CHAPTER 25 - Conspiracy of Imladris
"But adar," came a voice, "They will not find healing here, nor will they find rest."
"I have told you once Elladan, no. Do not make me tell you again!"
A large door banged open, revealing Lord Elrond marching through his chambers in deep crimson and gold embroidered robes, followed closely by his two sons who were trying to persuade him to let them have their way. As usual, they were loosing.
"But adar . . ."
The angry elf lord of Imladris turned around and the twins stopped in their tracks. Glaring, Elrond held up a hand to stop them talking.
"What healing do you think they will find in Imladris? They are already facing so much inner-turmoil that if they have any more burdens added they will not be able to take it! They must be somewhere they know and are familiar with if they wish to ever come out of their darkness!"
Elladan looked earnestly in to his fathers' dark eyes. He brushed a loose strand of dark hair out of his face and was silent for a few moments, thinking about what how to word what he was going to say. At last, he spoke slowly and carefully.
"I found healing in a strange place adar. How can you say that they will not? They have so many memories here of the very things that are stopping them finding peace. Imladris is so calm and serene - just what they need. Here everyone knows their story, and they think that their own people are blaming them for what happened. In Imladris, that would not happen. The shadow that lurks here is intimidating them. Please adar, let us take them back to Imladris when we leave!"
A silent struggle of will power between Elrond and the twins drew out time, as neither force was willing to give in to the other. Even though he had Vilya, the mightiest of the three elven rings, Elrond was beginning to have difficulty overruling his sons in this battle of wills. Had they been left to themselves, they probably would have stood there for hours, immersed in their silent battle, but as it was they did not have to. The door to the room swung open again and Lady Celebrian slipped through the door in a yellow silk dress that swished as she walked and glinted as light caught the beads sewn on to the bodice and skirt. She frowned.
"Elrond my dear, what is this? Arguing with your sons already?"
She swept across the cold stone floor and her skirts rustled as she moved. The elven maiden wrapped her arms around her sons' waists protectively, and Elrond sighed.
"Celebrian my darling, Elladan and Elrohir wish to bring the princes back to Imladris with us for a while. They seem to believe that if the poor things stay here for much longer they will fall in to shadow and despair, eventually being forced to take a ship west across the sea or to be taken to the halls of Mandos. I have been attempting to tell them that this is not about to happen, but they are being stubborn," he folded his arms, and the three male elves stared at Celebrian, leaving the final decision to her. She frowned and rested her fingers gently on her lips, as she always did when thinking deeply.
At last, the beautiful elven woman reached a decision. As she took her fingers away from her lips, she could hear the intake of breath from her husband and sons as they awaited her answer with anticipation.
"I think we ought to take them with us," she said calmly. The second she had finished her sentence, the elven lady found herself being grasped in to an almost suffocating embrace by her overjoyed sons. Elrond, however, was not so happy about the decision. He stood on the brown rug in the centre of the room with his mouth hanging open, dumbfounded. His lips were pursed and his brow was furrowed as he came to terms with loosing the argument.
"Celebrian . . ." he began, but she held up a delicate, pale hand for silence. Elladan and Elrohir, still beaming happily, linked their arms with hers, smirking at their father.
"Now all of you listen, and we shall come to a compromise. We shall ask the princes themselves if they wish to come. If they say 'aye' we will take them, and if they say 'nay' we shall not even mention it to them again. If they do say 'aye' then nobody from Mirkwood is to know. We leave here, and once we have been gone two days, Mithrandir will tell Thranduil where they have gone, and then Thranduil will come after us, demanding the return of his sons, thus proving that he loves them. That is one of their major dilemmas, is it not? Believing he hates them?" The elven lady looked around at her family, content with her decision. Elrond had to admit that he had married an extremely good diplomat.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
There had been no movement in the room since Silnan and the healer had fled from Thranduil in terror. The heartbroken king had turned around on his low stool, and had not moved again, his sad eyes resting on the face of his dead beloved.
