Arwen awoke to a mix of screaming and crying from the youngest elf that was in the Angmarian house. She sat up in her bed, then quickly got up and opened the door. There, right before her eyes, stood an angry-looking, well-built Amgmarian man.

"Where are you going?" he asked her in a serious tone.

"Is that my child?" she returned.

"She will be silenced in a minute."

"Only by me. I demand that you let me see her at once."

"This is not the palace, my lady," he said mockingly. "We are perfectly capable of silencing her ourselves." Then the screaming stopped and he felt proud that he was correct. "You see? Now get back in your room."

"What did they do to her? How did they get her to stop?" Arwen asked, wondering if they had knocked her out or done something barbaric like that.

"I do not know, nor do I care. Back in your cell."

"Let me see my daughter!"

He glared at her. "You won't pass, gamajo. Get back."

"I won't, because my baby was crying." Arwen had by now realized that the screams hadn't been from Laesien. The owner of the voice was younger than her, so it must have been Galia. Of course, Galia was actually older than Laesien, but her vocal cords developed more slowly, and if she were human she would look much younger, so she had a younger-sounding voice.

He sighed. "I was hoping we would be able to trade you in for the money, but maybe I'll have to kill you here and now. Don't think I won't, because if we fail to sell you we will kill you anyway. I may as well do it now."

"Please," Arwen said, trying the more humble approach. Maybe he would take pity on her. "Please let me see her. If only for a moment."

He looked at Arwen, considering it, then finally stepped aside and pointed to a door diagonal from her own room. "If you aren't out of there in exactly 5 minutes, I will come in and kill both of you. Understand?"

Arwen nodded and entered Galia's room. She was sitting on the bed, sobbing softly and hugging and rocking herself. Arwen's heart melted as she saw this poor young child sit there on that poor-quality bed in this run-down place, crying. Holding herself, maybe hoping to find the same comfort that she received when her mother held her like that. Arwen walked over to her and hugged her.

"Shh," she said. "It's all right. Why are you crying?"

Galia sniffed and when she spoke next, it was a bit slowly since she wasn't used to using the Common Tongue. "My father told me that we would be home soon," she said. "He lied, and now we are trapped here."

"It will be all right. We'll all be fine."

"I only want to go home." The small girl then returned Arwen's hug and wrapped her arms around the older woman, and she was being held as Arwen took the silence to ask her something.

"Why did you get so silent so fast."

"They told me-" She sniffed. "They told me that I would have my fingers cut off, one by one, if I was not quiet."

Now Arwen's heart was completely torn in half. Since she was a mother, she had a large soft spot for young children, especially her life-long friend's children. And she couldn't believe that these Angmarians would dare say something like that to this adorable little girl.

"Oh, it's all right. They wouldn't do that."

"They would," Galia answered. "Something in her eyes told me."

Arwen nodded. "I understand what you mean. These people… they are easy to read by their eyes. An eye is a window to a person's soul."

"I only want to see my mother."

Arwen knew what she meant. There is a place in every child's heart that they reserve for their mothers, and that hole can only be filled by her and her alone. No matter how much Arwen hugged and cooed, she would never be able to comfort like Gwilith could.

"I'm sorry that you've been separated from her," Arwen said. "No child should have to go through what you are going through now. But we will get back in Mirkwood soon enough. We are only a few days from Forochel, and after we get there and do… well, whatever it is your father has planned, we will go back. And the trip there will be shorter than the trip away, for we needed to take many detours and we stopped in Rivendell. Home will come sooner than you think."

"I hope so."