While the lovers kissed and tasted and frolicked within Tauriel's suites, the day's activity was starting to begin outside them.

Even though the party for the royalty of Erebor and Dale had lasted until the early hours and many were still abed, some were awake and tending to their regular duties. A little later than normal, for a few.

In her room adjacent to the Queen's, Sivanna dressed for the day. She wore a light green velvet gown, and thought she looked a little tired, as she gazed in the mirror. But she had to smile to herself, having some idea where Tauriel ended up and what she had done last night.

After the musical entertainments were over and the official party had broken up, Sivanna watched - in sympathy as well as amusement - her queen speak to Prince Fili. Then she had vanished, so to speak. But Sivanna had later found her blue dress swaying lightly from a hangar in her dressing room, the shining silver jewelry laid carefully on its stand, ready for Sivanna to put back in its box.

And the queen was no where to be found in her suites.

Sivanna had not seen nor heard her elsewhere in the palace. Not until she'd been readying herself for bed and heard high, soft laughter mixed with a deep yet quiet chuckle pass her door on the way to the queen's rooms did she know precisely where Tauriel was.

Knowing that laughter as well as she knew her own, Sivanna had smiled wide. My lady has given up the fight. What a reward she will receive!

The only things she knew of Prince Kili were the things she heard - which were few - and the things she herself felt and observed.

Which were many.

Being suddenly busy helping the head of household prepare to feed and house thirteen dirty, cobweb wrapped dwarves and one scraggly-looking hobbit, Sivanna had not the time over a year ago to observe anything. Not until the dinner later that evening.

Her queen, at times, did love to flirt. And the ones she flirted with were the ones who eventually became her lovers. Still, as she kept an eye on the dinner and her mistress speaking with a now clean and very handsome Prince Kili, she felt something different. Something new from Tauriel, something deeper than even the queen herself realized.

The prince was young, she could feel that easily. So very, very young. Despite the hardships of his life and his training in weapons and fighting, Kili was sweet and innocent in heart and soul. Certainly she could feel his energy shift from trying to be sophisticated and reckless to nervousness. She had smiled to herself, wondering what Tauriel would have done had there not been a drunken commotion to divert her attention.

But Sivanna could also sense Kili's honesty. It radiated from him like the light from the sun in the sky. Here was such a one who would follow his heart, his instincts, and forthrightly deal with the consequences. He would not play games of pretend. He was not a political type, that much was crystal clear to her - saying one thing now, the opposite later, and never having his actions match his words. He was not one to eschew what he felt were his responsibilities. Nor would he ever be.

Coupled with that honest heart, she felt the force of his fierce loyalty and powerful, almost overwhelming love, when he came a fortnight after the battle to sing at the elven cairns with his kin. Sivanna knew then her queen would never find a better lover. Not even if she spent the next thousand years combing through the populace of Middle Earth. And there was no need. Prince Kili was destined, by the Valar or Illuvitar or some such powerful force, for her mistress. And Tauriel seemed, on some level, to know this, too, but she fought her love for Kili like the tigers Sivanna had only read about in books.

It could not last, the fighting. Little by little Tauriel broke down. And by yesterday evening, Sivanna could tell her queen had finally given up all resistance. She had surrendered to her heart's desire.

She was glad of it. Her lady deserved true happiness. Sivanna knew she had never found it in the embraces of any of her other lovers. Tauriel had never taken a lover to her own suites until last night.

Until Kili.

Sivanna stepped out of her rooms and opened the door to Tauriel's private receiving chamber, which one had to enter in order to get to her dressing room and bedroom suites. Were the queen and Prince Kili awake? Engaged in amorous morning pursuits? She would have to listen carefully so as to not enter the inner chambers and surprise them if they were indeed still pleasuring each other.

But instead of walking forward to the door to the bedroom, Sivanna clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp, then narrowed her eyes.

Sitting on the floor, peering through a small crack in the door, were two young maids.

Their duties in the Queen's chambers were to light the fires and make sure the Queen's dresses were pressed and jewelry was cleaned. The girls weren't children, nor were they women. Not just yet. They were the same age Tauriel had been when she lost her parents. On the cusp of adulthood.

Pilar was short and quick at her work, but a bit silly, especially around the opposite sex. She had her ear pressed to the door and was giggling softly to her accomplice. Belila was taller, and, Sivanna had thought, more responsible than Pilar. But today apparently that was not the case.

Sivanna quietly, slowly walked up to the girls. It was not until her skirts brushed against them did they turn around, eyes wide with surprise.

"Do not say anything," she hissed, whispering. "Get up and follow me. Make as little noise as possible." Then she turned and walked to the door to the hall, holding it open for the guilty girls to walk through. "Go to my rooms," she directed them. "Immediately."

"Mistress Sivanna, we didn't mean anything by it!" Pilar implored, once the three of them were in her rooms and out of earshot of anyone who could - and would - carry tales. "We didn't see anything!"

"Pilar, hush!" Belila scolded. "You know we should not have been there!"

"Oh Bel, you wanted to see him as much as I did! You said you wanted to see how hairy he really was, since there was so little on his face!"

"Pilar!" Sivanna snapped. The girls fell silent immediately, looking down at their feet, not moving. "You two are supposed to be responsible, in a position of attending to the Queen's rooms and attire. There are many girls in this palace who would dearly love to trade places with you. The kitchen maids, for starters." She narrowed her eyes. "I think a few weeks working with Mistress Alria would be just the thing for you both."

"No, please, Mistress Sivanna!" It was almost a shrieking chorus that the girls unleashed. "Mistress Alria is mean and cruel! They say she made all the maids scour the pots with sand last week because one of the maids did a sloppy job!"

"What a terrible fate," Sivanna drawled sarcastically. "If you do not wish to scrub pots in the future, then you will not tell anyone what you did today. And you will hie yourselves to the grand hall and see what assistance you can provide. I will tend the fires and clothes today."

The girls looked up at her, mouths open in shock or awe, she could not tell. Yet they stood there, not moving. "I suggest you make haste, ladies, before I change my mind." Sivanna walked to the door and opened it, gesturing for Pilar and Belila to leave.

It wasn't until the girls had sprinted from her room and run a distance down the hall that Sivanna shut her door and fell on her bed, laughing until her ribs hurt.

Author's note - I know it does not advance the story, but I had this vision of young girls spying on Kili and Tauriel - just for curiousity, not for any malicious reasons.