QUICK NOTE: FanFiction is apparently running some checkups on the site on August 17 - 18, so I will not be able to post during those days, neither will you guys be able to review. I know, it stinks, but I'll post ASAP when it rolls around to the 19th. :D

Okee! Onto re-reading my WONDERFUL feedback. "grin"

Deana: I'm glad you enjoy it enough to read the previous ones, Deana! "blush" And as for "Adda", in Qenya, yes, you are completely correct, it's spelled "Ada". In some ways, it might be more consistent to stick with the Qenya, but I like using the Sindarin "Adda" because it looks more like "Daddy". LOL! Yes, I AM a sentimental fool sometimes. ;) LOL!

Sielge: Mae Govonen! :D I'm glad you like it so far!!

Vicki: "blush" aw, your reviews are always so nice. ;) LOL! Oh NO! now my READERS are addicted to Bengwiil TOO! "screams" great. More work for Dr. Elrond. :P LOL!!!

LegolasLover: I agree, I think everyone could pretty much use a hug now. ;) ESPECIALLY Legolas, yes, he's been having it hard since- well, since I started. :P I'm not nice, I admit it! "grin"

ElvinGirl: "pats reader, who is still sitting in the corner" Now now, it's not good for your nails to bite them. ;) LOL! Yeah, I know, it's horribly sad. "tries to look guilty…it doesn't really work" Fine, I admit it, I LOVE angst. :P LOL!

Legolyn Fay: "watches wide-eyed as reader downs more cliffy-pills" this story just attracts addictions. Must be the Bengwiil. ;) and, yeah, I'm horribly mean to Aragorn and Legolas, but they've been through worse!…probably. :P

Helluin: LOL! I'm driving you nuts, aren't I? I'm SORRY! "tries to wail, but ends up grinning" ooops. LOL! Yeah, his greatest fear is himself- although, you'll find that out for the second time in this chapter. AGH! Look out for that- "BAM" wall. Ouch, that's gotta hurt. ;)

Dark Borg Drone: LOL! It's okay, you're not being a pain at all, Borg! :D I'm not fluent in Elvish, and DEFINITELY not fluid in what I do know. There are likely holes, but I'll give you what I have. :)

Istón = I know
Lasto beth nin, Adda, tolo nan galad = Hear my voice, Father, come back to the light
Lasto beth nin, Adda! Morth tur-al garo ad thenin glawar = Darkness cannot hold back true sunlight

And just a side-note, if you're wondering where I get some of this, that second one is straight out of the movies; Arwen says it to Frodo when she comes to Trollshaw, and Elrond says it to Frodo, when Frodo is waking up in Rivendell. So yeah, I take my own stuff from other people, so don't feel a JOT bad or annoying. :D Thanks for asking!

Stridergal: LOL! Wow, that's quite a compliment, putting Ranimar up there with Cassia and Sio! "blushes" thanks, Stridergal! And I'm SURE Aragorn and Legolas will be FINE…someday. ;)

Celebdil-Galad and Tinlaure: "eyes Grimi" All right, mister, too your ROOM! "dwarves grumps all the way down the hallway, shooting nasty looks over his shoulders" yeah, yeah, you're breaking my heart. "sighs" some bodyguards, these days…"realizes Roth is now grinning crazily" uuuuh- Grimi? I say, Grimi my pet, my darling, my sweety, could you maybe, umn- get BACK here?! LOL! ;)

Galadryl: Oh, I'm just glad you could come at all! :D Thanks so much for the reviews, and PLEASE don't feel bad if you can't review long, or even if you can't at all. I'm just glad to know you're enjoying it. :)

Arayelle Lynn: Thanks so much for the review!! :D It's always helpful to know you enjoy reading it.

