Authors' Note: The Nightrunners are not, in fact, dead. Huzzah. Yes, we are back with yet another chapter for your reading enjoyment. Aren't we wonderful people? This chapter would have been up earlier today, but instead Meg and Jai had a hissy argument about the definition of philology, and how this differed from phylogeny. Turns out they were both right about philology: Jai claimed it meant study of classical literature, and Meg countered that it meant phonetics and language. Some interminable time later, a trip to www.dictionary.com managed to supply a satisfactory definition: "the humanistic study of language and literature". That way, both Nightrunners #1 and #3 were satisfied, and life went on its cheery little way. Nightrunner #2 ignored them both and read X-Men. And, look, you've all *learned* something today. Isn't that nice? Who says that fanfiction isn't educational? Anyway, without further ado, we present...
Old Haunts...
Soundtrack: Disappear (Jars of Clay)
"Don't worry, all right? We'll find them, and get you back on your feet as soon as we can. You just rest up and get better by yourself while we're gone."
Adam almost smiled at the sight of his partner leaning over Legolas's bed, whispering encouragements. With a final squeeze to his hand, she rose from the bedside and joined Adam. Heading to the front door, they passed Gabe in the living room.
"You're gone, then?"
"Yep. Off to find some pointy-eared people with an affinity for trees. Shouldn't be too hard to do in a city of a little over three million people. I mean, we can't be looking for more than a dozen of them. It won't be *hard* or anything."
"Buck up, Adam," Gabe called out. " You could be stuck here with only Sleeping Beauty for company. "
"You're right. Alice is better company, and she's pretty enough to keep anyone entertained."
Dodging a smack from Alice, Adam grabbed his gun and scooted out the door. Gabe sighed as the door closed with a resounding bang. He hoped they'd find the elves in time.
Legolas was one of the few people he couldn't bear to lose.
************
" So I'm entertaining to look at, am I?"
These were the first words out of Alice's mouth as she and Adam headed deeper into the Quartier, towards the Metro. She was amused to note that Adam still had the good grace to blush at her question. "Never mind. Where are we headed? You're the native here, so it's probably your call on this."
"Well, I would say that the first place we should probably look is the downtown area, that way, I figure..."
Alice tuned out Adam's rambling and turned her attention to her own musing as they walked down the stairs into the equivalent of the subway.
// If I were still an elf, where would I hide? Somewhere that I didn't have to come in contact with the humans too often. They don't like us very much, and unless things have changed drastically, I don't think ""Ada"" would be willing to become too involved. So we're looking for a bunch of isolationist elves, who have had millennia to hide themselves. Oh gods.//
Her inner monologue was interrupted by Adam saying something that was actually pertinent.
"The business card Legolas left directions on had 'Goldenwood Enterprises' written on it. There were some addresses and some funky writing I couldn't read."
"You're sure it was 'Goldenwood' ?" Alice asked him sharply.
"Positive."
She threw her up hands in the air. "'Goldenwood', honestly. I never really thought about it before. I guess that was the point. By the Valar, could they *be* any more arrogant? Grandmother came up with that one, I'm sure of it."
Adam was looking at his partner with some concern. Usually when she started to rant like this, it was a precursor to someone getting hit with a lightening bolt.
"Um, Alice? People are starting to stare. Why don't you just sit down, rewind, and repeat the last part of that monologue with explanations included. Please?"
Alive blew a stream of air out of her pursed lips. "Right. My best guess is that it wasn't a coincidence that the directions to Legolas's apartment were written on a card from Goldenwood. When Arda still existed, one of the greatest, or perhaps *the* greatest elven haven of the land was the wood of Lothlórien, known in the common tongue as the Golden Wood. My grandmother was Queen of that realm. My guess is that she is one of the founders, and possibly a current senior member of 'Goldenwood Enterprises'. It all makes perfect sense. It would allow them to control the amounts of money they'd need to keep their privacy and their way of life."
"Arda? Where's that?"
Alice rolled her eyes, sighing impatiently. "Valar, grant me patience. Never mind where Arda was, I don't have time to explain it to you right now. What we need to do is find the branch of Goldenwood here in Paris. Do you remember any of the addresses on the card?"
