Her Mail

For a few days, there was no training, only talk of it. There was apparently more of it to take place than Glorfindel had originally agreed to. Mirthanna was to be trained with a sword as well as with daggers. Glorfindel had sighed, but then agreed, appearing to be reluctant. He would have been angry, but he and Mirthanna had found that they got along quite well. They were almost friends, one would have said.

Glorfindel had relayed the news of the additions to their practices to Mirthanna. She groaned and complained, and Glorfindel found himself wishing he had simply not told her at all. The training was set to begin the next morning, and so on the appointed day GLorfindel appeared at Mirthanna's door. He knocked.

"Come in!"

Glorfindel let himself into Mirthanna's quarters. He looked at her, then suddenlt dropped his eyes and turned. Mirthanna frowned.

"Is there a problem, my lord?"

Glorfindel's ears were turning red. "Lady, you-you're not wearing anything!" he blurted out, turning, but keeping his eyes off of her.

Mirthanna glanced at her scant attire. She had heard him knock while taking a bath and had wrapped a short white towel around herself. "I am so!"

Glorfindel found himself looking at her legs. "Not much..." he replied.

"Fine then," she said, "If it bothers you that much, turn around! Lastir was right, you Rivendell-ers are an uptight lot."

Glorfindel turned back around. "We are not, but we're not wood-elves either." Wood-elves were the freest in their ways, absolutely shameless in every sense of the word. Not that it was something to be looked down upon, but elves of different regions tended to be just that- different.

"Nor are we," Mirthanna agreed, "But clothes-less is how Eru made us, and there should be very little shame in that."

"Please...Lady...Anna- would you mind just putting on some clothes?"

They took her bow and quiver full of arrows, and, in the archery field, Glorfindel inspected them and pronounced them "in good, working order." Mirthanna took them back and they got to work. "Shoot for me one more time before we really star," Glorfindel insdtructed. And so she did. This time, however, her shot missted the target center by merely a few inches. Glorfindel looked shocked. "Have you been practicing?" he inquired. Mirthanna shook her head.

"Not recently," she told him. Glorfindel looked puzzled.

"How could your shot have improved so much without practice?" Glorfindel asked.

Mirthanna grinned. "Well, you'd shoot much better as well if the life weren't being squeezed out of you for most of the time- oh for Elbereth's sake, Glorfindel!" she cried, he was beginning to go red again, "Eru forbid I was talking about my underclothes! I mean a corset...stuffy Rivendell elves," she mumbled, and took another shot.

"A what?" Glorfindel asked.

"A corset," she repeated. Glorfindel shook his head, "You know," Mirthanna made a motion as though her body were being squeezed, "To make us look skinnier."

"Lady, I have no clue as to what you're talking about."

"Haven't you ever taken off a lady's clothes?" Mirthanna asked with a smile, still shooting innocently at the target.

The blush returned. "Such things are hardly appropriate," he scolded, unable tohold back his grin for too long, "And hardly true as well."

"Good for you," Mirthanna grinned, "Talking like this! You're breaking out of these Rivendell confines. Now tell me," she said as she chose a few more arrows, "Any one of significance?"

Glorfindel thought for a moment. "No," he said decidedly, "Well, Gil-Galad--"

"I asked about you," Mirthanna interrupted, wondering why Glorfindel was bringing history into this, "Not some old dead king. Besides, that's got nothingn to do with--"

"Then I suppose you haven't been told?"

"Told what?"

"Gil-Galad, Erenion, I am his reincarnation." Mirthanna could not imagine how he was able to share that information so incredibly matter-of-factly.

"Re-what? Erenion Gil-Galad's--"

"Reincarnation." Glorfindel repeated.

"So you share his soul?"

Glorfindel sighed, wondering when the questions would end. "We can talk after practice, lady."

"Fine," she replied, "But I want the whole story, don't leave anything out at all."

"Agreed."

The training continued. They finished archery and Glorfindel decided to test her knifework. She knew the fundamentals, Glorfindel told her, but her skills need a lot-- a lot-- of work. Particularly in the area of control.

