OMGWTF! Original character squee! Yes, that's right! I'm adding in depth OCs to the mix. Gareth is not a Mary Sue, lucky for you. He does have a strange attachment to Luthiel and follows Eldarion around like a puppy, but he is NOT a Mary Sue. I refuse to put anyone through that.

Congratulations to anyone who got this far and is not dead after my long chapters and ongoing blahness. Eight more chapters and it's all downhill from here!

CHAPTER THREE: The Prince and the Lordling

Eldarion lay propped up with two pillows on his bed, his hand running absent-mindedly through his hair as he read the volume before him. Seregon...S...S-e...S-e-r...oh, come on! He thought, frustrated as he searched through the volumes before him for seregon. He had title after title piled next to him, but none so far had proven to hold any information on such a plant. "Herbs of the North". "Herbs of the South". Nope. "Plants of the Elves". No. "Elven Medicine". Definitely not medicine. "Deadly Herbs and How To Find Them". Maybe. He turned the yellowing, crinkled pages of the book, running his finger along the edge where the names were listed. He laughed to himself. They have a book called "Deadly Herbs and How to Find Them" in the palace library? Just my luck.

And then he saw it, written in a blood red scrawl: SEREGON. In ancient Beleriand, there once was a stony hill called Amon Rudh, the "bald hill", wherein the last of the Petty-dwarves cut thier caverns. Upon that hill, nothing would grow but hardy seregon, called "blood root" by the elves. In the summer, its blossoms of dark red flowered the stony summit, making it appear to be rock covered with blood. This vision proved prophetic, for the outlaws of Turin were slaughtered upon the summit, and the last of the Petty-dwarves put to death in the caverns below. Seregon was cut and kept by many a dark mage or master, and large quantities of it can still be found on black markets today, if not growing in the fabled wild-lands of the dwarven doors. The seregon was kept and valued by dark mages for dark purposes, pain and torture that always ended with death. If seregon's roots and petals are crushed, the juice that drains from them becomes a fatal nectar when mixed with one of three other herbs. These are galenas, the nicotania leaf and most common of the three, snagasmoke, the grey thistle of Mordor, or deathweed, the powerful drug of Umbar and hardest to acquire. The juice must be left to ferment in the sun, and when the nectar has turned black, it is ready to be applied to any weapon as a useful dart poison. Infecting the wound left by such a weapon, it slowly eats away at the blood, drying it over a long and painful process, until the only thing flowing through the victim's veins is the mixture itself. A poison most rare but most valued by assassins, the mixture of seregon and deathweed are the most potent ad painful, and as the victim suffers, the damage is far more devastating to their body.

Eldarion let the book drop from his hands and slide down the blanket around his legs. It shut as it hit the bed, and Eldarion did not bother to reach down for it. He stared at the wall across from him for a very long time, trying hard not to think at all. Someone had done that to him. Someone had put that into him. Someone had tried to kill him with a poison that always killed...yet he wasn't dead.

There was a knock at the door. Eldarion turned at the sound, blinking and yawning, realizing only then how late it was. He had been up for hours reading, and by now it must be after midnight. The knock persisted, sounding more urgent this time, so Eldarion called out for whoever stood there to come in, quickly putting his books beneath a blanket beside him.

The door slowly opened, and Luthiel poked her head in between the wood and the wall.

"You're not asleep." He said, more of a statement than the question he had wanted to come out.

"Neither are you." She said, walking towards him and settling at the foot of his bed. "I wanted to talk."

"Good, so did I." Do I? What am I saying? I can't tell her about the poison...about the book. He positioned himself between her and the books hidden beneath the blanket. "But since I was kind of preparing it for morning, you go first."

"Alright." She let out a long sigh, then began to ramble nervously. "I want to know what you think of this. And I don't want you to laugh, okay? Promise you won't laugh. I know how ridiculous it sounds right now and you're probably going to think I'm going mad when you hear this, but I want to know if I'm going mad, so don't laugh, just tell me." Eldarion snorted.

"Luth. It's past midnight and you came to my room to ask me if you're mad. I think we're well beyond the point of madness, don't you?" He said with a wink. Luthiel rolled her eyes.

"But I'm serious. You won't laugh?"

Eldarion put his hand over his heart. "I promise on my life's honor I will not laugh when my sister asks me if she's mad, even if she has proved in the past she is pretty close to it."