The door creaked open slowly, letting in bright light from the corridor. Lord Elrond stepped in to the room carefully and shut the door.
"King Thranduil," he said, his voice quiet and respectful, "My people and I do not wish to intrude upon your realm in a time of such distress. We will leave the day after the funeral of your queen and daughters."
Thranduil stood up slowly, pushing himself up, and turned around to face the elven lord. As the pair locked their eyes, Elrond felt a wave of the emotional pain that Thranduil had been feeling so recently.
"They say that my sons will not let any close to them, save your sons," he said. The voice of the king, once so full of pride and power, now sounded small and lost and, if Elrond was any judge, slightly accusing.
The dark haired lord nodded his head once.
"Aye, 'tis true," came the reply. Elrond wondered how Thranduil knew, if he had not left the room.
"I hear them whispering and speaking in low tones about in outside the door as if I am deaf," said the king sadly; as if he knew exactly what Elrond was thinking. "Why will they not let their own people even see them for more than a fraction of a second?"
To this, Elrond had no answer, being one of the many people the princes fled from. King Thranduil carried on regardless.
"Legolas . . . my youngest son . . . he found a maiden on the night of the feast, before all of this happened. She was from Imladris. Will he let her close?"
Elrond was silent for a moment, trying to remember if he had heard anything from the young elf recently. He seemed to remember seeing her crying when the messenger orc had appeared, and then again more recently when the young prince had been brought back to the halls unconscious, but since then he had heard little of her. Celebrian would know.
"I do not believe so your majesty, but it is possible. I will ask Celebrian."
The king of Mirkwood nodded once and sat back down on his stool, turning his back to the powerful elf lord standing close to the large door. Although Elrond would usually have taken it as a great insult, he was sure that it was not a thing Thranduil would usually do so he rose above it. Believing it to be a dismissal, the elf put his hand on the door handle to leave, when Thranduil spoke one last time.
"Tell Silnan to make sure Culkemen is promoted to captaincy."
Elrond nodded, wondering for a few moments that Culkemen was before remembering that Silnan had mentioned her as being the warrior who had doubled as the queen. The elf frowned disapprovingly - women should not have to fight. He left the room quickly and quietly, shutting the door behind him and leaving the king in peace. The elf lord hurried off to make preparations for leaving. If the funeral was set for the next day, that would leave them only two more days in Mirkwood.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Having escaped the clutches of the healers, Legolas and his brothers were gathered in a little circle around four small items in the room Calensil used to sleep in. Sad music could be heard playing faintly from the throne room in the form of a high, female voice and a harp.
The items in the middle of the princes were a sprig of holly, a ring with the ensign of their house, a shinning white gem that once belonged to their mother and Lin the teddy bear, who was now more shabby than ever - blood matting his fur and staining the bald patches. Somewhere along the way his eye, the original one, had fallen out and stuffing had begun to fall out of one leg. Astaler had added a button in the place of the lost eye shortly after returning from the orc caves, and had mended the ear with a scrap of fabric. The princes had tried to make him sit upright, but the bear fell over every time they let go of him so they gave up. The ring, of course, was the one Urshak had taken from Neldoreth, rescued on the path by Nuryávië.
Around the room there were eleven white candles lit, one for every member of their family, alive or dead. A little while ago, the princes had been lamenting the dead members of their family, apart from Thellind who still refused to speak, but now they were sitting in silence, just remembering them.
Outside the door, footsteps approached and the princes tensed, listening to the footsteps getting closer. When the footsteps reached the door, made by two people, they stopped. As the door handle moved, the princes moved faster than any mortal could possibly have done.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
When Elladan and Elrohir poked their heads around the door, the room was dark and still as if nobody was there.
"Hello?" called Elrohir softly, "Are you here? It is only us."
The dark shadows remained still and silent as the twins slid silently in to the room.
