AN: Welcome to the end of the semester fun for me! I have many a paper and final to take so I'm sorry for this being late. I just had to write a paper for my Plagues and Humankind class and an annotated bibliography for my Film History class. Actually, the latter was a good time. I did the relationship between Metropolis, this silent German movie from like 1940, and the movie Blade Runner and two animated shorts from The Animatrix. While I'm trying to muddle my way through all this madness, I'm trying to get ready for graduation. Picking up my gown, cap, and a strange looking hood I have to wear (something about it showing my major and the school…I don't know.) as well as a dress and stuff. Anyway, thanks for putting up with my ever annoying tardiness and thanks, as always, for your reviews. You guys rock!

LJP: It was the song I was listening to at the moment but I had to take it out as per the site's new rules or something. Anyway, I'd imagine his look to be something like that too. Not exactly something you'd see everyday, after all. You shall see what the queen has to say about Thranduil's daughter relatively soon. As for Niphredil and Legolas, I'm not exactly sure what to do about them. Any suggestions?

LostSchizophrenic: I'm glad you like the chapter and the story! Here's the next part as soon as possible.

Lindiel Eryn: No worries. I know all about fun with applications. I had to sort my own out earlier in the semester. You shall see what the queen does about Emma very soon. As for Thranduil, he may get what's coming to him in more ways than one and from more than one person.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except for a handful of made up characters. Tolkien thought up the concept and, as such, it belongs to him. I'm just playing in his world. I'm broke and in college. All I own are Pointe Shoes.

"There's something about your father you do not want to tell me. Am I correct, Legolas?" Algernil asked, once back in Legolas' quarters.

The ride into Mirkwood had been uneventful for the pair, Legolas using a back way to get into his home. Hooded and cloaked as she was, Algernil looked like a lost traveler who had managed to get lucky and meet someone in the woods to save their skin. Even with the shadows receding, Mirkwood was not exactly the safest of places to travel through without a guide who knew what they were doing. No one would suspect that she was the once queen returning to life and excited to be alive.

Legolas looked around, anywhere, everywhere but not at his mother. How in all of Middle Earth was he supposed to tell her about Emma? How was he supposed to know how she'd react to the fact his father had been unfaithful to her memory and had a daughter? What was he supposed to do if Algernil decided not to accept Emma and went along with his father's feelings?

He wanted to get away, to go and find someplace else to be. Maybe make an appearance on the practice field and watch the young elflings at work. Visit with his sister before the bottom fell out and the world came crumbling down around him.

Algernil, ever the mother, noticed that her son was avoiding her gaze. He was looking here and there, like he had when he was a young elfling who had done something horridly wrong and caused chaos in Mirkwood. There was something not right here and Algernil wanted to know what it was.

"Legolas, please," she said to her son, "I know there is a reason for my returning to life and I know that reason involves your father somehow. I cannot discover this reason if you do not tell me what has happened within these halls."

Legolas sat, giving his mother the most honest of looks. He had to tell her the truth, as he had when he was but a child. There was never any lying to her, never an escaping from admitting what he had said or done. The charges leveled against him always found their ultimate truth when he was with his mother.

"Something has happened, nana, something that is very hard to me to explain. Something I worry about telling you because I do not know how you will feel about the results," Legolas, gingerly, answered.

"No ills have ever come from speaking the truth, my son. Tell me what has happened and give me the freedom to decide how I feel," she retorted, her voice as strong and as gentle as it had been when he was a child.

With an almost resigned sigh, Legolas simply stated, "Father got involved with one of your handmaidens after your passing."

"Which one?" Algernil wanted to know, some venom creeping into her once warm and strong voice.

"It matters now. She was killed, along with most of her kin trying to get to the Grey Havens. What does it matter is this…something came from that affair," he answered, gingerly.

Algernil started, confused, at her son as he explained, "Father has a daughter who, by no fault of her own, just returned to Middle Earth. She has come into the lives of my father and I in the recent future."

Seeing that she was still confused, Legolas launched into an explanation of how Emma had been taken from Mirkwood when she was only a few hours old and returned as a young child with her parents in tow. Her adopted parents, one who had her roots in Middle Earth and discovered who she was along with her adopted daughter.

Legolas expected her to be furious and to react badly to his news. Trusts had been broken, lives changed in many ways all because of his father's actions. Maybe, Legolas wanted Algernil to react badly, to rant and rail against his father and the actions he'd committed. As odd as it seemed, he wanted his mother to get angry. Something he had assiduously avoided when he was a young elfling.

Instead, much to his surprise, Algernil started to laugh. Not that angry, dance on your bones kind of laughter or the laughter of someone who had recently gone mad. Rather, it was the laugh of someone who knew something and that something had come to light.

"It serves him right," Algernil said, amid her mad laughing.

This was not the reaction, the words, the actions, he was expecting.

"What do you mean nana?" he asked his own voice curious.

Calming herself, Algernil answered, "Your father wanted no more children after you came into our lives, my son. He had gotten word that if were to have any more children, he would be blessed with a daughter. Thranduil wanted to spare you having to share the throne despite the fact I wanted another child."

"He prevented you how?" Legolas questioned, not really sure what his mother was referring to.

"There are ways," she answered, "ways your father knew. It matters little, though, since he still got what he deserved. I am glade to see fate is not without a sense of irony."

To her statement, she added, "When do I get to meet this daughter of your father's?"

Legolas cringed at that phrase. To call Emma Thranduil's daughter was akin to high treason. His father did everything in his power not to associate himself with his much younger daughter. That included disavowing any knowledge of her and pretending she didn't exist.

If one were to dare to connect the pair, they were in for trouble.

"Her adoptive parents are away for a time and she is in my care now. Once she returns from her lessons, you may speak with her," Legolas answered.

Thinking quickly, he added, "I should warn you, though, Emma is unlike any elfling you are likely to meet. She was raised in a different world with a different kind of family and she may not trust you right away."

"What do you mean?" Algernil questioned.

With a sigh and an uncomfortable shift, Legolas pointed out, "Father does not like Emma and he makes these feelings perfectly clear to her. That is why she stays with me and not with him. I must warn you that she may feel you will be the same."

"Well, she will learn, then…she will learn," Algernil commented, as she settled in with more questions about what had taken place in Middle Earth while she was "gone."