Sadie Elfgirl: heh-heh, yeah, I'm not very kind to our dear Prince of Mirkwood, am I? "grimace" but, well, I write angst! Wadda ya gonna do. :P LOL! Yeah, you're right. Maybe Bengwiil-doses should just say: "CAUTION! Hazard" and leave it that. Or, "if use of Bengwiil seems imperative, consult Dr. Elrond" :P

Well, you guys, I cannot thank you ENOUGH for all the wonderful reviews! I really DO mean that, too. Even the two sentence reviews that basically say: "hi nice story" at least show me that there are people reading. ;)

So Hannon Le yet again, and back to the drama! (cause, call me crazy, but that's probably why you're REALLY here, although listening to me talk too much is an experience of some kind :P)

Here we go, and see you on the 19th!
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Chapter 7

A Rip in History

"Legolas. Legolas…I'm sorry."

The voice was very distant. Far, far off. He didn't want to hear it anyway, and as it died away to whispers, he was happy for the change. Just let me lie here. I don't know why, but somehow…I can't come back. I won't wake up and come back, I don't want to.

"Legolas!" Someone was shaking his shoulder. Hard.

All right, if it must be that way, I may as well open my eyes…Legolas blinked. He was lying on something hard, and could feel cold wood pressing up against his cheek. Before him, he saw only vague lighting, but he could still vividly feel someone shaking his shoulder from the side. He watched blankly along the floor he was even with for a long time.

"Legolas, please awake!"

"I'm sorry, I'm- what have I-"

"Sh, there will be time for that later, my friend. Legolas?"

Legolas soon recognized the voice of the one who was shaking him. It was Elrond. But as for the other voice- he recognized it too…and in an instant he sat bolt upright, feeling the rush of Elrond sweeping back to avoid getting hit in the jaw with the stunned prince's head.

"Father!" Legolas cried, and pushing himself off the floor, he fell to his knees beside his father's bed once more, his hand scrambling for the older elf's.

The king's eyes were open, and he was sighing quietly with relief, his hand squeezing Legolas' very tight. "I am glad you're all right. I was worried, my son."

"I don't-" Legolas' eyebrows furrowed. "I don't remember what happened…" He shrugged and looked up at Elrond. "What happened to me?" he asked, a slight note of regret amongst the words.

"Do not be sorry, Legolas." Elrond half smiled. "You worked hard, spoke Elvish until you were very nearly into a frenzy. I drew the last of your father's poison, and as I did so, he stirred. Not awake, but alive. You were so numb, so lost to drawing him back, that you did not even see."

"I awoke," Thranduil continued, gripping his son's other hand in his own. "And I saw you kneeling beside me, whispering to me, and begging me to return. I whispered 'I am back, Legolas. You needn't beckon me any longer.'" The king smiled. "And you did not even look up. You just sighed with relief of something you had not yet comprehended. And then you tumbled out of sight, and I heard you fall on the floor."

Legolas' eyes widened slightly. "I fainted?"

The disgust in his voice made Elrond nearly laugh. "You were worn from bringing him back. But don't fret, Legolas, you were not out long, and you're awake now."

"As are you," Legolas smiled, his attention turned to his father's eyes. "I'm so glad- I- I mean, I was very..." How does one find the words to express his father's return? Thranduil had been dead, but now he was alive again. Legolas could think only what he was feeling, and the feeling came out from his lips. "Adda, I love you."

"I know, Legolas." Thranduil just smiled back. "But my son, there is a greater need than I right now."

Legolas paused for a breath, and then shot to his feet, whirling to Elrond. "Estel!"

"I have sent Edren to- well, rather, Edren would not stay put and insisted on going after Estel himself." Elrond nodded at Legolas. "Feel welcome to stay-"

"No, I'm going after Estel," Legolas said instantly, and then paused.

"I…should have been here. Valar, where was I when you're heart ached so?"

He turned slowly to Thranduil. "I'm sorry, Father, I will-"

"Tirniel will keep watch of me. Go while you can, and help your friend, Legolas." The king smiled softly. "I owe a great deal to Estel myself, I know I do. For your sake, if not my own."

Legolas smiled at the curious glint in Elrond's eyes, and then disappeared from the dark room just a step behind the lord.