"Eldi!" Luthiel grimaced. "Really..."

"Okay, okay. I'm just a bit tired, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm a little loopy, alright?" He pushed his hair back again. "But I promise. Really."

"Good... I...I need to tell you what happened today."

"I heard about Lord Halbarad." He said, "You and Eothair had to drag him to the council or something. Wish I had been there..."

"Not that. It's about something that happened in my room, before I came to dinner." She looked her brother straight in the eye, and Eldarion realized she was not joking. "I was getting changed...well, actually I was looking in the mirror, and I saw...saw this person, or something sit down on my bed, and look at me...and they disappeared."

"Before or after you were looking in the mirror?" He asked, and she was surprised to see he was serious.

"During. I never actually saw anything without looking through the mirror. That's not really clear, sorry. What I mean is, I saw more of a shadow sit down on my bed and turn and look at me in my reflection."

"Did it have a face?"

"It was a shadow. Just blank, like an outline of a person, colored in with grey or black."

"And did you turn away from the mirror, and do anything?"

"Of course I did. I grabbed my sword and jumped it. The curtains were closed, so I pulled the gauze back and swung at it."

"And...?"

"There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. I searched the whole room and there was nothing there." She sighed again, staring at him intensely. "Do you think I'm going mad?"

"No, I don't at all." Eldarion reached out and took her hand. She looked up at him, and he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Right now I don't think anything like this could be called madness. Lately, all sorts of impossible things are happening, so we can't doubt our senses once. Maybe you saw someone, maybe you didn't. Maybe this someone wasn't a someone at all."

"Like a ghost?"

"Well, not really.' He thought for a moment. "No, like a shadow. It could happen. Souls in Valinor, they have shadow-souls here, remember? Like a spirit-presence. Maybe you saw one of those."

"Well, what was an elf's shadow-soul doing in my bedroom then?"

"I don't know, ask the shadow-soul."

"If that's what it was." She said, rolling her eyes and throwing up her hands angrily. "I'm probably imagining all of it, and you probably think I sound like an idiot, asking you to tell me if I'm going mad when I just saw some sort of gunk in the mirror..."

"Look Luth, I don't think you're mad, and I don't think we should just let this slip by like it's some sort of random imagining. If that night with the thieves taught me anything, it was that things you don't expect to happen to yourself can and will happen. And they'll happen when you don't expect them or want them to. The impossible is possible. Impossibilities are only things we haven't found a way to do yet, or deal with yet. I thought it was impossible for anyone to hurt me or my family. You thought it was impossible for shadows to walk around by themselves and sit on your bed. Maybe I'm not the only one who got proved wrong."

Luthiel smiled at her brother. "You make it all sound so simple."

"I don't try to, honest. When you think things are simple, you often overlook them. When I said it earlier, I meant it: we cannot overlook this. Say there wasn't just a shadow there, say it was a person in your room. Who knows, maybe it was. Don't you think that by not telling mum and dad a strange man was in your room, only days after your brother was attacked, you'd be doing something...stupid?"

Luthiel scratched her nose anxiously. "So I should tell them?"

"I would." He said.

"Of course you would," Luthiel pulled her knees to her chest. "But I just don't know what to say to them. 'Oh and by the way mum and dad, I saw a shadow in my room and it may have tried to kill me. Just thought you'd like to know.' They'd think I was paranoid."

"Did I think you were paranoid? No. So why would you think they'd mistrust you more than me?"

"I don't know...just a feeling."

Eldarion laughed, rolling his eyes. "Females and thier feelings."

"Well, as long as it's not mother and her 'maternal instincts,' I don't really think my worrying is going to hurt very much." Luthiel laughed this time. Eldarion smiled back at her. Mother was notorious for getting all sorts of crazy feelings about things. They canceled outings, councils, and dinners if mother had the least bit of a negative twinge about it. The funny part was that father relied quite heavily on her 'urges', and never once questioned her. Something about elven instinct, Eldarion supposed.

When they had stopped laughing and the room had grown quiet, Eldarion's hand instinctively reached for the book lying hidden beside him. He drew back his arm for a moment, surprised at himself for doing such a thing. How can I show her? Mother and father wouldn't even tell me...but as he looked up into his sister's large, penetrating eyes, Eldarion found no other choice. He sighed and reached beneath the blanket, pulling out the tattered book.

