Alright all, no one reviewed before, so I have to wonder if you didn't notice a new chapter being up. Maybe you just didn't like it, I don't know, but if you didn't even bother to look, go back one chapter BEFORE reading ahead. It may not make much of a difference, but it may, as well.

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From his position against the wall, Legolas smiled as he watched Lunian play with the two youngest daughters of Aragorn and Arwen. She fitted into their playful world as easily as if she had been playing with small children all of her life, instead of the more likely scenario, that she had only seen children from a distance and then only rarely through her life. Elf children were a somewhat rare sight, considering the elves had thousands of years in which to have children, and so were in no hurry, and that they had the knowledge that their journey to the undying lands would not be far off, in immortal terms.

"You miss them," Arwen whispered beside him, speaking of the children he could have had, if Lunian was not so adamant about the issue, or if he had not fallen so hopelessly in love with a mortal. As the only elves in the room, their whispers would be as effective as exiting the room to avoid being overheard.

"Sometimes I wish for what could never be."

A glance from the corner of her eye and a slightly raised brow asked him to continue.

He didn't mind doing so, so with a half-hearted shrug he did. "I wish Aragorn could join us in the West, that Frodo was never touched by the evil of the ring, that Lunian had been born as her mother was, that I could have prevented Calmacil from hurting her, that she would have married me, agreed to be my princess and the mother to the next generation, that I could strike out the eyes of all those who don't truly see her…" he trailed off as one of the guards came into the room. "That she and I could just be together, for the rest of immortal time, loving each other as we were meant to do," he finished even more softly.

Arwen strained to hear the last, and sighed softly when she managed. "No other elf will accept what we have chosen, Legolas. They do not believe any mortal is worth the price. Even Elrohir, knowing well the pleasure you and I obtain from such love, even he does not understand the willingness we have to leave our immortality for that love." She looked at her children and slowly shook her head. "Our loves prepare for us in different ways, but with as much love. Aragorn has given me a kingdom and a family. My children shall console me for a time, and I shall carry their memory until the end." She paused, her eyes darkening as she dwelled upon that dark day which seemed so close to her mind. Then she pierced Legolas with a look as compelling as her grandmother's. "Lunian chose to separate your love from anything or anyone else. When she is gone, you can take it with you wherever you can find solace. Her very existence should give you hope where I shall never find any. It is possible, Legolas, that she will be born again." She blinked and released him from her gaze, but her words held him as she looked at Lunian and her children. "When you kneel beside her lifeless form, you will have to ask yourself if you want to chance her rebirth without your presence in this life."

Legolas looked back at her for an instant. Then he focused on Lunian, who felt his gaze and glanced up with a smile that faded rapidly to a frown. She was on her feet at once, and beside him almost in the same instant, reaching cool fingers to his cheek, then his forehead.

"Egola? Are you all right?" she asked, worry in her tone and on her face.

He smiled slightly at her concern, and kissed her forehead before drawing her gently against him. "I am, my love," he agreed softly. "Just forgetting tomorrow is tomorrow, and today is all I have."

Lunian looked up at him for an instant, as if not quite believing he was being perfectly honest, but she sighed and kissed his jaw before returning to the young princesses who had watched the exchange with confusion, not understanding the sorrow that seemed to permeate the room.

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