Disclaimer: Lord of the Rings belong to J.R.R Tolkien, the only people I own are Alenor Talagand, Bréil, Sebastian and Victoria.

REVISED and EDITED Fate's Paths-Chap1-Secrets Revealed-

Thirteen years later-

Alenor shrieked, diving almost too late as a low-hanging branch swung directly into her path of flight. Stumbling for only a moment she regained her balance to continue her mad dash through the forest. Behind her she could her pursuer, drawing closer, yet the panted breaths seemed to slip slowly behind as if he was reaching the end of his endurance. If she did not trip, she would be beyond his clutches and free. Her mind wandered...

With a second piercing shriek, Alenor fell flat on her face, landing in last year's foliage and pine needles, upended by a hidden tree root. In an instant her pursuer was upon her, flipping her onto her back, where he immediately began to mercilessly tickle her sides.

"Elrohir!" she screamed, writhing, shoving him in the chest in attempt to get him off. She gasped for breath between screams and shouts of laughter. "Mercy! Mercy!"

The dark-haired Elf laughed triumphantly, releasing her from his grasp. Still laughing he slumped against the trunk of a large white pine, head bent low, pulling in air with great gulps. "By Eru child! Where did you learn to run like that?" he gasped, brushing back a stray lock of damp hair. "I swear you took me halfway across Rivendell! If not for your clumsiness I never would have caught you!"

Still gasping for her own breath, her ribs feeling slightly bruised, Alenor sat up slowly. Half-glaring at her foster-brother, she curled an arm about her aching middle. Her own dark, curling locks spread across her face, in a tangled wave. Impatiently she blew it out of her eyes; most of it fell back stubbornly. "I...I didn't think you would follow me this far!" she exclaimed, spitting out hair from her mouth. "I thought I'd lost you a couple times."

"And you nearly well did," Elrohir snorted, his breathing coming under control. "And you definitely lost Elladan." He paused, cocking his head to the side, as if hearing something. "No! Wait, I hear him coming. I think your little dive through the prickle bush threw him off."

"It definitely did," Elladan grumbled as he squeezed his way through two bulky pines to sit with them. "I still can't for the life of me figure out how you managed to get enough courage to go through there! I don't think even an Elf would have attempted that one."

Alenor lifted her head, refusing to admit that she had been startled by Elladan's quiet approach. Grinning lopsidedly, she watched as the elder of the twins sank against the trunk of another tree, looking as exhausted as Elrohir. "But then again I'm not an Elf," she crowed, laughing at the look of exhaustion on the Elves faces. "I shall forever remember your faces! Today is the day I almost beat you two."

"There is the key word," Elrohir grinned at her, slouching down. "Almost, my dear sister, almost."

Alenor turned to him, sticking out her tongue in a childish gesture. "Allow this poor exhausted girl some pride for once in her miserable life!"

Elladan admitted defeat with a short quirk of his lips, but could not resist a final jab. "You don't need any more pride Alenor, it already takes up half of Gondor and Mirkwood. We want Rivendell to stay free of it."

"That's not fair!" she cried indignantly, falling onto her back so she could stare up at the swaying canopy of needles the formed a net above her head. "White pine?"

Both Elladan and Elrohir were startled into laughter. "Always the one to spout random knowledge when she won't admit that she's lost!" they teased her before Elrohir clarified that she was indeed, staring up at white pines.

"Umm..." Alenor pushed herself up on one elbow, while massaging a sore spot with the other as she realized she had lain on a pinecone. "Do I hear bells? It can't be the lunch bell, we just ate...Elbereth's Stars!" she jumped to her feet, panic flashing across her flushed face. "Erestor's going to kill me for me being late!" Before the twins' could respond to the panicked comment, she had rushed off, diving under low-hanging branches impatiently. Once out of eyesight they looked at each other, grins touching their faces. "She gets it from you." they said at once.

"I'm here!" Alenor announced, skidding into her small study room, or the 'torture chamber', as she preferred to call it. She was more then late judging from the angry look on her tutor's face. The Elf was staring at her, his lips pressed in a thin, angry line and Alenor winced, drawing her shoulders up realizing what a sorry state she must look like.

Her dress was hitched immodestly up to her knees, the original color lost under the layer of mud, though it might have been green before her run from her foster-brothers. There were leaves, needles and pieces of other debris clinging to her curly brown tresses. She was caked in dirt, and her face was still flushed with the exertion of two hurried runs. She was still breathing hard, although a smile of triumph was trying to peek across her face.