"What's that?" Luthiel asked, edging closer to her brother.

"Something I need to show you." He said softly, opening the book to the page he had read earlier. "Something strange happened to me a few days ago, and it...well... I didn't know whether or not to show you this before, and I didn't mention it earlier, but...I think you need to see it." He handed her the book, his finger resting almost protectively over the passage on seregon, as if by covering it the truth may go away. Luthiel carefully took it from his hands, running her own fingers over the page. When she was finished reading, she looked back up at her brother.

"What does that mean?" She asked, but something in her eyes told him she had already guessed, and she had guessed right.

"When you all came to see me, when I woke up, I got up when you left and went for a walk. Stupid, I know. I was so weak I could barely make it up the hall...but I did, and I ended up outside mother and father's door. They were talking to a healer; I could hear what they were saying, and I heard almost all of the conversation through the door. They talked about me, about...about what happened. The healer talked about my blood too, how it was black..." He swallowed carefully, taking a deep breath. "It was from a poison."

"The one in the book." Luthiel said, without question. "They put this," She pointed to the passage on the page, "On a dagger, didn't they? And cut you with it so you'd infect? So you'd...die?"

He nodded slowly.

"What did mum and ada say?"

"Father thinks it was assassin's work."

"And mum?"

"She agreed. I guess I do too...I agree now, but it wasn't exactly easy to accept it."

"No, it's not." She shivered, pulling her knees closer to her chest. "I'm really sorry Eldi. Maybe it would have been better if you hadn't known."

"I think I was supposed to know. Something brought me to that hallway, right to that doorway, and it sure wasn't me. I wasn't paying any attention when I was walking; in fact, I don't remember entering the hallway at all. But somehow I was at the right place at the right time, and I heard what I heard. There's no taking it back. Not what I heard…or taking back the night or that poison that took me.

He waited for his sister's response, but to such words she gave none. Luthiel stared at her brother, her eyes wide with a mixture of pity and admiration. Eldarion stared back, feeling tears begin to well up in his eyes. I wish it didn't have to be this way. Why does everything that happens to me affect everyone else?

"You know what mum always says…" Luthiel said softly, turning to look up at her brother. "The Valar look out for all the children." She began, and her own voice seem to mix with every memory Eldarion had of his mother, reciting the lines to her children when they complained of balrogs and demons beneath beds, or shadow-wights in the shadows behind their doors. "Even when you can't see through the darkness," Mother used to say, her voice going soft and gentle as she rocked her whimpering child back and forth. "The Valar can see whatever may be there. And before anything can leave the shadow, they bring the light that makes the shadow go away." And then, as the child grew silent and their grip upon her sleeve relaxed, she'd place them back in their beds and sing them to sleep, running her fingers over their tiny curls and caressing their hands until they would finally let her go back to her own bed.

"Maybe the Valar are looking over us now." Luthiel murmured, gripping Eldarion's hand in the same way he would grip his mother's as a frightened child. "And even if they aren't, maybe we can just pretend someone's looking over us, to make it seem better."

"We don't need to pretend," He touched his sister's hand, "Mum and ada are looking after you, okay? And so am I. And you can look after Isilme, and she to Gilrael, and eventually all this looking after will be taken care of. And then we'll be safe." He gave her a hug before she headed off to bed. "Sleep tightly. You're safe tonight, okay?" He whispered into her hair.

She nodded as she stood up, smiling at him. "You should sleep tightly too, and get as much rest as possible. You have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow, what with Gareth and all."

"Yeah," He said, scratching the back of his neck and scowling, "I sure do, huh?"

"Goodnight." Luthiel, with silent steps, left his room, only to slam the door behind her. Eldarion laughed to himself before scattering the books beneath the blanket to the floor, and pulled the blankets up to his eyes, just like he used to do when he was little and afraid the ice-faeries that mother read about were going to come and nip his nose if he didn't stay warm.

