"Follow me inside."

"You're stepping on me, you idiot!"

"Sorry, m'lady."

Today was the day. Today they would-be heroes. Over the past months beforehand her dear friend had started to act strangely at best. Every dawn Talen would be found reviewing a collection of scholar's tales. Though more realistically, he was found resting peacefully on the sooted document.

Her mind was nothing but consumed with the darkness of life still. Each day the night would reflect her solemn mood. At first, she had never truly believed the memories she had. Perhaps it was nothing but a dream. Yet even through the day, her mind would be wafted into the realm of nightmares and childish dreams.

She felt free. Her body no longer carried the weight of exhaustion or stress.

She could see a girl like herself. Like herself, she held the same darkened eyes. But she still had a small look in those eyes. Something she would not dare feel again.

The air wisped past her, revealing the seemingly ancient time. She was too young.

Alone sat a frowning child, nothing but in a small nightgown underneath the vast stars of the heavens.

¨Another late night, m´lady?" She would sit still, glazing past the treeline.

She sighed, "It's just a bit of sleep, Talen.¨ The stars were always so bright. Another excuse to run from that house would present itself as the glimmering stars. Sadly, as the coal and metal production increased, the more that desolate smog would suffocate the air. Then again, she couldn't complain as it kept her warm.

He would chuckle, ¨You need the rest, the stars can wait another night.¨

Ah yes. They would, they could but she couldn´t let them wander into the red hue without saying hello. In her mind, she considered those gems worth more than the whitest gems of Lasgalen, the finest axes, or any of the finest golds to compare.

She had never truly thought about that moment longer than needed. A simple memory that held nothing but numbness and the cleaner of those thoughts. Call her mad but if she could preserve those gems, she couldn't care less of her mistakes.

He sat up and would swindle her from the tree branches and would try to make that smile appear. Always jumping, swinging, dancing, singing. Yet again, she knew this night was different.

¨Please my friend! I wish for only a moment!¨ On the grassy floor they would lay, forgetting the days beforehand. It felt like hours before she had realized something. He had yet to even speak of himself. Normally she never would miss the daunting speeches of Greenwood, always proud of the newly named country. But she knew something was wrong, and she hated not knowing.

She turned lazaly seeing the straw poking from the ground.

"Things never stay the same do they?" Huh? Oh of course, she had noticed his behavior. Her eyes were set apart from the sight she was witnessing. Her body was frozen among the gentle breeze of the night.

A small smirk peeked from his lips, "Never. It's exciting to live in change though, eh?"

"Not really." He silently sat up, and glared at her, me. A lighting pain passed through her, knocking her to the ground.

While her present self reiled in pain, the past self of Eira laid comfortably in the ground.

Talen looked past still, walking towards the clearing, watching the starry night presented.

"Eira? I…I need some help." She sat up reluctantly, her brow arched.

"What kind?" He turned his somber face to her, and suddenly, their next month was decided.

She could help but sigh at the irony behind that moment.

"Run, Eira!"

"It's your fault!"

Ever since that fateful day, Talen and her had attended every meeting in Greenwood about the kidnapping. It was debriefed that a young girl, barely a teenager like her, was reported missing for a year. She was so young. She was too young.

Looters and traffickers exiled had begun to take these children. And suddenly they would simply disappear. It was only since this child had a sister did she go detected.

It was dangerous. The young girl, Nereinda, was skilled in healing and particularly had been commissioned by a group of men to find a poisonous substance from the plants intoxicated from the orcs breeding grounds. She had refused and suddenly, well, the situation was clear.

Every day, every minute, she couldn't help but fall deeper in the hole that was this crime. Her heart couldn't separate her life without knowing one location, one person. Every minute she felt consumed by despair. She knew it, but it helped distract her from the world of her's. War, violence, drunkens, congregated around her town.

"So we are all informed of the status of this case?" They were in the counsel, yes.

All were in agreement except her.

"Nin heru, if I may, I can go and search if I am given the names of the men. I have ties and I may-" Yet when she looked up past her hair, there was no one. No one else except him. He stood peering out the baloney simply waiting for..something.

She couldn't help the racing thoughts, and like the wind they shoved her on the right side of the lord.

"What troubles you?" She stood in silence as her plans ceased to come forth. Only till he sighed and beconded her forward did she snap out of the trance.

"You're a friend of Talen I presume?" Her lips rose to a small smile,

"Apparently so," She beamed

The overlooking scene was one to ival all the glories she had seen. Vibrant flowers skewed about as the daylight shone past the windows into the courtyard. She could swear all the creatures and people were there yet nothing but the blissful silence remained.

"Eira?"

"Yes heru nin?"

"Oh please, I may be older than you but certainly you may call me by my first name."

"Well then, Elrond, it's just…" How on Arda could she say this without seeming mental? He stopped and lead them into a large library, stacks on stacks of the oldest of scrolls and documents adored by history.

