Neder
{The man with black eyes. The man with black eyes sees you!}
Legolas found his appetite evasive as he sat across the dining table from Carandoliel. For her part, she had noticed the brooding silence of the prince and had decided not to bother his thinking with meddlesome questions. Legolas stared into the plate in front of him, thinking about so many things and yet they all came down to one thing…neither he, nor anyone in the palace for that matter, knew anything of the woman they called Enberaidien- and it was this puzzle piece that was driving his thoughts.
Carandoliel finished her supper in silence, noticing that Legolas hadn't touched any of his food. She felt terribly concerned and could not leave the table, wanting so desperately to be confided in. Legolas slowly came out of his musings and noticed the pale beige candles burning brightly before him. They were little more than the length of his thumb now and stood atop their own cascades of hardened dripping wax.
{Her ear…that ear…}
He quickly shook his head as though chasing away a chill and noticed that his wife still sat quietly at the opposite end of the table.
"Oh Carandoliel…forgive me. I have been an uncivilized bore this evening." He watched her face slowly turn into a small smile which split her lips but slightly, revealing the tiny row of pearls hidden beneath. Legolas, heartened by her forgiveness, picked up his spoon but found the soup tepid and tasteless. He looked up again at Carandoliel and recognized her concern and grief at his silence.
"May we retire?" She glanced down at his plate and then back up to him.
"You have hardly eaten at all Legolas." He knew the use of his proper name came about only when she was truly distressed and so to please her, he sipped quickly at his wine and managed to eat half of a slightly warm cut of meat and a small portion of bread. When he had finished, Carandoliel rose and customarily, so did he. Together they walked side-by-side towards their bedchambers.
"There is something I wish to speak with you about." Legolas felt he must confide in someone, and Araorë was far from rationality, leaving only Carandoliel, his trusted partner.
"What troubles your mind my Lord?" He began to re-tell the events ever since his arrival, leaving out nothing and making a point to highlight the odd behavior of Araorë. At the conclusion of his narrative, Carandoliel remained silent and the soft folds of her dress slowly moving with the rhythm of her body were the only sounds to be heard.
"I knew something was troubling Araorë, something to do with the stranger the servants kept whispering about. Sometimes when I would speak with him, he would become terribly cold and always seemed to be in a hurry to end the conversation…But a man with black eyes? What did she mean by that Legolas?" That same fear he had heard before was coursing through her body and giving her voice an unnatural waver.
"I shouldn't let that trouble you." He tried to sound confident, though the woman's words had struck him to the core. "She was raving- hardly a coherent source of information. I doubt she knew "I" was even there, per se. I was just a warm body that came too close." Carandoliel's body remained taut and Legolas began to wish he hadn't poured his worries onto her. So often he forgot how much she bore and how silently.
"Let us talk no more of it tonight, I see how it distresses you." He wrapped his arm about her waist as they came to their chambers.
"Thank you, Legolas."
~*~