Like every child, the world of fantasy had governed his own little world, and Eldarion smiled as he remembered all the rules he and Luthiel had had to live by, if the books in mother's library were true. If any child didn't go to bed before the moon came up, the moon-men would come down and steal away their family, and when a little boy tarried too late at play, the shadow-wights carried them back to their holes in the graveyards, and made them into bone stew. The spirit who lived in the bath would suck at your toes if you played in the water instead of washing up on time, and worst of all, it was forbidden to go near any fire. The balrog who had left it there always returned if he thought you were going to touch his hidden treasure, which he had made black to keep away from human eyes, but which could be seen glowing red and gold at the bottom of every fire. The balrog was what had always scared Eldarion the most, as they were the creatures who haunted his father's stories and Eldarion's dreams. Luthiel had cowered the most at the mention of the flying Nazgul, and always bit her lip when father began talking of them in his stories. Eldarion would laugh at her fright until the story came around to Glorfindel the Gold and his wrestle with the Balrog, and then it was Eldarion who was biting his fingernails and staring anxiously at the ground.

Eldarion stared around his room, half-expecting the resident Balrog of his childhood would come leaping from the feared place behind the dresser, just like he had always imagined it to be lurking when he lay there as a youth. But nothing emerged from the dresser, nor did any ghostly apparitions or icy hands slide out from under the closet doors, so Eldarion closed his eyes, glad to know that in his older age, such demons were not going to haunt him like before. But that story Luthiel had told made him shiver, and the blankets were pulled all the way over his head as he shut his eyes for the last time that night.

The next morning was damp and dark, the clouds a deep grey tinged with orange as the sun rose unseen behind them. Eldarion shuffled out of bed, tripping over the books piled beside his dresser, and landing flat on his face on the cold wood floor. He groaned, kicking them out of his way before standing up again, only to find his chamberlain staring prudely up at him. Master Ludin was an unpleasant, shriveled man who spent more time gawking at Eldarion's poor fashion sense then helping do his chores like he was paid to do. Eldarion was taller and stronger than the chamberlain, fully capable of knocking him to the ground as well, but Master Ludin had a tongue that spread word quicker than any old woman's could, and anything Eldarion did was sure to soon be the talk of the servants anyhow. Eldarion would have scowled at the man had it not been for his more regal upbringing, but Master Ludin handed him his clothes and scurried out of the way before Eldarion could so much as glance at him.

"Had a fall, Your Highness?" Ludin intoned casually from where he folded Eldarion's clothing from yesterday.

"Yeah," Eldarion said gruffly, pulling the black cotton tunic over his head, leaving the laces at his collar undone.

"Very sorry about that, Your Highness. I will be glad to pick up whatever it is you tripped over."

"Sure-" Eldarion began, then jumped to the bedside when he realized what it was Ludin would be looking at. "I mean, no. Never mind." He said quickly, gathering up the books and shoving them beneath his bed. "I just tripped on my feet, that's all. Nothing to clean up."

"Really?' Ludin picked up the blanket on the other side of the bed, glancing beneath the bed. The man sensed suspicion like a dog sensed game. "You seem to have a slew of books here, Your Highness."

"Yeah, I'm reading them." Eldarion snapped, lowering the cover back down in front of Ludin. Ludin glared momentarily at the prince's bed, trying to take another peek before Eldarion slid back to the other side and bending down, piled them into his arms. "I have to return them to the shelves today, anyway. Mum will be wondering what happened to all her books, or something."

"Don't forget your pants.' Ludin said, rolling his eyes and handing the prince his brown cotton pants. "Black and brown." He said, hiding a snicker at the obviously off setting colors. "Did you pick these out yourself, Your Highness?"

"No, that's what they hired you for." Eldarion snapped, tying the pants at his waist and stomping out before Ludin could reply.

Once in the hall, Eldarion made a straightaway for his parents' library, hoping to return the books to their places before anyone else noticed. Just as he had rounded the corner to enter their quarters, someone crashed into him. He was knocked to the ground and the books went scattering to the floor.

"Your Highness!" A worried looking Gareth cried, grabbing Eldarion's hand and pulling him to his feet. Eldarion immediately bent back down, hurrying to pick up the books before Gareth could look at their titles and figure out why he had them. "I am so sorry," Gareth whispered, trying to help clean up the mess but being shoved aside by an angry Eldarion. "I should have been looking more carefully, but its just that the archways right here are very beautiful and I was staring at them and I saw the-" He paused just as Eldarion counted the books in his hands, realizing he was missing only one. He scanned around for it quickly, only to realize Gareth was holding it in his hands. The boy stared at the title on the side, opening the book carefully and looking at the first page.

