me. I know who you are and why you are here." The voice wasn't rude or menacing despite the words. It was resigned and a hint of the deep sadness was seeping through.
"I-I, how?"
"She has the gift, or the curse, of sight", another voice drifted from the eeriness. t belonged to yet another woman, though this one much more ordinary looking. Even though she could only be described as ordinary in the presence of the ethereal one, this woman was also exceptionally gorgeous. She was shorter, much shorter than the other woman, her hair not so sleek but with a more wavier texture to it and reddish in colour, not unlike the late autumn apples. She had a strong brow that with the most longest and darkest lashes framed soft hazel eyes which in some life had housed a mischief glint in them. Now they were fogged as thickly as the morning.
"Who are you? And what do you mean by not anyone can help me?"
"It means, to get to him you are attempting to journey to Valinor in which only one of the eldar have the right to enter. Besides, no one does remember the way anymore." The apple haired one answered patiently while the ethereal one turned away to watch the horizon still clouded by the fog.
"But that's why I was directed here, wasn't I? You must be the ones who can help me, there is nobody else on this island. You have to remember!"
"Oh, nin meld, often times we can't even remember our names or our stories. Though that might be counted as a blessing now. It's just been so long."
"How long?"
"A death of a world and a birth of a new one. Destiny is a cruel ruler to her subjects, is she not? I believe you are starting to grasp a hint of it."
"He is out there somewhere in a limbo, I cannot let him suffer."
"No, you can not."
The youngest one of the women clutched the red book close to her chest and came cautiously to stand in front of the more approachable of the other two women. She leaned in a little to peer the other one to her hazel eyes that have flecks of green now that you observe them close. "What is your name?"
The woman's eyes fixed on the red book and seemed to clear from the thick fog and for the first time in centuries they flickered with recognition. A slow melancholic smile grew on her face and that smile made her impossibly even prettier.
"Titheniel, I believe my name is Titheniel."
This little one shot (still a oneshot) is almost the end of Titheniel's story and it's a beginning of another character's adventure so from here on it'll split in to two. In here you will read Titheniel's story, how did she grow up, what did she do during the war, what happened after, why she is were she is now and who is she with and why. The other story you'll get to read when it is time for it, the character needs to grow quite a bit before she is ready for this one. I hope you enjoyed and I'll hopefully see you soon.
