Chapter 25

"Now" Erestor sighed as he leaned back against a bookshelf and looked at the elleth that sat behind a to large desk in front of him, 'if you add that to the amount you already have in your pouch, but you had to pay the grocer for that apple you ate, how much money do you have left?" he asked.

Lorwen sighed, this accountancy lesson surely wasn't easy, but determined as she was she wrote everything he had just said neatly down and looked at the results, tilted her head and frowned.

"Something wrong?" Erestor asked, pushing himself off and strolled towards her.

"I'm not sure…" she sighed as he looked at the paper and the things she had written down, "that that's correct" she whispered. "I'm sorry" she added even softer when he remained quiet for a few moments.

"Why are you sorry?" he then asked, stretching his back again, rounded the desk and looked at her straight.

"Because… I… I don't understand what you are telling me" she whispered, lowered her head and felt tears prickle in her eyes already.

"If you don't understand what I'm telling you" he softly replied, moving besides her again, squatted down and lifted the paper so she would look at it again, "then why is this correct?" he asked.

"It is?" she asked and frowned, looking at the numbers again. "But…"

"If I give you" he said and took the quill from the ink dispenser and moved to write down besides her numbers, "twenty four pieces of silver" he continued and wrote the number 24 down. "Then I give you five more" he added and wrote the five underneath the number 4 of 24. "And an apple costs 1 piece of silver" he continued, after glancing at her, "so that you have to deduct" he added and wrote a 1 underneath the five and placed a minus sign in front of it. "How much does that make?" he asked, putting the quill slightly down while he looked at her. "What's so funny?" he asked, knitting his brow slightly as he found her giggling instead of counting.

"I can't read your handwriting" she giggled. "That doesn't look like a two! Or a four! It looks more like a five! And this like a six! This is nothing more than a line" she exclaimed as she pointed at the one.

"You write it then" he sighed, handed her the quill and resisted a chuckle as she quickly wrote the numbers neatly besides his scribbling. "There? Better?" he smirked as she had pulled a line underneath the numbers.

"Almost" she mused and drew a plus sign besides the 4. "There."

"Now, how much does that make?" he asked.

"If you add five to 24" she said and wrote the number 29 besides the four on the second line, "you have 29" she said, "then if you deduct 1, you have 28!" she added on an accomplished tone and looked up at Erestor to see him smile.

"Exactly" he smiled. "Now what's not to understand?" he then asked.

"An apple doesn't cost 1 piece of silver" she replied, pulling the most innocent face Erestor had ever seen on an elfling and could only stare for several moments before he started laughing. "At least not in Lorien" she added, believing she had made a foolish mistake.

"It seems" Elrond mused as he walked passed the library door with Celebrian and both could hear the advisor laugh out loud, "that Erestor has found way to make Accountancy more 'fun'" he smiled.

"Or he has found a more willing student" she replied and frowned as he backtracked and reached for the handle to the library.

"Elrond, should you interrupt them?" Celebrian whispered, putting her hand on his.

"Just checking how things are going," he whispered, "I won't hold them for long."

"Oh Elrond" Erestor sighed as he tried to stop laughing, "are you absolutely sure that we can't send the twins to Lorien for their lessons? I'd much rather teach this elleth!" he smirked.

"I'm afraid that wouldn't be possible" Elrond replied ignoring a muffled groan from Celebrian. "Why?"

"For starters, she at least appreciates my teachings!" he exclaimed, still with a large smile on his face.

"So do Elladan and Elrohir!" Celebrian exclaimed, "only… they don't realize that yet."

"They made me ill" Erestor replied, the smile suddenly washing off his face. "She…" he then added, looking down at Lorwen who still stared up at him, "she makes me laugh!"

"I didn't mean too…" she whispered softly. "I only want to learn."

"And we will let you continue" Celebrian quickly said, pulling her husband to the door by his elbow. "Have fun now" she smiled back and closed the door.

"What's wrong?" Elrond asked as they walked down the hallway again.

"I know our sons are a handful" she sighed, "but I will not consider sending them to Lorien to get educated!"

"Oh Celebrian, that was just silly laughter!" he smiled. "Erestor knows we would never do such a thing!"

"Still the same. Oh Elrond, I wish they would behave them selves, just once!"

"They will, one day."

"That day better be around the corner" she sighed. "I'm at the end of my tether!"

***

"Shall we continue?" Erestor asked as Elrond and Celebrian had left and smiled as Lorwen nodded vigorously.

"Can I ask you something?" she then asked.

"Of course" he smiled.

