Her Luck

The next day followed much the same routine the previous day had. They trained hard in the morning to be able to laze about in the afternoon. Glorfindel and Mirthanna escaped that morning's training with relatively minor scrapes, and the cut on Glorfindel's arm from the day before was healing nicely. (Mirthanna had insisted he see the healer again, though Glorfindel insisted he'd received worse scrapes than that in training.)

After a short lunch in the kitchens, they had retreated to a sunny garden, well tended and very green. Stone benches were interspersed throughout, and Mirthanna chose one of them and lay down on her back, her knees up and her hands behind her head. Glorfindel lay in a similar manner on the grass, the sunlight on them warm, but not too hot. They talked for a while, and then Glorfindel mentioned her change in appearance that morning.

The previous day she had merely pulled her hair back, loose and wavy. She had worn a simple tunic and pants and a well worn pair of boots. This morning her hair had been stick straight, and someone-- her ladies, most likely-- had piled it on top of her head. Her attire was almost obscenely elaborate, and her beloved boots were gone, replaced by newer, stiffer ones.

Mirthanna laughed aloud. She knew he hadn't been oblivious. "It was Aenien, and the rest of my ladies," she explained. "They took one look at you and decided that for a training master so fine as yourself, a lady should look her best," she glanced at him, laughing again. He wore a barely hidden look of amusement on his face. Mirthanna looked back upwards towards the clouds. "There wasn't time this morning, but we will most definitely be having a long talk about these clothes tonight, and their affect on my range of motion." Glorfindel lost his control and laughed aloud.

"At least they had good reasons," he replied. MIrthanna giggled and closed her eyes.

She thought that she dozed off for a while. When she next opened her eyes, the sun was shining in her face as it began to set. Shielding her eyes as she shifted to a new position, she commented that, "It's an awfully warm autumn."

Glorfindel's eyes were cosed to shut out the sun, but he nodded. "Indeed," he answered, "I hope it gets cooler in time for Midwinter."

Mirthanna looked doubtful. "I hope so," she said worriedly, "Otherwise we may run short on the festivities. I'd hate to miss all the elanor."

Glorfindel voiced his agreement. The elanor Mirthanna had referenced was part of a playful elvish tradition. At the start of winter, a plant from the north, called mistletoe, would be hung in one's home, in this case, in the halls of Rivendell. After the first snow, the mistletoe was replaced with elanor. Each plant had a short couplet assigned to its name, and young couples brought the other to stand under the plant as they said the poem. Couples had since added a kiss to the tradition, and it was always quite entertaining when one elf didn't realize they were part of a couple at all.

"You know," Glorfindel said, "I remember one Midwinter when the twins..." He went on to tell a hilarious tale of an escpade of a young Elladan and Elrohir, which had taken place at the Ball of the First Snow, but as that was a rather unattractive name, most just referred to it as Midwinter. Every additional snow fall brought an additional celebration in Rivendell, as well as all other elven realms.

"And they were locked out in the--" Glorfindel was finishing, when Mirthanna's head popped up.

"Hmm-- locked out, did you say?" she interrupted thoughtfully. He nodded. "If you don't mind," she began, eyes bright, "I think I will return to my quarters early tonight." She did not wait for an answer. "I have something to see to," she said, getting up. Mirthanna headed for the back door of her quarters and let herself cautiously in.

That night Mirthanna appeared earlier than usual at dinner. She was corset-less, he could tell, by the way she was all smiles to anyone who approached her, her dress a more loose-fitting type, more appropriate for dancing. Glorfindel grinned, wondering what clever plan she had put into action.

"Alright," he whispered in her ear, "What did you do to your ladies?"

Mirthanna looked around them to make sure all was clear. "Come on," she said, grabbing his hand. She pulled him out of the banquet hall and onto a balcony and collapsed on the bench in a fit of giggles, still holding onto Glorfindel's hand.

"Out with it lady," Glorfindel said with a wicked smile, releasing his hand, "Or I will make something up to tell your parents."