"Give me that, please.' Eldarion said in slow breaths, trying to remain calm. Gareth glanced at the prince for a moment, then back down at the pages. "Gareth," Eldarion said, his eyes fixed on the book in the boy's hands. "Now." Gareth closed the book and handed it to the prince. Eldarion snatched it back, closing the book with a snap, and shoving it in the pile in his hands. "Thank you." He stood up, breathing through his teeth.

"Is that yours?" Gareth asked, his eyes now on the books. "Are you reading about-"

"No, they're my friend's." Eldarion said quickly, perhaps a little too quickly. "He's just looking up some information about a recent attack. He wanted to find out about the poisons used, so he looked in the books, and he needed someone to return them to the library for him. I said I would."

"Oh." Gareth said, his hands in his pockets now. The boy was very well-dressed, and unlike Eldarion, the colors of his shirt and pants went together. He wore a deep burgundy tunic, embroidered with what looked like pure gold threading. His deep brown pants were velvet and well-fitting, cut on the low sides for riding. If anyone were to look at the two, they probably would have thought Eldarion to be the servant and Gareth the prince.

"I'm sorry,' Eldarion said softly, "I didn't mean to snap at you Gareth. I'm just a little tired today..."

"It's alright, Your Highness, I should have paid more attention." Gareth apologized, "Would you like for me to carry those for you-"

"No!" Eldarion cried, then shook his head, almost in anger at himself, "I mean, no. It's okay Gareth, I think I can hold them for now." He sighed, heaving the pile around to shift their heavy weight. "Let's go to the library." He said, and began walking down the hall. Gareth followed eagerly along like a puppy at his heels.

"Ah yes! The first stop on my tour!"

"Your tour?" Eldarion raised his eyebrow, then remembered the deal from last night's dinner. He smiled to himself, then back at Gareth. "That's right, I'm showing you around today."

"You didn't forget, did you?" Gareth asked, his eyes growing large and his voice sounding hurt.

"No, no." Eldarion shook his head, lying through his teeth. "I was just trying to think of where we'd go next after the library. Have you ever seen the guest quarters?"

"Well, uh…I'm staying in the guest quarters, sir."

"Oh, right…maybe we can stop there anyway. On the way over to, um…well….where do you want to go?"

"It does not matter to me, Your Highness. A humble mortal like myself is not capable of making such choices." My gods, he is worse than I thought. No wonder Luth was so eager to lose him.

"I doubt that, Gareth. I'm serious; what do you want to see?"

Gareth paused, blushing and staring at his feet.

"What is it?" Eldarion laughed, as they entered the king and queen's personal library and he slid the books back into their places. Gareth silently followed, helping him to find where the books went. "Really, Gareth. You can tell me." He clapped the boy on his back as they left the room, Eldarion careful to close the door behind him. Gareth turned to Eldarion and took a deep breath.

"Well, I was hoping I could see the gardens."

"The gardens?" Eldarion smiled. "Well, that's no big deal. There's a hundred of those around here. Which one would you like to see?"

It wasn't long before it seemed like Eldarion and Gareth had passed through every single garden located in the palace, including the miniature ones outside the council doors, the flowerbeds by the fountains, and the boxes of geraniums hanging from his mother's windows. Eldarion kept giving Gareth weary glances as to hint at his obvious tiring of the subject, but Gareth seemed to grow more enthused with each plant. He hopped gaily from blossom to blossom, sniffing, sampling, and even tasting some of the fruits from the trees. As they sat beneath one of the apple trees in the sunny fruit garden, Gareth munching happily on an apple and Eldarion peeling at his with a pocketknife, Gareth gave a cry of excitement as a servant passed by with a jar full of potting soil.

"Oh! Is he going to plant something?" Gareth asked, dropping the apple and springing to his feet. The servant noticed the two boys and gave them a bow, then hid surprise when Gareth nearly knocked him to the ground and asked to help with whatever it was he was doing. The servant, a portly, red cheeked man with light orange wisps of hair poking out from beneath his straw hat, smiled gently and showed Gareth where he was potting a group of seedling trees. Gareth nearly squealed with delight and helped himself to a spade and a pair of green leather gloves.

Eldarion smiled from where he sat in the sun and stood up, finishing his apple with one bite. He too picked up a pair of gloves and squatted beside Gareth, who was carefully removing a tiny seedling from its spot in the ground.

"May I help?" He asked, and both Gareth and the servant nodded at the same time. Gareth motioned to the tree he was slowly pulling from its hole.

