Disclaimer: Don't own it, but I want to own it!
A/N: Explanations for the previous chapter are in order, hmm? Okay. There is a place across the Western sea called Aman, also known as the Blessed Isle, and within it contains this shiny, pretty, blissful city called Valinor.
Only elves can go to Aman, with the one exception of Tuor, because he was heroic and stuff.
In Aman, all the big, powerful people live, including the Valar (The biggest of the powerful beings on Aman), excluding the Ainur (what the Valar are, but there are others that are Ainur but not Valar. Think about the theorem about a square being a rectangle but a rectangle not being a square. There are NO Ainur on Aman, because all the Ainur on Aman are called Valar.) and the Maiar (powerful, but not as powerful as the Anuir. One good example of a Maiar on Middle Earth is Gandalf) and lots of elves. Lots.
Within the elves there are several races: Vanya, Noldor, Teleri etc. They are told most easily apart by hair colour. Vanyas' are fair headed, being usually golden haired (Glor!), and they love Aman the most. Whereas for the Noldor, they are the most hot tempered and fiery, and usually black or brown headed. Think Elrond. Teleri are best known as the sea faring type, think Cirdan there. Elves are rarely copper headed, the few exceptions being Amrod and Amras, sons of Feanor.
As for the Valar, they are under the command of the Super Powerful Ultimate Being called Eru or Illuvatar. Yay! There are various Valar (male) and Valie (female), though as far as I know, Valar is still the collective term.
Manwe Sulimo is the head, being most in contact with Eru, and his significant figures are the eagles.
Manwe's wife is Elbereth/Varda, the Star Kindler, who, most obviously, created the stars and are loved by the elves for that.
Under Manwe in power, I think, is Ulmo, Lord of the Waters. (I don't have my Silmarillion on me right now! Purist, don't murder!) Anyway, Ulmo, also the guy who is bugging Glorfindel in this fic, tends to meddle a bit more than the other valar. Yay.
There's also Lorien/Irmo, the Maker of Dreams, Dreamweaver (NOT the computer programme). He is not an Aratar (the High Ones, the most powerful of the valar).
Lorien's brother is Mandos/Namo, the guy who looks after the, most obviously, Halls of Mandos, where dead elves go. My theory here is that they get resurrected, as I take a educated guess from Tolkien and his HoME, and get to live happily ever after in Aman, unless of course, they did horrible, unforgivable things in the past, IE kill lots of their own kin for three sparkly jewels.
There is also Nienna, the one who cries a lot for the grievances of the World.
There is also Orome, the guy with the horn Valaroma and his horse.
Aule is the smith and the one of the corrupted Maiar (heh. Silmarillion joke).
Yavanna, the one who grows all the green stuff everywhere.
Vaire is the weaver and not so important so that she is not an Aratar.
Este is the healer of hurts, who is not an Aratar.
Tulkas is the runner and Nessa the fleet footed both of whom are not counted as a Aratar because they are not important enough.
Melkor decided to be naughty, so he isn't even a vala anymore.
Right. Now that we are done with the important people, I explain the characters in the past chapter.
Every one of the elves in that chapter, except for Elrond, were dead. They went to Mandos, where they were forced to realize all their sins and repent, yadda yadda. They came out sooner or later, except for the Feanorians, who were not supposed to be released because they were too naughty. Ecthelion, Duilin, Legolas, Turgon, Tuor, Penlod, Egalmoth, Galdor and Rog were all Lords of Gondolin, the place in the first few chapters were Glorfindel was before it got trampled down to the ground by the evil, evil orcs. Ecthelion, Duilin, Legolas, Turgon, Penlod, Egalmoth, Galdor and Rog were all assumed dead in this fic, then got themselves out of Mandos and came to live happily in Aman. Tuor, who was human, was accepted by the Valar as a Elf and came over the Aman and will live forever. Lorien/Irmo is the Dream Keeper and Brother to Mandos/Namo, thus was kind of annoyed that his brother was throwing a fit over the Feanorians being revived thus came over to enlist the help of the Gondolindrim for... something. The Feanorians were running away from Mandos because they didn't want to die after being dead. They came back because a LONG time ago, they made an oath to keep the Silmarilli, which Feanor created for themselves, and because of an elusive thing called AU and Artistic Liberty. Heh.
There are eight Feanorians.
Feanor - The father and maker of the Silmarils
Maedhros - Son.
Maglor - Son.
Amrod/Amras - Sons and twins.
Curufin - Son.
Caranthir - Son.
Celegorm - Son.
