Woo, finally, a new chapter. I have been battling bad writers block, not to mention mock trial competition and a stomach bug. Fun times. So it was hard to write this. It's one of those in between chapters, so I hope y'all still like it:) As always, thanks for all the support, it means the world to me. Enjoy this chapter. (Can you tell I like Aragorn? You bet you can by the way I write him. Sigh, I'm such a fan girl. Anyway, I've been having fun with Lana. She plays off of Ailith's hopefulness with her cynical distrustful personality. Ailith has had all these awful things happen to her, and she had a lot of her innocence driven away, and she's by no means naïve at this point. But she still has a shred of that childlike innocence, and she still has a lot of hope. Lana doesn't really have that. She's fun that way. And she still doesn't like poor Estel. Anyway, sorry for the rant, and enjoy:)

"The man I killed was your father." The words had escaped. Lana couldn't hold them back. They were there. He had Ailith's hair. The same waving thick copper. His eyes had been different though. Ailith had their mother's eyes. His were dark, so dark they looked black. There was hardly any distinction between his pupil and the outer rim, giving the appearance of huge black pools without center, They were rimmed in the thinnest line of ice blue. He had asked her why. Not in judgment, just in curiosity. So she told him. And he had shook his head.

"I hunted him, it's true. But I had my reasons. I don't expect you to believe that. But I did. If I had time on this earth left I'd tell you. But it's better you don't know."

"Tell me! What reasons?Who are you?"

"A wanderer. Lost but never found."

"Why? Why did he want you dead?"

"Why does any man want another dead? You look so much like her. Illana. You must be Illana. You've grown"

"How do you know my name?"

"I knew your mother. Haleth. You have her hair. And her eyes. But your father's-" he had convulsed in pain, his spit frothing onto her sleeve as she held his head. She couldn't leave any man to die alone. He continued "I would have raised you as my own. I didn't care that you were another man's child. I loved her to much to care. I would have run to the end of the earth for that woman. I was never enough for her in my eyes, but she didn't care. I knew it was wrong. She deserved better. But the heart is a powerful enemy. I could never stay in one place lo-" he stopped to cough, his breath coming in rasps, "Long. I could never stay long. I was hunted by so many things. Hunted by darkness. But I promised her that we'd find somewhere safe. But she was bound by her own sense of duty. And maybe...maybe she loved your father. She said she didn't. And she wanted safety for you. How could I refuse her a normal life? So I left. And I swore to myself never to come back.." His head lolled back for a moment. The flame of the dying candle in the dark cast an eerie light. The room already smelled like death.

"Wake up! Oh gods."

"I'm still here. I couldn't keep true to my own promise. Six years later, more or less, I came back. I just wanted to see, to make sure that she was happy. I saw you. Running through the streets. I could tell you were her child immediately. I saw your father, but I hid. He...he had been almost a brother to me. His life...when we were younger I saved- hnnng, I saved his life. But it was sour. Sour over Haleth. So I hid from him. And When I found Haleth, I had told myself that I would only greet her. That maybe I wouldn't even reveal myself. But she saw me first. She always had keen eyes. Your father, he was in the woods. This was when he still chopped wood. He was gone and we...all those emotions, all those unfulfilled dreams. She cried onto my shoulder. She told me how she couldn't- kaf kaf, how she couldn't love him. Not in the same way. She said she cared for him, and she loved him, but I was the one who haunted her dreams. She said, she said she was trapped. The despair in her eyes...she was a wild creature bound. All those years of longing. I offered to take her away again. But she was inconsolable. Torn in two. Not between Jonathan and I. But between freedom and duty. She chose duty..." his voice was getting fainter. Lana tried to speak, but he shook his head. "That wasn't the last time I saw her though. I came back...almost two years later. I was drawn back like the sea to the moon. And I met my daughter. She was one, only a year old. But already so beautiful. She had my hair, but her mother's eyes. She laughed. Ailith. Your mother called her Ailith. So I held my little daughter. I held her for the first and only time. She smelled sweet. You know the smell Lana? The smell of a babes head? I begged Haleth to...I don't know. I don't even know. But she kissed me, and she wept, and we held our daughter together for that one afternoon while you were in the woods with your father. And then she looked me in the eye, and made me swear never to return. So I didn't. Until now. I came searching for her. I wanted to see Ailith. My little girl. They told me Haleth was dead. Eleven years dead. Fallen. An old woman told me how it was rumored her drunkard husband did her in. Her grave...that small little stone, fading, grown over with moss. But there was this little bouquet of flowers. I knew that my little girl must have left it. Haleth, she deserved the funeral of a queen, but she was a lonely stone to be faded by the years and forgotten. They told me her daughters were fine. Ailith, they said, was a ruffian. Growing lovely. And Lana, she had a good head. She could be a hellion to, stubborn, but she cared for her little sister, and she kept the household together...hngg, Ailith, they said she often went about exploring, but I could find her often at the Prancing Pony, helping the barkeep. That's why I was here." The candle was almost gone. She had locked the door behind her. The room felt like a tomb.

