Reviewer Responses!
Thanks to everyone who commented! ^.^ I very muchly appreciate it. =) You guys 
are the best! Special thanks to everyone who read it on an ML and reviewed it
again! ^^ I feel spiffy. 

The mystery keeps building from here!


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Mirkwood's Ring: Chapter 4

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The deepest part of the night had already fallen as the twin sons of Elrond 
crept towards the hidden entrance into Mirkwood's capital. The location of 
the secret gate appeared exactly like the surrounding rock spotted with moss 
and ferns, the only difference being the lure of enchantment which called to 
anyone who had been introduced to it and fit the spell's requirements. The 
twins headed unerringly for the concealed portal and as one they silently 
pricked their fingers on well used daggers and pressed the digits to the 
solid skin of the mountain. 

The noble elven blood in their veins called to the door's enchantments and 
when they felt their hands begin to seep into the stone, they wordlessly met 
each other's gaze and nodded, then stepped through the formerly unyielding 
rock wall. The expected tingle of enchantment hit both brothers and then a 
second chill alerted them to a change in the portals working, but by the 
then it was too late to do anything about it and they were through. 
They had no time to ponder the meaning of the alternation because before 
they had gone no more than two steps they heard a call of alarm from the 
tunnel just ahead of them. "He's left this door guarded!" Elladan gasped. 

"Legolas said this door was never guarded!" Elrohir exclaimed. 

"What are we to do? We can't harm other elves!" the older said, backing up 
the way they'd come. 

A cold voice stopped their retreat before they even had a chance to press 
their backs against the stone wall. "You will find no exit that way Elflings" 
The twins immediately recognized the voice of the woodland king though 
like the guards outside, it held an odd monotone underlay that they liked 
not at all. "-and I would advise you not to draw your weapons. You are 
outnumbered. You should have headed my gatemen." 

Thranduil appeared from out of the murk of the unlit hallway before them and 
his eyes were strangely cold. As far as they could tell in the gloom, he 
seemed to be dressed in flowing robes of dark blue and bedecked with many 
gems and jewelry of mithril and gold. "Bring them to the throne room and 
find my son." He gestured and more glassy-eyed soldiers made their way 
silently forward to surround the twins who saw no way to resist without 
harming the guards. 

"Thranduil! What is the meaning of this? What's happening here!" Elladan 
shrugged off the hands of the two soldiers who tried to take his arms. "I 
can walk just fine on my own thank you." he hissed at them. 

The king cast a cold glare over his shoulder at them as he had already begun 
making his way effortlessly through the darkness ahead of him as if it were 
lit bright as day. "Mirkwood's business was none of your concern, but now as 
you will be staying for a while, I suppose you will find out in time." With 
that, he said no more and continued on his way, instantly being consumed by 
the oppressive pitch blackness of the hallway. 

Elrohir exchanged an anxious glance with his brother as he allowed two of 
the soldiers to flank him and begin herding him in the direction Thranduil 
had gone. "I like this less and less 'Dan." 

Elladan could only nod as he followed suit. He guessed they would find out 
soon enough. Surely Legolas would be able to fill them in and get this 
worked out. If nothing else, surely a message could be sent to their father. 
 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

The throne room was cold and scarcely lit as the twins found themselves left 
alone before the King's large chair in the cavernous room. They stood in one 
of the only pools of torchlight besides the meager lights to either side of 
the throne and the odd lighting left most of the room in shadow. Though they 
could not see, they sensed the giant hall quickly filling up with eerily 
silent bodies. The elves of Mirkwood were usually a cheerful, rowdy people 
and the silence of so many of them gathered together would have utterly 
convinced the half-elves of the wrongness of the situation even had there 
been no other evidence. 

Sounds from the front of the room drew their attention away from the large 
crowd invisibly at their back as Thranduil's advisors and generals filed in 
to stand in their places around the dais. Elladan and Elrohir felt 
distinctly exposed and uncomfortable in the midst of so many people they 
could not see and could barely hear, especially as they had been relieved of 
their weapons before the guards had left them to stand waiting for their 
unwanted audience. The elves at the front of the room, though more visible, 
were no less menacing to the peredhel. Their gazes were as blank as the 
guards that had escorted them in and they gazed down at the two with 
unblinking cold stares and visible weapons at their hips. 

The quiet stalemate went on for several minutes before Thranduil and his son 
entered from behind a tapestry hung to the side of the great throne. The 
brothers gasped at Legolas's appearance, for he was drawn and looked as if 
he had neither slept nor eaten for quite some time. There was a small white 
bandage affixed to his left cheek and when he noticed the twins his eyes 
filled with sudden horror then resignation. His reaction baffled them, but 
they were at least a little relieved to see him alive and about; neither of 
them had had the heart to give voice to their worst fears regarding him, but 
at least his eyes were not dead and distant as everyone else's seemed to be 
to one degree or another. 