"No. Besides, there are at least twelve different branches of Goldenwood Enterprises in Paris alone. It's a huge company, and we don't even know if the people we're looking for are in this country. I can think of at least seven other countries that Goldenwood operates from, and I'm sure there's more."
"Well, in that case we're going to have to go to *each* branch here in the city and make some discreet "inquiries" to see if we can find who we're looking for."
"I'm taking it on faith here that *you* know who we're looking for, because I don't have a clue."
Alice once again had to resist the urge to beat her head off the wall. Or better yet, beat *Adam's * head off the wall. "Yes, I know who we're looking for. Any elf will do, actually. All we need to do is find one, then they can tell us how to get in contact with Grandmother or Father."
"Right then, let's get started."
************
Many hours later, Alice's frustration was beginning to show.
"*Twelve* different buildings, in five different Quartiers, and *did* we find any bloody stupid elves? *NO*. "
"Alice, if you don't calm down, you're going to kill the power on this block for the next couple of hours. And considering that we're deep underground in a train, killing the power is not the best idea right now. "
"Stop being so damned reasonable, Elessar!"
"I haven't heard you call me that one before. Listen Alice, I'm sorry if I'm being irritating, but it's true. You know, there was no need for you to threaten that poor clerk in the last building."
"She was being a *twit*."
"I know, love, but it wasn't very nice. I don't think her boss was too happy that he had to send her home."
Adam looked across the train carriage at his partner. "Come here." Alice slid across to sit next to him, and looked up, wondering what he had in mind. "Just look out the window for a minute."
Puzzled, she did as Adam requested, and nearly jumped off the seat when she felt his hands on her shoulders.
"Adam, *what* are you doing?"
"I'm trying to get the enormous tension knot out of your shoulders." He held up a hand. "Yes, yes, I know. You don't reciprocate my feelings, let's just be friends, blah blah blah. I'm not trying to hit on you or anything. Well," he paused. "Actually, I am, but we're on a public train. It's neither the time nor the place, I know. I'm just doing it because you're *you*."
"Oh." Alice looked slightly unsure of how to respond. "Well, thank you."
"That, and your neck is starting to disappear."
She laughed, and elbowed him gently in the stomach.
After a few minutes of semi-companionable silence, Alice turned around. "So what do we do now?"
"Actually, I *do* have an idea. You'll have to trust me, though."
"What is this grand idea ?"
"A surprise."
************
The first thing Alice saw was the ice rink. It was enormous, stretching away at least half a kilometre. The architecture was Roman; the rink was surrounded by marble archways, carved pillars and statues. High above the smooth white surface, sun lamps filled the arena with natural light.
The rink was crowded with skaters, spinning, flying, laughing; some would circle the main rink once, then vanish down one of the dozens of side-paths. Adam came up behind her. "Those are the ice transit paths. You can follow them all over the city."
"Really?"
"Hey, it's faster than walking."
"But Adam, *why* are we at a skating rink? In case you forgot, one our friends is dying back in our apartment, and he's depending on us to save him." This rebuke was delivered while her back was still turned to him. As she turned around, she couldn't help but think, quite wistfully, of how much fun it would have be to relax and go skating. Then she noticed what Adam was carrying. "You brought me here to *skate*?"
"No, Alice, I brought you here to go swimming. Yes, to skate. This isn't just any skating rink. It's *the* skating rink. Paris boasts the largest indoor rink in the world. And as it happens, I used to spend a great deal of my time here when I was younger. I figured if we can't go to the Elves, then maybe they'll come to us. We'll go to some of my old haunts, be fairly visible, and see what happens." Seeing that she was almost convinced, Adam used his final argument. "I know it isn't Central Park, but you never know, you might actually have some fun ."
Alice sighed, though she couldn't hide a glimmer of anticipation. "All right then. I suppose it couldn't hurt. But no making fun of me when I fall on my ass, or I promise you'll regret it."
"Believe me, Arwen. If anything happened to you, I'd be the last person to laugh."