Chapter 14: Overflowing Emotions
At Elrond's Study
"You will have her, Isendor, You know my word." Thranduil said to the restless elf who was pacing back and forth in Elrond's study.
"Isendor, please, sit down." Elrond, who was annoyed by Isendor's pacing, snapped.
Isendor sat down the couch, his green eyes burning with rage, there's no way he's not going to get the princess of the Great Lands... no matter what happens...
Isendor stood up and glared at Thranduil "The Princess, or the suffering of Mirkwood and The Great Lands?"
"Isendor!"
Isendor walked out of the study and slammed the door, this behavior of his took the two lords to shake their heads.
"I know you do regret the betrothal."
"Yes, Elrond, Indeed I do, I don't want to think that Lailomé's right.
Elrond raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"That she feared Isendor."
Thranduil noticed the bewildered look in Elrond's face, a signal for him to further explain the matter.
"I know my daughter Elrond, she's frank, she will tell you exactly what she thinks or feels, and I just hope that her intuition about Isendor is wrong. Although her intuitions are almost never wrong."
"But what if she's right?"
"God help us."
Elrond crossed his arms, "The truth is Thranduil, I can't say I'm right, but you see, there's something strange from Isendor since I last saw him."
"What seems to be so strange?" Thranduil asked, inquiringly.
"Isendor... he can't look at me straight in the eye."
"What's so special about him looking at your eyes when he talks to you?"
"He always does that, before he came here from the war of the ring."
That Night...
Lailomé entered the dining hall, most of the high, important elves were there, she was wearing a dark blue dress and her hair was tied in half with a ribbon the same color as her dress, she look around the hall in search of any sign of Legolas, but with no luck, she saw Arwen waving at her beckoning her to sit beside her and Aragorn.
"You're looking good today Lailomé." Arwen teased.
"Hey, how's back-from-the-dead-elf!" Merry yelled at Lailomé who was now sitting between Arwen and Gandalf.
"Merry!" Gandalf barked. "Do you or do you naught want me to turn you into a frog?"
Merry choked, and slumped himself on his chair, the hobbits bursted into laughter.
"Well, Lady Lailomé, I guess that's the end of their teasing." He whispered as he turned to Lailomé with a large grin, as if he just had the scare of his life.
"Oh I hope so, Gandalf."
"Believe me, their teasing is sometimes below the belt."
"Indeed."
"Indeed."
"My Lady, is there by any chance, have you any luck of seeing my friend, Legolas." Aragorn asked as he looked at her. Oh yes... Legolas, I almost forgot... Lailomé thought as she looked at Arwen for help but in which Arwen shook her head.
"No, Aragorn, I haven't seen him since this morn'." She said softly.
Aragorn nodded his head in return, "Lailomé, are you alright?" Arwen asked Lailomé with a tone only she could hear.
Lailomé shook her head and smiled, "Nothing's wrong, Arwen."
"I know it when there is."
Lailomé looked at her sadly, Arwen got the gist of it and said, "Tell me later, okay."
"Yes I will."
Just then, a servant tapped Lailomé in the shoulder and handed her a note.
"What does it say?" Arwen asked as she eyed the note in Lailomé's hand.
"It's from Father, she asks me to go up in my room right this moment."
"Why?"
"He didn't say."
"Maybe you should go up now."
"I think you're right." Lailomé said as she stood up and excused herself.
"What in the name of-
"Calm down Lailomé, we need to this now, Isendor is in a hurry." Thranduil begged her as he asked the other servants to leave them alone in the room with Briarvale for a moment.
"Is in a hurry? Has he had no consideration? Why announce a wedding now, when he doesn't formally asked me? How dare he! He's even a mere stranger!" Lailomé angrily yelled at Thranduil and Briarvale who was stunned by her sudden rise of temper.
"Please Lailomé, restrain yourself, he already made arrangements, the announcement of your betrothal will be announced tonight, there is no turning back."
