Author's note: Hey there everyone, I'm finally updating again, so here it is…
By the time Alinne came out again, a good 15 minutes later, Nerodel was completely dressed. His nightgown was huge on him, giving the impression of a ghost. He was standing by the bed this time, still looking out the window though.
"Uh, hello," Alinne managed to say. The situation was a bit awkward still.
Nerodel turned to look in her direction. A small smile appeared on his face as he greeted her back.
"Would you like to lie down?" he asked motioning towards the bed.
"Yes thank you." Alinne answered, the simple "civilness" of the conversation was amazing her. She walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge. The thought of lying down on the bed however, suddenly felt uncomfortable to her. Instead she just stayed on the edge of the bed. Nerodel noticed her unease, but thankfully said nothing.
"I wanted to ask you something," Nerodel nodded, urging her to go on. "How are you here? I mean, you were in Mirkwood, and lived there for as long as I can remember. When did you come here?"
"Well, it is a quite difficult question to answer. In a way, I have always been here, my soul and conscience was always here. I do not mean that I wanted to be here, but I was. While my soul was here, however, my body was in Mirkwood. How much sense does that make?" He asked noticing Alinne's puzzled face.
"None," Alinne answered tersely.
"Alright, let me try again," Nerodel said with a smile.
~*~*~*~*~*Back at the dinner table~*~*~*~*~
"Mmm, this is delightful my Lord, as always."
"Yes, thank you, I do have a skill in picking the right special for the day, do I not?" The Wizard answered haughtily.
"Yes, very much so," she answered again taking a very unladylike bite of dark brown meat.
Legolas' food was left untouched. Even his vegetables looked murdered.
"My Lord, Nerodel should have been back quite a while ago, I can go look for him, if you like." Kenisse offered.
"I think he can take care of himself, Kenisse." The wizard answered without looking up.
"Well, yes my Lord," Kenisse said as she lowered her head to hide her embarrassment.
"It is just that," she stubbornly continued, "he has been up there for quite a while, and what if he is getting a little too friendly with our guest up there…"
"If you might recall, what you suspect he and our guest might be doing is exactly what we want them to be doing." The wizard answered finally looking up from his plate.
"Yes it is just that, he has been doing it again, my Lord." Kenisse answered quietly.
"Again?" the wizard answered, lowering his fork. "How does he mange to keep this away from me? I thought I was supposed to know everything that goes on in this castle!" he added furiously.
What are they talking about? It? What is it?
"Did he not get checked yesterday? I heard he was just fine."
"He was my Lord, I do not know how he did it, but he passed." Kenisse answered as quietly as before.
"How long has he been skipping them?"
"Weeks, my Lord, possibly a month or two."
"A month?! Or Two?!" The wizard was beyond steaming mad.
"Well, maybe not that long, he takes them once in a while, just not daily as he is meant to."
"And how do you know this exactly?" The wizard suddenly asked sternly. Kenisse seemed even more embarrassed. Her head was so low, a little more, and it would be touching her plate, and the nauseating special on it.
"Well," Kenisse started. The sentence never quite finished itself though.
"Never mind that, you will tell me later, however, since you know so much, tell me, when was the last time he took it?"
Legolas was completely puzzled, the wizard and Kenisse seemed to have forgotten he was there at all. What they were talking about made even less since.
"I do not know exactly, my Lord, but it has been a while."
"Well, all right, I will deal with him tomorrow."
It seemed everything was solved, both were quiet again and for more than twenty minutes all that was heard was the forks hitting the plated, and the sound of 'the special' being slowly digested. However, soon after the silence, Kenisse put down her fork again and looked up at the wizard.
"I am sorry, my Lord, but something is still bothering me,"
"Oh all right, what is it, Kenisse?"
"What it is that is troubling me is that he might tell her something we do not want them to know yet."
"Like what?" The wizard asked looking up at Kenisse again.
"Well," Kenisse began, and then it was like there was some kind of silent communication going on between them, Kenisse tilted her head in Legolas' direction, and the wizard suddenly understood something."
"He would not tell that, would he?" he asked getting up. It seemed like a question not needing to be answered, but Kenisse did anyway.
"If he has not taken the flower for so long, I am afraid he might." Kenisse barely had time to finish the sentence, before the wizard had jumped up from the table and stormed out in the direction where Alinne and Nerodel had gone just a little while ago.