The continued silence drew on Elladan's frayed nerves and raising panic, and 
finally he couldn't help but speak, "What in Elbereth's name is going on 
here?! Legolas? What's wrong with everyone?" He decided he'd likely get more 
answers from his friend than from the silent multitude or the quietly 
judging advisors and their king. 

The prince's eyes grew even more saddened and he acted as if he desperately 
wanted to speak, but his lips did not part and not a sound issued from his 
throat. Finally he shook his head and lowered his face until the curtain of 
his unbraided hair hid his features. His father glanced at him coldly before 
finally deigning to speak to the unwanted visitors to his hall. 

"It is readily apparent that the two of you have none of your sire's vaunted 
wisdom. You were warned that no one that enters these gates may leave them 
again and so it shall be. You should not have come here and your Father was 
a fool to send you. I told him not to stick his nose in Mirkwood's business. 
It is a shame that you will now pay the price." His gaze was stern and
his voice rang through the hall with a disturbing resonance. 

"We came only to visit Legolas as we have done many times!" Elrohir quickly 
rejoined. 

"You cannot keep us here, we are princes in our own right! Our father will 
not allow it!" Elladan added. 

"Do you presume to tell me, the king of these lands, what I can, and cannot 
do within my own realm? Especially when you were warned of the consequences 
of your actions?" The angry edge in Thranduil's voice seemed to cause the 
temperature to drop several degrees and the heavy shadows almost seemed to 
come alive around the twins. The complete lack of reaction from all of the 
other elves of the realm further added to the sense of dread that was 
constantly growing to huge proportions within the sons of Elrond. If this 
continued, their father was sure to sense their distress. 

"Will you bind us and throw us in your legendary dungeons like common 
criminals then?" the older boy retorted, his eyes darting in an attempt to 
meet the golden prince's still hidden gaze, but Legolas yet remained 
completely without a word. Evil crept through the room like a pervading mist 
and the brother's skin fairly crawled with its disgusting touch. 

"That will not be necessary." There was a note of finality in Thranduil's 
voice that scared Elrohir into startling slightly. "Try and leave if you 
will. No bonds of mine will keep you here, but you will find you cannot go 
far. I will let no one escape." Legolas shivered at the possessive tone of 
his father's voice but seemed to be unable to even edge away from the 
towering leader. When he finally raised his gaze back to the twins, they saw 
the beginnings of moisture in his eyes. 

"Why are you doing this? Can't you at least see what it's doing to your son? 
Elrohir could be silent on the matter of his friend's obvious misery no 
longer as his anxeity reached a peak. Their father would definitly sense their
distress now. 

"Ah, yes. My son--" The King's voice caught there for a minute and he 
frowned, staring at nothing for a moment, then he shook his head as if to 
clear it, "--my son will fill you in on what you need to know to exist here 
for the foreseeable future." Legolas's eyes grew wide in startlement as he 
glanced sharply at his father in surprise. 

Elladan noted the prince's odd behavior and frowned, but continued to try 
and reason with the older of Mirkwood's royalty, while trying to hide his 
own fear, "Our Father will sense our distress! He will come seeking answers! 
Will you trap him here as well?" 

"If he is fool-hardy enough to pass my gates, yes." With that Thranduil and 
his advisors turned as one and began exiting the dais. "Speak to them 
Legolas." He absently called over his shoulder and the twins were completely 
unprepared for the reaction the command elicited in their sworn brother, but 
at least it took their minds off of the evil for a time. 

The Prince fell to his knees coughing and gasping, his hands flying 
automatically to his throat as he drew in great draughts of air. One hand 
fell to the ground to steady himself and the other pulled his loose hair 
back away from his face as the twins rushed to aide him. In the commotion 
the gathered commoners of Eryn Lasgalen had filed out leaving the three 
alone in the cavernous hall, and the nearly tangile dark power receeded with 
them. Legolas slowly regained himself as Elladan stroked his back soothingly 
and Elrohir took over the chore of holding his silken blond tresses back 
from his face. During the moments it took the archer to regain himself, the 
twins exchanged worried glances over his head. 

