The Tithenduin glittered in the morning sun as if thousands of diamonds had been crushed and mixed with the water. Thranduil had spread out a wide blanket to cover the wet grass and soggy mashed leaves and kept them far back from the river under a line of beeches and pines. The air was crisp and biting, the first hints of the approaching winter, and Charlotte shivered in her cloak, wrapping it tighter around her body.
Legolas had wandered near the river, though he was still a good twenty feet away. Even that felt too close for both Charlotte and Thranduil, who had stayed behind to pick at the remnants of their picnic. Apparently, Berior agreed because he stood and ambled over to Legolas until his body blocked the elfling from getting any closer.
"Stay away from the water, Legolas," Thranduil warned the elfling. "I do not want to see you trapped in its spell." Thranduil leaned over to discreetly press his lips to Charlotte's hair, somehow knowing his words would cause a swell of shame within her.
Berior nudged the elfling back to the blanket with his nose, and Legolas giggled as the elk's breath puffed against his neck and ears. Charlotte laughed as the elk's efforts descended into a game of tag, with the giant elk zigzagging and twisting himself in circles to lick the running elfling. It was good to see Berior in such high spirits, considering when she first saw him in the stable, she nearly left him at home. His patchy fur had further diminished, and his coat was short and thin enough that she could see the skin beneath. He had to be freezing, but he never complained. She'd thought he'd been shaved, but Rocher had told her that no such thing had occurred.
"I'm worried about him," Charlotte whispered, her fingers plucking a pumpkin seed from one of the many dishes Thranduil had packed.
Thranduil's eyes darted up to study the elk, and he said, "All will be well, meleth nîn. Rocher assures me that Berior is eating well and shows no other signs of illness. Even his fëa looks brighter than before."
"I hope so."
"We'll face it together." His hand drifted to wrap behind her back, pulling her closer. "I cannot bear this space between us. Are you ready?"
Was she? What if Legolas felt like she was stealing his Naneth's place? Then what would they do? Her stomach fluttered, but she nodded. "Legolas, love, would you join us for a moment?"
Legolas froze so quickly that Berior careened around to avoid crashing into him. The elfling looked to the elk with a worried expression, and Berior nudged him forward. "Did I do something bad, Adar?"
"No. Of course not, ion nîn," Thranduil said gently, but Legolas's brows still twisted with worry.
"Did something else bad happen?"
"We need to rip the band-aid off," Charlotte sent to Thranduil.
"What is a—" Thranduil shook his head and sighed. "Legolas," he said aloud. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to find the right words.
"Are you sending me away?"
"What?" Thranduil's mouth popped wide with horror. "Little leaf, never! I will be by your side for as long as you wish it. I will always want you with me." He paused, and then before Legolas could create another worry, he said, "Legolas, I know you love your Naneth very much, and she will always be your Naneth." Thranduil cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. "I should have practiced before I did this." His voice was panicked in her mind.
"Yes?" Legolas dragged the word out. He frowned.
"Well, the thing is," Thranduil tried. "Well, I mean, I…"
"Legolas," Charlotte said, grabbing Thranduil's hand and gently squeezing it. He gazed at her with such a look of gratefulness and relief. "I love you and your Adar very much, and your Adar loves me too. That's why... he has asked me to marry him, and I said yes. I hope—"
Legolas flung himself at both of them, arms outstretched. "Finally!"
Charlotte's arm reflexively caught him, and Thranduil did the same on the other side. They blinked owlishly at each other over Legolas's head.
"Does this mean we can come up with your name together now?"
"Wait," Charlotte said, leaning backward so she could examine the exuberant grin stretched across Legolas's face. "You're not upset?"
"Or surprised?' Thranduil asked.
Legolas shrugged at his adar. "Charlotte's always been your elleth, and you've been hers. I've been telling you both for months." He rolled his eyes.
"But you're not upset at all?" Charlotte pressed. "Because Legolas, it's okay if you are. We understand how you might have worries or questions."
"No," Legolas shook his head happily. "I'm well. I've always known you were Adar's special elleth, like Iruion and Naneth." He turned to Thranduil. "If I'm not in trouble, can I go play with Berior now?"
