Computers hate me today, so I'll cross my fingers that this works. I've already spent an hour swearing at the darned thing under my breath.

Iluvenis: Elrond was just saying that Legolas doesn't always have to be the perfect prince. He can be a mere elf from time to time, as well. He can have personal friends as an elf that he might not be able to have as the Prince of Mirkwood. Clear now?

Swasti: Wouldn'twe alllike to know? ;-)

ilovesam: that's a screen name a friend of mine would have picked, though I haven't heard from her in months. I will always keep posting stories I've started, though internet access is sometimes patchy.

Navaer Lalaith: If you so despise reading my work, if it's soterrible and not worth the space, then why bother? I'm sure there's some obscure article out there that very few people have heard about that you could read, instead.

Chapter 10 I will release you

"Is there something you wished of me, Lord Elrond?"

Elrond started slightly at the unexpected words, but had his features schooled quickly… not that it mattered, as she didn't turn around to look at him. "Merely to observe you."

She turned her head slightly towards him, glancing at him from the corner of her eye over her shoulder. "Think I have designs on one of your sons or the Prince with one of my blades?" she asked after a moment, before turning so she could once again consider the intricacies of water trickling slowly over rocks and leaves. The arches of light and gentle tinkling of sound.

He considered her question for a long moment. He'd been watching her for the last three months… as far as he knew, this was the first time he'd been caught. In all that time, he still didn't quite understand the answer to the question he needed to know, but he knew the answer to many that had not been asked. "No." He walked a bit closer, so he could see her profile as she gazed beyond the small garden to the waterfall across the valley.

The faintest hint of a smile touched her lips. "But?"

"But I do not know what to make of you."

"Why is that? Merely because I am female I cannot desire to wander on my own?"

He decided to let her distract him from his true meaning. "It is uncommon, you must admit."

"Your daughter is fairly head-strong."

An astute point. "Yes. But she does not wander the unknown world alone."

She glanced back. "There is no map, where she wanders," she replied softly.

He closed his eyes, taking a moment to compose himself, to hide his pain. "No," he agreed at length, his voice still a bit rough. He looked up at her in time to see a flash of anger being hidden deep within her dark eyes. "Why so angry, child?"

She snorted. "I am hardly a child, Lord Elrond, even when put up against your years."

"Aren't you?"

"I have wandered more of the world than your maps depict. I know more of the other peoples than you, even with your gifts, can. You remain safe here, hiding your master's secret, while I have been soaked in dark blood time after time, weary year after weary year. Your title protects you even when you venture beyond this haven. My blades have been all to protect me for more than a thousand years." Despite her harsh words and somewhat angered tone, her slight movements were perfect reflections of grace, of harmony with the world around her as she reached up for a butterfly, inspecting it as it wandered her hand willingly.

After a long moment, he inclined his head slightly, allowing her the fight. "But why angry?" he asked at last.

Her eyes darkened with fury for an instant before schooled away. "She is in love, Lord Elrond. And you pity her. If she loved him without hope, then by all means, pity her, be her comforting arms when she weeps… but he has loved her longer than she has loved him."

"There is no hope," he declared, realizing too late how loud and angry his voice had become. The butterfly sped away from her palm.

She half-faced him, head tilted, clearly studying him as intently as he had studied her. After a time she spoke, softly, her tones gentle though her eyes remained carefully blank. "She shall die, yes. And you shall miss her, as will many others. Will you really deny her happiness while she can have it?"

"She was happy before him," he snapped, crossing his arms over his chest.

She lifted a brow at the defensiveness he displayed, clearly nearly as surprised by it as he was. "Yes, I'm sure she was. But she will not ever be happy without him."

"Which will happen quickly."

"Any moment held in love's arms lasts an eternity," she countered quietly, her voice softening farther. "She no doubt wishes him to be an elf, and may one day look back at her younger self with confused scorn, but she will always love him, and will always remember…" she turned slightly away, missing the sudden widening of Elrond's eyes.

Before he could reply she turned towards him, inclined her head shortly, and left quickly, slipping through the trees without sound to betray her. He blinked, then found himself hearing another elf approaching him. "Legolas. I have your father's answer," he murmured when the elf in question appeared.

Legolas inclined his head slightly. "If positive, he said there was no need for haste."

"No," Elrond murmured, "I don't suppose there would be."

Legolas lifted a brow, clearly not knowing what he had been sent to determine.

"It is positive, young prince. Very positive… though a little bit troubling."

Legolas inclined his head slightly, accepting the somewhat cryptic statement. "Have you seen Ashes, then?"

Elrond hesitated, then tilted his head to the side. "She left not long ago."

