The company had been seized and taken to the Lair of Syrus, where they were imprisoned underground and separated into 4 groups: Elven children, human children, Elven adults, and human adults. There they sat, awaiting Syurs's decision of what was to be done with them.
"Who is Viennen?" Legolas asked Elviondel after nearly an hour of silence in their cell.
Elviondel looked up at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"We will die soon, it does not matter anymore!" he snapped. "Now tell me."
Elviondel looked away. "My sister. She's only a child of 35, captured by Syrus. This trip has been educational, however. I did not know for sure that he'd taken Galadriel."
"She is dead, he said."
"Yes, he did. But I do not believe him."
"He called you iell?"
"Yes, he did that as well."
Legolas looked at her with curiosity mixed in with anger. "Why?"
"I don't know."
"You do."
Elviondel stood and walked to the other side of the cell. "I was a slave here," she said finally. "He, my master. He bred Elves for an army, believing them to be the greatest creatures for the task. But the Elves rebelled against him, and he tortured one of us until the point of mutation… that is how he created the Ums. My sister and I escaped soon after he decided to mutate all of us, but he followed us and took her back. I promised her that I would return, but now it seems I am too late."
Legolas stood as well and put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."
"But Syrus has never been one of his word."
"That does not matter. He has tormented you by lying in any case."
"I would give anything for her," Elviondel said, her eyes stung with tears. "I would trade in Lórien if I could, just for her life. But if it is true… if she is dead… then there is nothing I could give, for even my giving Middle-Earth would not bring her back to life."
"I know how you feel. I have just lost my only 2 daughters, and I would give anything to see them again. I still don't know if it's worth it… trading lives for Middle-Earth. I think I shouldn't have taken the children along, but if I hadn't we wouldn't have gotten this far. Would that have been better? Where would we have gone? What could have happened if I failed to follow my own plan?"
Elviondel looked at Legolas with sympathy. "What would have happened, had I failed to try and trick you like I did? You were not my ticket out of Lórien, you were my ticket to Forochel – here. I told you I wanted only to be with you until we left the forest, when all the while I knew where you meant to go and planned to go with you. Traveling is safer with a company, I'm sure you know that. Especially through Angmar, unless I wanted to go around it and loose 5 days. And Celeborn never sent me in the first place…" Legolas looked at her, surprised.
"What?" he demanded.
"I only came for Viennen."
Realization suddenly ran smack into the Lord of Mirkwood. "You traitor!"
"Yes," Elviondel said, tears flowing down her cheeks now. "I am a traitor. I betrayed my master, my King, and my company. I might as well betray the entire Elven race. I have done none but disgusting deeds since I was freed, all the while keeping only my and Viennen's best interests at heart. And the worst of it is, I'm not sorry. If she were here, I'd do it again."
"You are a very twisted person," Legolas said through gritted teeth. "Even after you have committed these crimes, you are still not sorry? For if you were I would forgive you, but not now. Not anymore."
"I'd do it a thousand more times if my sister were here!" Elviondel exploded. "Because I love her, is that such a crime?! How can you say you are even a bit good when you are against the very love that you hold for your departed children! It is a family love, one that you feel since birth. You have a tie to them like no one else, and you will never forget them no matter how many thousands of years you live. And I will love her until Middle-Earth comes to an end!"
"There is a line between love and crime!" Legolas yelled back. "I would not lie to people, not disobey my master or king, not hand in my companions for only a mere vision of the dead!" Then, suddenly, Legolas stopped and had second thoughts on the words that just came out of his mouth. Would he, though? How much would he do to see Anywien and Galia again? Would he lie for them, or hand in others' lives so that these two were spared?
"When the choice is yours to make, I would like to see it," Elviondel replied. She sat down against the wall and glared at the other side in silence for the rest of the time.
