A/N

So this is getting too long again. I've debated chopping it because it is a bit self indulgent even though it serves a purpose in my mind for the wider story arc, but I'm not sure if the reader will realise this for some time – by which point they may have forgotten. Assuming they haven't given up on me by then. But I decided as that would delay posting even further I'd leave it in.

The Halls of the Elvenking – Report

Thranduil ran his fingers gently over the strings of the lyre, the soft sound taking him back in time to the days when he had first learned this air, back to those days before the death and destruction wrought by Feanors sons and their evil oath had ripped his world apart for the first time. He could still recall the touch of his mothers finger upon his own as she guided them over the strings, the smile in her eyes as she had watched him as he had played it at the family meal, the applause from his father when he had reached the end of it with barely a mistake.

As the last note faded away he sighed, more years than mortal men could comprehend had passed since those days. So many of them stained with grief and pain, too many given over to battle. The sons of men had raised Realms and great cities in that time and he and his kin had seen them all fall to dust, just as he had seen the great Elven Realms fade until now his own Realm was the greatest remaining. That he should be the last king of elves, the last ruler of an Elven Realm that could be called so, was not something he had ever expected when he had first set his fingers upon these strings, With a soft huff of laughter he thrust the thought away and started upon another melody, this one one of his fathers favourites. There had been little time for a beleaguered king to spare for playing this last age, in the early years as king there had been too much to learn and too much to repair for him to have much leisure, and then the spreading darkness from Dol Guldur and the need to move his still weary people north had eaten up the hours, then, when the fortress was cleansed and they had a respite from the fight, his fear and grief for his wandering son had taken all joy in playing from him. So now, though his hands remembered the movements with ease, there was a lack of his earlier finesse that he was determined to recover before the returning darkness once again claimed his hours. He closed his eyes and concentrated upon the movement of his fingers and the sounds that echoed through his rooms allowing all thoughts of the day to fade.

How long he was lost in the playing and the sound he could not say but he was aware of nothing more than that until his ears heard the discord of the door softly opening to his expected visitor. Thranduil continued to play but he opened his eyes and looked up and smiled .at the arrival.
"How went it with the boy?" He asked.
The smiled widened slightly at the slight grimace that was the response. He put the lyre down upon his knee and reached for the teapot and poured his son a dish of tea ,passing it across the space between them with a mildly questioning look. Legolas accepted the bowl with a slight inclination of his head and a wry look before sitting down into the chair opposite his father. He shrugged with small laugh.
"As well as can be expected and better than perhaps I had feared."
"Feared?" his father queried with a raised brow as he picked up the lyre once again and began to pick out a new melody.

Legolas relaxed into his chair closing his eyes and letting the gentle music wash over him as he replied.
"Ai well I had not given much thought to it before I issued the invitation, and no doubt I should have done so and planned better for what I was to say to one who knows little of the world and whose toll of years is so scanty."
Thranduil smiled softly.
"Well I had wondered how the venture might go given that you gave yourself so little time to prepare. I know that we had spoken of aiding the youth but your invitation seemed a little... precipitate shall we say."
Legolas laughed and waived his tea dish in his fathers direction.
"Ah, you assumed it was the Dorwinnion! Well perhaps that and the fine cheese tarts played their part I admit."

The king smiled, his heart warmed by the unselfconcious amusement in his sons voice, for too long he had feared the easy joy of his sons nature had been driven away by machinations of Tauriel and his despair of his deeds in Dale and even this small shadow of it was cause for gladness. He answered the laugh with an inclination of his head and turned his eyes back to the lyre to hide an relief his look might betray.
" Perhaps the thought occurred, for the cooks had indeed outdone themselves in Elronds honour. But you managed to find some common ground with the boy then?"
Legolas sighed and his smile was replaced by a considering and thoughtful look.
"Not common ground no," he said slowly, "how can there be when his past and future must remain shadowed and when he has lived so little a span? Common interest, perhaps we did better there than I might have expected. He loves the forest and wild things, the faint echo of elf blood perhaps, and he is much attuned to the world around him. More so than I expected of so young a mortal. Certainly he has been taught well in those things that Imladris can teach him, he can track a trail and makes more less noise and disturbance than I expected. Stealth? That he still lacks but the possibility is there. I doubt he has much knowledge of martial matters other than Glorfindels theory and sparring but if he goes out with Elronds sons he will learn that soon enough, assuming he survives the early encounters"