"Tonight? What an imbecile! How dare him! Tonight? The nerve of him? How dare he run me around like this? I wish he would burn!" She bursted with unbearable anger constricted her chest.
"Lailomé, watch your mouth!" Thranduil exclaimed.
"I don't care, also, how dare he choose my own dress? How dare him, how dare him..." Lailomé felt the urge to kick everything in sight, she feel the urge to slap Isendor, who is he to humiliate me like that? How dare him ruin my life! She murmured to herself as tears started to fall from her eyes.
Seeing Lailomé fighting her emotions hurt Thranduil and Briarvale, seeing her like that make them want to accept whatever consequences they might have if she rejected Isendor.
"Lailomé, please." Briarvale pleaded.
Lailomé stood up, as if she couldn't take up her own weight, she raised her head, her eyes showed how much strength she has left to face another humiliation.
"Nobody tells me what to do Father." She snarled at them as she stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her, she went out still wearing the dress she was wearing before she was summoned upstairs. "That creep!" "How dare he, the nerve of him!" she barked as she made her way to the gardens.
In the hall...
"Where is she?" Isendor roared as he did his usual pacing, waving his hands in almost everywhere.
"Isendor, calm down, my daughter, Lailomé is a headstrong girl, please understand." Thranduil added.
"Yes, she is, Isendor, believe us, she will do anything she wish-
"Thranduil remember our agreement." He snarled at the dumbfounded Thranduil.
"Isendor! With all due respect to the king-"Briarvale conceded, he was Lailomé's guardian after all, also, he can't tolerate Isendor's offensive disrepute to an elf king.
"With or without your daughter the announcements will be read out today!" Isendor barked as he stormed down the hall.
Briarvale gave out a deep breath and patted Thranduil on the shoulder. Thranduil sighed and faced Briarvale.
"Only if the consequences weren't that grave, Lord Briarvale, I would cancel their betrothal right away, believe me, I really would."
"I know you would, Lord Thranduil, we all wish the best for Lailomé."
"Indeed, Lord Briarvale, without a doubt."
Lailomé walked through the moonlit gardens; Lailomé, who was particularly boiling with anger. "How dare him ruin my life and run me around?" "Who the hell is he?" "He who would just enter my life and run it?" Her ramblings were interrupted when she accidentally stepped on the hem of her dress. "Dam nit" she muttered as she scrambled herself up.
"That, is what they call Karma." A voice said from behind.
Now the tone of that voice annoyed the already enflamed elf. "The hell are you?" Her mind was too crowded for another war that she didn't recognized to whom the voice belong. The elf then jumped from his hiding place atop a branch of an primeval tree and stepped into the moonlit side, revealing a tall, blonde haired elf with piercing blue eyes.
"Don't start with me now Legolas!" She snarled at him.
"Nay, I am not starting with you, Lailomé." He said brusquely.
"Please, can't anyone of you just leave me alone? Just give me some piece of mind!" She cried as she took a step back, "Can't you understand?"
"So, you don't want me! Just as I thought!"
"Legolas... for heaven's sake, not now."
"I can't understand you! You... while were talking to father, how could you accept your life like that? How could you fool me?" he said tenaciously, giving emphasis on the word fool.
"Legolas? What are you talking about?" Now this was one of the times when Lailomé hated him, hated her life. How could he accuse her of fooling him while her fate too was fooling her?
"Oh don't play games on me Lailomeiel."
"I'm not playing games!" she fired back.
"Oh yes you are! Oh how I am so foolish to believe you! How am I so foolish to believe that you love me! You of all people-"Legolas angrily shot back at her, she who used to make him believe that she love him, part of him wanted to take it back, wanted revenge, but the other says that he should talk calmly to her... that everything was a big misunderstanding.
"Legolas? Do you doubt me?" she asked him, her eyes now full of tears, she couldn't control her emotions, first, Isendor, then now, Legolas... who else could she trust?
Her question struck Legolas, he did love her, but his doubt, her actions were patterned, this is one of her jokes... it is but it is not... at least, I don't want it to be. "Then you really do love me?"