"Oh, my dear friends...you should not have come." Legolas's voice was dry 
and raspy from long disuse and the elder twin suddenly wished fervently he 
had kept his pack and water skin with him. The Prince raised his face up 
where the torchlight could caress his features so that he could more easily 
look at the dark-tressed twins. Elladan did not fail to notice spots of read 
appearing on the bandage upon his friend's cheek as if the wound, small as 
it must be to fit beneath such a small cloth, obviously bled through its 
dressings. Why was Legolas's elven healing preventing a tiny cut from 
clotting? 

Before he could comment on it, his brother spoke up from the blonde's right 
side as they carefully eased the much thinner elf into a more comfortable 
sitting position than the awkward kneeling the three had been doing. "We 
were worried for you and your realm mellon-nin. Adar said he received odd 
missives from your father. What is going on here, and what's happened to 
you?" 

Elladan felt a twinge of his twin's fear and anxiety on top of his own. "How 
could we not come to your aid? Please tell us what is going on." 

"...I hardly know where to start." Legolas's voice got a little better with 
use and he began to tell the story of his father's odd madness. "Adar had 
been growing more and more worried about the threats to our people. Many 
were the nights he and I talked privately of our fears, but he refused to 
listen to my counsel to seek the help of Imladris and Lothlorien. Just 
before things started going wrong and the wargs and spiders disappeared, he 
sent me to the borders for a week. I thought nothing of it at the time, you 
know how often I patrol with the other warriors, but when I got back, he had 
started to change." he lifted his hand to the now pink square of cloth on 
his cheek and winced a little. "he began to spend less and less time among 
the people and at his duties. He stopped leaving the palace and soon he 
seldom left his rooms. By this time we were all greatly confused by the 
quietness of the dark forces and so, though I did not want to leave Adar 
when he was so obviously going through something, I felt I needed to 
investigate. I also thought that without me there to shoulder the 
administrative burden, he would be forced to start socializing again." 

Elladan and Elrohir listened silently to their friends tale, occasionally 
offering an encouraging nod. They were eager to find out how this had led to 
the current situation and how it figured into the plight they had now found 
themselves in. They needed to get out, or at least to get a message to 
Rivendell. Elrond was sure to ride out to find them, and neither wanted to 
see their father caught in Mirkwood's web. 

Legolas continued, "I was not gone long before I received a summons from the 
council to return immediately to the capital. Instead of getting better, 
Father had gotten worse and they were at a loss. This place doesn't govern 
itself under the best of conditions and everyone was uneasy with the sudden 
and unexpected reprise from the fronts. I came back to find the castle dark 
and Adar completely confined to his chambers. He would see no one and went 
into odd violent fits when anyone tried to talk to him." He bit his lip for 
a moment the next part obviously painful for him to relate, then went on, "I 
went to speak with him, hoping I could comfort him or talk him out of 
whatever dark mood had possessed him since before my departure..." 

His voice trailed off and he coughed a bit more as if to clear his throat, 
but neither twin was blind to the emotion the prince was obviously fighting 
down and they offered their silent support even as Elladan murmured, "what 
then mellon?" 

"He struck me." 

The twins's eyes flew wide in shock. Elven parents never hit their children. 
Even having seen the king's madness, this new revelation stunned them.
 
"I was knocked unconscious by the blow...It seemed almost as if he'd grown 
unnaturally strong. All I remember is the darkness of the room and the sting 
of his ring cutting my cheek," and here his hand reached once more to the 
small injury on his face, "and then my head must have struck the stones 
rather hard because it is all blurry after that." 

"And he has been like this since?" Elrohir's brow furrowed in imitation of 
his own sire's pensive look. "That must have been quite a while ago...why 
hasn't your wound healed, and how can he persist this way when he surely 
feels how it is hurting you?" 

Elladan carefully pealed away the cloth hiding the small gash and frowned. 
It looked as if it were new. 

"I do not know why the injury does not close, and he no longer seems to be 
sensitive to his paternal bond with me. It baffled the healers as well 
before they all became as you see everyone now...but as to the first 
question, no. Adar actually seemed to get better for a time after that. He 
was extremely sorry for what he'd done. I woke to him anxiously hovering 
over my beside and gripping my hand in the brightly lit healers hall. He 
begged my forgiveness and told me he loved me, even in front of all of the 
people going about their business there! I was dumfounded as you can well 
imagine. I know he cares for me, but he is intensly private about his 
emotions. I can count the number of times he's said so in private on one 
hand, and I had never seen him so emotional in front of so many who aren't 
close to him. 

"Of course I forgave him, admittedly, I was a bit embarrassed at having been 
caught so flat footed as to have been knocked senseless by a single blow in 
the first place, and we both struggled to put it behind us. By the time it 
came around to send out the monthly report, he seemed himself again, though 
he never did move back into his old rooms, and if it weren't for this odd 
injury, we probably all would have been able to forget it had happened." 