Her laughter subsided. "I locked them out," she said simply.

"You what?"

"Out of my room," she explained, smiling, "It was so simple. I keep a lock with my things, as well as the key. The wonderful thing is, there's only one key, and I've a fair amount of wrong keys--" Glorfindel gave her an odd look-- "I'm a collector!" He laughed.

"I don't want to know."

Anyway, I can come to the banquets through my back door," she revealed, "Tomorrow morning they'll knock to wake me up. I'll give them a key, of course, and some reason why I've locked my door. Anything will do. And then tomorrow night, they won't be able to come into my room, and as long as I'm there first, there's nothing they can do about it. I'll give them a new key every morning, and assurances that of course I'm sure that's the right one. I'll never have to wear that damned corset again!"

Glorfindel had to admit it was a good plan. "But what about your back door?"

"Oh it already has a lock," Mirthanna said, "To keep out intruders! I've got the only key, and I'll just lock the door from now on."

"There's a fair amount of cleverness in that pretty little head," Glorfindel said with a smile, "I haven't given you enough credit, I suppose."

Mirthanna blushed. "Well, I wouldn't have had the idea if not for your story!" Excitement rushed through her again at the thought of not having to wear that painful garment again. "Thank you! I love you!"

Her excitement stopped. Realizing what she'd said, she thanked the darkness for hiding her bright red color and immediately apologized. Love wasn't lightly thrown around in elven culture, and she wasn't sure how a Rivendell elf might respond. They were, after all, the stuffiest of the bunch.

Listening to Mirthanna apologize, Glorfindel smiled. He held up a finger to her mouth, hushing her. "It's alright lady," he said to her gently. "You're very excited, I can tell." He thought for a moment, taking his hand from her face and using it instead to take one of her hands. "Would you like to dance?"

"I'm being asked to dance," she said, a smile in her eyes, "By the very elf who tells me that dancing should be reserved?"

"I've seen you fidget," he retorted, "Would you like to dance or not?"

"Of course!" He took her other hand and led her back into the banquet hall, where dinner had already been cleared to make room for dancing. They were the first on the floor when the music started, and though Glorfindel occasionally traded her off to other elves, all of whom were interested now that they had seen how well she danced, Mirthanna danced mostly with Glorfindel, and they were the last ones on the floor when the music stopped. By this time it was past midnight, and the musicians were all tired and wanted to go to bed.

"I though you r-r-r-reserved dancing, my lord," Mirthanna said, attempting to hold back a yawn. Glorfindel was walking her back to her quarters, having not been able to bring himself to believe her when she'd told him she would not fall asleep on the way.

"I do," he replied honestly, "But there hasn't been an occasion I've deemed worthy of it in so long that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it."

For the next few weeks Mirthanna went without her corset and danced mainly with Glorfindel at the nightly banquets. Her fancy training outfits were discarded and her beautifully wavy hair returned. The training itself went well and Mirthanna's skills improved. She and Glorfindel grew closer and more friendly, and they competed against each other with an occasionally betting audience. Mirthanna seldom won, so the watchers would bet rather on how close she was able to come to beating her training master.

Things were going well, except when they practiced with knives. Glorfindel wasn't usually so lucky as to escape those lessons without a few cuts and scrapes, but as he repeatedly told Mirthanna, that was what she was being trained to do. However, a month later, things took a turn for the worse. That was when Mirthanna's luck, and her keys, ran out.

After a full day of training, but for their usual afternoon lazing, Mirthanna came to dinner wearing the tightly-laced corset. Glorfindel was easily able to tell the difference-- her waist was several inches smaller and she wasn't breathing when she could help it.

"What happened?" Glorfindel whispered.

"I ran out of keys," she whispered back, her voice a bit hoarse. "So I tried to start over with the first one." She looked as though she would have sighed, had she the air to spare. "They called the locksmith, having figured that I'd had enough freedom. He told them none of my keys would fit, though he could copy them the one around my neck." She winced. "I think they pulled the lacings extra tight for that."