"Please...oh gods. Oh no. You...I killed you. My sister's...please forgive me" Lana held tight to the man, shaking. He reached up weakly and pushed her hair away from her face.

"I forgave you long before this Lana. You didn't know. My blood isn't yours to bear. Please. Live your life, and help your sister live hers. For me. For Haleth. Tell Ailith...tell her that her father's name is Turin. Tell her that...t-" His eyes rolled back in his head, his body convulsing.

"Tell her I love her! Tell her! Please by everything you hold dear, live your life!" His eyes shut. In his final breath he uttered a single word. "Haleth..." The candle sputtered out.

She had found in his possession a metal box. Large and flat, sealed, locked. Ailith's name was on the top. She left it hidden in the house, for Ailith to find. She couldn't tell Ailith anything. She had fled instead. Ran off. To much of a coward to tell Ailith, to ashamed to face her sister. Ailith would be better without her. And Brandon? She still loved him. She didn't ask about the man. She didn't ask anything. She became someone else and left. Her shame. Her greatest shame. She had kissed Ailith's head the night she left, and brushed her fathers hand. She had sat by her mother's grave for an hour, talking to her. And then she had left.

xxxxxxx

"Are you sure you have everything Glorfindel?" Arwen wrung her hands.

"Yes pen tithen. I'm sure."

"Are you sure that those boots are the ones you should bring?"

"Arwen. Now you're just delaying. It will be fine. You worry to much." Glorfindel swept her into a tight bear hug. "I'll be fine. So will Ailith. I'll come back with her intact and well, and news of Estel."

"You don't know that Glorfindel. Asfaloth came back riderless!"

"Which is why your father is moved to action. Don't worry. I'm too beautiful to die." Glorfindel patted Asfaloth.

"But-"

"And I've died before Arwen."

"And yet he came back to bother us." Elrohir strode into the courtyard, followed by Elladan and Elrond.

"Good luck." Elrohir and Elldan embraced Glorfindel at the same time. Elrond took his hand and murmured something Arwen couldn't hear. Glorfindel nodded.

"Out of curiosity, where is Erestor?" He smiled easily.

"He said he was coming." Elrohir shrugged.

"I hope he didn't fall asleep in the library again."

"You should have more faith in him Glorfindel. I'm sure he'll be here soon."

"Try not to get in to much trouble alright? Elladan and I depend on you to defuse any situation."

"I'll try. What's that?" The sound of hurried footsteps was coming towards them. Erestor skidded into the courtyard, his hair and robes in disarray, and a blotch of ink on his nose. The quill behind his ear was half fallen out. He straightened when he saw them, and tried to smooth his robes.

"Ah. Good afternoon. I just wanted to bid Glorfindel farewell. I was worried he'd already left."

"Did you fall asleep over your scrolls again?" Glorfindel smiled.

