Disclaimer: Because, yes.

Chapter Fourteen: Back Into Place

Eli leapt up as soon as Legolas entered the library. "Did you see her? Did you find out abou-... What's wrong?" He could see Legolas was torn between screaming fury and sobbing hysterics, he just couldn't tell why. "Legolas, will you stop fuming or crying or whatever you're doing for a second?"

"I. AM. NOT. CRYING." stated the prince with a wavering voice, then he started to mutter to himself to prevent another explosion of emotion.

It was another couple of minutes before Eli managed to get partially coherent sentence from the other elf.

"She's... in her dorm room... with that elf." He said angrily.

Eli didn't ask who that elf was. Legolas had been ever-so-kindly referring to Berloc that way since the dance.

Filior came in moments later, his hands full of books. "Here are the books you wanted, Eli. Now tell me, what's wrong with my sis- Oh hi, Legolas." said the young prince cheerfully. He got a grunt in response.

"Um, Filior, I'm afraid we'll have to wait a bit to have this discussion." the healer muttered, nervously taking the books.

"Well, WHEN? She IS my sister and you keep acting as if she's going to die any second now."

"Nonsense, we're immortal, you know that."

"That's not what I-"

"Yes, yes, just please go. I promise, whatever I find out about your sister, you'll be the first to know."

"No, you will."

"Just go to class!"

Filior walked away calmly, trying to maintain his sense of dignity. Eli shook his head and sighed in frustration while Legolas muttered to himself.

"Legolas, what's bothering you?"

"You know what's bothering me. Why doesn't she show me any friendship? Why not any caring or pride in me or, gods, even affection?"

"She's not that kind of elf."

"Oh, she's not? She was hugging that.... thing."

"Oh, he's a thing now?"

"Yes," pouted Legolas childishly. "A thing."

"Then that means she'd rather hug a thing than you." He watched satisfactorily as Legolas struggled to decide whether he should glorify Berloc to make himself look better or demean him and make himself look worse.

"That was low of you, Eli." he settled finally.

"You asked for it. Now, if you would like to use some sense and just go talk to her instead of blubbering and stuttering like a little child- Oh, forgive me, I forgot. You both are currently engaged in hating each other with a violent passion. Well, there's an odd thing. If you're busy hating her, why do you-" Eli succeeded in annoying Legolas away and and went back to studying. "Okay, chapter one: Delusional Spells." He read, placing a finger on his place on the page. "Delusional spells are very powerful if they are cast from... Ugh, I need to know what KINDS of spell there are. This will take forever." Unfortunately, being a talented and well-known healer, Eli didn't always have forever to sit in one place.

*~*~*~*

Elorelei looked thoughtfully at the necklace after Berloc left. It appeared harmless, just a silver chain with the pendant of an silver eagle on it. After much thoughtful consideration, she came to a very rash decision. "Eh, I could do with some freeing right now." She moved to clip it on, her finger reaching around her neck. With every millimeter, the necklace began to buzz. Everything got louder. She could hear things happening down the hall, hear her own breathing as if it were magnified a thousand times over. Time slowed down as her hands made sloth-like movements, at least to her. Her mind was screaming warnings at her. It was nearly around her neck, the clasp was just going to close on the chain...

"Elorelei?"

Startled by the voice, the chain fell from her hands to the floor. After swearing and picking it up she put it back in her trunk. "Legolas." She said by way of greeting, not having to turn around to identify him. He was silent for a time. A long time. She don't know how long he stood there, staring at the floor. He was trying to pick out words that didn't make him sound stupid, which were few and not enough to give an accurate description of why he was here. Knowing she would positively hate herself for it later, she opened her mouth to speak first. "I'm sorry."

He finally looked up. "What?"

She huffed and turned to face him. "I said I was sorry... I AM sorry." The words coming from her mouth made that arrogant little voice in her head positively scream with rage. Legolas smiled. She refused to look at him, making a disgusted noise. "I make myself sick." She muttered, staring at the ceiling with a 'why me?' look. Legolas began to speak but she silenced him. "I'm warning you, if you even think to apologize, I'll send you flying out of the nearest window."

He reconsidered his sentence. "Thank you." He said, finally. She mumbled in response. He continued. "I-I-" He didn't really want to say this, but he had to know if anything had changed between them. For better or for worse. "I saw you crying." He left out Berloc for his own sake.

"And?" she replied like it was nothing.

"You aren't exactly one to shed tears at any particular thing. What happened?" He watched as her hand flew to her face, involuntarily.

With some effort she put her hand back down. She no longer saw a point in lying to him. "Jayik hit me." She said simply.

Legolas gave her a clearly surprised look. "Hit you? Jayik?"

"I was saying some... less-than-nice things about you. He wouldn't take that disrespect of you and he hit me." He was silent, so she kept going. Allowing everything in her instincts to roar at her for spilling her feelings, but she didn't care. "It made me feel... weak. I don't like feeling weak. I didn't mean those things about you either." She added, a little desperately. The voices in her were raving and foaming at the mouth now. You're disgusting! Look at you! Shut up now and keep at least SOME pride! This only encouraged her to continue. "But... you were my friend and-"

"Are." He corrected.

She smiled. "You are my friend and I didn't want to admit that I... was glad of your company as much as I was." She finally stopped talking, waiting for some kind of reaction, except Legolas was grinning maliciously. "Ugh, enough of this fluffy, friendly stuff. Let's go practice. We have our graduating archery tournament in six months." He nodded, agreeing, asking her about her episode of insanity slipping his mind.

A/N: Just had to mend that up real quick. I'm still trying to decide about the necklace. But it'll get out of the way in chapter 16, honest injin..