He looked no more royal than she did. He only endowed himself in a simple sage robe and his circlet. No jewels, nothing. A pair of eyes pointed at her curiously.

"Just what?"

"I want to go out there and find those men. It seems so stupid but it would help me find peace in their wrongdoings."

The trees would lean into their touch. Each creature laid in peace as their caretakers maintained their home. The air was fresh with mint. A scent of renewed spring. It was as if there was little to no sign of misfortune from the war. Those chairs in which they sat were once the placements of the meeting of the ages. The one of nine great one's of peace.

They rested on the study's chairs. It was similar to the room of her.

Not again no no no no. My fault. Everything wasn't supposed to be like this. She was too late. She made her like that. I swear. Not my fault. Monster.

"Tell me Eira, do you think you've done enough?" What? What did he mean? She certainly did enough. Did she screw something up of importance? She was careful. Her cheeks swelled with disdain.

Before her mind would light with such thoughts, he leaned closer to her.

"Peace my friend, you've done little to anything wrong. In fact I would say you've assisted more than most on the counsel. What I mean to ask is if you do not see your own hard work."

These were the moments she forgot as well. Did truly that realization shock her into such a drought in her memory?

"I mean yes but I can always improve! I only want to do my part." Her voice could not help but break the truth and crack. Silence struck the hour and as tea leaves were drunk he let her mind unravel.

For the first time in a while she whispered "I need to do more. I need to help that girl. If I can't do that, what value do I have here?"

"Who told you such things?" For once, she could not hear this thought. She could not base a response as she trained her mind to do. Nothing helped her formulate a coherent response to combat the idea he insinuated.

Life taught her "No one. I only need the maps and reports to find them, please." He had to agree, she was doing everything for this girl. Yet her appearance looked dreadful, he thought. Her eyes were puffed and darkened from the late nights. Her clothing and hair skewed around as if the wind had blown in her face. She was only attentive throughout the meeting, though her eyes would droop and her back curve to rest if the subject was changed.

The elegant figure bowed his head. Staring downward at the stacks of papers left onto the petite table.

"I won't allow it."

"What?" Her eyes darkened.

"I see your thinking but please Eira-'' Her was overrun by her thoughts stomping over the man's words. She wasn't allowed to do this? She had to do this. She was trying to help, how dare he try to interfere! Didn't the lord understand! She had to be saved! She had to save her.

"You're losing yourself in this case, Eira." He sighed, "I appreciate your help but you have neglected everything but this. Everyday Eira. Everyday Talen worries for you. Take my words with thought. If you don't take care of yourself, I won't allow you to continue down this pa-"

"No!" Anything but that. Yet…did she even help in the end?

It's your fault!

"No," she babbled, "No, please I need…I need to do this." She couldn't hear anything. There was no color outside. Why did the world drain like this?

"I swear by my name I will improve myself, but please, let me help."

He sighed, his brows furrowed, "Eira, that's exactly what I wish for you not to do. I know that your eyes' version to help is to hide it. I understand helping her might help the sorrows in your life,"

"I won't, I only wish to help this girl. Please Elrond, if I can't go let Talen and his battalion do it. I can advise them from afar. I will do what you ask but let me help."

Was it my fault?

"I can't allow you, Eira. Regardless of your expertise I cannot allow you to harm's way but-"

"But you allow Talen! He is nothing but a boy still! Only striking his eight-hundredth summer! My lord I beg you-"

"You will not! Allow me to speak, and you will hear my truth," Time was a fickle thing. "You will remain here, stay away from this case, and enjoy your week with relaxation."

In the end, she could walk away. Do what she had said.

"Truly?"

"It is the best."

Slowly she turned to eye the lord from his seat. He couldn't understand, but he will soon.

"Then I will take my leave. Goodbye, my lord." As she turned to leave her hand slipped onto the tea cup, causing the water to spill over the papers below it.

"I apologize! Here let me help this." Slipping the cloth over the spill, her hands lingered as he turned to gather my cloth to save the wooden structure.

"It's nothing but a table, Eira. In time there will be another." As they said their leave she lingered between the door frame.

"I do my best?"

He chuckled, "The finest."

A smile crept onto her face, "Then only fate can help those ruffians there. Thank you, Elrond."

As the past left the room, Eira could feel something in her cheeks. And suddenly it was black. She froze as she sensed another figure in the darkness, eyes staring her down.

"Who will go there?" Nothing.

"Speak, coward!" Nothing. Didn't it already happen? She knew she would leave the room empty-handed below time had transcended.

Why did she feel cold lingering from her hand? Then she remembered. It hurt. It burned. Why did it hurt so much?

"You're quite the tough one aren't you, deary?" She couldn't see anything besides the green smoke filling the inky room. Everything was too much. Too much sorrow.

And then, she was on the roof. With a map inside her hand and a burden in her heart.