T.A. 1982: Following the announcement of King Amroth and Nimrodels Deaths

Legolas sought her out in the kitchens, he let his feet lead him through the halls, down flickering stone corridors and through high carven arches. His father had shewed him from Unede's family's home and kept him in conferences all day. They both knew she needed space, but his head was so full of racing thoughts and 'what-ifs' that he could hardly pay attention to the tasks that were before him all day.

He recalled the discussions that had spanned the afternoon with the Kings council, and his thoughts twisted and raced with anger that Unede was left out of conversations so pertinent to her own life. As the Prince wondered the halls he found himself unable to stop his mind from replaying the afternoons affairs, and an unsettling anxiety twisted his gut.

"You should send your son to rule your cousins Kingdom."

"You should declare war if Galadriel should take a crown there."

"The King should go south and rule, and leave Prince Legolas in Eryn Galen instead."

"His majesty should send Captain Unede to be your emissary, she can be the Lady of Lorien."

"No let the Captain be an advisor to Lady Galadriel."

"Your Majesty that will only set the Wandering Noldor against you, if Captain Unede is swayed to her Grandmothers side we will be alone, our weaknesses exposed by her treachery. They will expand."

"A trade your Majesty, the Captain for the Elessar."

Legolas nearly lost his temper at these words, but the King saw his son bent with anger, and spoke. "My Captain is not a jewel to be traded for. She is sworn to me and to this country. Nor would she be swayed to betray me were we to send her south."

"Surely you don't trust her entirely. Galadriel means to steal our Kingdom." A Daeron said quickly."We must gain from your Cousins death, we cannot loose Lothlorien, the silvan elves there can help us, a strong hold in the south is invaluable. Unede has a hand in all of this! She is treacherous your majesty, and she seeks to expand Galadriels reach. First Lothlorien, then Rivendell. She comes for your crown and your land. Mark my words, this is only the beginning."

On and on it had gone until at last the King stood, and the other's with him, and he dismissed his advisors from his chamber and took a silent seat before the fire. Legolas brought his father wine, and saw the heavy gloom lay around his shoulders as his father's grief was lay bare for only his son to see.

The Prince took his father's hand and spoke no words, and together they drank and listened to the fire, and sat with their grief. Then at last when the afternoon had passed in silence, and much wine had passed between his lips, the King spoke.

"Galadriel was once our ally. She spent many years in our wood, under my father's protection."

"Do you trust her?" Legolas whispered.

"My Cousin Amroth did, and so I think I should. The Princess of the Noldor will protect our Silvan Kin, she bears a ring of power. And if she takes no crowns, or title, save for Lord and Lady, then I am keen to leave them be. We need no more trouble at our doors, and I do not desire to lead my cousins Kingdom." The King sighed the words.

"Then you will send Unede away as your emissary? Father she should be here, to plead her case, to council you, to…to be a part of the decisions that govern her life. Surely she knows more of the will of Galadriel than we." Legolas said the words desperately, and the King let out a deep sigh.

"No son, she cannot be. She is not on my council; and for now she has lay aside all titles of Princess that the Noldor might bestow. All would give her rights to these meetings, yet she has turned away their honors. Will you finally wed her and make her our Princess, and bestow her a seat at this table? Will Unede name herself Princess of the Noldor and come to my counsel? Will she take up a crown forge an alliance between the Silvan and Noldor?" He asked and looked to his son. "No, and so the fates of the world must be chosen in her absence." The Prince frowned at his fathers words, and the King put a hand on his sons shoulder. "I do not say these words gladly, they burden my heart and break it. I would have her here if rights allowed it. But alas, if Galadriel does not name herself High Queen than I should be glad enough to let her lead there and keep our southern kin safe under her ring, and away from the evil that plagues our woods."

"And you would send Unede in my place as your representative." Legolas whispered. But the King did not respond.

"You can wed her, and make her our ally, a safe measure against the expansion of the Noldor." The King shrugged.