The prince's eyes hardened, and the lax manner he had showed before was cast away as he drew himself fully upright. He nodded once in Elrond's direction and then strode from the garden, slipping through the trees.

Elrond sighed, feeling very old in those moments, and yet, oddly enough, something like a foolish child.

Legolas heard Ashes long before he would have expected, and came across her quite soon after. He stilled when he first saw her, wrapped as she was in Glorfindel's arms, her head resting upon his shoulder. They were both quiet, and seemed rather peaceful, so close their hair mingled the rays of dawn with the mystery of night… Glorfindel glanced up, inclined his head slightly, and bent his head towards her to murmur something into her ear.

She lifted her head, glancing up at him, her look so trusting, so open, that Legolas felt the ground beneath him shake. "All right," she murmured softly. "Until later, then, my lord."

He released her with a fond smile. One hand reached up slowly to cup her cheek, and then he leaned in slightly to kiss her forehead before stepping back. "My lady," he responded, deeply bowing his head to her. He tilted his head slightly at Legolas on his way back to the library.

She watched him leave, then spared Legolas a glance. "Were you looking for me?"

"Considering I have seen you once beyond meals since we arrived here, wouldn't that be a fair assumption?" he replied a bit testily. "I do not take kindly to being ignored, Ashes."

"Of course you don't," she responded, bitterly. "You're the prince."

Legolas caught himself before replying, closing his mouth decidedly, taking a deep breath. He was somewhat surprised to find it worked, and he calmed enough to reply civilly. "Elrond has Ada's reply. We may leave whenever we wish… or remain for a time."

"Which are we going to do?"

He glanced at her, tightening his crossed arms over his chest. "I came to ask you."

She stared at him in shock. "Me? Why?"

"Because my decision affects you, as well."

A bitter smile touched her lips as she shook her head. "This decision is of little importance to me."

"You wouldn't miss Glorfindel?"

She lifted a brow at the jab, but didn't ask the reason for it. He was immensely grateful for that, as it let him at least pretend it hadn't sounded as it had. "Glorfindel is a friend. I have spent many centuries leaving friends behind. Why should this time be any different?"

"Are you so close to all of your friends?"

Her eyes chilled dramatically as she looked at him. "My friends, prince—" he flinched to hear the nasty twist given to 'prince' once more, "are everything to me. I would gladly give my life over for them. But my friendship is not given lightly, and they know me well enough to know not only that, but that they must accept that I wander—that I have, that I do, and that I likely will continue to wander through my life."

He frowned at her, eyes narrowing slightly. "Then why join the Service?"

"An experiment mostly failed," she admitted, running a hand through her loose hair, gathering it at her nape. She looped it into a single twisted knot and let it fall to her shoulders once more, slowly uncoiling to be free again. "I wanted to see if I could return to Mirkwood… if I could accept a place—any place—there once more."

"Well, except for me, you seem to be very well adjusted to the lack of true, free wandering."

With a soft sigh she began walking. "But you are the prince. If I can't get along with you, then how can I stay?"

"I am one of a great many, Ashes."

She inclined her head slightly, admitting the truth of that statement. "But one of two princes, and the only crowned one."

"Unless disaster strikes that won't mean anything."

A solemn glance from aged eyes made him pause. "Doesn't it?"

He looked away, but refused to look at the ground. "Would you like to be in a different patrol?" he asked at last. Even as he asked he knew it wouldn't completely work—he wouldn't fully give her up, not when she was the first capable of truly challenging him in centuries. He might send her with one of his leaders for a while, or make a gift of her to Elleri when he became a captain, but either way he would be within his rights to ask a spar of her… at least for a few years, in the latter scenario. But if she wanted the change, he would manage it somehow. Even if, in the end, he had to give up a sparring partner.

She looked at him for a long moment. This time she was the one to back down first, her gaze flittering to a few birds where they twittered on a branch. "Elleri said once you wouldn't trade me."

He lifted a brow, tightening his arms. "Once, he would have been right. But you seem to fear me alone of all the Captains. You treat the others as amusing cousins or brothers. I am not cruel, Ash. If you wish released of me I will release you."

She shuddered, and her head dropped a bit as her shoulders hunched, looking for all the world as if she'd just been physically struck, or completely beaten. "I…"

He hesitated in taking a step towards her when he heard a faint waver to her voice. The thought of her normal reaction to his closeness deterred him, making it an abbreviated movement.

Still, she noted it, turning her head aside. "I don't know that I would choose to be free of you, Legolas, if you could release me," she murmured faintly, her arms crossed tightly over her abdomen as if she was going to be ill and was trying to prevent it.

He blinked, realizing that was the first time she'd called him by name.

When she ran from him, he let her go.