"I cannot fathom him hitting you, and you forgiving him so easily, but 
obviously something must have changed. He is certainly nothing like himself 
now." Elrohir moved around to join Elladan on the left side of Legolas as 
the older twin gently tilted the prince's head to get a better look at the 
old, but as new, cut marring the otherwise perfect features in the abysmal 
lighting of the great hall. 

They both frowned and tisked over it as only healers can, but Legolas, being 
used to such actions of their parts, continued his narrative, "Indeed, 
It was as if whatever darkness had taken him was damned up inside while he 
struggled to act normally and the pressure became too much. It poured out of 
him in a torrent and before anyone knew what was happening our door had been 
ensorcelled and we were trapped within these lands. Not an elf has been able 
to pass beyond Mirkwood's borders after they've once been within the city 
since that day. We could get no messages out for everyone who entered became 
trapped as well. Slowly there were fewer and fewer of us attempting to find 
a solution. I think I am the only one with my wits left in all the great 
wood. Even the patrol I witnessed passing outside the gates yesterday was 
full of glassy-eyed individuals and I am certain their captain at least has 
not been within these doors yet." 

"That is truly disturbing news indeed..." Elrohir murmured. Elladan had sat 
back on his heels having come up with no solution to Legolas's wound. His 
brother soon joined him as they once again devoted their whole attention to 
the prince's tale. 

"Father had returned to his dark state of before the...incident...but for 
one thing. He was no longer isolationist. With more and more of my people 
walking around like so many dead puppets, Adar no longer confined himself to 
his rooms. His violence and anger increased and he had nearly all the lights 
doused." Legolas shuddered, "I hate this darkness, it closes in around you 
as if alive and hungering for your soul. I cannot find my way in it as 
everyone else seems to be able to do and I feel as if the palace is closing 
in on me, but I cannot abandon my father when he is like this. Sometimes, as 
I'm sure you noticed, he seems as if he is trying to fight whatever has come 
over him, but it never lasts long. I have been trying desperately to find 
the cause of all of this strangeness, but I am losing hope. It begins to 
weigh on you after a while, the pervading sense of evil and the utter 
blackness. I am a warrior, I know nothing of defeating dark spells; I can no 
longer sleep and I have found little time for it or eating since I began my 
search. What's more, Adar has become even more possessive of all of his 
things and of all of his people. I, the prince and his son, can get no where 
near his rooms or his person and haven't been able to do so for two weeks 
now." 

"What happened two weeks ago?" Elladan prompted, "does it have anything to 
do with why you were so ill as he left here?" 

Legolas nodded, "I confronted him with the harm that's obviously been done 
to our people and the foul changes that have come over him. I was worried and 
desperate and though I had tried to speak with him many times about these 
things, I had never had much success. Often he had grown angry with me over 
it until I could tell he was avoiding me for fear of what he might do, but I 
had no other recourse." 

"He did not strike you again." Elladan knew that with a certainty brought 
about by the empathy in his genes. "he hasn't raised a hand to you but only 
that once." Elrohir nodded in agreement of his twin's assesment. 

"No, he has not so much as raised his voice to me since this." Legolas's 
fingers came away wet with the blood that had begun dripping down his cheek 
and he sighed realizing he'd probably smeared it across his features.
 
"Don't touch it, you'll spread infection." the older twin reflexively 
snapped, his healers training slipping from his tongue without thought and 
Legolas actually grinned a little at the ordinariness of their mothering. 

Elrohir pulled a clean kerchief from within his tunic and carefully pressed 
it to the cut. "'Dan's right, but please go on. What happened when you 
confronted him?" 

The Prince sighed, "All he said was 'Silence.' His voice was so cold and I 
felt as if it bit into my skin and penetrated to my very bones." 

Elladan quirked a dark eyebrow, "And?" 

"And I had been unable to make a sound ever since. I could not communicate 
at all. If I sat down to write something, words and letters left my mind! I 
could not make noise by tapping, for my fingers would not obey me when I 
would direct them thus, and the same with my feet. I could not even make 
myself wear anything that might jingle. A feeling of suffocation was growing 
in me until I felt as if each word i tried to speak was blocking my throat." 
He shuddered in remembered horror, "I do not know what I would have done if 
he had not revoked it. I fear I was going mad." 

Both twin's eyes were wide with sympathetic horror as some of their friend's 
remembered panic made itself felt within them. They exchanged glances, then 
rose in tandem and each offered the prince a hand up. "Let us see to your 
wound in the healing halls and get you something to eat--" 

"--You look as if you have surely been without sustenance too long" Elrohir 
continued his brother's sentence. 

