Legolas regarded the girl with narrowed eyes. Her hands were bound tightly behind her back, and then looped around a large willow tree. The rest of his camp, a small group of his closest friends, who also happened to be the best archers in the realm, bustled up around them. Their arrival had been excitedly noted, but, trained warriors as they were, did not dwell on success, they wondered how they could have perfected it. They left the questioning of the captive to the Prince and prepared camp for the night.

The fair elf's face was etched with impatience and annoyance and he again answered in a threatening voice, "What is your name?"

The impertinent girl studied him mildly. This was about the forth time he had asked that same question, and after a few, 'No comment's,' she had decided silence was the best answer. And it was working.

The only thing that began to frighten her was the growing fury in his eyes. Her original mission had been to befriend the royal family until she learned all of the palace's secrets - now it was to survive and return back to her father so another plan could be made, and she couldn't very well do that if the one person she needed dead held her life in his hands.

"Dinaer*." She answered mockingly and his face contorted in anger. Standing up violently and turning away, pushing a hand through his hair, he scowled angrily. "Do you think this is a joke?" he hissed furiously at her, and unconsciously, her eyes latched on the sharp elven blade at his waist. His eyes followed her gaze and a crooked grin lit his handsome features.

"Would you like to see it?"

She raised her chin defiantly, and cast her eyes away, but he saw the fear there and decided instantly to use it to his advantage. He drew the long knife from its sheath and took a step closer to her. Rubbing his thumb up and down the blade, the fading light reflected off the razor-sharp metal. He raised the sharp edge to her lifted chin, trailing it down to the creamy skin of her neck. Pressing the dull side of the knife against her chin, his eyes watched the vein in her neck increase it's tempo and her face flush. Her eyes narrowed with pure hatred and his voice was silkily calm as he asked once more. "You're *true* name?"

She gulped but answered quietly, and she tried to mask the quaver in her voice with indifference as she spat at him, "Seasa."

He forced a smirk, the sudden fear in her eyes bothering him. "Good, good. Now at least we're getting somewhere."

He leaned back and removed the cold steel from her neck and she slowly let out a sigh of relief, but hissed at him, "There's no where to go, 'Ksher*. I told you before, I am but a traveler who has been wrongfully sidetracked."

Legolas's eyes narrowed at the insult, but he continued to study her furiously. "Where are you coming from?" he ventured and her mind raced quickly. "One of the elven villages within the forest."

"Which one?"

She couldn't tell him the true name of her village - he'd recognize it as one that was aiding the Dark Lord. Where there any small villages that had remained adamant? She wondered desperately, praying there were. With a silent prayer, though she figured Illuvator didn't answer prayers of traitors, she took a guess. "Silmataurea," she told him firmly and his eyebrows rose. "Did you forget the name of your village? You hesitated," he accused immediately and just as quickly, she shook her head and answered mockingly. "No, I wasn't sure you would be aware of the village - it is small and a *Prince* such as yourself, doubtlessly does not mingle with such commoners."

"I warned you before to watch your tongue and this is the last time I let such irreverent comments slide," he said icily.

Literally biting her tongue, she shook her head helplessly and leaned back against the tree. "I don't know what you want me to tell you," she said finally. "I don't know who you think I am, a spy or whatever, but I'm not," she lied flawlessly.

"Who is your father?" Legolas persisted, knowing truly in his heart that this girl was lying, though there were no outward signs of it. He was determined to catch her in a lie, and would ask her all the questions he could think of until he did.

Now this was a tough one. Her father..her father..if she spoke his true name, Legolas would know him instantly and would probably order her execution and display her head as a trophy. Pleasant thought.

"He's dead," Seasa answered finally, not really knowing what she was saying, just glad that there would be an excuse for her hesitation.

Legolas's eyes narrowed but some of the suspicion was replaced by a mysterious carefully guarded emotion; he pressed on. "Your mother?"

He wouldn't know her mother anyway, she reasoned but she was already to far gone to go back now. "She shares my father's fate," she answered shortly and Legolas, studying her for a long, tense moment, finally nodded. "I'm sorry," he replied curtly, but his tense voice didn't hide the empathy in his eyes and Seasa was encouraged.

Perhaps he was more easily manipulated than it seemed.

-------------------------- Dinaer - Silent One 'Ksher - Evil One