"What is the flower?" Legolas asked, not really expecting an answer. To his surprise though, Kenisse looked up at him and began a long story, one that would carry them all the way to the room as they had gotten up to leave.
~*~*~*~*~*~*Back to Alinne and Nerodel~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The story had been told and retold, yet, so hard to comprehend that Alinne was still having trouble understanding what Nerodel was trying to explain. What she had gotten so far was that somehow, the wizard had separated Nerodel's soul into two. His body and soul both resided in Mirkwood, but another part of his soul, was with the wizard at all times. How that worked, Alinne still couldn't understand.
"Well, actually, there is this…" Nerodel began. A long pause followed, so Alinne decided to get him back on track with his story.
"This…" she said, urging him to continue with her hands.
"I should not be telling you this." Realization seemed to strike him. He had already told her too much, not enough of what she wanted to know, but far too much of what she should not know. Curiosity getting the better of her though, she decided to push Nerodel to tell her the rest, or well at least a little more.
"It is alright, you do not have to tell me, I understand," she said sadly, a technique that has never failed her before. Men are supposed to be strong-willed, but really, once you discover their weakness, there is nothing you can't get them to do. For most men, elves mainly, since Alinne knew few men, the technique was simple. Alinne discovered this at an early age, and tested it many times. Making them feel bad for not telling her always worked. I worked every time, although sometimes she got the feeling that it was not her strategy at all, as if some other force was making the people tell her information.
She dismissed the thought of that force early, convincing herself that it was impossible, although how she got the Mirkwood cook to make something special for her every week, was still a mystery, to her and the cook together.
Nerodel it seemed, had fallen for the trap as well. His eyes softened dramatically, and after a long 'I-am-going-to-regret-this' sigh, he began again.
"There is this…this flower, it has, a sort of special power, that when combined wi-"
He was cut off by the door on the outside being slammed open and the wizard yelling profanities towards their room. Alinne turned towards Nerodel, pure terror was in his eyes. She was afraid too, her mind screamed at her for being so stupid. Knowing too much has never led to any good! It yelled over and over again. Very soon though, Alinne could hear nothing, not even her mind, over the terror in her whole body, they had only but a second until the wizard would come storming in. What he would do, she did not know, but what he was yelling just outside the door, did not bring much hope into her heart.
Nerodel had stood up now, but not moving away from the bed. His bravery had done that much, but he could do no more. Alinne shuddered to think what the wizard could have done to bring such terror to Nerodel's eyes.
It all happened too fast, and too slowly at the same time. The wizard came barging in, the door swinging wildly against the wall, no doubt making a large mark, and he had seized Nerodel by his shirt and pulled him violently out of the room, shouting profanities and death threats. Alinne watched in horror, it had seemed in slow motion, her eyes watered as she saw the collar of Nerodel's shirt choking him, as the wizard grabbed him, and she saw scared eyes look back at her as he was pulled from the room. It was all too slow, she wished that it would end that it would pass, but as soon as it was over, when she could no longer see the retreating shadows of the wizard and Nerodel, she wished that it had not passed so fast. Shamefully she realized she was still in the bed, that damned white fluffy bed. She had nothing.
Her mind refused to accept that in all fairness there was nothing she could have done anyway. Suddenly, she hated the bed, she jerked herself up violently, and jumped out off, sitting down, instead, on the floor in the corner.
She had spent little over 10 minutes there when her mind had sorted most everything out. She got up and sat back on the bed, it was stupid hating an object, she figured.
A little over an hour later, the door had slammed open and Nerodel came in. The joy in her heart died away as soon as she saw his eyes; malevolent, cruel, and spiteful, they were the epitome of anger. He came to the bed and sat down, not once looking up at Alinne. He laid down and seemed to fall asleep instantly. Out of fear, or safety as she convinced herself, she got out of bed to go sleep on the couch in her room.
"Get back into bed." A low menacing growl from the sleeping form on the bed, however had quickly changed her mind. She moved as far to the side of the bed as she could, and fell into a restless sleep.
Author's note: Hey everyone, terribly sorry for the long wait again, but my computer and I are having difficulties. I think I'm just jinxed with computers; this is the brand new one too, since the last was being awful. Anyway, it keeps freezing and saying "your computer is dangerously low in resources, please restart". Does anyone know what the heck this means? Please enlighten me. Anyway, if my computer and I get better acquainted with each other soon, I hope to upload again soon, otherwise, well, I just hope it won't take as long as this one did.