- - - - - - - - - -

"I have not heard the horn. I have heard no signal, yet it is past the time which the rider would report." Elrond sounded uneasy.

"I cannot sense him, Lord Elrond- I cannot…" Legolas' voice trailed off as he tried to hide his panic. Reining his horse hard to the right, he squinted into the thicket around them. Elrond too sat on his horse, staring down the darkness of Mirkwood.

"There," Elrond whispered, motioning towards the tangle of brambles northwest of them. In unison, the two of them dismounted. Legolas came to kneel beside Elrond in front of the brambles.

"What is it?"

Elrond fingered what he had torn from the jagged thorns. "A piece of Estel's tunic."

Legolas' hand snaked amongst the thorns and a snap echoed from somewhere in their midst. When he drew his hand free again, he held one of the dried branches of thorns. "Blood," he murmured quietly, as his fingers brushed the thorny branch.

Elrond rose to his feet quickly. "We must hurry."

The prince nodded, and then froze. Elrond heard it too. thudthudthud followed by a deep, great sigh of breath that was neither human nor elven. It was a horse. On impulse, Legolas ran toward the sound. "Horthor!" He pulled up short as from the thicket, sure enough, Horthor stepped out of the shadows. And beside him, someone held the reins. The excitement in Legolas' eyes disappeared. "Daurrè. Wh-what…what are you doing with Aragorn's horse?"

"Oh, Legolas, thank goodness. Tiris said the Lord Elrond had requested a rider to find Estel, and so I volunteered. Well your Ranger friend has more ability than most give him credit for, because I had barely been trailing him long, when he realized I was there. He found me hiding with my horse in the grove of trees just beyond him. 'Go!' he told me, and started trying to push me away.

Daurrè mouth seemed to be working double-time, as he gasped his story out. "'I have come from your father-' I tried to explain, but he shouted something I could not tell in rather jumbled Elvish tongue, and then said 'if you are returning to my father tell him that I am sorry. And take poor Horthor, he does not want to be here.' And he gave me his horse's reins, and I hesitated, but he shouted that I should leave, and I'm so sorry, Legolas, he frightened me, his eyes so wide, and his voice so tainted by tears…so I took Horthor and I ran. I guess it was good he had me take his horse, though, for mine had run at Estel's Elvish shouting, and taken my horn too. That is why I gave you no signal."

Daurrè paused and stared apologetically at Legolas. "I'm very sorry I left him…"

"Don't be sorry, my friend, just tell us which direction to go."

Daurrè pointed the way he had come. "Though, I do not think that is the way he came. He was there quicker than I, I believe he cut through the brambles that direction instead." He pointed to where Elrond was still standing with Estel's torn fabric.

He shook his head. "He looks rather beaten up, Legolas. I had not expected him in such roughed-up shape in so little time. I'd lend you my own handkerchief to staunch some of his cuts, but I have given the one on me away." His voice was apologetic, and his eyes worried.

"Thank you, Daurrè." Legolas smiled uneasily. "And do not worry about our supplies, I assure you, Elrond has come prepared. Now go on back to the Halls, and stall Aragorn's horse for us, will you?"

Daurrè glowed at the chance of redeeming himself, and so he nodded promptly, and swung up onto Horthor's back. "I shall see you soon, then.

Elrond slid silently off his horse, and crouched behind what was left of the horse-trodden brambles. Apparently, this was where Daurrè and his own steed had come across Aragorn. Legolas knelt down beside the elf lord and listened in the silence.

Almost in unison, the two elves raise their vision over the brambles and into the clearing beyond. There was a gnarled tree standing off to the right. And lying crumpled on ground at its roots, there was a man. A man who was now more a boy who had lost his way and was giving up.

"Estel," Elrond breathed, and the two sprung from their hiding place.

For all their quiet tracking, Aragorn didn't stir as the two came running. Elrond had advised stealth as an approach for fear of frightening the human away. But Aragorn looked still and cold as they swiftly approached them.

Legolas cringed inwardly as he realized that the Ranger looked more dead than alive.

