When the song ended, Lalwen grinned shyly at Legolas, thanked him for the dance, and trotted nimbly back to her friends, who had recently divided with Legolas'. Legolas suddenly noticed that his eyes had followed Lalwen all the way back to her clique, and were still observing her closely. Shaking his head in disbelief, he ambled back to his own friends. When he was within five feet of the group of males, they pounced on him, and dragged him back to their table as they had done when he had first entered the hall.
"Well?!" breathed Aratar, a tall, blonde, Elf from Rivendell, "Aren't you going to explain yourself?"
Legolas arched an eyebrow.
"Explain?" he asked slightly sarcastically, "What do I have to explain? All I did was dance with a girl!"
"Yah, yah," replied Aratar, waving the comment away impatiently with a hand, "But that was Lalwendë!"
"And?"
"You honestly don't know who she is?" implored Rinannaion, another Elf from Rivendell, weakly.
"She's Lalwendë!" answered Legolas, confused at his friends odd behavior.
"Yes," replied Carondion, Rinannaion's twin brother, "but Lalwendë is the daughter of Nimheru and Eärwen, the king and queen of Himlot! The daughter that was stolen by Orcs one thousand years ago, and, as the story goes, never seen again!"
When Legolas didn't reply, Carondion continued,
"Nimheru and Eärwen are coming all the way from Himlot tomorrow! Elrond sent them a message today!"
So that was why Elrond had left so suddenly after Lalwen had awaken! It was all coming together now; Arwen's surprise at recognizing Lalwen, Elrond's abruptly departure, Lalwen's necklace...the princess of Himlot was well known for her necklace. It was precious to her, she never took it off, and was always very careful with it. Legolas, his head quite muddled, excused him self and went up to his room. He saw, just before he left the assembly hall, Lalwen turn her head, and watch him with a rather blank expression on her pale face.