DISCLAIMER: Only Silruin and Aldaya are mine.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I do believe I owe the readers an explanation for my terribly cryptic chapter eight. *Clears throat, embarrassed.* The story of Luthien and Beren…Retold! Yes I know it's not anywhere in the books because I've read everything, even the History of Middle-Earth, and I had to do some serious improvising, but the whole thing about it is its supposed to be this "huge" secret that wasn't recorded in history. Blame my muse, Elrond. He's a bothersome thing.

ELROND MUSE: I am NOT! You're the one who twists my suggestions to your own sadistical views.

AUTHOR: Shut up, or I'll send you to Bobo Land.

ELONRD: You don't scare me!

AUTHOR SENDS ELROND MUSE TO BOBO LAND.

ELROND: OK, I'M READY TO COME BACK NOW!

AUTHOR IGNORES ELROND MUSE: As I was saying, I owe you guys an explanation (ESPECIALLY those of you who have read the Silmarillion and/or the History of Middle-Earth and know why this is a stretch of the imagination) so below I recount Aldaya wishing to hear the story in "non-cryptic" mode.

INTERLUDE: The Story of Luthien and Beren (Retold)

Aldaya leaned back against the rock, watching the orange, pink, gold and red sunset, stifling a yawn. "Silruin?" she said sleepily.

Silruin dropped silently down from his perch in the tree above her, landing lightly by her side. "Yes?"

"If you're my father…"

"Many greats-grandfather," Silruin corrected. "My child married an elf, but her child married a human, and from then on down my descendants all married humans."

"Oh. But…why did you come back?"

"To protect my family," Silruin answered simply. "From anything and anyone. Is that not reason enough?"

Aldaya nodded thoughtfully, and closed her eyes. "I still don't understand everything, though. Can you tell me the story in non-cryptic style?"

Had she been watching, she would have seen Silruin's sad, pained smile as he settled down next to her. "I owe it to you," he said firmly, and began speaking in a nostalgic, quiet voice.

"When your grandmother returned from Mandos' Hall she was…changed. I don't know why or how…perhaps it was the loosing of her elven-soul that caused it. Either way, we all saw it...a loss of joy, was the difference. She came to me one night, said she hated Beren, and wished she had never chosen to be mortal. This was before they were married…she said she was breaking off the engagement. I tried to comfort her…one thing led to another, and she became with child. She hated me, hated the child, and hated herself." Silruin paused and sighed. "She gave the child to me to raise, and I took her gladly, naming her Aldaya. Such a sweet child!" Silruin glanced over at her. "Much like yourself." Aldaya blushed. "When Beren found out what happened—I never learned who told him—he went into a rage. Luthien, in her fright, told him where to find me.

"It was late at night, and Aldaya was sleeping in my arms. When I heard the sharp knock I eased her into bed and went to open it. Beren ran his sword through my chest." A shudder ran through the elf's arms. "I remember falling, hitting the ground, and looking up into his hate-filled eyes, wishing to make him understand what had happened. I tried to scream at Aldaya to flee but blood filled my mouth and darkness took me.

"The rest I learned from Elrond when I came back. Aldaya saw me fall, and Beren was slowed by Luthien, who was trying to make him let the child go. Aldaya fled into the forest, and found a few nearby elves, told her story to them, and had them take her to Melian, her grandmother. Melian swore the elves to secrecy, and created the poem as a warning to the Elves…to be handed down from generation to generation about the dangers of loving a mortal."

"But why didn't Melian want the elves to know what had happened?" Aldaya asked.

"The elves had already lost their way before," Silruin explained, "in the Three Kin-slayings. Luthien and Beren were heroine and hero to us, much as Earendil is to you humans. To find out that they were murderers…would be such a scandal that the elves might once again question the wisdom of the Valar and Maiar, to dreadful consequences."

"A safety precaution," Aldaya said succinctly.

"Exactly. Luthien, when she died, was ordered by the Valar to speak to one of her descendents, to explain what had happened, as penance for what she had done. She choose you."

"But does that mean I'm peredhil? That I get the choice of the life of an elf or a human?"

Silruin shook his head. "No. My daughter received that choice, and she chose to be of the Elven-kindred. That choice is very, very rare, except in certain circumstances."

"It's so strange," Aldaya said after a moment, thinking out loud. "All my life I've wished that I were an elf, or at least half-elf, or maybe descended from the Numenorians. That's why I got so interested in history and languages…I wanted to know if my line really was pure human. And now I find that I'm actually descended from a Maiar…Melian, wife of Thingol."

Silruin smoothed her hair with his hand. "Some wishes do come true," he said.

Aldaya nodded, smiling slightly. "Indeed they do." She fell silent for a while, watching the twilight stars come out. "You know, it's strange. Sometimes I'll catch a glimpse of an elf out of the corner of my eye, and I'll think he or she is someone from my caravan. Then I turn, and see he or she is no human at all." She closed her eyes again. "Elves and humans…so similar in many ways, yet so completely different in others…was it always this way, grandfather?"

Nothing she could have said, nothing anyone could have said, struck him more profoundly than that single word: grandfather. How he had mourned never meeting his grandchildren! And how strange it was for an elf not to live to see his or her grandchildren…yet here was one of them, a human, yes, but so similar to his dear, sweet Aldaya. His daughter, Aldaya…his daughter, and he did not even know if she was alive or dead. But here sat Aldaya, the same name as his daughter, and indeed her personality was so close to his daughter's...and her smile as she looked at him eased the ache that had plagued his heart for so many long years. The pain and the guilt of not being able to protect Aldaya still haunted him, but perhaps it was less keen now, seeing a soul so similar to that of his daughter burn brightly in this young human's eyes.

"No," Silruin said, a bit hoarsely, realizing that Aldaya was still waiting for an answer. "No, indeed, granddaughter…let me tell you of long ago, when the world was young, and elves and humans were not so different."

And so the two of them sat long underneath the darkening sky, Silruin telling many tales that eve of the elves and men and dwarves in ancient days, unknowing the shadowy figure overlooking them, hiding out of sight in the brush.

"I'm sorry, Silruin," Luthien said quietly. "I did love you, in a way."

Then the spirit was gone, back to Mandos' Hall, leaving the elf and woman to their tales. 

*?*?*?*?*?*?*?*?*?*

Does that answer everyone's questions? If I missed something, please email me at LadyoftheRings35@hotmail.com, and I will do my best to answer it…it's all Elrond's fault. He's constantly confusing me.

ELROND: I am NOT, will you stop that? And didn't you steal me from someone else? Someone who treated me nicer?

AUTHOR: I did not STEAL you, you have been bothering me for sometime now, so I captured you. Always keeping me up until ungodly hours of the morning…

ELROND: You have only yourself to blame for that. I can't help it if your day is all turned away.

AUTHOR: Elrond, go get a haircut and stop bothering me.