The two elves fell to their knees beside Aragorn, and Elrond was quick to pull the human into his lap. As he softly whispered to his son in Elvish, the lord rocked the small being back and forth, his eyes dashing all over his body, taking in every detail. Legolas could feel fear rising in his chest. Elrond was here. So things were going to be all right now, right? Right…?

"You can heal him, can't you?" He realized too late that he sounded positively trembling with fear. That realization led to another; he was trembling with fear. "Can't you?" He repeated louder when Elrond did not look at him.

Elrond's eyebrows were creased, and a look of concentration on his face slipped into that of worry. "How much Bengwiil has he had, Legolas?"

Legolas felt his heart stop. "A lot. A whole lot. Perhaps-" His mind drifted over all he and Aragorn had been through thus far in a matter of moments. He had been attacked by Mornaeg, and 'healed' with Bengwiil for the first time then. Then again, by Thranduil, in a second attempt to heal him. Aragorn had been thought dead, and then brought back by two doses of Bengwiil. Later, they were both taken by the orcs in Mirkwood, and Aragorn had been stabbed with a Bengwiil-coated blade. One, two, three…

"Five." His voice was dead in his own ears. "Five doses of Bengwiil."

Elrond sighed, and it sent shivers down Leoglas' spine. "What?" He demanded, though he was afraid to know.

"It is not hopeless," the lord conceded, "but it isn't good either. Five doses of Bengwiil, and who knows how big each one was?"

"But you can draw it out, can't you?" Legolas' voice was still on the verge of panic.

"I can, Legolas, but I don't know if he can survive that much blood loss. He is not an elf, he doesn't have enough strength." Elrond's eyes tore from Legolas' as he cradled his son tightly, and watched the human's still features.

"If we do not draw it out, my lord, he will die for certain. At the least we could draw what there is from him, could we not? We cannot just give up like this, don't you-"

"Of course I understand, Legolas." Elrond sighed quietly, "Look." Gently, he lifted Aragorn's arm from his barely heaving chest. The sleeve was torn, exposing a cut that started at his shoulder, ran the length of the human's arm. The cut Mornaeg had given him, or the most grievous of the cuts he'd been given. The wound was bleeding halfway down now, sending a steady stream of red down the human's arm.

Legolas touched the cut gingerly. "Did he get snagged by the thorns in the thicket?"

Elrond nodded slowly, and then put his thumb and forefinger against the human's forearm, pressing slightly. To Legolas' shock, the red slipping down Aragorn's arm turned darker. Deeper. It was-

He swallowed hard as his fingers slipped against the coagulated liquid. He held his hand up to the light, and went pale. "It's green."

Elrond nodded.

"No." Legolas shook his head. "No, no it can't- this is not his blood…this- this isn't…it can't." His fingers tumbled to the ground where he unconsciously wiped them off on the grass. "Please, Elrond, surely there is something-"

The two elves jumped as a gasp of air escaped Aragorn's lips, and his eyes flashed open. His back arched in pain, and his arm snapped to his chest where he pinned it painfully. His eyes focused and unfocused on the figure over him.

"Adda, please don't…" he whispered. "Please forgive me, Adda."

Elrond's head cocked to the side slightly. "Forgive what, Estel?"

"I…kept it…it was mine, but I don't want it…I don't want it."

"You don't want wh-"

"I don't want it, Adda, I'm sorry!" Aragorn was almost sobbing as his eyes unfocussed once more. "Except it back, please! Adda, please?"

"Sh…" Elrond pulled his son up a little so he was half sitting. "Estel, you are sick. We will-"

"The Ring, Adda." The human's tone was suddenly quiet. "The One Ring. I should have destroyed it. It would all be over now…" his voice drifted out slightly, and his eyes roved aimlessly.