"What? No." Erestor absently rubbed the ink from his nose, and attempted to tuck his hair back. "I was just writing a paper on Elf/Dwarf relations in the first age and-ahhk!" Erestor was cut off by Glorfindel sweeping him into a tight hug that lifted him off the ground.

"What in Eru's name are you doing?!"

"I was worried you were going to keep talking about your paper. You babble when you're nervous." Glorfindel set Erestor back on the ground.

"No I don't. I think your crushed my ribs."

"Come to wish me good luck then Erestor?"

"Yes, ah, I wanted to..."

"Something you need to say?" Glorfindel smiled again. His smile was suddenly transformed into a look of surprise however, when Erestor quickly wrapped him in a tight hug, leaning his head on Glrofindel's shoulder. He wouldn't look up and meet the surprised elf lord's eyes.

"Put your hair back, alright?" Erestor's voice was muffled by Glorfindel's shirt.

"Oh, ah, yes, I'll, um, make sure to do that." Glorfindel looked truly flustered. "Don't worry. Erestor..."

xxxxxxxx

Aragorn awoke suddenly. For the past few minutes he had been slowly battling through the darkness in his head to regain wakefulness. Why had he slept? He remembered the hot sun shining down on them, capturing them like flies in amber within the long abandoned ruins, a magical sad moment, mournful, infinite, caught in its own unending stretch of time. And slowly he had drifted to sleep, without even realizing it. Now was jarred back into wakefulness by Ailith's voice, raised in distress.

"Oh gods Lana! Why did you tell me?! Why didn't you just...

"I'm so sorry. Ailith. There's nothing I can say, I knew that you wouldn't want me to keep it secret Not really. I-"

"Everything Lana! Why does everything around me go sour!?"

"Mama! Why's she yelling?" a small child's voice.

"Ailith, what?" Aragorn tried to push himself up, but was met with a wave of pain and dizziness and fell back down. As his eyes focused he saw Ailith standing tense, her fists clenched at her side, her eyes shining with tears held back. Lana stood a few feet away, shaking, the little boy clinging to her side and crying.

"Everything! Like a sour rotten plague, like rot! Everything goes sour! Death! Always death! Mother died because of me, your son died at my hands, and now..." Ailith was grabbing at her hair, shaking, her eyes wild.

"Ailith, what's going on?" He forced himself up, his legs felt weak beneath him. His head was pounding. Ailith sunk to her knees, digging her fingers into the hard dirt.

Nonononononononono.."

"Ailith..." Lana knelt down a few feet in front of her.

"My father Lana! I was so sure I would find him, and he would take me in! It was a stupid fairy tale, but it wasn't impossible And now it is!"

"I can't say anything to you Ailith. But there was-"

"Then don't say anything Lana! Just leave me be alright?! Just let me go sit in that...ditch, juts let me be alone with my thoughts before I say anymore. Just let me think." Ailith pushed herself up and strode towards a small but deep ditch growing over with dying plants. She was still shaking. Lana didn't move to follow her.

"Mama!" The boy was weeping.

"Hush now. Sometimes people fight."

"My Lady what..."

"Just STOP crying! People fight! People yell!" Lana wouldn't look at the boy.

"Lana, why-"

"Oh gods-" She cut Aragorn off, speaking more to herself than him.

"What has happened? Lana, what's going-"

"I wish she had never found me. She was better off is she just-"

"In the name of the Valar! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" He didn't mean for it to come out so forcefully. His head was pounding like the entire world was inside of it being ripped apart. Lana finally looked at him.

"There is no need to yell ranger." Her voice, which had been raw and tear stained a moment ago, had slipped back to being cool and guarded, as it usually seemed to be. She fixed him with a hard stare.

"Forgive me My Lady. I lost my temper."

"Obviously."

"What is going on?"

"Ailith's upset."

"I gathered that." He waited for Lana to say more, but she remained silent, turning away and kneeling down in front of the boy. Aragorn stood uneasily nearby, not sure what to do. The pain was intense, making him want to sit down, but he couldn't let himself. If he did he wouldn't be able to get up again. Finally, Lana looked back towards him.

