A/N: Well I hope the Prologue was well received by everyone. (Thanks Nyx!) Also Just to warn everyone, my lock-jaw and migraines (both of which are chronic, long story) have been going nuts recently so if my posting times are a little off I do apologize. Also spring planting, etc etc etc. So on and so forth. Life, you know?

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JR

P.s. P-atreon and Ko-fi update: Why aren't there tiers and goals yet on either? Mainly because I'm trying to get used to writing regularly on them. I don't want to promise my patrons something and not be able to deliver. So I'm working on building slowly and getting my routine down, then I will be doing some patron-only content like polls for story design and personalized thank-yous and inspiration videos or packages that contain some of the things that inspire each story and other various things. So hang in there with me, I'm still learning, and sign up to follow me so that when the tiers and goals go live you'd be the first to know. (Edit: There is a poll up on my P-atreon page now! You can help me choose my 2021 NaNoWriMo project!)

Pps. I've begun posting on Ao3 beginning with older stories. Any deleted "scenes" of the oldest stories will be posted there as well. What do I delete? Mainly anything that needs to be edited out to meet the rating rules on this site. But also little interesting snippets that just slowed down the pacing. Eventually, when I am caught up to present stories the snippets and deleted scenes will be posted first to patrons, then to Ao3. I will not be posting them here on this site. Apologies. But it has more "interesting" rules.

Chapter 1 Waking Up Part 1

Reluctant to leave either woman, after all one was ill and the other couldn't be seen if there had been a change for the worse, Glorfindel had called to a passing ellith as he jogged to the Singer's cottage that was hidden away along a tiny stream that ran through the city surrounded by trees as old as the city itself.

Not many knew the cottage was even there anymore, so long had it been since it had been lived in. But Elrond had protected the Singer's small space and gardens quite zealously. Just as zealously as Caelann had designed and built it in her years with them. The healers knew of the gardens and her library, and used them both frequently. Elrond himself maintained them, not trusting either of his sons, or anyone else for that matter, to the task after they had nearly killed a plant that Caelann had sourced in her travels that was known to increase blood in the wounded.

He had been as close to furious as Glorfindel had ever seen the elon and punished the young males with a year of mucking out all of the stables by themselves for that. And four more when they had misplaced one of the books she had written about the care and treatment of orc poisoned wounds. And when they misplaced a book on mind healing the only thing that saved them from their adar's wrath was an industrious maid who remembered shelving the tome in the official healer's library, and the fact that Elrond had taken the precaution of duplicating all of the books Caelann had made. His boys may have had trouble learning from correction, but he did not.

But they had eventually learned and never removed a book from the Singer's library again. Or had gotten into a scuffle in the gardens. Or broken a pot with a balm for expectant mothers. In fact it wasn't until they were nearly eighteen hundred years old that he had allowed them to be by themselves anywhere near the cottage. And it wasn't until two hundred years later or so that the boys understood how precious the resources in the house were.

Caelann had seen them into the world, but they had not had much of a chance to know her.

Nearly kicking the door down, thank goodness for lever handles on the few doors that were actually on the house, Glorfindel nearly groaned when one of the brother's jumped up from his seat by the fire small fire that was currently causing a teakettle to whistle. "Glorfindel?"

"Elrohir I need clean warmed linens." He ordered striding into the guest quarters, careful not to jostle the unconscious woman in his arms. "Is Elladan with you?"

"Of course I am." The brother in question asked as if it would be foolish to consider him being elsewhere. He was always within meters of his brother anyway, even to sleep as their quarters were normally right next door to each other. Heaven help the female that thought to break the brothers apart, although many had tried and failed. "And who is that?" He asked innocently.

"Go into Lady Caelann's closet and get me a clean shift." The guard captain ordered, setting the woman down just long enough strip the guest bed of its thin woven blankets with a flick of his wrist. "And find what is taking your father so long!"

Not bothering to argue with his laconic friend, Elladan spun on his heels and jogged into the next room and its small but well stocked closet. Elrohir entered with a bowel of steaming water just as his brother passed the arched doorway. "Water for cleaning the river mud off and," reaching into his breeches pocket he withdrew a small clamped jar to set it on the small table beside the bed with the bowel. "And a balm for any abrasions. A cloth and soap is already in the water and linens are warming." Reaching into another pocket he fished out a tiny phial of smelling salts. "Best not wake he up until we know of her injuries I think." He murmured setting them down as well. "Did she regain consciousness before you arrived here?"