"Estel." Elrond shook his head. "Please, it was not you who-"

"I hate Isildur." Aragorn's voice was hollow. "Please. Take the Ring back." Elrond blinked unbelievingly as Aragorn held out his hand. Rested on his palm, two silver snakes encircling a green gem. "Let me be Estel only, Adda. Let me be Estel son of Elrond. Please…not Aragorn. Not Isildur's heir…"

Elrond closed Aragorn's fingers around the silver ring. "Estel, you are not bound to the fate of others. Estel…?"

But the human's eyes were glazed. He was not listening. He was barely looking. Just drifting. "Please…" he whispered. "Make me Estel."

Elrond's eyes met Legolas'. "Bengwiil shows you your greatest fear in the truest ways." Legolas spoke with held emotion, but managed to keep the look of despair from his face. "Aragorn's fear…is very real to him right now, Lord Elrond. His greatest fear."

Elrond's eyes closed as what Legolas had known long dawned on him. Aragorn's greatest fear. Himself. Who he was, where he had come from, and what he was destined to become. Elrond pulled his limp son into an embrace. "Oh no, fion nin," he whispered gently. "It isn't you. And you were all ready made Estel long ago…"

There was a second of silence. Each heart beat once around the clearing. And then Legolas spoke.

"It cannot end here, Elrond, please. It looks hopeless, this I know, but Aragorn would be the first to tell you that nothing is without hope."

"Legolas, I do not deny there is a chance of keeping him alive, but if we draw the poison out now, he will die. I cannot fix that." Elrond's eyes drifted to nowhere as he rocked back and forth, cradling Aragorn's shuttering body in his strong arms.

Legolas watched silently, his mouth unconsciously ajar. "You- you're giving up," he whispered with such disbelief, that Elrond's head rose quickly.

"Legolas, I can do nothing. If I could save Estel, I would, but there is too much poison in him. I cannot draw it out, or he will die, for the poison has become part of his blood now. The only option left is to give him more Bengwiil. That would only preserve him for so long, though, and eventually, he would die from the sheer saturation of it. Is that how you want him to die, Legolas?"

Legolas' hand clenched and unclenched. "I- I don't want him to die AT ALL!" he cried, throwing his hands up in frustration. "I- I'm sick of life-or-death situations, Elrond. I'm sick of so many dying it- it's wrong that so many should die. Aragorn can't die."

"I know how you feel, Legolas, I know death hurts badly, and it is hard for an elf, even one of your years, to understand." Elrond seemed to be hanging on only for Legolas. Otherwise, the prince was pretty certain he'd have lost himself in his own silent emotions. "I am no healer, Legolas, not really. I wish I were. But we must-"

"No," Legolas' voice was almost pleading. "Aragorn cannot die. Because if he dies, I will die. And my time is not yet, nor is his. Elrond, surely you have some foresight." Leoglas' eyes were wide with hope. "Please, what do you see in Estel's future?"

"I see only what he was meant to be," Elrond sighed quietly. "He was meant to be Middle Earth's greatest ruler. The hope of mankind. But that vision is fading now, Legolas, and I can only think why."

Legolas' head was shaking. "I won't give him up, Elrond. I don't want him to die."

"I don't want him to die either, Legolas!" Elrond's voice had risen enough to make Legolas flinch. "But I…" he began, his tone quieter in apology. "I don't want him to die a death of Bengwiil, and nor do you."

"Surely there is a cure," Legolas begged. "Surely there is something else…something we can use against Bengwiil. Please, Elrond. Give him enough poison to keep him alive. Long enough that we can somehow heal him. I cannot help but think that we've only begun to fight against Bengwiil. Surely it has a weakness. An antidote."

Legolas moved forward on the forest floor slowly, laying his hand gently against Aragorn's sweating forehead. Slowly, he raised his eyes to meet Elrond only inches away. "Please. I don't know how to lose him again."

- - - - - - - - - -

When Aragorn opened his eyes, he smiled. Legolas was laying on his stomach next to Aragorn on the human's bed. There was an unfolded map laying beside him, and in his hands was a book with a leather cover. Legolas' head was resting on the pages of his book, his eyes half lidded, and his body still.