"And the rest?" the king asked, pausing for a moment in his playing. "I assume you had some conversation, or was your day one of silent tracking?"
Legolas smiled again and his eyes sparkled with renewed mirth.
"I doubt I could have stilled his tongue if I had tried, but I did not. Oh he knows when not to speak to gain his goal but at all other times he was as silent as the Forest River at full flood! He is a pleasant youth with much curiosity about those he meets, and he was full of questions but open enough when asked some in return. His nature is honest and his heart is a brave and generous one from what I could tell"
He stared down into his tea
" He seems both excited and afraid at the idea of returning to his fathers folk fearing to be a disappointment after his father, of whom he has heard much. Yet he would not turn from his duty or destiny as much for his mothers sake as his own for he knows how much her hopes and fears hover around him. For all he chattered like a young child I found his conversation pleasant enough and capable of giving surprise at times." He looked up from his tea and met his fathers eyes with a serious look. "There is something about him that is …. unusual, strange even, for on occasions it is as if he has in his thinking echoes of a maturity of a much longer life.

The king nodded slowly and thoughtfully, his fingers drifting over the lyre sending soft notes like the wind in the trees eddying around the room.
"I have felt that too, short though our conversations have been. As if some part of his spirit is not young at all, but much older and wiser than his years should allow. Certainly his understanding of the world is as would be expected for a mortal of his years, and so too his understanding of mens' hearts, and yet there is something else there, something that goes beyond Elronds teaching, an understanding and a steadfastness that must have been born in him for he has neither the time or the experience to acquire. It is as if a bedrock of knowledge sits within him that he is unaware of and yet that colours his dealing with the world and his words and deed. A powerful gift if that is so and likely to draw others to him and foster much love and trust. "
Thranduil looked pensively down to the lyre in his hands, a faint frown appearing between his brows
"Yet it might yet bring him to ruin for just that reason if it is not soon wedded to experience and an understanding of mens frailty and of the harsher things of life."

He sighed looking towards his son with a serious and slightly sad expression
"I have encountered a small number of such men before, some amongst Isildurs line, though few whose purity of heart was so transparent, and they can bring much evil as well as great good. For they can so easily raise hopes that cannot be fulfilled and expectations that cannot be honoured. And that can bring anger and bitterness in its wake. I do not doubt that he will grow to be a good man, but good men can give rise to much evil where they lack wisdom. Elrond may well be justified in some of his fears."
Legolas thought about that for a moment then nodded.
"That may be so. I feel the joy and honesty of him but also the chill of a bright and steely virtue too, I doubt that he would have much understanding of those of his own people as matters stand, nor they of him. Do not think I call him arrogant or lacking in mercy for I do not , but his desire for good will lead him and them to expect the best of outcomes when he may not be able to provide it. As you say he does not yet understand the dangers of that, but thinks only that if he is honourable and fair then assuredly good and valiant things will follow."

Thranduil looked up at him in some surprise.
"You spoke of such things? I would not have though him confident enough in your company or opinion to venture into such deep matters."
His son shook his head and raised a denying hand.
"Ai no, I would not have ventured into such debate whilst so much cannot be spoken of, even if he had broached such matters and he did not, I doubt his thoughts have yet taken him that far. But the expectation colours his every word and deed and he did speak much of his desire to ride out with the twins and the Rangers of the north and to learn the skills needed of a good chieftain."
A shadow passed across the kings face at his sons words and his fingers hesitated on the strings of the lyre.
"I wonder if time spent with Elronds' sons would teach him that. For the little I know of their doings these past two centuries they do little that might tutor him, other than their deeds against the dark creatures and much of that I fear springs from grief and the desire for revenge. "
He resumed his playing, the song suddenly a melancholy one, he spoke softly and with a tinge of sadness.
"Not lessons I would wish to see him learn if his future is to be as his foster father thinks."