Elros is the twin brother of Elrond, who turned human and died. Elrond and Elros a long time ago got taken in by Maglor and Maedhros after the sack of Sirion. I think. Gah, too many names and places, so correct me if I'm wrong. Wheh. Okay, that was the Silmarillion in a peanut-shell for you.
Get it? Probably not, but just waddle along, people... On to the fic!
*
Endless silence again permeated her dreams as Ren tossed and turned uneasily, her eyes still screwed shut in forced sleep and subconsciousness. For the longest of moments, all she saw, all she felt and all she was was the unending darkness and painful shards of cold that pierced through every fibre of her being and existence.
Cold, so cold.
The moment dragged onwards, pulling her in through words of endless misery and hate, anger and revulsion and burning desire. Repentance was the word that wailed through the keening gale. Repentance and burden, duty and weight, visions imprinting themselves in her head, turning, spinning, revolving. Screaming.
Ren woke with a start and a shout, her heart thumping wildly and her eyes, for a moment, crazed. It was there again, the same, nameless feeling that she had felt in the armoury. Glorfindel knew what it was, Ren was sure that he did, hidden somewhere in the depths of his mind where no one could find. She looked out of the window and noted that the red hues before dawn were just beginning to show when a knock sounded at the door.
'Come in.'
Ren was still trying to rid herself of the cold as she wrapped her blanket about her shoulders and saw Glorfindel come in through the door. He regarded Ren with a cool eye.
'Im gimanin le.' [Sind. I heard you.]
Ren only looked up at him and shuddered slightly from the cold that she felt. Her heart and her mind both felt somehow empty and hollow, even meaningless. Her face was now pale.
'Erde foeg-om olor, Glorfindel, u-baur le tolo an im.' [Sind. Just a bad dream, Glorfindel, you need not come to me.]
'Le u-thio min olori presto.' [Sind. You do not seem to be one a dream would affect.]
'Min um-olor, Glorfindel.' [Sind. One bad dream, Glorfindel.]
Glorfindel just looked at her, and Ren knew that he could see through her. Glorfindel was an elf reborn, not easily fooled or deceived by even the greatest of liars, and Ren was nowhere close to that in her state. The human shook her head as she clutched the blanket.
'Nothing. Just nothingness, crashing waves, emptiness and cold. Cold.'
Ren swore she almost saw Glorfindel start from his position at the door when she described her dream. The elf quickly moved over to her, caught her wrist and felt for the cold. Ren distinctly caught some rather unsavoury curse under his breath that included the words "Namo", "Irmo", "Ulmo", "dreams", "halls", "no peace", "stupid" and "crazy" in Quenya. Ren just pulled the blanket around her more tightly. Glorfindel slumped into a chair next to the bed and sighed.
'It's about time you know who this invisible assailant of yours is, even though I would not have wanted to disclose it. I did not know you were of such importance in Illuvatar's plans.'
Ren just sneezed quizzically. Glorfindel smirked slightly, but his mind was clearly elsewhere.
'What you heard, saw and felt in your dreams were most probably a result of the combined efforts of the Valar Mandos, Lorien and Ulmo. Namo shakes in his rage, Lorien seeks to forewarn you of things to come and Ulmo places the burden of duty upon you.'
Ren sighed as she dropped back onto her bed.
'Any words of advice?'
'Welcome to the club.'
*
Yvonne was bored. Yvonne did not like being bored. When Yvonne got bored, she got depressed, and Yvonne did not like getting depressed. Yvonne saw a penknife. Yvonne saw Legolas' unguarded bowstring.
...
Yvonne was most suddenly not very bored at all.
*
Legolas had only gone for a moment to converse with Lord Elrond over matters of the fellowship before returning to his rooms. Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Greenwood the Great and son of Thranduil most definitely had not expected to find his precious bowstring shredded into tiny pieces. Legolas Greenleaf suddenly felt very, very angry. Legolas Greenleaf suddenly spotted one of the human children he had heard of from Erestor outside his door, holding what looked like a retractable blade. Legolas Greenleaf went in for the kill.
*
Ren was twirling her penknife in her hands absently, wondering where on Enndore the kitchens could possibly have hidden themselves in the seemingly never ending corridors of Imladris when she heard a yell of rage from the approximate area of her right. Instinct told her to run. Her head decided to follow instinct, and so she fled down the nearest available corridor, only to run smack into Yvonne, who, surprise, surprise, was also carrying a penknife.
Legolas looked in shock at the two humans in front of him. One with a penknife and... The other with a penknife. Who had done the unforgivable?
Ren looked at the disfigured bowstring in Legolas' hands, and put two and two together. At the exact same time as Yvonne, she yelled,
'She did it!'