He tried to go near her but she took another step back, shaking her head, she can't believe what was happening to her, losing Legolas and her happiness, just the thought of her life with Isendor rather than the man in front of her constricted her chest, she gasped and last thing she knew, the trees went spinning and everything blacked out.
Legolas felt a surge of guilt as he carried Lailomeiel's light body to Elrond's castle, these fainting spells of hers are normal, she is energetic and lively indeed but when she couldn't take everything in the same moment just as what had happened, she blacks out. No one on the castle saw him as he carried her up to her room, laying her gently on her bed; he opened the drawers to look for her medicine and when he came across a tiny wooden box he opened it and saw something very familiar... it was a necklace, with a silver chain and a exquisitely decorated pendant the shape of a butterfly on a crystal flower... this... he thought, was the necklace he slipped on her pocket the day she left Mirkwood. Legolas looked at the sleeping elf beside him, she was keeping it safe after all those years, maybe she still doesn't know who slipped it in her pocket, but the box was safely kept and that he could see that the necklace was still as good as the last time he put it in it's box. "So you still keep this with you." He whispered to her as she stirred, as if she heard him while she was unconscious, this simple act of hers somehow gave Legolas another surge of guilt, he was wrong to accuse her... he was wrong to hurt her. He smiled, she did love him like he loved her, watching her like that make Legolas feel that he could not ask for more at that moment.
It was already near dawn when she woke up, seeing something blonde which was, she could tell, sitting, face down beside her, he has been watching her since last night.
"Leggy...?" she whispered, while she nudged him gently.
"Lei? Are you alright?" still with smokey eyes, he blinked and asked her worriedly.
"I'm fine, Leggy, what happened?" then she frowned, as if something just sparked from her brain, "What are you doing here?"
"You went unconscious last night, I carried you here-"
"Oh I'm sorry, did anybody saw you?"
"Nobody did, I guess."
Lailomé leaned back to her pillow as she stared up on the ceiling. "What I feel for you wasn't a joke as what you might think." She said mellifluously. Legolas looked at her with a puzzled expression, she's not pressing the matter now, he thought. "Legolas, do you believe me?" she asked as Legolas felt her smooth warm handover his, in which he place his own over hers and helded it tight.
"I'm sorry, I was just pressured by our situation, that I-"Lailomé pressed a finger on his lips. "You still didn't answer my question Legolas."
Legolas had no choice but to answer her question, it's not that he don't trust, it was just because he wasn't sure... not now. "Yes, I do trust you."
She nodded and smiled weakly, staring back up again on the ceiling, she took a deep breath and looked at him again; Legolas looked back at her, her eyes mirroring his soul, he could see right through her, right through her very essence...
"Legolas, if I had a choice, you know I would stay with you, I'll do what my heart and soul says... to go with you, but my mind tells me not to, that if I would let myself be selfish to others, my conscience too, can't take it, either way Legolas, marrying Isendor, or going away with you, are just the same, I would fade Legolas, I would."
Legolas couldn't bear the pain Lailomé was inflicting upon herself, he shifted his position and helded her tight, kissing her forehead and hushing her.
"I wouldn't let that happen, I promise you Lailomé, if I have to kill Isendor-
With that, she pushed him away from her; she stared at him as though he was some kind of a prisoner with a serious crime.
"You wouldn't stain your hands with elven blood, Legolas! Promise me you wouldn't!" Legolas took what she said as a warning since she looked at him sternly in the eye.
"Promise me!" She repeated.
Legolas nodded his head. "I Promise." But then Legolas stopped; this isn't the way it should be. He thought. "But Lailomé, what will happen to us?"
"I don't know Leggy, maybe I should do which of it whose result will benefit, if not me, then the more people who will benefit, the better." She replied, solemnly.
"Then that means that..."
"Yes, Legolas, I would marry Isendor, whether I like it or not."
Lailomé looked as if her death sentence has just begun.