Disclaimer: See prologue.

Chapter 20

Seeing the Truth


Arodwen reached her room at last, breathing hard. She collapsed upon the longue, and sobbed into a pillow. It couldn't be true... It couldn't! Isn't! Mariel could not have been right. Legolas could be not fade...

She cried harder as she remembered the way he had looked at her with such tenderness... The buried pain and suffering in his voice as he had spoken those words... The strange ghostly look he now held in place of a glowing handsomeness...

Arodwen didn't hear Arwen approach her side...


Arwen's determination to reprimand Arodwen vanished when she saw the distraught elleth curled up and sobbing upon the chaise longue bed.

"It can't be true..." Arwen heard her whisper through her cries over and over again.

The Lady of Rivendell knelt beside the weeping girl, reaching out and laying a soothing hand on her warm back asking, "What can't be true?"

Arodwen jumped in fright, her eyes snapping up to rest on Arwen.

Arwen gave her a friendly smile, but it only made Arodwen begin to cry again.

"No! No, Arodwen, do not weep! Tell me what brings you such sorrow. Why did you run from Legolas and the feast?"

Arodwen buried her head into the soft velvet comfort of the pillow, muffling her cries of grief.

But Arwen distinguished the few words she sobbed with her elven hearing...

"H-He's fading! Mariel was r-right!"

Arwen held in her gasp of horror. Instead, she continued to massage Arodwen's shaking shoulders until the sobs faded away into soft whimpers. However long that took, Arwen did not know or care. Arodwen was her friend now. And her friend needed her comfort.

"Why Arwen?" she gasped. Arodwen pushed herself up into a sitting position, and drew her knees to her chest. "How could he let it happen?"

Arwen sighed, and shook her head. Clearly, Arodwen's knowledge of elves was slim at best.

"You denied him, Arodwen. It broke his heart, and his spirit. That is why he fades." Arwen whispered, the pain in saying the words evident to the tear-stained elleth.

Arodwen frantically shook her head back and forth, her lips trembling as the tears and grief returned full force. "H-He can't! He can't fade! He w-will be needed!"

Arwen did not understand the full meaning of her words, but hid her confusion as she took Arodwen's hands in her own with a comforting gentleness.

"He is, Arodwen... His heart does not wish to live if you could not return his love. You are the one his heart has chosen; he did not make that decision. Our fates are not in our own hands. You of all people should know this..." Arwen whispered.

"You can't let him fade Arwen! He cannot die! He is needed!" Arodwen cried desperately, the tears falling onto Arwen's hands.

"What do you mean penneth? What is he needed for?" Arwen asked, sitting down beside Arodwen, who shook her head in answer.

"I cannot say! I cannot! Just trust in my words and know they are not false! He-is-needed!" Arodwen pleaded, her eyes boring into Arwen's own. The Imladris elleth looked confused still.

"Arodwen, no one but you can stop him from fading..." she whispered as gently as she could.

"Why! How!" the distressed elleth shouted, causing Arwen to wince at the loud noise.

"Because," Arwen explained with the same calm gentleness, "I told you, you are the one his heart has chosen. If you do not let your true feelings for him show, he will die."

"No!" Arodwen half sobbed, half cried, slumping to the floor like she suddenly had no spine to sit upright. Arwen got down beside her in fear, reaching out to help Arodwen.

"I can't Arwen! I can't love him! Sauron will kill him if I love him."

Arwen slowly shook her head in an exasperated way. "Arodwen, he will die if you don't love him. He is the one who protects you, not the other way around. If you do not confess to him, then his fate is sealed, and he will fade into death. If you admit your love, he will live..."

Arodwen felt Arwen stand up and leave her side, only to return a few seconds later. She felt herself being lifted off the ground and onto the bed. How is Arwen strong enough to lift me? She thought at once, opening her eyes to see who her intruder was.

To her horror, her eyes opened to become ensnared in the deep blue seas of Legolas's eyes...

The prince smiled down at her with warmth, though his eyes bore a deep pain. And she knew at once that she was the cause of it... of his grief... of his turmoil... and the reason he was now fading...

"Melamin..." she heard him whisper, his voice soft and like the caress of a gentle breeze.

She felt his hand upon her cheek, drying her tears that she had shed.

"Legolas-" she began, blinking away the rest of her tears so she could see him properly.

But his fingers pressed against her lips, silencing her as he said, "Hush... You have exhausted yourself..."

Arodwen shook her head frantically, sitting up, "No! You are the one who is on the brink of death Legolas!"

The hand that had reached out and gripped her shoulder as she had risen shook slightly, and then fell away.

Arodwen watched as Legolas sat back on his heels, his head lowered in a state of deploration. His eyes were closed, and his lips pursed. His shoulders were slumped like one in defeat; a strange contrast to the straight-backed, perfectly poised archer she normally saw.

And his voice... As he spoke to her again, she realized how much pain and hidden sorrow it was drowned with.

"How do you know this?"

All who looked upon him noticed his fading elven glow that emanated a deep sorrow. His ivory skin normally glowing with fairness was dull. Poise that once echoed of nobility and long years of being a warrior, had vanished to be replaced with a posture that would have reflected one ready for the gallows.

But she had known for certain when she had looked at one thing. And it had caused her to run.

"Your eyes... There was so much pain in them when I looked at you this night... Once, I remember them being filled with life and passion, but now they are vapid and mirror the soul of one fading from life." she whispered to him. "Why Legolas? Why choose that?"

Slowly, Legolas looked up at her, and she beheld his eyes again. They were the same, save glazed with unshed tears.

"You know this Arodwen... I wanted your love, but you would not bless me with it. And now I cannot walk this world knowing that my heart shall ever cry for the only thing it yearned for, and can never have." Legolas said in a choked voice. It hurt him to speak like this...

"Legolas, I deny such a thing from you to keep you alive." Arodwen said bluntly.

"Arodwen! You do that in vain! Can you not see it does me no good?" he asked her desperately.

"Legolas! I love you, but loving me will deal your death, not happiness." Arodwen said, her eyes pleading with his to understand.

"You do not know what the future will bring." the prince slowly stated, tentatively reaching out, and enclosing one of her hands in his.

She felt that warmth flooding into her veins again, laying a blanket of peace upon her troubled mind.

"I do not... But when there is no other ending-"

"Fate is a mysterious thing, Arodwen, like most things in this world. But we do not know of our doom; none but Mandos knows this. And he does not wish us to live our lives with such caution. Your mother, would not want you to deny yourself the happiness and completeness one finds in love." Legolas told her softly, his pale hand caressing the top of hers.

She did not speak. How could she? She was too confused... Too unsure... Too, afraid...

With a barely distinguishable sigh, Legolas released her hand and stood slowly from beside her bed. She was about to rise when he held up his hand, "Nay, Arodwen. Sleep now, and worry not for me." He bent and quickly, he lightly pressed his soft lips to her forehead. Then he turned from her and left the room; not looking back.

In stunned silence, she watched him leave her room while a growing ache filled her heart...


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