"We're going to repot these little trees so they can grow on an upper terrace!" He exclaimed with delight, as if repotting trees was the most exciting thing going. Eldarion nodded and attempted to use his spade to remove the seedling from the soil. His spade dug around the tree, then nearly cut it in half before Gareth intervened.

"You have to be more careful, Your Highness." Gareth said, and took the spade from Eldarion's hands. "Its just like holding a baby, you see; they're so young and fragile, its easy to hurt them. You have to dig around them, but not touch them with your metal." He took over the job Eldarion had begun and removed the plant from the ground, setting it in one of the pots the servant handed him. "You can put it in the pot, if you like." Gareth said, and the servant showed Eldarion how to do it. Eldarion glanced over at Gareth, who was busy potting another seedling. He was surprised at the command the boy had automatically asserted when they began the task. He had seemed so timid before, like a young child in new and frightening surroundings, but here in the garden, working in the soil... it was almost like he belonged here.

"That's a good job. You balanced out the soil just right." The servant said to Eldarion as he scooped fresh soil all around the little plant. "My name is Teren, Your Highness. I'm happy to be working with you."

"Thanks Teren." Eldarion grinned at the man. "I'm not very good when it comes to plants or gardening, but my friend with the green thumb over there is Gareth, son of Garamond. He's from Dol Amroth, visiting with his father."

"Pleased to meet you, Gareth." Teren said, nodding at Gareth. Gareth nodded back, but remained absorbed in his work. "You must have had a garden back in Dol Amroth, eh?"

Gareth nodded from over his plants. "Yes, but none of our gardens are nearly as beautiful as the ones you have here. I've never seen some of the plants you have in the elven gardens, and the one of your mother's, Eldarion...the, uh, whatever its name was..."

"The Twilight Terrace?' Eldarion said.

"Yes, that one. It was marvelous. I did not think such beautiful plants existed. When I return to Dol Amroth, I mean to acquire some of those for my own gardens. Granted, I've only ever grown vegetables and trees, but flowers would be nice. My mother used to have a flower garden, but it died when she died. I was too young to care for it and father did not want anything to do with it..." He frowned sadly, his eyes suddenly far away. "When I get back, I'll replant everything. I think she'd like that."

Eldarion didn't say anything, but Teren smiled at the blonde boy. "Of course she would. Ah! I see we're all done with the trees. Would you two like to help me water some of these smaller gardens?"

"Would we ever!" Gareth smiled widely. Eldarion nodded slowly, grabbing another apple and chewing it thoughtfully as he followed the boy and the servant to the lower gardens.

As he shuffled out of the garden behind them, something reached out from behind a statue and grabbed his arm, pulling him back from the two ahead of him. He would have cried out had a hand not covered his mouth and slammed him against a wall. Eldarion bit down hard on the fingers that were over his lips, his eyes scanning the hall for Teren or Gareth, but they had gone on farther ahead, obviously not knowing he was gone. He bit down harder, and whatever held him cried out and let go, a familiar voice cursing and releasing their grip on his arm.

"What'd you do that for?" Luthiel said, scowling over at him and cradling her wounded fingers in her other hand. "I only wanted to get your attention."

"Well, you got it." Eldarion said, rubbing his neck. "What was that about anyway? Teren and Gareth will wonder where I've gone to and everyone will get worried and-"

"Oh, shut up. We need your help, Eldi."

"We? Who else did you drag into your plot?"

"Me." Isilme slid out from behind a statue of Grebhold the Great on the other side of the hall. "And the plot was mine; I asked Luthiel if she'd help me find you."

"Good choice- she did." Eldarion scowled.

"I can see that." Isilme said, rolling her eyes. "But it's not just me and Luth. Gilrael's helping too, and we knew we were going to need you, too-"

"Wait. You got a four year old to do this?"

"She's the one with the distraction, and-"

"Distraction? What the hells are you planning to do, Isilme?"

Isilme's eyes burned for a moment, and she said in a raised voice: "I'd tell you if you'd just stop bloody interrupting!"

"Oh. Sorry." Eldarion lowered his eyes, a bit ashamed he had just been scolded by his little sister.

"We don't trust our guests, and we wanted to find out more about them." Isilme said, folding her arms across her chest and looking expectantly at Eldarion.

"Who? The people from Dol Amroth?"