"Are you sure they said they would be here? Is this the right room?" Elrohir. Elladan nodded.
"Aye, and they are here. Look, the candles are still smoking slightly. They have only just been put out."
The twins waited a moment, before the six princes emerged from their hiding places around the room. Astaler re-lit the torches as the Mirkwood elves stared at the Imladris elves. Elladan and Elrohir shifted uncomfortably under such close scrutiny. Their eyes took in the items on the floor, and they realised that they had probably just interrupted something very important.
"We apologise for interrupting, but adar has told us that we will be going back to Imladris the day after tomorrow. We were wondering . . . well, we were wondering if you would like to come back with us for a while," Elladan told them. The princes stared back at them, letting the words sink in.
"Us? Go to Imladris?" whispered Oroweth in shock, "You mean we would be welcome?"
The twins nodded, and then there was another pause.
"I have never left Mirkwood," muttered Legolas, to himself as much as to anybody else. His brothers nodded.
"None of us have," said Astaler
"I have once," Oroweth countered slowly, "I once went to Dale with adar and naneth. I do not remember much though, as I was only a small elfling at them time."
"You have always been small, and still are, my dear brother," whispered Nilwethion. Oroweth glowered at him and drew back, but Elladan and Elrohir grinned at each other. If Nilwethion made a joke, then that must mean that he was on the mend.
"So will you come back to Imladris with us?" asked Elrohir. The princes looked at each other uneasily.
"Perhaps it would be best," said Nuryávië, "Adar hates us, so we will not be in his way any more."
His brothers nodded sincerely.
"We would not be getting in your way, would we?" asked Oroweth nervously. The twins shook their heads.
The princes all began to look brighter, except Thellind who drew behind Nilwethion and whimpered quietly. The silent prince had never left Mirkwood, and did not want to. He loved the trees, and he had lived under their shadow all their life. As Elrond had argued earlier in the day, he was unlikely to find peace in a strange place he had never been. He was outvoted, however, and refused to be without his brothers who were his only source of comfort.
"We will come with you," said Legolas. The twins smiled. They had won over their father. Again.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: I know, I know, short chappie. I'm very sorry! It's just that school has started pilling on the homework, and I've hardly had a moment to myself. Writing a nice long chapter would just take up too much time needed for evil homework.
PERSONAL REVIEW THINGY
ICED1 ~ I can understand what you mean, but I still really liked her.
IMBEFANIEL ~ *panics* ai Eru, I can't believe that I forgot you! Um, here, have a basket full of cookies to make up for it. *Grovels* I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to skip you out. Nope, I'm not finished with this fic yet.
LEXIE02 ~ yeah, school's a drag. I can't wait to go to collage.
LITTLE WITCH ~ don't worry, they figure out eventually that they were both wrong.
ORODRUIN ~ yay, goodie, long review! Thranduil would feel guilty for the deaths, but he's just stopped thinking about anything and gone blank. Bits of the fic are going to be more dialogue based now, but there are still going to be action bits as well. A nice little mix of both. They will patch it up, but there's a whole big misunderstanding due to lack of communication first. Thank you for reviewing the other fic as well! There's going to be a prequel to this one when I finish it, but it isn't going to be happy. It'll actually be quite depressing, I think. I've got quite a few fics planned after that but your idea for a short fic on one of their pranks sounds good.
TAMARA ~ updated! Thank you.
JUKIA WOLFCALL ~ *is afraid, is very afraid* don't worry; the finish won't be anything like Déjà Vu. Yeesh, that was a bad fic! I can't help being mean, I just like tragedy!
LADY LARVLE OF MIRKWOOD ~ that was . . . short. What, only okay?
EBONY FALCON ~ I think that that's part of the reason, but they all blame themselves for their naneth and sisters dying anyway. Everything in my stories always seems to be a little mixed up . . . except in My Little Sister. That's not messed up, just me having a little fun with fluff.
COOLIO02 ~ yes, it is quite sad, isn't it?