"A dowry. You would give Galadriel Lothlorien as a dowry." The Prince spat.

The King shrugged. "Is it not a love match? Would this not bode good for all involved? I see no reason for this to develop into war or seed further distrust between our nations."

"Distrust? Did you hear the way your council spoke of Unede? Daeron sees her as a snake, he means to turn all of the Kingdom against her. The Noldor pose no threat to us. There are no more than a few hundred, let them toil with their wizards, and their secrets. They have brought Eryn Galen into their battles and schemes in the second age, and I have had enough. Unede wants no part of it either, yet our court comes for her throat like vultures to a carcass." The King took his sons hand and squeezed it, and suddenly Legolas saw the worry in his fathers fea, and the fear that whispered through his eyes. "You would send her away for her protection. To hide her from the dark lord, and from the deceit of the court." He said softly, and the King smiled sadly at his son, and a grief settled onto them.

When, late in the evening, Legolas had been released from his fathers side, he sought Unede out and found her in the kitchens of the palace. There she was before him, angrily kneading a dough into submission. She didn't look up from her task, and so the Prince added a log to the fire, and filled the kettle with water and took after making them tea.

When the kettle whistled with completion, he filled the pot with fresh tea leaves and placed lumps of sugar on the table. He watched her add the dough back to the basket and brush her dusty hands on her apron. Then she looked to him. Her face was pale, her eyes red, her hair a mess. His heart sank when he saw her.

He poured the tea into the cup and offered it to her. Her lips tightened and she gripped the cup between her hands. How could he tell her, how could he explain what his father meant to do. Princess or prisoner, she was treated like a trinket. Perhaps he would not tell her at all, perhaps it was better to spare her from her fathers plans.

"Galadreil asking for you to come home is a good omen, she holds no ill will towards you coming to Eryn Galen, she loves you." He said with a gentle voice, and placed his hand on her arm. She lifted her head and looked at him angrily, hot tears spilling down her cheeks.

"A good omen? Why do you think my heart grieves Legolas, why would you say such a thing? Do you desire for me to forsake my oath and my duty, and my people, just for some, some crown?" She spat the words at him and wiped away the tears from her face desperately.

"That's not what I-" He started.

"Not what you meant? Of course it is! You think I made a childish decision, and regretted it all these years? You think I've been waiting for an invitation to go and take a tittle elsewhere?"

"No I only meant to turn down an honor so great would be-"

"Would be what? What would it be Legolas." Acid spilled from her tongue and the words hit him like fire.

"Foolish! You are meant to rule a people! It would be foolish to say no! Its an honor for you! We honor you!" He said hastily pushing his tea away from him.

"You honor me? Honor me with what? Titles in your army that I earned?"

"I would wed you, forge an alliance between our houses!" He said.

"Stop being so blind! The only fool here is you! Your cousin King Amroth is dead, and my grandmother usurped the throne that is yours by right. Yet you count me a fool for not desiring a stolen crown, and not wanting to wed you in the midst of a scandal?" She stood and looked at him. "I pitty you that you would think me so similar to Galadriel. That I am so desperate for a Queendom that I would forsake the people dearest to me in their most desperate time so that I might call myself more than Captain. I am a Princess of the Noldor, kin to mighty Kings. I have a valley full of elves I could rule, cities across the sea that are mine, but I chose our people, my family, here in Green Wood, and to lay aside titles for duty. If I desired such, I would name myself High Queen and be done with it."

"Unede that is not what I-"

"Not what you meant Legolas? My dearest friends are dead, and you accuse me of disloyalty." She said hastily.

"Friends Unede? Never have you even mentioned their names. You knew Amroth and Nimrodel for little more than eighty years?" He stood now too and met her gaze hotly.

"Eighty years? Can the dearest friends be counted in years and decades and days? Do you think them so distant that they were not important? They were my dearest friends. They were the only thing that kept me from fading as a child. And now Amroth is drowned and Nimrodel is dead, and my life might be ripped away for the sake of gentle politics. I am nothing but a pawn in this situation."