"These are just calculations, why do you call it Accountancy instead of Mathematics?" she asked.

"Because we calculate with gold and silver" he replied, "then it's called Accountancy."

"But it's the same, isn't it? One plus one is still two? One plus two is still three?"

"Yes of course."

"Then I don't understand why you have to give it another name" she sighed. "Just because you are dealing with money… If you are counting apples, does that have a different name then Mathematics?"

"No, it doesn't" he chuckled.

"And books?" she asked after glancing at the shelves.

"No Lorwen, just money" he smiled and sighed, "I don't know why either. Probably because somebody wanted to give it another name."

"So it would seem harder to learn?"

"Yes, maybe" he smiled.

"Do you teach this to Elladan and Elrohir as well?" she then asked, making the advisor ask himself if there was ever coming an end to the stream of questions she asked.

"Yes, but they are more advanced. It's not just adding pieces of silver… but also pieces of gold and copper."

"Can I try that?" she asked anxiously.

"It's quite difficult… are you sure you want to try that already? It's only your first lesson…"

"Yes please" she softly replied and nodded vigorously.

"Alright then" he sighed, "let's see…"

***

"I can't believe Naneth made us wash our own clothes!" Elrohir grumbled as they left the washing area. "It's not like we got them dirty on purpose" he added. "Next time I'll just let the piglets run free!"

"Just be glad" Elladan sighed as they walked outside, on their way to their lesson with Glorfindel.

"Glad? What for?"

"Would you rather have spent your free time with Erestor?" Elladan asked, looking at the grimace his brother pulled. "Poor Lorwen has been locked up in the library with him all afternoon!"

"But she likes to learn…" Elrohir put forth.

"But not from Erestor! Not after having to wait on him hand and foot all night long!"

"You think she'll be… You don't think she'll hate coming here, do you?" he then asked softly.

"Pretty soon she might" Elladan sighed. "I know I would…"

"Oh great" Elrohir sighed, but found himself quickly silenced by his brother. "What?" he asked, frowning angrily.

"I hear something" Elladan whispered, "it's coming from over there" he added then and pointed at the garden.

"I don't hear anything… What is it?"

"Somebody is crying" he whispered, stopped and gasped. "Lorwen!" he exclaimed softly and rushed towards the gardens. "Lorwen, what's wrong?" he asked from a far when they found her sitting on the grass softly sobbing.

Lorwen stood with a start, folded up a piece of paper, stuffed it in her pocket, quickly wiped her tears away and finally faced them.

"Nothing" she quickly replied, but her teary face said quite the opposite.

"Was it Erestor?" Elladan asked as he closed the distance between them. "Did he make you cry?"

"No!" she exclaimed. "Yes," she then hesitantly sighed, "but he didn't mean to… he warned me…"

"What did he do?" Elrohir angrily asked.

"I…" she paused briefly, "nothing… it's my own fault" she sighed and turned away.

"Tell us!" Elladan urged her. "Please?" he then softly asked, following her.

"You'll only laugh at me" she rejected his plea.

"You know we won't" Elrohir softly pressed, following her as well.

"I know you will!" she exclaimed and quickly lowered her head again.

***

Glorfindel sighed deeply. The twins should have been with him several minutes ago, still no sign of them. It wasn't like them to be late for his lessons. The only ones they looked forwards too and they were never late.

After five more minutes had passed, he grumbled something under his breath and went to look for them, meanwhile angering himself more with each step he took.

When he finally found them standing in the gardens, surrounding Lorwen who seemed upset he almost barged towards them.

"What is the meaning of this?!" he shouted and watched the three elflings cringe at his outburst. "You were supposed to be on the training grounds twenty minutes ago!" he added as Elladan and Elrohir slowly turned to face him.

"Erestor made her cry!" Elladan then exclaimed. "We couldn't just leave her!"

Glorfindel looked at the elleth and his face softened when he saw her teary face and sighed deeply.

"I'm sure he didn't mean to" Glorfindel then softly said, stepping towards her, in between the twins who slowly stepped aside and kneeled down before her. "What happened?" he asked softly as he placed his hands on her upper arms, trying to search her eyes.

"She won't tell us," Elrohir sighed, "that's why we're late… we couldn't leave her like this…"

"You mean you wanted to know why you pulled your next prank on the poor elf?" Glorfindel asked, turning towards Elrohir. "Have you thought that perhaps your pranks are the reason she now cries?" he then put forth more sternly.

"No" Elrohir softly replied, lowering his gaze to the tips of his boots.

"Has it something to do with our pranks?" Elladan softly asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"No" she sniffed and shook her head slowly, still keep her gaze down.