"But adar," came a voice, "They will not find healing here, nor will they find rest."
"I have told you once Elladan, no. Do not make me tell you again!"
A large door banged open, revealing Lord Elrond marching through his chambers in deep crimson and gold embroidered robes, followed closely by his two sons who were trying to persuade him to let them have their way. As usual, they were loosing.
"But adar . . ."
The angry elf lord of Imladris turned around and the twins stopped in their tracks. Glaring, Elrond held up a hand to stop them talking.
"What healing do you think they will find in Imladris? They are already facing so much inner-turmoil that if they have any more burdens added they will not be able to take it! They must be somewhere they know and are familiar with if they wish to ever come out of their darkness!"
Elladan looked earnestly in to his fathers' dark eyes. He brushed a loose strand of dark hair out of his face and was silent for a few moments, thinking about what how to word what he was going to say. At last, he spoke slowly and carefully.
"I found healing in a strange place adar. How can you say that they will not? They have so many memories here of the very things that are stopping them finding peace. Imladris is so calm and serene - just what they need. Here everyone knows their story, and they think that their own people are blaming them for what happened. In Imladris, that would not happen. The shadow that lurks here is intimidating them. Please adar, let us take them back to Imladris when we leave!"
A silent struggle of will power between Elrond and the twins drew out time, as neither force was willing to give in to the other. Even though he had Vilya, the mightiest of the three elven rings, Elrond was beginning to have difficulty overruling his sons in this battle of wills. Had they been left to themselves, they probably would have stood there for hours, immersed in their silent battle, but as it was they did not have to. The door to the room swung open again and Lady Celebrian slipped through the door in a yellow silk dress that swished as she walked and glinted as light caught the beads sewn on to the bodice and skirt. She frowned.
"Elrond my dear, what is this? Arguing with your sons already?"
She swept across the cold stone floor and her skirts rustled as she moved. The elven maiden wrapped her arms around her sons' waists protectively, and Elrond sighed.
"Celebrian my darling, Elladan and Elrohir wish to bring the princes back to Imladris with us for a while. They seem to believe that if the poor things stay here for much longer they will fall in to shadow and despair, eventually being forced to take a ship west across the sea or to be taken to the halls of Mandos. I have been attempting to tell them that this is not about to happen, but they are being stubborn," he folded his arms, and the three male elves stared at Celebrian, leaving the final decision to her. She frowned and rested her fingers gently on her lips, as she always did when thinking deeply.
At last, the beautiful elven woman reached a decision. As she took her fingers away from her lips, she could hear the intake of breath from her husband and sons as they awaited her answer with anticipation.
"I think we ought to take them with us," she said calmly. The second she had finished her sentence, the elven lady found herself being grasped in to an almost suffocating embrace by her overjoyed sons. Elrond, however, was not so happy about the decision. He stood on the brown rug in the centre of the room with his mouth hanging open, dumbfounded. His lips were pursed and his brow was furrowed as he came to terms with loosing the argument.
"Celebrian . . ." he began, but she held up a delicate, pale hand for silence. Elladan and Elrohir, still beaming happily, linked their arms with hers, smirking at their father.
"Now all of you listen, and we shall come to a compromise. We shall ask the princes themselves if they wish to come. If they say 'aye' we will take them, and if they say 'nay' we shall not even mention it to them again. If they do say 'aye' then nobody from Mirkwood is to know. We leave here, and once we have been gone two days, Mithrandir will tell Thranduil where they have gone, and then Thranduil will come after us, demanding the return of his sons, thus proving that he loves them. That is one of their major dilemmas, is it not? Believing he hates them?" The elven lady looked around at her family, content with her decision. Elrond had to admit that he had married an extremely good diplomat.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
There had been no movement in the room since Silnan and the healer had fled from Thranduil in terror. The heartbroken king had turned around on his low stool, and had not moved again, his sad eyes resting on the face of his dead beloved.
