Fallacies of Vision
Book 1: Mesmerize Me
By: Furia
Chapter 4: Violet eyes
I ran like the wind to the water
Please don't leave me again, I cried
And I threw bitter tears at the ocean
But all that came back was the tide
~ I Will Not Forget You, Sarah McLachlan
The room was dark. The small fireplace was the only source of light in the cottage. The flames dancing and leaping, casting moving shadows on the walls. The room was silent. Not even the scratching of a mouse or the shuffling of feet could be heard. Only the sounds of the swishing of water echoed through the room.
Erdaliel sat at the dinner table near the fireplace, the rough wood scratching her arms as she placed them there. The elf tilted her head to the side in a thoughtful gesture, quietly taking in the image of the girl in front of her.
She had preferred to sit on a small stool across the room instead of at the table with Erdaliel. The elf didn't take it against her, it seemed that this newcomer had it in her nature to be very shy. But she hardly spoke a word since Master Legolas disappeared behind the curtain door a while ago, and it was beginning to puzzle the young elf greatly.
For now the girl sat quietly as ever, head bowed down low and hands clasped together. She sat in the shadows, the fire was casting light on the walls. Although the light seemed to dissipate into the air again and again with each time she sighed heavily, as if there were a great burden on her shoulders.
For a moment Erdaliel saw something bright sparkle from the girl's fingers, but then she pulled her sleeves down and it was lost from her view.
"Iantha is it?" Erdaliel said getting tired of the silence, swirling the contents of her cup of water absently. The foreign girl only barely nodded in reply, eyes trained on the ground and her stringy brown hair scattering over her face as she did so. There was something so dispirited about this young woman, something that the elf could only put down to nothing of her business.
~Oh, but Erdaliel… it is.~
The elf girl looked up from staring at the strange girl to find herself face to face with her teacher coming in from the bedrooms. The wise elf barely looked his part, and some would still confuse him as an elf in his prime years. But there was a solemn searching in his blue eyes whenever he looked at anyone, and that told Erdaliel that her master was hiding far too much as well.
The sneaky old elf was reading her mind again. Erdaliel glared at him briefly for that. Her master only gazed at her, his smile showing in the twinkle in his eye. But it was gone in a blink as he turned to face the newcomer.
"What brings you here, Iantha? You say that my friend Gandalf the Grey has sent you here." Her master said, moving towards the girl, who was now visibly shaking.
The girl Iantha shook her head, her trembling becoming more pronounced with each step that Master Legolas took. Erdaliel furrowed her brows in puzzlement, and opened her mouth to say something before Iantha spoke.
"Indeed, it is as you say, Sir Legolas. B-But I am afraid that h-he is no more, the G-Gandalf that we all know." She said with a strained voice, as if she was forcing herself to speak instead of bursting into tears. Her jittery fingers were playing with the fabric of her soiled clothes, and Erdaliel caught a glimpse again of something sparkling under her long sleeves. The more she spoke it seemed that the less control over herself she had, for now she was trembling violently, rushing and stuttering over her words, and tears starting to slip down her cheeks. "He w-was killed before I-I journeyed for this p-place, A-Avarion."
"What?" Erdaliel exclaimed, standing up suddenly. Her cup spilled its contents on the table, slowly dripping to the floor unnoticed. Gandalf… Mithrandir… was killed? Surely not, why he had just been to Avarion a moon ago! Her master's body was tense, she could see, his head tipped down and his fists were clenched tightly.
Iantha looked up at her in surprise, and there and then Erdaliel saw with unease the color of the girl's eyes. Not blue, not brown nor green as she had thought. A color in between the blue and red. A purple, a lilac color that was nothing she had ever seen before. Bursting with a fire and strength and a Power barely there that Erdaliel knew would still be unleashed at this point, the young woman's stare was puzzling.
But now the violet eyes were brimming with tears, misty and almost all pupil in fear and grief.
"Gandalf, my mentor. He was murdered."
***