Aragorn sat up halfway, careful not to wake his tired friend, and looked around the room. In a chair that had been pulled from the side of the room to stand beside the bed, Elrond sat, his eyes only half focused as he stared straight ahead.

As Aragorn smiled, it was as though the expression had made a light sound, for Elrond's head turned, and his eyes became bright with sight again and he smiled back at the human.

"Good morning, my son."

"Suilad," Aragorn replied, his eyes moving to Legolas again. When he looked back to Elrond, he was grinning, causing the elven lord to do the same.

Elrond shook his head. "He was so very tired, but insisted he was going to work while you were asleep. I believe you've run him raged, Estel."

Aragorn laughed quietly. "Right. You know me, always getting him to push himself. You've no idea what a task it was to get him to take a break just a few days ago."

Elrond nodded and sighed. "I can imagine. It's a wonder to me that it was you alone who stood so near to death's door, Estel."

"I rather think Legolas wouldn't mind dying that way, Adda," Aragorn shrugged, "were it not for the fact that he'd need to depend on others to force me into rest."

"You are quite the pair," Elrond conceded, and stood from his chair. Sitting on the edge of Aragorn's bed, he reached over Legolas' sleeping body to touch his son's forehead. "Your fever is down," he said, and nodded with relief.

"Why?" Aragorn asked, as the truth slowly dawned on him. He wasn't sick anymore. He felt- rather good, really. Fantastic. "Why am I well again, Adda? How did you heal me?" Then he added quickly as the new though struck him, "Is Legolas' father all right? And oh dear…where are Daurrè and Horthor?"

"Shh…enough with the questions for now, my son. Be still and I will answer a few." He smiled as Aragorn nodded, and leaned back on his pillows once more. "Legolas' father is quite well, and I have extracted all the Bengwiil that was in him from his system. It appears that, though he has been using it for quite some time now, he has merely burned most of it, and only eaten some. Daurrè met Legolas and I in the woods, and has taken Horthor to the stables, and I can assure you, Daurrè completely understands you were not yourself when you shouted at him."

Aragorn nodded slowly. "I do not know what happened to me. I saw him in the clearing and- it frightened me. I was so afraid of hurting him. Of making him sick with a disease of heart that I carried invisibly. I didn't want to hurt him, yet I couldn't make him understand to leave. So I shouted." He sighed. "I remember it as if it were a dream that stayed in my mind for years and years, and I only just remembered today. It's so far away, it almost feels as though it were not I with the feelings, with those emotions. Someone else more distant, rather."

"Do not be uneasy, Estel," Elrond said. "It is over for now."

"But how?"

The lord was quiet momentarily. "Bengwiil," he said at last, "though in your heart, you knew this."

Aragorn didn't reply but the answer was in his eyes. He sighed. "I made Legolas promise not to use it on me. That must have made it harder for him, I'm sure…" He shook his head. "I am so sorry."

Elrond was already shaking his head. "Legolas did not use it on you, I took the responsibility. I would not force him to go against his will, Estel. And he agreed with me beforehand, that it was the only way…rather, he convinced me of it."

"So…what does that mean? I mean- you of all, Adda, would know that Bengwiil will not save me. If I learned one thing from Legolas over these past days, it is that Bengwiil only buys more time."

"You're right, Estel, you are right. You only have a little time, and we're going to have to use every moment of that to figure out how to heal you."

"And we will too."

Aragorn spun around, startled by the new voice. Legolas sat propped up on his elbows, his book closed in his hand, and a determined look on his face.

Aragorn couldn't help laughing.

"I don't see what you're so happy about," Legolas grumbled in mock-annoyance. "Have you any idea what a guilt I went through giving you Bengwiil again?"

Aragorn only smiled. "My dear friend, I do not laugh at your efforts or the situation. To be sure, it is of serious nature, but well…" his hand moved to the prince's cheek, his thumb rubbing up and down it. "Your look of determination is rather marred by ink."