"For a moment," the blond answered, making quick work of the odd foot coverings. At least he understood the thick woolen socks but the others? Hard and bendable on the bottom but they weren't made of leather. He did remember something like them when Caelann arrived but these look different. There was a stilt like thing on the bottom, how would she walk in them? He shook the thought away.

Returning with a shift over his shoulder and his father behind him, Elladan also produced a roll with Caelann's combs and grooming supplies which Glorfindel looked to the woman in the unseen realm to see if she minded they use but only got an uncaring shrug in return.

Immediately taking over Elrond stripped the woman of her clothes, and to their credit neither of the brothers were anything but professional as they washed the mud from the unconscious woman's skin and picked through her matted hair to get all of the detritus from the river out so that her injuries could be tended.

"Do you know her name, Glorfindel?" Elrond asked, gently prodding every inch of the woman's scalp.

Looking at the unseen Caelann, he provided the name that she repeated for him. "'Tis Sherilynn."

Elrond started, blinking in surprise. "That is not an elfin name." His guard captain only nodded. "And you brought her to the singer's house." He said putting the pieces together. "She's a singer?" Much quicker than his sons did, Glorfindel thought holding the female so that one of the brothers could guide the shift over her head and pull it into place.

"As Caelann is stuck in the unseen realm," he muttered waving to the corner of the room where the other female stood. "I believe so. Also she said to please smack Elrohir because the female is unconscious and would not appreciate his ogling even if she were awake."

Casting a glare at his abashed looking son, Elrond quickly looked to where his old friend had motioned and saw only empty space. "Caelann is there?"

"She says you need to listen to Sherilyn's lungs and make sure all the water was expelled." The blond returned by way of answer and cuffed Elrohir when the younger male raised his hand to volunteer. "With the stethoscope that she drew out for your father not your ear."

Heaving a breath at his brother's behavior, Elladan went into the small still room that held all of recipes for the various balms and salves and powders and healing tools that Caelann had prepared. It had been added to over the years as healers combined treatments in various new ways but always kept carefully organized.

"This?" He asked, bringing back a shiny metal trumpet like object.

Nodding, Elrond reached for it. "Caelann, how many chambers are in her lungs?"

"Four." Glorfindel answered and then did the closest thing to an eye roll that an elf could do. "This is going to become tiresome."

Unseen by the others, Caelann scoffed. "Ye're telling me."

Quiet and observant, Elrond looked from his captain to the corner that Glorfindel stared at like he was listening to someone. "Elladan, Elrohir," he murmured getting his sons attention. "Please go to the kitchens and get a meal for our guest, myself and Glorfindel. Tell your sister I will otherwise be occupied for evening meal. And keep an eye on the east road on your patrols for Mithrandir. If we have a Singer in our midst, he is sure to appear shortly." Grudgingly, the twins departed, knowing that they wouldn't get any information out of their Adar and the captain until they had discussed the woman laying in the bed and what had occurred.

As the brothers departed, Elrond turned to collect one of the few chairs in the room. Deceptively simple, the wooden chair were carved with legends and stories that no one really understood but Caelann had laughed with every shaving of wood she had taken off. In fact she was still laughing as he lowered himself onto a chair that looked more suited to a dollhouse than a full grown ellon, didn't help that he was sitting of the chair she had carved the journey that took place during The Hobbit into. She had gotten bored on a long sea voyage around the northern ices, what else could she say.

"So," Elrond began after he eased himself gingerly into the small chair, now sitting beside the bed, and perched on it's edge while he listened as instructed by the invisible healer. "What occurred to bring this female here?"

The reticent captain leaned back in his chair, stretching his long legs out before him on the thick fur rug that covered the bare stone floor before he began his tale. Disliking the waste of words that most of Elrond's counselors used, his recounting was only the bare minimum. That he had gone for a walk, seen Caelann in the Unseen Realm and she told him where her friend was, he had pulled her from the river and brought her here. Nothing but the facts.

"You saw nothing else? Elrond prodded, his dark eyes darkening even further in thought. "You did not see her enter the water? No one else was around?"

Rolling her eyes, Caelann moved from her corner to the other side of the bed, perching on the mattress that didn't even rustle under her as she was weightless in the Unseen. "She is a Singer, Elrond. Placed in the water by Ulmo same as I was. Do keep up."

