Chapter 2

"I love you."

Those words. Those very words. Those words that brought her strength when she had none left. The same words that tore her apart when her father died.

Her dad, her strong, healthy father, trapped under the burning pieces of wood that once made up the walls of the house she had grown up in.
"Jacque! RUN!" He yelled, but the crying 7 year old held onto his bleeding hand, tears running down her cheeks.

The sounds of orcs drew ever nearer and Jacque's father cupped her face with his hand.

"I love you. But I can't hold on. I love you." He repeated this phrase even when the young girl had run away from the orcs that had just rounded the corner and were now running over the pile of wood he was trapped under.

He winced and repeated his mantra over and over again, drawing some strength from the words. A orc towered over him and still he murmured the three words repeatedly. The orc plunged his sword through his chest and he froze.

"I love you. I love you. But I can't hold… on." his voice trailed into nothingness and his head rolled to the side lifelessly, eyes glassy and unseeing.

A tear trickled down her cheek as she remembered and she stared into many eyes of the spider above her. There were many shouts from the clearing nearby, but Jacque was deaf to them all.

All she could see was the drooling pincers of the spider above her. And it's eyes.

"MUM! The young girl screamed as an orc hand clasped around her waist. Her mother was right there. Mouth open in a scream the world would never hear.

Rage was all that filled her. Her vision was tinted in red and she saw flames licking at her hands.

"DIE!" She screamed. He body heated up and the orc screamed in pain at his scorched hands. But he couldn't let go.

Jacque snapped back to reality as she heard a yell of pain from Fili. she could recognise his voice, the one that had comforted her many a night and day.

Screaming, she felt her skin heat and the silken strands of the spider web that bound her become coarse enough to tear. She flung her arms out and kicked the spider in it's underbelly.

Her robes swirled around her as she spun around and jumped to her feet while the spider was distracted. She felt the flames all over her body trickle down to her hands and knew that her knuckles had fire dancing over them. The spider turned around and spat at her.

She snarled back.

"Die, foul beast."

Hardly pleasant first words, but first ones nonetheless. Then she punched the spider straight in it's eyes. The flickering flames in her knuckles spreading to the spider. It gave a high pitched screech and flailed its many legs about, catching Jacque in the stomach.

Then it went limp flopped to the ground. Dead. Like so many of the people she loved.

Her thoughts suddenly came back to Fili and she ran to the next clearing to find the company surrounded by elves.

"What is this, a goblin mutant?"

"That's my wee lad, Gimli."

Jacque looked over the company frantically for Fili and found him unharmed, being searched over by an elf. She let out a breath in relief and the elves turned to her.

"This is no dwarf." The blond elf walked over to her and smiled grimly as she crouched into a fighting stance.

"I wouldn't bother," He said, Looking her over. "We have many hidden archers in the trees. Besides, you have no weapons."

Jacque undid her belt and threw it at the elf's feet. There were at least 7 daggers hidden on the belt as well as a few pouches.

He raised a defined eyebrow.

"Now you have no weapons."

Jacque smirked and stuck her still flaming hands out, palms up. In another situation, she would have looked vulnerable. But there were fu*king FLAMES in her hands.

The elf jumped back with a yell and gawked at her hands for a few seconds before regaining his composure and straightening his posture.

"A mage in our woods. For any other day we would let you pass, but we have to bring you to our king, just in case you are travelling with these dwarves."

Jacque rolled her eyes and folded her arms.

The elf held out a rope to her hands and she smoldered it in her grasp. Looking him straight in the eye and silently daring him to tell her she couldn't.

To her surprise, he laughed and gestured for her to follow them.

"Magic is rare. Do not waste your gifts on brutally murdering rope."

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Jacque watched helpless as she saw Fili being dragged to the dungeons while her and Thorin were to be brought to the king. He stole a glance back at her before the elf in charge of him pulled the rope around his hands to get him moving again.

She made a small sound like a whimper and felt Thorin nudge her side gently before he was shoved onto the king's platform.

She sat on a small bench and ran her hands through her hair. She sighed and listened carefully to the conversation between the two of them.