"If you're curious ranger, why don't you go speak to her? She seems fond of you. Maybe you'll magically make it all better." The bitterness in her voice was pronounced. He hesitated.

"Go on then. There's no harm in trying."

He had been dismissed. Lana spoke like a queen, giving orders, icy, measured, aloof. How had a woodcutters daughter from Bree developed such poise and presence? She was better at acting a haughty ruler then half of the ones he had known in his long life. And he doubted that it was her time among the outlaws that had done it. Despite this he could see the tension and distress she was carrying threatening to break to the surface any moment. It would be best if he left her alone before that happened. She seemed the type who would only become more enraged if she broke down and reveled weakness in front of someone. He knew those types to well. The little boy was crying silently. Aragorn turned slowly and made his way to the ditch where Ailith was hidden. It was grown over with brush, and filled with small boulders. He could see where Ailith had slid down. He jumped into the shade, kneeling and gasping in pain as he did, and crawled through the plants into the gloom of the ditch.

"Ailith?" there was no answer. She was sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest on a large rock, her face in shadow. There was a cut on her face, the blood standing out in the gloom. She was staring ahead. Aragorn rested on his knees a few feet away, waiting for her to say something. She looked up.

"Theres a spider in your hair." She half raised her hand and then let it fall down again. He reached up and brushed the creature away hurriedly.

"In the forest of Mirkwood there are great spiders the size of a horse or larger." He didn't know what else to say.

"Oh. What do they eat?"

"Whatever stumbles into their great webs. Birds, deer in the webs near the ground, those sorts. And they will eat humans to, and elves, though the elves of Mirkwood long ago learned how to avoid the webs, and deal with the spiders. But still, sometimes a young elf will fall prey. I got stuck in a spider web once. My sword was on the forest floor below me, and I couldn't reach my knife. The huge spider was coming towards me, and I thought I was finished, but Legolas showed up in the nick of time and tossed me a knife."

"I'm afraid of spiders actually." There were dried tears of Ailith's cheeks.

"In all honesty Ailith, so am I." There was a long silence between them. Ailith finally opened her mouth to speak.

"Really? You're afraid of spiders. I find that difficult to believe."

"It is the truth however." he had expected her to say something else. She looked at him.

"Did Lana send you?"

"In a way."

"I just want to be alone Estel."

"Alright. Ailith...what happened?" he looked her in the eyes. She surveyed him briefly, opened and then closed her mouth. She finally spoke up.

"She killed my father. My real father, the one I never knew. She didn't know who he was."

"Ailith, I-"

"Don't say anything alright? Don't ask for any more information. Just leave me alone for a little bit. I need to think. Go have Lana take a look at your wounds again. You look awful." She turned away. Aragorn waited a moment, and then slowly inched his way back into the sunlight, Ailith's words still sinking in. A rush of anger stabbed through him. What had she done to deserve all of this? Lana turned back towards him as he walked over, the boy was sitting nearby, playing with a wooden horse.

"Any luck ranger?"

"She wanted to be left alone." He thought about asking her to tell him what had happened, ask her why she had killed Ailith's father. But he held his tongue and simply sat down weakly against the crumbling wall. Lana looked him over.

"You look awful."

"Your sister said the same thing."

"Well, it's true. Here, I'll take care of that." She pulled out the pouch of herbs again.

"If you don't mind my asking, you don't happen to know why I fell asleep so suddenly do you?" He eyed the herbs cautiously. He had his suspicions.

"You were being stubborn, and you needed rest. I thought you'd notice what I slipped in with the plantain, but you didn't."

"You drugged me."

"Yes."

"Against my will."

"You needed it ranger, and you wouldn't listen. The women in my family are known to be stubborn."

"So I've noticed."

"Ailith was worried I'd hurt you. She also let slip a few interesting thing about you and your royal blood. She didn't mean to." Lana looked at him steadily. He kept his face straight.