Thranduil blinked, his mouth agape. "Yes?" And then he came to his senses and added, "Just stay away from the water and keep close to Berior. I want to be able to see you at all times."
"Aren't Maethor and Haedirn in the canopy?"
"Their task is to keep the clearing safe, so if you leave it, you will pull one of them from their duty and leave the other exposed. Stay with us."
"Yes, Adar. Come on, Berior!"
Charlotte watched them cheerfully chase each other over the grass and pondered Legolas's response. A part of her worried how easy it had been to tell him. She'd expected him to be a least a little upset, but he appeared perfectly content! His excitement had been quick and genuine. Her eyes followed him as he dodged Berior again.
"That did not go as I had anticipated, but I suppose we should not argue our blessings," Thranduil said. "And though I would like to forget about our other purpose here, it is best we begin."
Charlotte nodded and stood, dusting her hands on her leggings before leading Thranduil to the banks. After she'd settled on her knees before the glittering river, she reached a hand out to dip into the water.
"Don't!" Thranduil cried, grabbing her wrist.
"It doesn't affect me, remember? I swam through it that night too and I was fine." She gently wiggled herself free and patted his hand. "You can hold my other hand though. It might make it easier for me to travel the forest."
Thranduil cupped her hand in his own and nodded. A moment later, his golden fëa exploded from beneath his skin. It slid against her, coaxing and calling, until she felt her fëa burning within her, begging for release. She dug deep and pulled it to the surface, filling the clearing with her light, twining it with Thranduil's.
Her lungs heaved, and she took a deep breath to center herself before she rose from her body and flew into the forest song with Thranduil. There was such freedom to it! She could feel her knees digging into the moist earth, hear Legolas giggling as he chased Berior, but her soul swept through the whole the Greenwood, flying fast through the pines and the clacking branches of the dormant beech trees, through rabbit burrows and the few remaining bird nests. Thranduil chased her down the Tithenduin, all the way to the Dark Mountains, where their souls leaped from plant to plant in the old settlement, before soaring further and further south.
As they crossed beyond the Forest Road, Charlotte felt coldness creeping into her soul. There was darkness in the southern forest, a murky, sticky feeling that made her feel as if she were wading through tar. Her progress grew slow, and Thranduil clung to her as she pushed her awareness further and further. Despite the terrible inky feeling, she'd yet to find anything.
But then something pulled on her.
Charlotte? Thranduil's panicked voice echoed in her mind.
It pulled again, and she flailed. She was being yanked away, sucked in by something much stronger than her, tugging her, dragging her fëa into the far south.
"Charlotte!"
She heard the cry through her ears but couldn't get her mouth to move. Thranduil's fëa was gone, cast from her sight by the smoky shadows that drew around her. The pull became painful, like a tearing sensation in her chest, and she felt her feet shift beneath her, her body rising, running through the forest after her own fëa. Far in the distance, her soul fought and clawed to be free, shrieking and gasping against the shadowy hands that had wrapped around her. Her panic doubled when she saw it.
Standing high atop a hill in the distance, a dark multi-turreted castle spiked the sky. Grey clouds sat heavily above it, and the trees grew weak and diseased the closer they grew to the stone palisade. A screeching sound echoed through the rocks, and a deep voice scratched against her soul. "Come closer, little one," it said. "I have been waiting."
Charlotte yanked and thrashed, somehow knowing if her soul entered the castle, she would never escape. Laughter, painful aching laughter rattled her bones as a man emerged beneath the gate. Easily five times her height, he swirled out of the darkness, a creature, a man, made of wisps of night. "Bring forth your light, little one, that I might see it," he crooned. "You know you are not for them. Like, but unlike."
Tendrils of blackness wrapped around her fëa, following the link to her body. She hissed, abandoning her focus on her body and throwing all of her concentration into burning her fëa bright and hot. Please, don't let me burn out, she prayed.
The creature hissed with rage, and the pain grew and grew, leaving her screaming and thrashing until her voice would've grown hoarse.