The door creaked open slowly, letting in bright light from the corridor. Lord Elrond stepped in to the room carefully and shut the door.
"King Thranduil," he said, his voice quiet and respectful, "My people and I do not wish to intrude upon your realm in a time of such distress. We will leave the day after the funeral of your queen and daughters."
Thranduil stood up slowly, pushing himself up, and turned around to face the elven lord. As the pair locked their eyes, Elrond felt a wave of the emotional pain that Thranduil had been feeling so recently.
"They say that my sons will not let any close to them, save your sons," he said. The voice of the king, once so full of pride and power, now sounded small and lost and, if Elrond was any judge, slightly accusing.
The dark haired lord nodded his head once.
"Aye, 'tis true," came the reply. Elrond wondered how Thranduil knew, if he had not left the room.
"I hear them whispering and speaking in low tones about in outside the door as if I am deaf," said the king sadly; as if he knew exactly what Elrond was thinking. "Why will they not let their own people even see them for more than a fraction of a second?"
To this, Elrond had no answer, being one of the many people the princes fled from. King Thranduil carried on regardless.
"Legolas . . . my youngest son . . . he found a maiden on the night of the feast, before all of this happened. She was from Imladris. Will he let her close?"
Elrond was silent for a moment, trying to remember if he had heard anything from the young elf recently. He seemed to remember seeing her crying when the messenger orc had appeared, and then again more recently when the young prince had been brought back to the halls unconscious, but since then he had heard little of her. Celebrian would know.
"I do not believe so your majesty, but it is possible. I will ask Celebrian."
The king of Mirkwood nodded once and sat back down on his stool, turning his back to the powerful elf lord standing close to the large door. Although Elrond would usually have taken it as a great insult, he was sure that it was not a thing Thranduil would usually do so he rose above it. Believing it to be a dismissal, the elf put his hand on the door handle to leave, when Thranduil spoke one last time.
"Tell Silnan to make sure Culkemen is promoted to captaincy."
Elrond nodded, wondering for a few moments that Culkemen was before remembering that Silnan had mentioned her as being the warrior who had doubled as the queen. The elf frowned disapprovingly - women should not have to fight. He left the room quickly and quietly, shutting the door behind him and leaving the king in peace. The elf lord hurried off to make preparations for leaving. If the funeral was set for the next day, that would leave them only two more days in Mirkwood.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Having escaped the clutches of the healers, Legolas and his brothers were gathered in a little circle around four small items in the room Calensil used to sleep in. Sad music could be heard playing faintly from the throne room in the form of a high, female voice and a harp.
The items in the middle of the princes were a sprig of holly, a ring with the ensign of their house, a shinning white gem that once belonged to their mother and Lin the teddy bear, who was now more shabby than ever - blood matting his fur and staining the bald patches. Somewhere along the way his eye, the original one, had fallen out and stuffing had begun to fall out of one leg. Astaler had added a button in the place of the lost eye shortly after returning from the orc caves, and had mended the ear with a scrap of fabric. The princes had tried to make him sit upright, but the bear fell over every time they let go of him so they gave up. The ring, of course, was the one Urshak had taken from Neldoreth, rescued on the path by Nuryávië.
Around the room there were eleven white candles lit, one for every member of their family, alive or dead. A little while ago, the princes had been lamenting the dead members of their family, apart from Thellind who still refused to speak, but now they were sitting in silence, just remembering them.
Outside the door, footsteps approached and the princes tensed, listening to the footsteps getting closer. When the footsteps reached the door, made by two people, they stopped. As the door handle moved, the princes moved faster than any mortal could possibly have done.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
When Elladan and Elrohir poked their heads around the door, the room was dark and still as if nobody was there.
"Hello?" called Elrohir softly, "Are you here? It is only us."
The dark shadows remained still and silent as the twins slid silently in to the room.
"Are you sure they said they would be here? Is this the right room?" Elrohir. Elladan nodded.