"I'm the chief of the Dunedain, who you call Rangers, that is true."

"I got the sense it was more than that." Her eyes fell on the shards of Narsil.

"It's not much more than that."

"What I think is that either your lying and it is more than that, or that maybe being the chief of the Dunedain or whatever you called them is more important than it would seem." She met his eyes steadily.

"Mama! My horse broke!" The little boy's face was crumbling in on itself. He tearfully held out the little horse, its front leg snapped off.

"Here Tuor, give it to me." She took the horse and looked at it briefly, tried to set the leg back into the broken spot, but her hand slipped, and she hit the other leg, which gave a small crack and snapped off as well.

"Son of a bitch!" Lana angrily set the horse down. The little boy started wailing.

"Hush now Tuor. I'll fix it."

"Mama, you broke it! You broke my horse!"

"Yes I did. I'll fix it Tuor. Don't worry." She raised her hand in frustration. Aragorn could tell she was at the end of her wits. He reached over and picked up the horse, glad for the distraction.

"Did you know that the Valar Orome had a great horse who was called Nahar? In the day his coat shone white, and in the night it was silver like the stars. And his hoofs were shod in gold."

"Who's Orome?" The boy gave a loud sniff.

"A great spirit."

"Was his horse fast?"

"Yes. They ran across the planes of Middle-earth when the days were young, and the elves were glad at their coming."

"Elves! I want to see elves, but papa said they were not but trouble. But I think I don't care."

"The elves are wise and beautiful. Maybe someday you will see them." Aragorn smiled weakly at the boy. Lana was watching him curiously. The boy scooted cautiously closer.

"Or maybe elves just want us to think that. I don't believe that they could be oh so perfect." Lana tilted her head. Aragorn just kept talking to the boy.

"Your name, Tuor, is the name of a great man from long ago. He found a hidden city of the elves. Gondolin, more beautiful than words can tell. And he won the love of the elves, and he won the heart of the princess of the city, Idril. When Gondolin fell, they led what remained of the people of Gondolin to safety. Tuor loved the sea. And his son Earendil the mariner loved it as well. His star still shines in the night sky, brightest of all."

"Was Tuor a great warrior?"

"Yes. Bold and strong."

"I'll be a great warrior some day! I'll have a sword, and I'll be friends with elves. Father will be so proud."The boy's face was alight with imaginings. Aragorn smiled.

"I have no doubt. Here." He handed the boy his horse, the legs bound tightly back on with twine.

"You fixed it!"

"Yes. Be careful, they may fall off again. If they do bring it back and I'll fix it again."

"I'll call it Nahar. He's the fastest horse alive! And Tuor the great is his master!"

"I have no doubt."

The boy gave him a shy smile, and then sped back to where he had been playing. Once he was gone Lana turned back towards Aragorn.

"Well then ranger. You can't begin to know the depth of the trouble you just averted."

"It is my pleasure my Lady. Your son is a spirited child, I wouldn't want him to have it dampened by the loss of a horse.":

"My son. Yes. He is my son I suppose. It's still strange to hear."

"I am sorry for the death of your eldest son."

"He was less my son then Tuor. Already near a man, to tainted to be changed. I tried, but I failed. He deserved his death, much as it grieves me." She paused for a moment, her eyes sad. "There is one more boy, he is fifteen. I tried to get him to come, but he refused. He swore he would tell no-one where I went, but he told me he couldn't leave his father. I wish I could have convinced him. And Adlyn...She was to marry the son who was killed. It wasn't entirely her will. She was a sweet and kind girl, gentle, to gentle to live this life. I wanted to bring her, but I was selfish. She would slow us down, so I left her. I seem to have grown cold."

"You did what you had to my Lady."

"That doesn't make me any less cold."

"Life forces us to be cold sometimes. I have lived a long time, and I know that better than most."

"I suppose you do heir of Isildur." She smiled when she saw the look of shock play across his face.

So that's all for now. Hope you liked it!