Legolas nodded.
"All I have heard would agree. I would not speak ill of the pair for I know nothing of them that warrants censure, but it seems that their mothers hurts and her sailing occupy their minds and exclude all else. It leaves little room for ought else, either ease or joy nor other sorrows. Though they seem to find time to sport and spar with him in the times they return home."
He swallowed more tea then sighed.
" What their father thinks of it I cannot guess but I doubt it brings him ease. Whilst I was in Imladris I heard more than one of those there speak of such matters with some grief and regret; not with any complaint you understand only with sorrow that the evil had managed to land such a blow upon them and do such damage to their hearts. To lose a beloved parent in such a manner, it cannot be surprising that their love of life is so diminished in a way that colours their lives"

Thranduil did not halt his playing but he looked at his son with a faint shadow of worry in his eyes suddenly fearful that this conversation might shake his sons imp of regret awake from its uneasy sleep, but there was no sign of anything other than compassion in the others face and his voice carried no hint of a more personal or grief . Either he felt the parallels between their lot and his own to be small or the thaw he had thought he detected in the winter of his sons heart was truly advancing and that finally that bitter winter was giving way to spring. He nodded and turned his eyes back to the lyre.
"Indeed, perhaps more so if they are undecided as to the path they will take."
Legolas looked at him with confusion for a moment and then he sighed.
"Ah yes, half elven I had forgotten."
"Most do , at least the uncertainties of it, for they have never lived anywhere except amongst their elven kin. But that will not be so of their father, he will be well aware of the choice they might one day chose to make. I have much sympathy for him on that matter for he has already lost much to such choices. Nor would it be a grief for him alone as perhaps it was in Elros case." He glanced up and met his sons eyes with a sad look. "Hard it will be upon his wife if they chose to take the human path for she will always wonder if she forced it. Nor will she have had the opportunity of asking why, nor even of bidding them farewell not until the breaking of the world and perhaps beyond then. Another grief he might have to bear, always to wonder if he could have done something differently that would have changed their choice."

Legolas smiled sadly.
"Indeed it would. I wonder that Eru grants such choices when they bring such pain."
His father leaned back, eyes drifting to stare at his fingers again.
"Who can say, " he said softly. "Even we with an immortal span and the time to see the games of life play out to the last card laid, might never understand. Yet perhaps we might, there are many things whose purpose I did not understand when my years numbered but a millennia that now seem less baffling or unfair. For the one who stands outside and looks upon the world as a father does upon his child's' game perhaps all things have purpose and sense."
"Even Morgoth and all that he brought?"
Thranduil nodded, his eyes still on the lyres strings.
"Aye even that might in times come to have a reason or some necessity"
"Enough for all the pain and loss?"

Thranduil paused his playing and tilted his head in consideration for a moment then he nodded slowly and resumed his song.
"Perhaps, there are times now when I think I see a shape to events that is not purposeless darkness. But I cannot be sure I read matters aright, and for the moment the darkness seems to be nothing more than that, in another ten thousand years I might see matters differently."
Legolas sighed.
"If the world is still here!"
"Indeed and if it is left to men then all that I have learned to this day tells me it will not be, at least not as you and I understand it. But then I doubt that we will be a part of it, in the end we will sail west, even our Sylvan people, for the call of lost loved ones and that which is made to be our home will become too strong. The ties that bind us here will weaken as the age of men progresses, for I doubt we will find little of any value in their deeds."
He sighed again and let the lyre fall silent.
"This boy of whom we speak may be the last flowering of Men and when he departs the world as he must eventually do, then I suspect that the ages of great deeds and a great evil will pass, What he leaves behind cannot be certain but the history of the world as I have seen it says that it will fall to the petty evils that find root so easily in Mens, hearts for they do not endure long enough to learn their lessons."

Legolas reached for the tea pot with a frown.
"Estel will have longer than most will he not?" He asked.
His father nodded.
"That is true, and perhaps longer than many of his tribe, for the blood of Elros appears to be stronger in him than in any other of the last thousand years." He sighed, "But that impression may be nothing more than the first blush of his youth and time may yet curdle it."
He met his sons eyes with a shadow in his own.
" Yet something whispers to me that maybe that Elrond is right and he will go on to bring the promises of the past to fruition.. For the Men of the West at least. For the other free peoples and the wider world that harvest may yet prove to be meagre and soon bighted."

Legolas looked at his father with a serious face.
"Would you change his future then so that more than men may prosper?"
The king shook his head.
"No, such certainty is not given to me. I cannot say what the outcome of his life might be, and if it brings the end of the Enemy then how could I wish that undone? I might regret that the price of the Dark Lords defeat is so high but I would not claim any right to say that it too high if that is what the Doom of the world requires."

