AUTHOR'S NOTE Sorry if the timeline in this chapter is confusing. The conversation at the beginning takes place in year 8, then it moves rapidly through the next couple decades, chronicling the births of the Gondorian Royal Families.

DISCLAIMER Anyone that Tolkien owns, I don't.

December 19, Year 8 of the Fourth Age

On the eve of Aara's 10th birthday, she came to me. I was overseeing preparations for her birthday feast when I heard her voice. "Mama?"

"Yes little one?"

"I was wondering something."

Oh sweet Valar, I wasn't ready for this! In all essence, she was only about seven years old. She didn't need to know about sex yet!

But I took her by the hand, left someone else in charge, and led her to the South Balcony. "Now," I said. "What were you wondering?"

Aara fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable. I put my hand on hers. "Don't be afraid. You can ask me anything."

She took a deep breath. "Everyone here looks the same, Mama. Even you and Ada don't change. I get bigger and I look different when I get older. How come you don't?"

Oh boy. In a way, I wished that she had asked where babies came from. "Aara, my daughter, do you know what your second name is?"

"Quendelien," she replied.

"Yes. Do you know what it means?" She shook her blonde head. I sighed. "It means Daughter of the Elves. Your Ada and I and all the others who live here in our colony are Elves. But you are a human, little one. You grow and change and grow up. We do not."

Aara's face clouded. "But then how are you and Ada my parents?"

"Because I was once a human too."

My daughter's eyes grew wide. "Really?"

"Yes. It was many years ago, before I met your Ada. And then after I met him, something magical happened and I became an Elf."

"You became an Elf by magic?" I nodded. "But then how come I'm a human now?"

"Well you were already conceived when – "

"I was what?"

Ugh, good job Rae. "You were already a part of me."

"Oh." Aara sat deep in thought. "So you'll never ever get any older?"

"Nope."

"And I will?"

"Well," I said. "You still have your Ada's Elvish blood in you, so you grow slower than a normal human and you will live longer."

"Oh."

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

Then she smiled. "So I'm an Elf-human!"

I laughed. "Sure."

She nodded firmly. "I like that." She gave me a hug.

"Am I interrupting anything?" I heard Legolas's voice in the doorway.

Aara ran to him. "Ada, guess what!"

"What?"

"I know why I get older and look different and you don't!"

Legolas glanced at me. "Why?" he asked.

"Because you're an Elf and I'm not."

It was only visible in his eyes, but I saw the sorrow he felt as he picked her up. But he just said, "That's right, elen nîn."

She kissed him on the cheek and ran off after he set her down. He came to sit next to me. "So you told her?"

"She asked," I replied. I looked after her. "She seems to understand."

"I am glad." He put an arm around my shoulders and I leaned against him. Neither of us could suppress our despair. Telling Aara about her circumstances and her fate felt like the final step away from her.

The next years were marked by several important births. Arwen and Aragorn's first child, a girl called Maréan, was born in the year 10 of the Fourth Age.

In the year 14, I helped Éowyn welcome her child. It was a difficult birth that lasted two days. Faramir did not leave Éowyn's bedside during her recovery. On her fifth day of bed rest, I brought her the sad news.

The baby Prince of Ithilien, who was named Elboron in memory of Faramir's brother Boromir, was awake when I entered the room. "Rae!" Éowyn said when I entered.

"Hello," I said. "How is the baby?"

Éowyn smiled down at her son. "He's wonderful."

Tears gathered in my eyes. "Éowyn, there's something I have to talk to you about." I took a deep breath. "Elboron's birth did a lot of damage to your body. The midwife told me that your womb will not be able to sustain another child."

She just looked at me. "I know," she said quietly. "I can feel it."

"I'm so sorry," I said.

Éowyn looked again at her son. "Elboron is everything to me. He is enough." Turning back to me, she asked, "Why did you have only Aara? You are not incapable of having another."

I sat at her bedside. "I don't know. I suppose, it was so painful to learn that she was mortal that I couldn't bear the thought of it happening again."

Éowyn nodded. "I understand that." We were both quiet then, lamenting the children we would lose.

But Elboron grew up happy and never lacking for love from his family or the rest of Ithilien. I saw little of him until a celebration in Minas Tirith in year 30.

The Queen had had another child, this time a boy. Eldarion was to be named heir to the throne of Gondor, as well as Lord of all elven lands.

Legolas and Faramir, being the Lords of Southern and Northern Ithilien, were the first to be introduced to the new baby. Éowyn, Elboron, Aara, and I were after. Elboron was sixteen years old. Aara, in body, was 32, but only around 20 when compared to a human.

After the formal ceremony, Aragorn took Legolas and I aside. "I wish you two to know that as long as you remain in Middle Earth, the land of Ithilien is yours." He clasped Legolas's shoulder. "You are royalty, my friend, and I have not forgotten it."

Legolas smiled and clasped Aragorn's shoulder also. "Hannon le, mellon nîn. I will be honored to have your son rule over Ithilien and Mirkwood and all other Elvish lands after I am gone."

Aragorn smiled. "It will be so, but I pray not for many years."

Legolas laughed. "I will be here longer than you, King. That I promise."

The King and Prince laughed together. "We shall see," said Aragorn.

Ada – Father (Sindarin)

Elen nîn – my star (Sindarin)

Hannon le, mellon nîn – Thank you, my friend (Sindarin)