She felt a hard thump as her body was slammed into the ground hundreds of miles away, and then her fëa nearly exploded as three others collided with hers. It felt like a first breath after almost drowning. The screeching in her head grew frantic, and she felt the others tugging her free until she whipped back into her own body so fast that she immediately rolled over, shoving the three ellyn off of her and hurling the contents of her stomach in the grass.
"What happened?" Haedirn barked. His hands roamed over her clammy face, studying her eyes until Thranduil pushed him out of the way.
"Are you alright?" He asked. He cupped her face, smoothing away the tears she hadn't realized were there. He was safe and whole before her, and her thundering heart gave way to relief.
Something tugged lightly at her knee, and she flinched, nearly kicking Maethor in the face. He spoke soft and slow as if he were afraid she would run from him. "We tore your leggings when we jumped on you. Your knee is bleeding," he said gently. "With your permission, I would like to treat it and bandage it." He held up a small glass vial and strips of linen bandages.
Charlotte nodded jerkily, regretting the movement almost immediately when the motion sent her dry heaving again. Thranduil rubbed her back as she retched, and her throat burned as the acid worked its way up her throat.
Berior called out to her, and she turned slowly to find him. Panic welled when she noticed someone missing from the group, and Charlotte frantically tried to sit up. "Where's Legolas?" she said. "Is he safe?"
"I'm here," her favorite elfling said, stepping out from behind Berior. His face was soaked with tears, and his lip was wobbling.
"Oh, little leaf." Her eyes fell closed as she held her arms wide. Legolas instantly dove into them. "Thank goodness you're safe too."
Thranduil wrapped them tightly in his arms, letting Charlotte cuddle a hiccuping Legolas and settle her breathing. "We need to return to the safety of the cavern," Thranduil said. "Legolas will ride with Charlotte on Berior. Haedirn, see if you can gather an escort for our return. Quickly! We need to get her further north."
"You were all grey and glowy," Legolas cried, "like you weren't here anymore."
Charlotte didn't know what to tell him. She had no idea what had happened. She rubbed the elfling's back even as her tremors caused her to shake against Thranduil. "I'm here, Little Leaf. I'm here." She tried to sound calm, tried to let him know that she was fine. But she wasn't. The screeching echoed in her mind, and far in the south, she felt the darkness calling, as though now that she was aware of it, it constantly weighed on her, lying in wait, patiently hoping she would connect with the forest again.
"There is darkness in the trees," she sent to Thranduil. "The forest grows ill, and a man, a shadow, haunts your old fortress. I hear him calling to me even now." She sent him everything, all of the images running on loop through her brain: the shadowed man, the crumbling turrets, the creature's grating voice.
Thranduil paled. He pursed his lips and released a high-pitch whistle, and Charlotte's body rattled against him. "I'm only calling for Belegroch," he soothed.
But she heard the high screeches that filled the turrets of Amon Lanc. Maethor brought her back by gently patting her knee. "This should work until we get home and can clean it properly," he said, nodding to her bandage. Then, turning to Legolas, he added, "May I lift you onto Berior, Legolas? We need to move, and Charlotte cannot climb on until you have done so."
Legolas allowed himself to be scooped from Charlotte's arms and settled atop Berior, though he looked close to tears again.
Thranduil did not ask, but she would not have denied him anyway. He lifted her easily into his arms, shifting her in his grasp so he could raise her onto Berior's back. "Can you ride?" he asked her.
It was far too late for such a question and the doubt that came with it, so she nodded and hoped willpower would be enough to keep her astride. Her shaking hands gripped the reins tightly. "Please, don't let me fall."
"I will not."
She hadn't realized she'd sent that thought, and Thranduil's reply had come through like static on an old TV.
"My brain feels scrambled," she said aloud. "I'm sorry if I accidentally 'send' everything to you."
Thranduil raised a brow but nodded. Belegroch broke through the trees right after, with Haedirn and Maethor's horses trailing him, and Thranduil leaped onto his back and pulled his horse as close as Berior's size would allow. "I will be with you the entire time."
They heard a piercing whistle from the tree canopy, and then Haedirn dropped to the grass from one of the tall pines. "We have at least twenty and more on the way. The path to the cavern is clear."