"And then we will discuss this further." they finished together. 

Legolas looked up at them and shook his head, the twin's odd moments of 
total synchronism always left him feeling a little bemused. "I have had 
plenty of time to look at this situation from every possible angle. There is 
nothing we can do from within these walls. If there were, I would have 
discovered it by now." 

"That is the greif speaking," Elrohir sighed, "you are 
certainly showing signs of it, but Adar will certainly be on his way now. 
Maybe we should focus on a way to keep him outside the walls and yet let him 
know what is going on." 

The Prince accepted the offered hands up and levered himself off the ground 
with the brother's help. "You will find you can't make yourself write down 
what's going on, and there's no one left who will give him the message. Adar 
will most likely let Elrond in without giving him a warning, now that he's 
got you he can't leave your Father free to stir up problems against him, and 
he will know when the Lord arrives before we possibly can. Whatever he's 
done to the gates has left him in tune with the comings and goings of 
everyone in the woodlands." 

"Hmm...well, at least it is a place to start." Elladan sighed, "I have a 
feeling we will need something to keep our minds off of the oppressive 
darkness, and I will not let Father fall into Thranduil's trap." his voice 
lowered with conviction. "We must find a way to keep anyone else from 
getting hurt here and find a way to free your people and your father."
 
Legolas nodded and began leading the way to the healing halls, via the 
kitchen. "Perhaps with more of us, we will be able to think of something I 
could not on my own." for the first time that night, his voice held a note 
of hope. 

Elrohir slung an arm around his friend and Elladan did the same. They would 
see to him, and somehow, they would keep anyone else, especially their father 
from falling into this mess. Elrond had more than enough on his shoulders 
already and they knew he would find a way to feel responsible for all of 
this. They had at least a couple of weeks to figure out what to do before 
their father arrived. In the meantime, they had plenty of other troubles to 
occupy them. "So tell me, has any other injury you've sustained since the 
cut failed to heal....?" 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

In Rivendell, Elrond bolted from upright as a feeling of great unease for 
his oldest offspring washed over him and ruined his slumber. He waited 
several moments for the horrible feeling to pass, but it did not abate. He 
quite frequently got flashes of dark premonition from the twins as they were 
constantly throwing themselves into danger, but they always swiftly 
extracted themselves from it, or it naturally passed. When this failed to do 
so, he knew there was something terribily wrong and his heart lurched 
painfully within his chest. 

Quickly he slid into the burgundy robe he'd left folded neatly on the chair 
beside his bed and pulled the silken cord by the door to summon a servant. 
When the bleary eyed girl arrived a few minutes later, Elrond was already 
plaiting his hair and getting ready to fasten on his sword. "Wake Glorfindel 
and tell him to meet me by the stables with provisions for a rapid journey 
to Mirkwood, and get a message to the guard--" No, damn, if he took guards 
into Mirkwood he might be seen as a threat and while he felt Thranduil was 
the danger hanging over his sons, he couldn't be certain...Galadriel would 
kill him if he started something with the woodland king. Besides, it would 
be easier for two to pass through the borders and do any sneaking that might 
be necessary, and if whatever was happening there was too big for the 
wielder of Vilya and the slayer of a Balrog to handle, then a few extra 
guards would not likely make any difference. "--scratch that. Tell 
Glorfindel we'll be riding alone and that I'll explain on the way." 

The girl nodded, now considerably more alert, and bolted for the seneschal's 
rooms. Elrond quickly finished his own preparations and then headed to wake 
Erestor and let him know he'd be in charge for a while. He prayed nothing 
horrible had happened to his twins. All he had been able to get was a sense 
of enchantment that truly frightened him, entrapment, and deep-seeded 
*wrongness*. He very much disliked being in the dark about anything, but 
when that lack of knowledge threatened his children it was nearly enough to 
send him into a panic. 

Little under two hours later the Lord of Rivendell and his reborn companion 
galloped away from Imladris leaving directions to send for aid to 
Mithrandir and Lorien within a month unless they received a missive 
otherwise. They took with them only what they could lightly carry and a 
carefully hooded falcon to use as a messenger bird if the need arose. A dark 
cloud of worry followed them over the Bruinen, for the sense of evil and 
danger around his sons had not lessened at all in the time it took to make 
ready. Each lord kept quiet as they focused their thoughts solely on hoping 
they would not be too late. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Elvish: 

Adar: Father 
Mellon/-nin: Friend/my friend 
Peredhel: Half-elf