Isilme nodded.

"You mean Gareth? You're kidding! He's a bloody gardener, for the gods' sakes! What's untrustworthy about that?"

"Its not really Gareth we don't trust, its just those two lords who were at dinner. They were talking by themselves earlier, and we heard what they said-"

"You were eavesdropping on the guests." Eldarion stared at his sisters, shaking his head disapprovingly. "They're our guests, and they're diplomats of Dol Amroth, and the princesses were eavesdropping on-"

"Oh, enough." Luthiel rolled her eyes. "As if we've never done worse. And besides, for once our sneaking came in handy. Tell him, Isilme."

Isilme's eyes lit up again; Eldarion could tell she was obviously enjoying being a part of her brother and sister's mischief for once. She gave him a smile almost identical to his mother's when she was especially proud of something. "We heard them talking about the rebels in Dol Amroth; you know, the ones who were in the black trade. The way they were talking, they were in with the pirates!"

"As in..." He raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised someone who was as timid around trouble as Isilme was could have stirred this bit of information up.

"Exactly! They said something about paying the pirates or whatnot, and a plan."

"A plan?"

"A plan!" Isilme grinned, obviously pleased with her work. "We heard that..." She grinned even more. "They're planning something...illegal!"

"I've never seen you this excited about something that broke a law, Isilme." Eldarion said, leaning up against the pillar behind him, his hands folded across his chest. "Are you sure Luthiel didn't drag you into this or something?"

"No, I was the one who heard them. I grabbed Luthiel and dragged her over; she heard alot too. They weren't being specific and plus there was a water fountain nearby, so it was hard to hear, but...we know this for sure: they're planning something. Something strange, and definitely worth checking out."

Eldarion raised an eyebrow. "And I come into this where?"

"We're going to go back and find out more. And we need you to talk with people...like, um..." She hesitated, her eyes trailing down to her feet, and Eldarion understood who she was talking about.

"You want me to talk to Gareth?" Eldarion shook his head. "No, absolutely not. I've just earned the guy's trust and made him my friend, and now you want me to quiz him on his illegal activities like he's some sort of criminal? No way."

"Its not him that we think did it! Its his companions, and he's the closest one to them." Isilme's eyes grew large and her familiar begging expression turned on. "Please Eldarion. Somebody could be in danger, and you're the only one who could really talk to Gareth and find out more." Eldarion stared at his sister, recognizing her to be genuine. If Luth had been the one talking, it would have been a different story, but Isilme was always true to her word...

Eldarion frowned. "Look, I'll-...I'll do it." He sighed as his sisters exploded into smiles. "But I'm not going to ask much, you understand? Just what I have to."

"That's perfect! All you need to do is talk to him about the two lords; what he knows about them, where they're from, who they serve, etc. That's generic enough, and he shouldn't suspect anything."

"And what are you two going to do?"

"We're going to talk to the ladies the lords were with. Just ask them really stupid sounding questions and whatever. Enough to figure out some basic facts about their escorts." Isilme twirled a length of hair on her finger. "We understand that technically that might not work. We don't really know how well the ladies actually know the lords, but we're going to ask them things anyway."

"Yeah," Luthiel nodded at her sister. "For all we know, they could just be for sex."

Isilme rolled her eyes; Luthiel suppressed a grin. "Did you have to say that word?" Isilme asked, staring at her sister angrily.

"What, you mean...sex?" Luth asked, smiling mischievously. Isilme shuddered, but Luthiel grinned and continued. "Hmmm, like sex? Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex!" She repeated into Isilme's ear. Isilme shoved her older sibling away and pushed past Eldarion.

"Okay, okay." She covered her ears. "I'm going to go see if Gilly's ready, and then we'll start asking, okay?" Eldarion nodded, but Luthiel snickered into her hands. Isilme growled at her before slipping off in the other direction.

"Sex!" Luthiel smirked at her brother. "Sex, sex, sex, se-" Eldarion covered her mouth before she could continue.

"Enough." He breathed, rolling his eyes as she struggled against his hand. "Now, what is Gilrael supposed to do?"

Luthiel shrugged and bit down hard on her brother's fingers. Eldarion swore loudly and let go, grabbing at his left hand. Before he could swat her though, she had run off in the other direction.

"Girls..." He said under his breath and shook his head as he headed down the hall Teren and Gareth had taken.