"Excellent," Thranduil said. His eyes scanned the trees, and Charlotte followed his gaze, wondering what he was searching for in the thick boughs. She saw nothing aside from dark pine needles and bulbous, spiky cones until an ellon materialized from within the branches. His dark hair was braided back in double braids along his temple this time, and his cheekbones were as sharp as the point of the bow peeking over his shoulder. Súldil had, of course, not changed at all in appearance since he first dropped out of the canopy when she arrived in Eryn Galen.
"Yes, my king?" Súldil gave a short bow.
"I want every elf pulled north of the Forest Road, immediately," Thranduil ordered. "No one is to travel the southern forest. Inform the captains to remain alert. Further orders will be delivered by messengers before nightfall."
"Yes, my king," he said.
"Dismissed."
Súldil bowed once more and vanished into the trees. With everything settled, Maethor took the lead and Haedirn the rear, and the party dove through the forest at breakneck speed, racing for the safety of the caverns.
"I never even got to try to heal the river," Charlotte lamented to Thranduil. "And I will not get to with this… this… shadow waiting for me."
"Calm yourself," Thranduil sent back. "The elves know to avoid it. For now, they should be safe if they stay out of the water."
Charlotte nodded but then, "Will they be? Thranduil, what about Galion? He was nowhere near the river when he fell ill. What if it's spreading somehow?"
It couldn't be spreading elf-to-elf. If it was, Meluieth would already be enchanted ten times over. Thranduil seemed concerned by the idea. She caught a flash of his frown as he galloped beside her.
"I do not know how Galion succumbed. Unfortunately, most assumed he was drunk when they found him. As you know, it is not uncommon to find he has over-imbibed alone in the cellar." Thranduil was silent for a moment as he debated. Then he sent, "I will set guards to watch the Forest River. Should it be enchanted, it would likely take on the same appearance as the Tithenduin. That is all we can do for now without assigning an elf to check it each day."
A poison checker. For their river.
Charlotte thought the day couldn't get any worse, but then they arrived at the caverns and saw the lines upon lines of injured elves and men in bloodied clothes and filthy bandages limping toward the arching bridge connecting the forest to the cavern's mouth. The northern outpost and Northmen had arrived.
Charlotte stiffened when they spotted her, expecting the same warm welcome she received from the other elves of Eryn Galen. So she almost toppled off Berior when the whispers began.
"Annuiel. Annuiel."
She hadn't heard that name in weeks, hadn't had any mention of her spoken so reverently by the elves. The whispers grew, heads turned to watch her process with Thranduil to the cavern's bridge, until the chanting and cheering roared in her ears. "Annuiel! Annuiel! Annuiel!"
Thranduil appeared just as confused as she was, but he pulled closer to grasp her hand and whispered in her mind, "Wave to them. Greet your people."
She felt weak and tired, and yet, looking at the wounded around her, she tugged herself straight for them, pasted on a grateful smile, and waved. They cheered and shouted and cried her name, and she briefly panicked when they surged forward, their hands gently running across her cloak as if for luck. Maethor pulled his horse to her other side to block them when they began to crush against Berior.
Charlotte let herself slump when they dropped into the tunnel that dug through the mountain to the stables. "What was that?" She asked Thranduil.
"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough."
Translation:
Anniuel - Western Star. The epesse given to her earlier in the story, which has fallen out of use since the elves have created another epesse after she enchants the river: Rhudoleth.
AN: I'd hoped to have good news for everyone for today's special post, but alas, it was not in the cards. Hopefully, I will be able to share the good news in the next chapter update. I really wanted to post today, since today is the one-year anniversary of this story! (I typed that before I did my final read-through, and so now "yesterday" was the anniversary as I've now been chronologically thrust into Tuesday.) Anyway, I posted the very first chapter to Sorrow's Starlight on March 1, 2020, and since then we've shared 33 chapters of adventures together. A huge "Thank you!" to everyone for being on this journey with Charlotte & Co and with me. Your follows, reviews, and messages have meant the world to me.