Legolas considered his father fondly, the lyre clasped gently in a careful hand, a dish of tea beside him, barefoot and crown less, dressed in an old robe and clearly recently stepped from his bath and wondered suddenly what Tauriel would make of that statement and what Alt of righteous indignation it would inspire within her. For he no longer doubted that his fathers wisdom, gained in pain and grief and by the pressing weight of a crown would not be seen as such by her. He smiled mischievously at his sire.
"You would not do battle with the Powers then to save the world from such a fate?"
His father smiled blandly.
"How could I when I know that I would lose, or worse still trigger a doom even more to be feared? I have lived long enough, and seen events complete their cycles often enough, to know that some things are not give to me to change. To understand that attempting to wrest the right to do so from the reluctant powers might give rise to much misery for all as well as great Leys and grand saga to be sung by a Noldo Bard."

His smile faded and he turned back to the lyre and began to play again.
"No if the fate of this Estel is to be as Elrond thinks then I will not attempt to frustrate it and I will do what little I can to ease his path and perhaps reduce the chance of his steps going astray."
Legolas put his down his tea and frowned.
"You would stand his friend then?"

Thranduil shook his head and spoke slowly and softly, each word clearly much considered even as his eyes remained fixed upon his fingers as they stroked the strings of the lyre.
"Friend? Perhaps, though I doubt that friendship is what he needs of me, or Elrond seeks. I'd hazard that his friendships will lie far from here and that it must be so if he is to become the man he needs to be. But friend or no I will not stand guide and mentor. If he is to find his way to the crown of Gondor much of it he must do unaided; triumph, if triumph there is to be, he must earn, and it is his own deeds that must win him his fate.
He smiled slightly.
"But that is not to say I would turn my back on him. It is as we said before the most that can be done is to open his eyes the truth of the road he must walk without withering his hope, and perhaps to hold him up in his first stumbles. He has more time for such learning than most of the race of men, enough to wander and make his mistakes where it will do his fate no harm. A generation of men will pass away before his youth is gone but even so there is not enough time that he can remain apart from the wider world of men for too much longer, his remaining time amongst the firstborn is short and soon he must return to his own and learn to walk that road alone. "

There was silence as Legolas thought about his fathers words, the only sound that of a melody that Legolas knew well from the days of his childhood. For a moment he let the peace and comfort of it wash over him, shadows of other times dancing before his eyes, Finally he inclined his head and reached for his tea once more.
"Then what would you have me do, other than take him with me as I go about your business?"
The king thought for a heartbeat or two before he met his sons eyes with a serious look.
"Learn what you can of his heart, of his dreams and hopes. I do not ask that you become his confidante for the gulf between you is too wide and I would not request you to play a role that would sit ill within you, but if you can win his trust then that would be to the good and may stand us all well in the future."
Legolas smiled and nodded,
"I have no objection to seeking his trust for I can see no reason to doubt its value, nor any circumstance where I might have to abuse it."
"So I hope, though in such times as I fear are coming nothing can be certain. "

The king smiled at his son.
"But I am glad you are of that mind for I have told Elrond some part of it, his concern was such that I felt it unfair to keep him without any response, I would have him enjoy the preparations for the feast."
"Ah yes the feast, I assume they are all to join us?"
"Yes, are there reasons why they should not? There has been no discord of any matter that I have been told of. Some of his party are... a little enamoured of themselves perhaps, and rather unwise in their desire to be the first to speak, but I have not heard of any blows being exchanged and Elrond seems more than willing to tighten the leash when they betray themselves too obviously. Or have you heard differently?"
His son laughed again and shook his head.
"No, it is as you say, in as much as I know of it. Though there are several amongst them to speak with no one but their party unless forced to it, and this has been noted, as you are no doubt well aware."
Thranduil nodded.
"Indeed I am. I make it a point to force at least one of the culprits into such discourse at every meeting."

He looked at Legolas with a brilliant smile.
"After all I am a king and bound by both the chains of protocol and hospitality so I must take my amusement, scarce as it is, as I can, and as the opportunity presents."
Legolas laughed.
" Very skilled you are at it too, but they will get no sympathy from me for they have caused their lord and our people some difficulty. My only concern is if their manners are equal to the last feast of spring."

The king sighed and changed the melody to something more suited to a feast.
"As is Elrond's my son, as is Elrond's."