"Then why do you cry hen nín?" Glorfindel asked and for several moments Lorwen remained silent. Then slowly she moved her hands to her pocket and pulled the now crumpled piece of paper from it.

"Because of this" she softly whispered and handed the note to Glorfindel who hesitantly took it from her and frowned.

"Is it a letter from your adar?" he asked, leaning towards her slightly and frowned as she shook her head slowly.

"Adar hasn't written it" she whispered and kept her gaze averted as the blonde elf slowly unfolded it.

The twins quickly moved to Glorfindel's side to glance at the paper and what was written on it and frowned as they found it had both Erestor and Lorwen's handwriting on it.

"What's this?" Glorfindel asked, not understanding why she was so sad about the figures on the paper and looked up at her.

"It looks like an exercise of Erestor's" Elrohir remarked and looked at Lorwen.

"He's been teaching you Accountancy?" Elladan moaned softly and noticed another tear ran down her cheeks.

"Is that why you cry?" Glorfindel asked softly.

"Isn't that reason enough?" Elrohir exclaimed, "It's boring! She shouldn't be learning Accountancy on her visit here! She's not even old enough!"

"Is it?" Glorfindel asked again, moving towards her, away from the twins.

"No…" she replied, softly shaking her head again.

"Then what is?" Elladan asked.

"I can't solve it!" she whispered, barely audible. "I don't understand it!" she added a little louder and erupted in tears again.

For several moments all three ellons stared at her, then they burst out into laughter, just as she had predicted and it made her cry even harder.

"Oh pen tithen, " Glorfindel laughed as he wrapped his arms around her and lifted her from the ground, "that's why you are so sad? Because you couldn't solve this exercise?"

Lorwen nodded and slowly took the paper back from him, staring at the numbers again.

"That's no reason to cry!" Elrohir exclaimed.

"Hush!" Glorfindel silenced him, "none of that. You're not interested in Accountancy, maybe Lorwen here is, maybe it matters to her!"

"How can one be interested in Accountancy?" Elrohir asked, put felt Elladan's angry glare on his and quickly shut his mouth.

"If you really want to learn," Elladan then suggested, "maybe we can help you with that question" he softly offered.

"Erestor wanted to help me… But… I want to do it myself!" she exclaimed. "It's just… I can't picture it… I never had a piece of gold…"

"Why don't you two go on ahead to the training grounds?" Glorfindel then suggested to the twins.

"Will you be alright?" Elladan asked softly, patting her leg gently.

"She will" Glorfindel smiled at him, "go on. I'll be there in a few minutes. Don't hurt yourself or your brother!" he then warned him and waited until they had gone out of sight. "Having a piece of gold wouldn't solve it" Glorfindel then mused to Lorwen.

"It wouldn't?" she asked, looking at him as she sat on his arm while he walked towards a nearby bench and sat down, putting her on his knee.

"No" he smiled. "Look" he added and pulled one out of his tunic pocket. "Does it make the exercise easier?" he asked after handing it to her.

Holding the piece of gold in her one hand, the piece of paper in her other she looked from one to the other expectantly and sighed deeply.

"No, it doesn't" she sighed and handed him the piece back and he noticed more tears appeared in her eyes.

"What if I gave you a clue?" he then asked, slightly leaning towards her.

"You mean help me cheat?" she retorted the question and looked at him with a frowning stare. "I don't cheat!"

"It's no test. So it wouldn't be cheating, would it? Besides, how many lessons have you had already?"

"Accountancy?" she asked and watched him nod. "One."

"Well then?" he smiled.

"But…" she objected, but remained silent after that while Elladan and Elrohir's cries already resounded through the gardens as they tried to best each other with their wooden swords.

"Tell you what, you keep the paper with you. And the gold coin" he said, pushing it back into her hand. Think about the question overnight. Then if you want a clue, you just ask. How does that sound?"

"I can't take this…" she objected again and held her hand up with the coin in so he could take it back.

"Just until you've solved the question" he smiled and pushed the fingers of her hand around the coin, closing her hand. "Or until you've come to ask me the clue."

"I will loose it…" she moaned, opening her hand again and stared at the shiny coin in her hand.

"Put it in your pocket" he smiled. "You won't loose it. I'm sure of it! Now, shall we go see what those two are doing?" he added as she carefully pushed the golden coin, together with the folded paper into her tunic pocket and kept her hand on it for several moments.

Nodding mutely she slid off his knee, took his hand as he offered his and together they walked towards the training grounds where they found Elladan and Elrohir hacking away at each other with the training swords.