Rivendell

"Dr. Narheda! Narheda?" the clear ringing voice called out over the dig the moment Narheda stepped out of the tent. Immediately, she was blinded by the hot late summer's mid-morning sun and she tipped down the rim of her hat to avoid the stark light, squinting her eyes and knowing she'd get another wrinkle. One of the minor hazards of her profession. Then she looked out over the more than two miles broad excavation on the shore-side of the Rapids of Bruinen, just downstream of the power plant with its huge dam.

Almost 50 people were at work here, having excavated a bakers dozen of ruins in various sizes, from large and impressive structures which had doubtlessly been public halls to small huts which were probably private homes. All of the structures bearing the signs of that more or less alien architecture, which the archeologists and anthropologists had come to define as Elven by now. None of them were apartment buildings. Elves didn't do apartment buildings.

This was the Rivendell, the Rivinederl or the Imladris, the impressive Elven dwelling, which Narheda and a few others had only began to excavate about year ago, back when she was fearing that it all had been lost. Before that appearance in the broadcast show Speaker's Corner, which had changed it all.

"Dr. Narheda!" the voice repeated itself and when she craned her neck she spotted a woman in her early twenties with a lithe body, her fair skin somewhat burned in the sun and her auburn hair covered by a neon-orange hardhat with her name printed in black block letters. She was Meldina daughter of Ziliria, one of the many young students working on the excavation, discovering more and more of Elven culture every day.

"How may I help you, dear?" Narheda asked as the panting girl stopped her ascent up the steep slope of the crater.
"It's a... uh, we've found... we think we found..." she breathed in again, grinning at the doctor as she struggled for oxygen. "You know the souk?"
"Yes, of course."
"Oxaron, Phalon and I've been working on unearthing a side structure to that compound. And today we finally were able to enter it. And we think... we believe we've found a library. Or perhaps a book store. A lot of books in there."

"You haven't touched anything yet?" Narheda asked, wise by the earlier mistakes done by the young and eager graduates. In the beginning, some rare material had been destroyed when keen hands had been pulling and pushing to retrieve found treasures. But it was always like that with youths, so eager and full of energy and not yet willing to listen to the words of the alumni to be careful with their findings. She had been the same herself in her youth, so she couldn't really blame these students.

"No worries," Meldina answered, emerald eyes glittering with barely restrained enthusiasm. "The guys were cordoning off the area as I went to fetch you and there's no one else around at the moment. Most of them are busy with those old locomotives I assume."
"Well, I'm coming down," Narheda replied. "Let me just retrieve a hard hat and change into a better pair of shoes," she said and looked down at her sandaled feet.
"I'm getting something to drink meanwhile," the young student said, spun around and started off towards the barracks a bit away. Stopping after a few steps she turned towards the doc again. "You want anything?"

"No thanks, I'm fine," Narheda affirmed before she ducked into the research tent again to get her boots, a pair of socks and her hardhat. She smiled as she began to change her chaussure, letting her mind wander. These days the limelight might be off, but it wasn't long ago since the place had been filled with scholars of all kinds, reporters and politicians and generally curious people, all there to see a real Elven town. All there to behold for themselves a fairytale come true and to take the photos and ask the questions before dashing off to post it all at NetworkMe and tell the friends that they had been there.

In the beginning there had been quite the attention upon her and the other archeologists and the Rendell excavation. As a matter of fact, they had hardly been left alone and they had to ask for police protection just to be able to work in peace and to not risk people loathing the dig, taking stuff with them as 'souvenirs'. These days however, the people of Gondor had move on to the next novelty and more or less forgotten about the Elves.

The revelation of the Elves as a unique specie had not only given Narheda her dig back, but also put her in the public eye for a short while. She, Luwan al Magni and Mitikas of Keratorion had been on the front page on every paper and newsmag there was and in so many broadcast shows that she had lost count. And every time she had put her foot in the campus there had been new students wanting to enlist for her dig, to be a part of the big happening in Rendell.

Therefore it had not surprised her the slightest when her boss, Professor Sinadaris, had been aiming to steal some of her thunder by taking credit for himself over the discovery. That he had been ready to more or less lay her off just days earlier seemed to be something he had conveniently forgotten. Being in a generous mode she let the old man have his claim to fame for a while, let him pose with the Elven skeletons when the news photographers had been around. He could brag a while, but the reporters soon found that when they wanted some more flesh on their story, Narheda of Nihaya was the one to turn to. Narheda of Nihaya or Traven of Gerentha, the latter finally getting all the attention he had always dreamed about.