"I'm really, really, so, so, sorry," Mirthanna said again. The healer had clicked her tongue at Glorfindel and left him with a jar of ointment and a linen bandage with orders to "Clean up and have a good meal, I can tell it's been a long day.

"Lady, no matter how many times you say it, you will get the same reply. It's alright," Glorfindel responded, "This is what I'm spposed to be training you to do. Perhaps not by accident, but it is the point nevertheless."

They took their lunch in the kitchens and headed back outside. Walking and talking, Mirthanna finally remembered something. "So you share a soul the soul of Erenion Gil-Galad?" ahe asked, and Glorfindel sighed again.

"I prefer not to put it that way, lady," he said with a frown, "People tend to forget that we aren't two different people. I am the same as he is, I don't just share his sould, I am Gil-Galad. I do not argue with him in my head, we are simply one and the same. It even bothers me to talk about myself and my past name as 'we,' but sometimes that is the only way people understand."

Mirthanna nodded. "But--" she began, and proceeded to ask a stream of questions.

By the time they had walked around the courtyard several times, it was beginning to get dark. They did not know they had reached the back entrance to Mirthanna's quarters until one of her ladies came running out.

"Lady!" she cried, "You've gotten a letter from back home." She turned to Glorfindel, curtseying, "My apologies, my lord."

Glorfindel responded with a slight bow. "It's all right, lady." Mirthanna's lady in waiting blushed fiercely to her ears.

"If you'll excuse me," Mirthanna said, side-stepping her blushing maid, "I have to go open my letter."

The lady suddenly snapped to attention. "No you don't, my lady! Dinner's in but half an hour and that letter will be waiting when you come back!" The lady took Mirthanna by the wrist and tugged her along.

"Aenien!" Mirthanna protested, her gathered hair in a loosening knot shook dangerously. She sighed, looking back at Glorfindel, "Corset time."

Aenien looked shocked, but Glorfindel smiled. "Make sure she's on time for dinner, Aenien." The woman began to blush again.

"For Eru's sake!" Mirthanna attempted to bring her maid back to the present. Aenien began to pull at her arm again. "Traitor!" she called to Glorfindel's retreating back. There was time before dinner. Extra tight lacings, she thought, and gulped.

Glorfindel looked Mirthanna's way during dinner and sighed. She was still fidgeting like she had been on her first night in Rivendell. She was beginning to make him motion sick. He walked over to her and put his hands firmly on her shoulders.

"Stop," he ordered, and pressed down.

"Ouch," she winced, and then, "I can't"

"What? Will no one dance with the lady of Dol Amroth?"

Mirthanna laughed quietly, "That is currently the least of my worries! I want to open my letter!"

"I see," said Glorfindel, and he smiled. "Good. For a moment I thought I woiuld have to ask you to dance."

"Her expression changed. "And what's so terrible about that? I'll have you know I am a wonderful dancer," she informed him.

"I have no doubts that you are, lady, but it's not you that I have the problem with," Glorfindel replied.

"Well then what do you have against dancing?" she questioned, almost as though he were insulting her personally, "A horrible past of stepped on toes?"

"I am a fine dancer," Glorfindel answered. "I've never stepped on anyone's toes, though I'm not able to say the same about anyone I've danced with. I happen to be of a mind that dancing should be reserved."

Mirthanna nearly snorted. "Reserved for what?"

Glorfindel shrugged. "A celebration, a holiday, a special night," he winked at her, "A special lady." She took the bait.

Mirthanna giggled, fluttering her eyelashes as a good court lady should. "My lord!" she said, feigning shock, "You tease awfully!"

Glorfindel laughed back. He took her hand and kissed it, eyes sparkling. "You wish, lady." He winked at her, thenturned and walked back to Elrond's table.

Mirthanna stood there for a moment, holding the hand he had kissed, and considered calling out to him "Arrogant fool!" but decided against it. She then shook her head, decided she was being silly and resumed fidgeting. She returned to the table to ask her father if she might reture to her rooms. He hastily agreed, telling her to remember her court manners, that she was doing no honor to her family's name, behaving as she was.

"But then," he said, not unkindly, "I suppose you have a lot on your mind," and she blushed. But her mind remained on other things besides her letter as her father kissed her forehead and allowed her to leave the banquet.