"Aragorn?" Legolas called to the darkness.
"Legolas?" was the reply. The voice came from off to the left.
"Are you alright?"
"Um - yes. Are you?"
"Yes. But I think you are lying."
"One of my fingers is sprained and you know that is barely an injury."
"True." Legolas had to admit.
"Where are you, Legolas?"
"Here. Where are you?"
"Wait a moment."
Aragorn crawled along the rough uneven ground, noticing also that it was wet. Water dripped also from above, but he ignored it and crawled towards Legolas' voice. Legolas felt something pull on his hair and he flinched away.
"Relax, it is only me." Aragorn said. Legolas tried, but remained tense.
"We should get out of here." Legolas stated.
"I know. Can you find the walls?"
Legolas stood up, calling out with no words. The echoes of his voice told him that the cave was about thirteen feet across. Finally, they both found a wall, and started feeling blindly across, looking for a way out. Eventually, Aragorn gave a shout of discovery.
"Legolas!" Aragorn shouted, "I found something." Legolas carefully walked across the floor to the sound of Aragorn's voice and felt the wall. It was smooth, unlike the rest of the walls and it smelled of wood.
"A door." Legolas stated.
"How do we open it?" Aragorn asked, puzzled, almost thinking to himself. Legolas, however, was feeling along the door cracks until at last he felt a round metal knob. He twisted it and found it was unlocked.
"We just turn the handle, I presume." Legolas said. With that, he turned the handle and pushed the door open. They were met with blazing warmth and they stepped inside.
The room into which they stepped was quite surprisingly different from the wet, dark, cold cave. They were standing at the top of a flight of stairs that were made of dark polished mahogany, carpeted down the middle with a silky red runner edged with silver. The banister was of cool white marble, which was carved with evident skill and soft piano music could be heard as if the music itself lived in the air. Legolas and Aragorn exchanged a confused look and started to walk down the stairs. Once at the bottom, the surveyed the room and saw that they were standing in what looked like an ornate, Victorian style sitting room. There was a red brick fireplace on the back wall burning brightly with silver flames and there was a polished tea table in the middle of the room and there were silver and red chairs and couches surrounding the table. From the roof hung a crystal chandelier and the floor was covered in a large (predictably) silver and red carpet that was decorated by gold line drawings of water, trees, flames, and clouds. There were also a large cabinet and a chest of drawers on the left and right sides of the room made of shiny, almost golden colored wood.
"What is this place?" Legolas asked, taking a step towards the low table, which had a silver tea set and a book lying binding up on it.
"I haven't the slightest idea." Aragorn replied, joining Legolas by the table. He picked up a teacup, half full with tea and felt the bottom. The drink was cold, despite the warmth room and it seemed as if the owner of the tea and the book had grown bored and left. Aragorn cautiously smelled the drink within the cup and muttered something;
"Athelas." He said. Legolas looked up from the book, surprised.
"Athelas? Is that not a healing plant?" the elf asked.
"It is, although I seem to recall that mixed with certain spices; athelas can make a pleasant tea. Although, it is rare to find, and I would never advise to use it so thoughtlessly." Aragorn said, putting the cup back down. "What does the book say?"
"It is written in very old elvish script." Legolas stated, and Aragorn looked at the book's open pages, which Legolas was holding. It was indeed elvish script, but as Legolas had said, it was an ancient set of characters. Aragorn could not read it.
"Can you read it?" he asked.
"Luckily, yes." Replied Legolas, "I was forced to learn the oldest versions of script so I could read from the traditional scrolls at all the boring ceremonies my father makes me partake it."
"What does it say, then?" Aragorn urged.
"It seems to be a journal of some kind." Legolas said, "In a rough translation, it says;
Monday 9th
There have been many who have wronged me. Many who have done to me horrible, despicable things. I thought with these powers, I would be pleased. That I would become content to do the wishes of myself and sink back into the dark peace of the world where I feel most contented. It is the solitary aloneness of nature that makes me feel safe. I have hunted down, one by one, the people on whom I swore my revenge. I thought I was the most powerful one on Arda. There is another, though. He possesses the power of the sun, moon, and stars. My elemental powers are no match for his. He claims to do only good with his powers, but I am not sure of him; he may try to hurt me like all the others did. Only when I have his power, will I know I will be truly safe. I have made my decision. If he does not willingly give up his powers to me, I must murder him."
Legolas paused to turn the page. The next entry, he read aloud also, was written in thin, rushed letters, as if the author had been in a hurry of madness to write down her thoughts. It went as follows;
Friday 13th
The sorcerer has hidden his power. I went to see him earlier today and he assured me that he could not reclaim his power and that he is no danger to me now that he has no power, but I know he is lying. That lying cheat! I know now with certainty that he intends to kill me – despite his assurances. This is only proof that no one in this world can be trusted. I will never be safe. Nobody is EVER safe! I must gather all the power in the world or die trying. I will never be safe without all the power in the world.