Meanwhile their pursuers had vanished into the shadows they had emerged from, save for Hikarete and a young man named Naxmar. They had both been arrested and convicted for the arson over at the Institution of Biology, and as soon as Narheda had returned to Rendell, she had been able to stop looking over her shoulders for foes. Hikarete, yes, for a while Narheda had wondered what made her friend chose side in the quarrel, and in the end it had turned out to be something as mundane as money. Hikarete's services had been bought, by whom had she not been able to reveal, since the shadow putting the payment in a locker at the Sarmaltar Central Station had never revealed their identity. Yet another mystery, just as this strange and resourceful woman Sarigiana, who seemed to have disappeared from the face of the Middle Earth after her misfortune in the Anduin.

And yes, the revelation of the Elves had restarted the discussions about the status of orcs too, but no, nothing had really happened when it came to how orcs were deployed as cheap labour. There were still orcs removing stones and sand from the excavation and none of all the scholars working here was even looking twice at the collared hulks doing menial work. Not even when one of them had fallen into the river and drowned the other day.

Tying the laces of her boots, Narheda wondered how Mitikas was doing. It had been a while since the last time she had spoken with the Istari. The little she knew was that he was preparing for a new identity more accordingly with his upcoming profession as a CIO for the company which would be manufacturing the Automen in a near future. However taking an advice from Luwan, this still nameless company would begin its business with manufacturing a kind of electronic pet. Small mice or guineapigs was the plan, to perhaps move on to cats and even dogs if the robot pets became a success. This would break the ground for the Automen, or so Mitikas believed.

Narheda hoped that he would succeed in his venture, he deserved that after having been so helpful. After both she, Luwan, Traven and even Dr. Iusa had gotten their fair share of the cred, she hoped that Istari would at least be able to make some money out of this venture.

She shrugged, her fiancé Darik had often joked around with her that she cared too little about money, however beyond giving her what she needed when it came to food, clothes and a decent place to sleep every night, she had never been that interested in the commodity. What triggered her were the secrets hidden in the mists of history. To unearth one secret after another, that was what kept Narheda going, just like her mother had done and her sister Elrada was still doing down south in Ûsakan, by looking for the lost civilization of the Serstathians and their rumoured golden shrines. Money to her was just a mean to an end, which was always far more interesting and rewarding.

Stepping out in the sun again, she spotted young Meldina, the girl was almost bouncing with excitement.
"Tell me about this presumed library," she asked and Meldina was more than happy to comply as they started down the winding path, eyes vigilant for lose stones and uneven parts, to avoid stumbling and falling.
"Well, there's books," she began, then she giggled bit before she backtracked. "We found another large hall to the left of the Entrance of Thranduil, and about an hour ago, Phalon was able to verify that this area was safe so we could go in. It's about the size of the Campus Songhall, perhaps a bit larger and with rows and rows of shelves with books and then a sitting area just by the entrance."

"A library."
"Yes, or a book store."
"But that is excellent! After all the lack of literature has been peculiar, especially since we know there was nothing like electronic storage units back then. Nothing like out infomates or the ClickNet which would explain the absence of written work. But if this is it, then perhaps we're on to something great."
"Don't forget that I was the one who found it," the young student said. "I and the Cabrin brothers."

"Sure thing," Narheda said as they crossed what had once been a square and over a derelict bridge, enforced with wooden structures. But her mind was already elsewhere. If this really was a library, in a hall as large as the Songhall. If they were able to retrieve the millennia old books in there, then they were in for something huge. There were people over at the university working on interpreting the Elven language, and with these books and a bucketful of luck, they could be looking at the discovery of the century here. Perhaps there was enough here to really unearth the Elven history, as well as forgotten parts of the human ditto.

As they crossed the bridge and entered the shadows of the grand Entrance of Thranduil, Narheda's gut feeling told her that there was something awesome coming their way.

The End

A/N: Perhaps these characters will return in another story. I have an idea featuring Mitikas the Istari and his old nemesis Sarigiana. Perhaps a kind of prequel. But that needs to be processed within my mind for a while first.