Glorfindel snorted a laugh but waved off Elrond's questioning look. Then a look of curiosity swept over his own face. "Is Caelann older than you, Elrond?"

The Elven Lord nodded just as the invisible Singer snorted. "She came in the first age I believe." Pressing his fingers to the sleeping female's forehead and noting that there was no fever with a satisfied incline of his noble head. "But when? I am not sure."

When he looked to Caelann, she only smiled enigmatically. "What month is it?"

"The month called May in the common tongue." The captain answered without thinking, then his pale eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why do you ask?"

As she relaxed near her friends head, tucking her feet under her billowing shift, she again only answered with a smile.

And he was quickly distracted by a knock at the doorway. The lady Arwen swept in with a smile, a platter in her hands and three more held by the smiling elleth behind her. "Adar, do you mind if I eat with you both?" She asked in the same way her mother had. It plainly said 'do not argue with me, you will not win.' All females it seemed, learned that tone at birth.

There was a reason he never married, Glorfindel thought, watching the young daughter of his friend bustle about the room having the small table that sat along the far wall moved closer so that they could eat in comfort. But there were advantages, or there would be if he wasn't the last remaining member of his house so he had no reason to worry about it, he added.

"Of course, my dear." Elrond said on a sigh, a wry smile twisting the corner of his mouth as Arwen began placing steaming bowls of stew and a platter of rich soft bread fresh from the ovens before them.

Arwen, having more sense than her brothers, left off her interrogation of her ada and the guard captain, at least until they had a full stomach and a goblet of wine to match and the dishes had been cleared away. Her questions crept on cat's paw through the conversation until she had pulled from them every scrap of information that she could. Although there wasn't much to be had, she thought with a frown.

The female that lay on the bed, although something of a mystery, was also a bit of a legend even a myth, though she had never been to Arda before. Singers? She met Caelann as a child, but it was so long ago that she couldn't remember it. What was this one like?

Caelann, remaining silent through the entire conversation, smirked watching Arwen, who did in fact live up to her name as Undomiel or the Evenstar. She had grown into a beautiful ellith, with her mother's bone structure and her father's coloring. She saw wisdom and kindness shining from her eyes and a mischievous quirk in the corner of her mouth. The older singer could indeed see why Aragorn would fall for her.

In the books, he had always been so stern, so confident and ready to be a king. A wise and kind queen? One who could make him laugh and smile? Would be not just invaluable but priceless. And in the movies, where he had strength but less surety in his steps and choices? Where he still wrestled with the decisions of his ancestors and the fears that he would repeat them? Her kindness would be a balm. Her wisdom a wonderful balance. And the confident manner in which she handled and viewed things? A guiding light.

But it did leave Caelann wondering which version of him she would see. Maybe it would be a combination. Well, wouldn't that be interesting.

Pushing himself from the chair with a sigh, Elrond moved to once again check Sherilynn's heartbeat and see how her eyes reacted to the light. There was very little he could actually do until the female awoke. She was not bleeding, there were no breaks or dislocations. He found no areas of swelling or softness where there should be none. There were a few small bruises and scratches but nothing to truly worry about. She was breathing easily, her heart seemed steady and strong. But until she woke, he could not tell if the deprivation of air she had suffered in the river had addled her brain. And Valar help them if that happened.

Ulmo had not been pleased when Caelann was injured in one of the skirmishes of Dagorlad. He hadn't held it against any but the orc that had injured her but it rained for a week until she was on her feet again. It had been bad enough fighting in the dirt so thick with blood that it became mud and they sank to their knees at times. No one had been able to do any fighting that week. But it had allowed them time to repair and regroup.

"Arwen, would you mind terribly keeping an eye on our guest?" Elrond asked some time later when it seemed that she would sleep through the night. "Glorfindel should get back to his men and I really much notify your Galadriel about this development."

"Of course, Ada." She said with a smile, she had after all hidden a bag full of something to sew in anticipation of the request. And if she became bored with that there was always the library or something to work on in the garden or still room. "Do not forget to send a message to the Elvenking as well." She reminded as he stood and replaced the chair. "She may have news of the queen and he would want to know of it immediately."

Having thought of that, and not looking forward to the possible invasion of the mercurial ellon, Elrond sighed. This female could either bring very good things and glad tidings into the world, or terrible and terrifying ones. And he did not like the uncertainty of it all in the slightest. "I had hoped to wait on notifying him until we knew a bit more. At least until she woke."