There was no dancing that night. Visiting elves were seated with Elrond as well, and they were talking about orcs and a shadow. Mirthanna had no interest in this whatsoever.

"Lady?" Came a voice from behind her. She turned. A young servant stood there with his hands behind his back. "Lady Mirthanna?"

She nodded her head. "'Tis I."'

"A letter for you, it has just arrived." The elf produced an envelope from behind his back.

"I will take it now," she told him, "If that is alright."

"Very good, my lady," the servant turned to go.

"Thank you..." she murnured absently, running her fingers over the envelope. It was her fourth letter since her arrival in Rivendell. She turned it over to look expectantly at the seal. "Father," she said quietly, "May I please be excused from this company?"

"Of course," he replied. Mirthanna nodded politely to Lord Elrond's visitors.

"My lord," she addressed Glorfindel, "I was wondering if you would care to escort me to the gardens?"

Glorfindel nearly jumped out of his seat at the offer. "It would be my pleasure, Lady Mirthanna," he said, a look of gratitude showing plainly on his face.

They reached the garden where they normally talked during the day. Mirthanna sat primly, perched on the edge of a bench. She held the letter in her hands.

"Who writes these?" Glorfindel inquired.

"A friend," Mirthanna answered off-handedly, "Back in Dol Amroth," she said wistfully.

The wind blew. "I suppose it will get cold for Midwinter after all," Glorfindel remarked. "I'm going to go back inside, to the library, perhaps. Would you like to come?"

"In a little while," she told him, and she looked down at her letter as he walked away. When he was gone, she opened it rather excitedly and read its contents over and over until she was finally content to have it.

When Mirthanna did not appear in the library after a stretch of time, Glorfindel went looking for her. The garden she had been sitting in was raised, and it had a balcony. He found here there, the letter stuck hastily into a skirt pocket, nearly hidden in the folds it made when she stood.

His approach was silent, and he reached out to tap her shoulder, not expecting her to be as surprised as she was. He was caught off guard by Mirthanna's forceful kick, making contact with his ribs. He fell backwards and to the ground, saying nothing but a faint "ow."

Only then did Mirthanna seem to realize what she'd done. She hurried to Glorfindel's side.

"Oh I am so sorry!" she cried, "I-I didn't know who was there! I am so sorry! Sometimes I just--"

"For someone so hesitant to strike on the training field, you surely have no trouble hitting me unawares," Glorfindel remarked amiably as he tried to sit up. He winced, and decided that was a bad idea.

"Do you need help?" Mirthanna said, fully red to the tips of her ears, "It's the least I could do, I mean--"

"Just give me a minute," Glorfindel said slowly, shaking his head. He managed to get to his feet, and sat on one of the stone benches with Mirthanna's help. He allowed her to search him for injuries, breathing slowly and carefully.

"I don't think you've broken anything," she announced when she had finished her examination, "But you are going to quite sore for days. Trust me."

Glorfindel smiled. "That was actually quite impressive," he informed her. "Tell me, you have some combat skills, how well trained are you at hand to hand?"

"I know more than enough to protect my honer, if you follow my meaning." Glorfindel nodded. It was common practice to teach all ladies a measure of self-defense, just in case. The types of things Mirthanna referenced were uncommon between elves, but orcs had no honor, and the honor of some mortal men was often questionable. "I learned among the mortals of Dol Amroth, who need to learn these types of things."

"Much more, I'd say," Glorfindel replied, rubbing his ribcage. "How would you like to add that to our training? Just to keep in practice? I'm sure your father wouldn't mind."

"I suppose we could practice in the afternoons, but then," Mirthanna's eyes sparkled with amusement, "If I know anything about hand to hand, and I do, I know that you are not going to want to try your hand against me for at least a week."

Glorfindel smiled and stood up with a little bit of a wince. "We shall see, lady, we shall see."