Legolas found himself cold as he watched her, and she saw half her words wash over him as he stood with a clinched jaw and tight fists. "I thought I was your dearest friend." He whispered into the silent kitchen.

"You are my lover."

"Aye, your lover but not your mate, not when you have made it so clear that you would never wear my family's crown on your head, and not when taking you as my wife would mean kinship between our Kingdom and the Noldor and quell the tongues that say usurper. You deny me. You fear leadership, and responsibility, and the duty of your noble blood." He said coldly, making clear the heaviness his heart felt for her absence of desire to be his wife.

"I cannot put our people in the position to be without an heir." She raised her voice and glared darkly at him, as the tears came afresh to her face.

"Then why would you leave Lothlorien without one? For now they have neither you, nor our children? Those wood-elves are my people, they belong to my heart too, and yet you would leave them heirless too! And out of what allegiance?" He spat, contempt filling his voice.

"You are making the same decisions! If you want Lothlorien to have an heir, then go there and be their King and wed a lady who wont die in battle! Let her give you little princes to rule!" She yelled into the kitchen and threw her hands in the air.

Legolas placed his hands on the table and took a seat. Unede was suddenly reminded of Thranduil as his hair fell around his face and a shadow covered his eyes.

"Galadriel did not choose to lead Lorien out of kindness or mercy. She has long desired a forest to rule and now she has one. She found opportunity in their despair, and in Mirkwoods weakness. She is nothing more than a vulture." Her words hit him hard. He had not realized the deliberacy of Galadriels actions, nor the closeness Unede had with the King and his lover Nimrodel. His chest heaved and suddenly the burden and anxiety that her fea carried wash over him. How could he have been so careless, so focused on his own burdens that he did not see the treacherous decisions that plagued her.

"Unede you are right, right in so many ways. Forgive me, my father and I were forced into many decisions we did not wish to make. We have decided to allow Galadriel to lead Lothlorien under the title of Lady. You know as well as I that if I became their Prince, or went there to rule, all our people would expect the Golden Wood to attack Dol Guldur from the south and protect their Kin. The elves of Mirkwood expected it when my first cousin was the King. But it would be foolish and folly, it would mean fewer resources and more deaths, and we have failed once before, how can we ask that of our people a second time? Already we are spread so thin." He was quiet for a moment and then said. "And your right, you are a pawn in all of this, and I did not mean nor desire for you to be."

"I desire only to bring peace to our people." She whispered and drew closer, and took a seat next to him at the table.

"I know." Legolas replied and placed a gentle kiss on her head. "I know." But at his words she collapsed again into tears and gripped his hands and said.

"Nimrodel delayed so long, it pained them both to be without the other while they waited for peace. What if we delay for nothing? What if I am a fool in this too?"

"Our decision is wise Unede. For my fea has neither your strength nor my fathers. If my wife fell in battle then, surely, I would fade. Then what would Green Wood come to? We are not fools but martrys. Such is the burden of a crown and you are wise not to take it."

"Legolas." She whispered into his chest. "Legolas, I will make this right. We must be patient. The council would have us make a rash decision, but sometimes the best strategy is to wait, and bide our time."

"What do you mean?" He said taking her hands in his.

"What consequences would we face if I did not journey south, what detriments would we face if we were not betrothed in the spring? There is more at play here than land, and Ladies and Lords. Galadriel asked for me as an offering of peace and forgiveness, not as a slight to the King."

"But does she not desire to rule as you said."

"Aye she does, but she is not foolish in this act. Galadriel would not want water with the King. She will lay low, hide with her ring, and protect the forest and its people." Unede breathed. "Someone wants our families to distrust one another, someone wants us to be at odds, and to make rash decisions. Decisions which bring harm to me, and to our people if we miscalculate."

"Daeron." Legolas muttered and clenched his fists.

"Aye, Daeron."