"Better to send two messages at once than to risk angering him with one." Glorfindel drawled, glancing at the still female in question. "He may construe it as you attempting to conceal information from him. You know how capricious he has become since the queen was lost."

Elrond's shoulders sank as he let out a heavy breath. He did know exactly how changeable Thranduil had become over the years. Withdrawing from society had been expected for a time when he lost his spouse, grief was such an odd thing changing its path with each person like a river when a dam breaks, but the king had done much more. He had cut himself and his kingdom off from everyone.

The Great Greenwood had shrunk into itself in the face of the growing darkness becoming what was now known as The Mirkwood. The Queen never would have allowed it. She would have fought until the woods ran black with the blood of the orcs and the giant spiders and then she would have burnt the corpses until there was nothing but ashes and Thranduil himself would have sent those ashes into the air and the waters as offerings to the Valar.

Even as he thought it, Elrond knew that wasn't correct either. Caelann would have fought and would never let the connections she forged with the other realms die, but for some reason that lady had always held her own council. She dropped hints, made sure everyone had the tools that they would need, but never openly made decisions unless…

Remembering Glorfindel's statement that the queen of Greenwood was stuck in the Unseen Realm, he spun on his heels to the sprawling guard captain who had not moved a muscle from his relaxed pose. "Is Caelann still there?"

Arwen blinked at this. They had not mentioned the queen being here. Glancing from side to side, she saw no evidence that she was anywhere about, and her ears picked up on no sign of her in the house. "The queen is here?"

"Sitting at the top of the bed." Glorfindel nodded, looking to the female who was now resting against the headboard, her legs stretched out along her friend's side. "Listening to every word. Although she fades in and out of sight every now and then."

Wondering exactly why that was, but setting it aside for the moment, the Lord of The Last Homely House looked in the general direction his captain stated. "What would you have me tell your husband?"

Unseen by all but the captain who, although no one but she saw it, glowed in the unseen realm with a shadow of the light of the trees, the queen lowered her head to stare at her fingers as she thought for a time. Long seconds ticked by, noted only by the tiny machine called a clock that rocked back and forth to keep track of them, as it had for nearly four thousand well maintained years but still she didn't answer.

Arwen, although used to long brooding silences from both of the males in the room with her, was nearly coming out of her skin before the queen answered. Or at least before Glorfindel told them what her answer was. So who other than they could tell who the hold up had been.

"She says tell him of the presence of another singer, as he would probably feel it in the song of the world anyway. But do not tell him that she is stuck in the unseen realm. As she doesn't know why yet," he huffed a breath and stood. "she would rather he not know that yet. And if things go as the Valar have gifted her sight of, this singer will be seeing the king to bring him news herself before the year is out. She asks that I and the Lady Arwen look through the armor, weaponry, clothing and traveling items that she has here to see what would fit the Lady Sherilynn as she is much…"

If anyone asked Arwen later, she might just have sworn that the Lord of the Golden Flower was blushing. "Smaller in size than her majesty is."

"Oh fer heaven sake Glorfindel." Caelann sighed, rolling her eyes at the ellon entirely unseen to all but him. For which he was grateful. "She is smaller in the chest and hips than I. My clothing and armor need ta be refit ta her or new made. This is a matter of practicality not something ta be scandalized over. Ye have had female warriors serve with ye before this. Just because yer eyes have drifted more than once does no mean ye get ta act like a blushing maid."

"That is quite enough, Caelann. And I have not looked!" The captain snapped and then coughed, remembering that only he heard a word that she had said. "Damn." He hissed under his breath.

Politely, Arwen coughed lightly into her sewing to hide the smile. When she calmed once more, she turned to the unseen queen. "Would you like me to read some of the medical books that have been written since you left? Two thousand years is quite a lot to catch up on."

"She says if you would please begin on the evidence-based care journals and then go on to the unproven treatments she would be grateful. And she wishes that you could see and hear her because she has done some research during her time away and would really like to get it down on paper just in case." Glorfindel relayed as he bowed to both females and then strode from the room without a backward glance. Elrond following in his wake after he pressed a kiss to the top of his daughter's dark head.

"Frustrating male." Caelann sighed, before turning her attention to watchful elf maiden who smiled as if in agreement.