Sythralen had been up for hours when Legolas, who rose with the sun, joined her outside. She sat on a boulder, braiding pieces of twine she had found together into a intricate knot. The condition of her stomach was the same, twisted, uneasy, unsettled. She had passed a small morsel of bread through her lips but she could handle no more. Her actions from the previous night replayed in her mind. Had she really contemplated ending her life? She had looked far from the height of the tower into what had seemed like a clear abyss and thought herself unworthy of light or life.
"You rise before the sun?" She didn't dare tell her longtime friend of her momentary death wish. There was no need to cause him worry which he was bound to do. If he had experienced anything similar he was not acting like it. He seemed his normal, less chipper but still genuinely-happy-self as he stretched out his long limbs.
"I was eager to discover our mission. I didn't find much comfort in rest."
"I figured as much. Truthfully I did not rest well either." She ceased fiddling with her knot. "A dull pain made it's presence known in my temple and remained there until I came outside."
"Fresh air is all you needed, I'm sure. Neither of us are use to sleeping in such confined walls." Legolas took the knot from her hand and began to form it into a new shape.
"Fresh air, and good company." He returned the knot to her but it was now in the form of a flower in bloom. This small act of kindness made her face beam with a smile. It was proof that her friend was still who he was even with the passing of years, with the changing of his forest, and even with him putting on a harder face, like one often worn by his father. Legolas was predictable, loyal, in the best possible way but this is why she did not love him as more than anything but a friend. Parts of her still yearned to taste reckless abandon, to taste darkness without the threat of evil, to remain safe and yet maintain her innate wildness. Only Thranduil could give her that. His fierce arrogance and calm voice mixed together to create a formula of unpredictability but constant strength. And those eyes. How she missed those eyes that somehow judged yet praised all in the same look. "Saurman awaits. Let us convene with him and see this place far behind us." His voice broke her thoughts. She nodded and followed him, putting the flower into the satchel that rested across her hip for safe keeping. When they entered back into the tower the Wizard was waiting for them.
"Now that all information has been acquired I am ready to speak to you both about why I have called you here." Silence. "As you both are aware, rumors of a Necromancer have begun to surface. I hold no faith in them, however, I do not wish to simply set aside the concerns of others without acquiring proof. My task for you is to travel into the lands of Mordor to see if you can lay eyes upon a reason to believe these rumors."
"You want us to travel to Mordor?" Sythralen blurted out. "To the Black Lands, simply to see if anything arouses suspicion?"
"Is that a problem?" Saurman asked with a blank expression on his face, which greatly differed from the dumbfounded one Sythralen wore.
"Those lands have not been set upon by Elves since the days of the Last Alliance. There is no telling what has spawned in the shadows and ash of that place." Legolas offered in a much softer tone.
"A wise point but the fact is we need to be sure that these lands are still abandoned. I have heard whispers of a dark creature that lurks in the mountains." Saurman answered.
"Even if something is there, it may be completely different from what Gandalf and Radagast have found. Should we not investigate Dol Guldur?" Sythralen interjected.
"I care not for an old fortress. That can be retaken in an instant by your kind. If there is action forming in Mordor that is of far more pressing concern for that is the stronghold for all evil in Middle-Earth." The exact reason Sythralen was wary of traveling there. She had been so careful to avoid places of darkness though she could not deny that they called to her in her dreams, a fact that she had told none about. She could not argue with Saurman's logic. If there was something stirring in Mordor they needed to know.
"We accept your mission and we shall take our leave immediately." She gave answer with a bowing of her head which Legolas joined in. Then they were on their horses, heading to a place none dared to venture.