Elrond feared to move the prince, lest his wounds be aggravated. Instead, he examined Legolas' wounds and tended to them as best he could on the floor of the throne room. Queilos was at his side, cleansing the wounds while Elrond treated them with a mixture of herbs that would promote healing. As he skillfully bound each wound with bandages that Queilos had brought, he questioned Gimli concerning all that had happened, and the dwarf freely told all he knew. Of the plot between Legolas and Aragorn, the dwarf knew nothing, but he had seen enough change in the elf to guess as to what had transpired. The hardest part for him was the retelling of the battle and the felling of his friends by the hand of Thranduil. Hearing that the king had shot the two arrows (and both times meaning to smite the prince), the elf lord's eyes darkened. Truly there was a powerful evil at work.

Gimli had kept his eyes averted from Legolas, for he did not wish to look upon the bloody form of his friend. But when Elrond bound the last of the wounds (and only in Gimli's story did Elrond learn of the gash across Legolas' lower back), the dwarf finally looked down. The elf was ashen in color but clean of blood thanks to Queilos. He seemed to be merely asleep, save for a still look that did not quite speak of peace. His eyes too were closed, a fact that Gimli noted with severe clarity. Elves never slept with their eyes closed; Legolas' habit of sleeping with open eyes had too often unnerved Gimli whilst they had traveled together during the war.

At last Elrond drew his hands back from Legolas and Gimli could see the blood that stained them. Then he spoke a few words in elvish, which might have been either encouragement to the prince or a prayer to the Valar. Sighing deeply, Elrond stood and looked at Gimli.

"I have done all that I can for him. The wounds themselves are not what threaten the prince. I fear because he has lost much blood, perhaps too much. Only time will tell if he shall ever awaken," he said to Gimli's unspoken questions.

Elrond's words did little to ease Gimli's heart and he watched as Queilos and a few other healers entered and exited the room. Some carried out the supplies Elrond had used, and to these elves, Elrond requested that the supplies be brought to Legolas' room, as he would be using them for some time as he tended to the prince. Others brought in litters to bear away the dead and wounded. Elrond spoke to these elves and bid them place Aragorn and Legolas in the prince's chambers, so that he could tend to both without the publicity of the healing houses. The dead were to stay until Elrond examined them further.

"Take extra care when moving the prince," he reminded them as they made ready to move Legolas. "He has suffered much and his wounds are severe."

When both Legolas and Aragorn had been taken away, the elf lord knelt by each of the dead elves, which still lay as they had fallen. From Tauron and Nimras, he could learn nothing and told as much to Gimli, who hovered nearby. Not yet could he bring himself to follow his friends. Now Elrond knelt by Knyo and Celebloki as they lay side by side. From Kyno, once again there was nothing to be learned. Then Celebloki was searched. As he searched for answers, Elrond once again bid Gimli to recount all that had been said between the elf and Legolas.

"I know Legolas, and he seemed to know something about that name, Celebloki," said Gimli. "It was not much, but I caught the look that passed over his face. And then too, Kyno knew the elf. He actually seemed to hold some power over him, or rather did at one time."

Elrond furrowed his bow and continued to search. Anything that Legolas knew, he had kept to himself. And then, he found what he sought. As he lifted a fold in the fabric that had clothed Celebloki, he found something. It was a mark, burnt into the elf's back, where the neck met the shoulders.

"The mark of the Necromancer!"

"Necromancer?" asked Gimli.

Elrond nodded. "Once Sauron made his dwelling in Dol Guldur in the south of Mirkwood. Celebloki, he was the son of Kyno, though I had all but forgotten until now. He went missing as a youth in the woods and was thought dead. Sauron must have caught him within his web and kept him in Dol Guldur, corrupting his mind for who knows how long. But at some point he would have been released and met with his father, bringing him knowledge of the spider venom you spoke of." As he spoke, Elrond's eyes never left the dead elf and he continued to search the body. He came upon the burn mark in the twisted shape of the royal crest. "These burns, they are not recent. It seems obvious that this plot against Thranduil and his son was laid long ago. The torture marks were made by Sauron perhaps, to make the story plausible and once Kyno had succumbed to the evil, Celebloki would have made his way to Gondor, knowing that in time he would be discovered and sent back to Mirkwood, where Thranduil would believe him to be his long lost son. If there is one thing that Thranduil always desired more than anything else, it was the return of his son. But once it became clear that Alandor would never return, save by some great gift of the Valar, the king turned his focus to what he could control. His treasury," Elrond said off Gimli's questioning looks. "Of course that is, until Legolas came into his life."

"How do you know all of this?" Gimli asked.

"I was there to see it all. I was in Mirkwood when Thranduil's first wife and child went missing and I was part of the search effort that found the remains. Celebloki was among the elves that went missing that day, and so was thought to have also perished, for we never retrieved all of the bones. I stayed in Mirkwood for some time after that, trying to help Thranduil work through his grief, but when Rivendell came under attack from the goblins of the mountains, I was forced to return to defend my own kingdom."

"And what of Thranduil? Is there something that can be done for him?"

"That I do not rightly know, but if you guide me to your prison, I will see what I can find."