"Aye, and they are here. Look, the candles are still smoking slightly. They have only just been put out."
The twins waited a moment, before the six princes emerged from their hiding places around the room. Astaler re-lit the torches as the Mirkwood elves stared at the Imladris elves. Elladan and Elrohir shifted uncomfortably under such close scrutiny. Their eyes took in the items on the floor, and they realised that they had probably just interrupted something very important.
"We apologise for interrupting, but adar has told us that we will be going back to Imladris the day after tomorrow. We were wondering . . . well, we were wondering if you would like to come back with us for a while," Elladan told them. The princes stared back at them, letting the words sink in.
"Us? Go to Imladris?" whispered Oroweth in shock, "You mean we would be welcome?"
The twins nodded, and then there was another pause.
"I have never left Mirkwood," muttered Legolas, to himself as much as to anybody else. His brothers nodded.
"None of us have," said Astaler
"I have once," Oroweth countered slowly, "I once went to Dale with adar and naneth. I do not remember much though, as I was only a small elfling at them time."
"You have always been small, and still are, my dear brother," whispered Nilwethion. Oroweth glowered at him and drew back, but Elladan and Elrohir grinned at each other. If Nilwethion made a joke, then that must mean that he was on the mend.
"So will you come back to Imladris with us?" asked Elrohir. The princes looked at each other uneasily.
"Perhaps it would be best," said Nuryávië, "Adar hates us, so we will not be in his way any more."
His brothers nodded sincerely.
"We would not be getting in your way, would we?" asked Oroweth nervously. The twins shook their heads.
The princes all began to look brighter, except Thellind who drew behind Nilwethion and whimpered quietly. The silent prince had never left Mirkwood, and did not want to. He loved the trees, and he had lived under their shadow all their life. As Elrond had argued earlier in the day, he was unlikely to find peace in a strange place he had never been. He was outvoted, however, and refused to be without his brothers who were his only source of comfort.
"We will come with you," said Legolas. The twins smiled. They had won over their father. Again.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: I know, I know, short chappie. I'm very sorry! It's just that school has started pilling on the homework, and I've hardly had a moment to myself. Writing a nice long chapter would just take up too much time needed for evil homework.
PERSONAL REVIEW THINGY
ICED1 ~ I can understand what you mean, but I still really liked her.
IMBEFANIEL ~ *panics* ai Eru, I can't believe that I forgot you! Um, here, have a basket full of cookies to make up for it. *Grovels* I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to skip you out. Nope, I'm not finished with this fic yet.
LEXIE02 ~ yeah, school's a drag. I can't wait to go to collage.
LITTLE WITCH ~ don't worry, they figure out eventually that they were both wrong.
ORODRUIN ~ yay, goodie, long review! Thranduil would feel guilty for the deaths, but he's just stopped thinking about anything and gone blank. Bits of the fic are going to be more dialogue based now, but there are still going to be action bits as well. A nice little mix of both. They will patch it up, but there's a whole big misunderstanding due to lack of communication first. Thank you for reviewing the other fic as well! There's going to be a prequel to this one when I finish it, but it isn't going to be happy. It'll actually be quite depressing, I think. I've got quite a few fics planned after that but your idea for a short fic on one of their pranks sounds good.
TAMARA ~ updated! Thank you.
JUKIA WOLFCALL ~ *is afraid, is very afraid* don't worry; the finish won't be anything like Déjà Vu. Yeesh, that was a bad fic! I can't help being mean, I just like tragedy!
LADY LARVLE OF MIRKWOOD ~ that was . . . short. What, only okay?
EBONY FALCON ~ I think that that's part of the reason, but they all blame themselves for their naneth and sisters dying anyway. Everything in my stories always seems to be a little mixed up . . . except in My Little Sister. That's not messed up, just me having a little fun with fluff.
COOLIO02 ~ yes, it is quite sad, isn't it?