I have found quite startlingly that I am the only sane person in this world. Not blinded by the illusion of safety. Nowhere is safe, not unless I have power. But even power must be wielded correctly. I now count myself the only one capable of judging worthiness of power. I am the only sane one, and nowhere is safe.
I will murder him tonight.
Not safe, nowhere safe, never safe, never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never safe. Never safe. Never safe. Never safe.
The entry trailed off, the whole page was filled with the messy scrawled words 'never safe' and it was clear that the night of her death, she was half-insane. On the next page of the book, written in more current elven script that Aragorn could read. It said;
HERE ENDS THE TALE OF THE SORCERESS OF OLD
Reliable sources have indicated that she died that night, trying to kill the sorcerer. She eventually found the sorcerer's hidden power hidden in a star. She now guards it, waiting for a worthy recipient
It is my understanding that she was not insane. I believe what she said was true. I do not see the illusion of safety and after reading over her journal, I have come to the conclusion that I am worthy of the power she guards. I will record in the blank pages of her journal my quest to gather the element stones and prove I am worthy of the power she guards.
HERE STARTS THE TALE OF ERDOLLIEL
"I believe it is safe to say that this place is Erdolliel's house." Legolas stated quietly, and then turned the page to read the rest of the journal.
The following pages were written in a different hand than the journal of the sorceress, and seemed to be Erdolliel's journal. The first few pages were more of a goal statement than a journal, and told in extreme detail what Erdolliel intended to do once she gained power. A lot of the plan involved taking control of a large portion of land that encompassed from Fangorn to The Lonely Mountain (It contained a detailed hand drawn map) and enslaving all the people who had wronged her in the past (all of whom had detailed descriptions of the person and the act they had done to wrong her). Along with all the inhabitants of her supposed newly controlled land. It seemed that she was following in the past sorceress' footsteps, and going further. The portion of land that Erdolliel planned to take over conveniently left untouched the place Aragorn called home, but covered all of Mirkwood – Legolas' home. They read on, Legolas with increasing interest. Legolas and Aragorn got through two entries before a sound alerted them. Legolas immediately put the book down to its original position and looked towards the wall where the fireplace was. There was a door beside the fireplace and from behind it, they could hear footsteps. At first, the footsteps seemed to be getting closer, but soon, they receded.
"We should go." Aragorn said. "Search the cabinets and drawers for temporary weapons." He added, realizing now that neither of them had any weaponry. Legolas went to the chest of drawers and Aragorn to the cabinets, but they found nothing of use as weapons; only small velvet bags, some shiny sticks, and a few spare cloaks all in different shades of dark. Eventually, Aragorn picked up a fireplace poker that was about the same length of his sword, and Legolas grabbed two candlesticks that for some weird reason had sharp edged wings for decoration on the ends.
Throwing the candles of his candlesticks into the fireplace, Legolas said, "We have weapons to suffice for now, let us go." Aragorn nodded and they walked over to the door. Quietly, Aragorn opened the door and peered out the crack. The hallway that he looked out into was empty, and they crept out into it, shutting the door silently behind them. It was a long hallway, paneled with red wood on the sides. Every three or so inches along the wall, there would be a door. At the very end of the hall, there was a full length gold framed mirror.
"Which door do we choose?" Legolas asked so quietly that only Aragorn's ranger trained ears could hear. They both examined the doors made of aspen wood that seemed to have been enchanted to shine like silver. They were both walking down the hallway, examining every door.
"I-" Aragorn was cut off by the sound of voices.
"So, we hid the weapons. Now what?"
"Did I not tell you, sister that we could do something normal? I suggest we learn to knit."
It was coming from the third door on the right. Legolas and Aragorn quickly dashed into the room closest to them; the third door on the left. It, like the rest of the house they had seen so far, was ornately decorated with furniture of silver and red, but there was no time to survey the décor, because they realized almost too late that the room they were in was the one that the owners of the voices were heading for. They both frantically, but quietly searched for a way out, but non seemed apparent until;
"Aragorn…!" Legolas hissed, gesturing for him to rush over to where Legolas was kneeling down. He had found a hidden panel that slid upwards into the wall.
"Where does this lead?" Aragorn whispered back.
"It does not matter. We must get out of here." Legolas held the panel open for Aragorn until the man had crawled in and then crawled in himself and let the panel close behind him.
I had a bit more time to write this week, so this chapter is a bit longer than usual. Yay! Was the journal bit okay? Now that i read it over it seems stupid that Erdolliel would let them in on purpose and just leave her diary on the table, but I guess I could say she forgot about it...? The "finding of the enemy's diary" seems too cliche, now that I read it over...
Well, until next time, echil pent nin.
Next time: Erdolliel