Legolas grinned as well as he looked into the leather book he was holding, and found the offending smudged text. He shook his head and laughed as he allowed Aragorn to wipe the ink splotch from his cheek.

"There," Aragorn smiled. "Almost gone."

"Oh good riddance if it isn't," Legolas smiled, rubbing at his cheek absent-mindedly. "Look, I've been looking through this book, trying to find any record whatsoever of Bengwiil. This is perhaps the ninth book from this time period that has been blank of any information on it. It's very strange, Aragorn, the record should be in here, but it isn't. And look, here." He reached for the map that lay crumpled before him, flipping it around for Aragorn to see. "There is no mark for the spiders lair in which the Bengwiil was found by Binwen. This is map is dated here."

Aragorn squinted at the date. "It most certainly would have been active and most likely known of by that date, correct?"

"Correct, and yet it is not." Legolas nodded.

"What are you leading up to, Legolas?" Elrond asked. "The record could very well have been an oversight, and as for the spiders' lair, there's a possibility you're wrong about which date it was discovered or active. I know what you are trying to say, but isn't the evidence circumstantial thus far?"

"It is, my lord," Legolas conceded handing the book to Elrond. "But look here, at the top of this page, just before the paragraph break, it is old Quenya, that translates: over now, so be it but a memory. The poison without peace is gone, and thank Ilúvatar!"

"Poison without peace," Aragorn repeated.

"Bengwiil," Leoglas nodded. 'ben' meaning 'without' and 'gwiil' the most common Sindarin for 'peace'. There was a record of Bengwiil here once, but it is gone, see here where the pages are torn." He held the book out for the two to see. "They are ripped close to the binding, so not noticeable, but if you close the book, you can tell there are pages that are missing buy the spaces left behind."

Elrond nodded. "Then the record was destroyed?"

"I think so, Lord Elrond, look." Legolas reached underneath the map, and pulled a slip of old parchment with three Sindarin words written on it in sparkling green ink. "This was slipped into the book where those pages once were."

Aragorn read the words and sat back on the pillows with a sigh.

Tur-ilqua enyalie.

may we remember.

"I think you may be right, Legolas," Elrond nodded thoughtfully, taking the book in his own hands for a moment.

"So- what do we do now?" Aragorn asked.

"Ask the only person who can tell us what was once on these pages."

Aragorn shook his head. "Your father will not be so willing as you think, Legolas. This subject is clearly painful for him, seeing his reluctance to speak of it in the past."

"My father will tell me all I need to know when I need ask him. But he is not who I plan to ask." Taking the book from Elrond's outstretched hand again, Legolas bent the pages from the front cover, revealing a tiny inscription on the back of the dark leather.

For Thernäd- my love, how you inspire me. You made me enjoy the beauty of words first. Meleth le im, meltha nin.

Aragorn met Legolas' gaze slowly. "Edren."

Legolas nodded.

Elrond began to nod then paused, and his gaze snapped to Legolas. The same thought, apparently, had just come to the prince as well, for his eyes grew wide and quietly, he gasped. "Oh, Valar. Edren- he went after Aragorn."

Aragorn's face paled. "He did? Then where-"

"We did not see him on our way there…" Legolas' voice trailed off, and then rose again like a wave. "How could I be so stupid? We did not even look for him, where might he be?"

Elrond shook his head. "Out in Mirkwood, yet in search of Estel, I presume."

Aragorn and Legolas were both silent. "We must find him then," Aragorn murmured at last. "And start right away-"

thudathudathuda

The three spun around to face the door.

thudathudathuda

"Adda, are you in there?"

"I told you he would not be. Did I not say it? He will be in the king's room, right?"

"Perhaps, but Daurrè said to go up here, El, and here is where we will check. That is if someone will open the door-"

"You know, 'Daurr' means 'gentle'."

"Aye? So?"

"Well, for someone with the name 'gentle' he was rather disgruntled, don't you think?"

"Well, you're name means 'Elf Knight'."

"Good point. Adda?"

thudathudathuda

"Adda, are you there?"