"You have found a way in. You seek that which would bestow upon you the right to rule: the King's Jewel, the Arkenstone. It is precious to you beyond measure. I understand that. There are gems in the mountain that I too desire. White gems of pure starlight. I offer you my help."

Jacque could practically hear the cogs in Thorin's mind churning.

"I am listening."

"I will let you go, if you but return what is mine."

Thorin walked away from the towering throne.

"A favor for a favor?"

Thranduil bowed his head.

"You have my word. One king to another."

Thorin was at the edge of the platform and Jacque could see him clench his fists.
"I would not trust Thranduil, the great king, to honor his word should the end of all days be upon us!"

Thorin turned around and started shouting.

"You lack all honor! I've seen how you treat your friends. We came to you once, starving, homeless, seeking your help, but you turned your back. You turned away from the suffering of my people and the inferno that destroyed us!"

He pointed an accusing finger at Thranduil.

"Imrid amrad ursul!" (Something about hoping he dies in fire.)

Jacque gasped and ran up the steps to the platform, trying to get to Thorin before Thranduil did. Unfortunately he had longer legs than her and he was closer than him anyway.

His face was literally inches from Thorin's and Jacque froze at the edge of the platform.

"Do not talk to me of dragonfire," Thranduil gasped and his magic receded from his face. It revealed a burn scar that covered almost all of the left side of his face. His left eye was milky and unseeing.

"I know it's wrath and ruin, I have faced the great serpents of the north." He retreated and walked back up the stairs to his throne.

"I warned your grandfather of what his greed would summon, but he would not listen. You are just like him."

The guards hauled Thorin away and Jacque stepped onto the platform.

Thranduil raised an eyebrow as he lounged on his throne.

"So this is the mage Legolas found in the forest. Tell me, What brings you here to the halls of the elvenking? Magic is highly regarded here."

Jacque said nothing, and her hands twitched toward her empty dagger belt.

Thranduil stood from his throne and started circling her like a cat would his prey.

"What kind of wizard are you? Why are you in my forest?"

He saw the young woman's jaw clench, and knew that he was getting to her.

Silkily, he continued. "A lovely specimen such as you should not wander the woods alone."

Her breathing quickened and Thranduil had to hide his malicious smile.

"There are spiders that wander these woods. And Orcs have been spotted on the borders. Would it not be safer to remain here? As a guest?"

She froze at the word 'Orc.' she still hated the scum and although she knew that she could kill them by holding their hands, the pain and fear that they had caused her had not left.

"There are so many things that can corrupt the pure. So many things that deserve to be protected. Are you not one of them? Should you not accept my protection?"

"Are the dwarves of Erebor impure? Did they not deserve to be protected?"

She countered. Her voice cut through the air like a knife, her grey-green eyes stared up into King Thranduil's icy blue ones.

"You know nothing of the world. I have seen it's slow corruption. I must make decisions that benefit my people." Thranduil growled, voice dangerously low.

The young mage shook her head.
"No. You know nothing of the world. You might have, a long time ago. But you have forgotten. You are a part of this world. Should you not fight for it?"

This triggered something in Thranduil. His eyes flicked over her body, she was quite short, and she had quite a nice figure, her hair was slightly wavy, but at the moment it was weighed down with blood and sweat. She would make a good elf.

He closed his eyes, he could feel a headache coming on.

"I have fought for it, and in doing so, I have lost many things. I do not wish for my people to be another thing lost."

Jacque nodded slowly, and then held out her hands.

"I understand. I have lost many things to the darkness that spreads over Middle earth. But I wish to fight it. You have seen Dragonfire. Now you see me."

Thranduil turned to her with an amused expression to find flames balling in her fists.

"Dragonfire." He whispered. His eyes transfixed on the flickering fire that danced across her palms.

"Come, you are an accomplished wizard indeed. Stay with us for the feast of Starlight. Then you are free to leave."

Jacque shook her head, but closed her hands. The fire died out and she looked up at the Elf tiredly.

"Was I ever?"

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Sooo, she's a guest of the elves? What?

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