Erestor struggled to hide a sudden grin as he watched the sixteen year old human girl before him stand defiant but unsure what to do. "You could have taken a bath before you came," he said instead, watching as her hunched shoulders slumped.

"Well I'm still here," Alenor replied grouchily, kicking a piece of dirt on the otherwise immaculate flooring. "I could have just conveniently forgotten that I had a history lesson and gone instead to beg Glorfindel for another fighting lesson." She drew herself straighter, realizing she had slumped. "And plus, I was running from the two fiends of Rivendell, as they were intent on killing me,which is the reason why I'm late." She forcefully stifled a sigh of relief when a grin cracked across Erestor's face.

"Well I have to admit it's a better excuse then last week," he relented. "At least you're here. Did you remember your books this time?"

"Uh...yes," Alenor muttered, tucking a lock of knotted hair behind her rounded ear. She winced as her fingers got caught in the tangled mass.

"Where are they?"

"Invisible."

"Alenor, are you giving Erestor a hard time already?"

Alenor couldn't stifle the shout of surprise, as she whirled around to face Elrond. "Adar!" She screamed, clutching both her hands over her heart, hoping to still the wild beat. "How many times do I have to ask you, not to come up behind me like that?"

"A couple more times will do it, I think," her foster-father replied, bending down to give her a quick peck on the forehead. Straightening he looked over her head at Erestor. "Do you mind if I steal her from you for a bit?"

"Not all," was the weary reply. "I don't think she's going to pay too much attention today, and her books, as you have heard, have suddenly turned 'invisible.'"

Alenor blushed, her fingers becoming interested in a loose thread on her sleeve. "It isn't my fault that Elrohir threw them into the mud puddle," she muttered under her breath, just loud enough for the Elves to hear.

"He what?" Erestor and Elrond exclaimed at once.

Alenor felt her face heat even more. "Well actually," she rephrased, knowing that Elrond would instantly see through any lie she tried to spin. "It was after I put honey in his hair and pushed him into a pile of hay in the stables... Nice talking to you, but I really have to run." She tried to brush past Elrond, but he reached out taking a firm, but comfortable grip on her arm.

"I'll punish you after Alenor, but first we need to talk," he reproached her. "Come on; let's go to my study where we can have some privacy."

Alenor grumbled underneath her breath, but knew better then to try and escape from Elrond now. How is that Elladan and Elrohir always know the perfect time in which to slip away and not get punished because of it? Why am I the one always caught? Why do I never learn! She bemoaned her situation. "Elbereth's Stars."

"What?"

"Nothing." She winced, catching Elrond's pointed stare in her direction. "Slip," she muttered.

"That's what I thought."

Alenor winced again, then looked up, realizing that they were walking down a brightly lit hallway. "Adar, why are we going to your study?"

"There are some things I need to discuss with you, alone," Elrond replied, softly stressing alone. "It's time you learned a few things that are unknown to you."

Alenor looked up at him blankly, blinking slowly, aware of a peculiar change that had stolen over her foster-father's face "Who are you and what did you do to Elrond?" she demanded, hoping that it would bring him back to the present.

Elrond laughed a little, but there was no attempt to make it sound genuine "We'll speak about it in a minute."

A minute, Alenor reflected sourly. From the look on your face you'd think I was going to an execution! Could we possibly lengthen the minute to an hour?

Her prayers went unheeded, as a few moments later Elrond ushered her into his study, closing the door behind him with a soft thud.

Alenor closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, breathing in the familiar scents of the room. The ash from the fireplace mingled gently with the sweet fragrance of nature that poured through the open window. It created a gentle atmosphere for the underlying fragrance of ink and parchment. It was the room where she could speak privately to her foster-father, where she could express her fears and hopes and demand to know what had happened the night her mother had died. The room where she had, over the thirteen short years of her life had gotten so used to finding she could have found it blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back.

"Reliving good memories?"

"Mmm," she replied, opening her eyes to find that Elrond had moved to sit behind his desk in his straight-backed chair. Smiling, knowing that she was going to get in no particular trouble for making Elrohir look like a scarecrow, she moved to sit in her favorite chair, an old, plush armchair that Elrohir teasingly claimed was for 'old ladies.'

After a few moments of easy silence, Alenor stirred, pulling herself out of old memories and spoke. "What was it that you wanted to talk about? I'm sure it wasn't about me tracking unwanted dirt into your study. Is it about me skipping over half my history classes?"

Elrond raised an eyebrow, his face relaying that he had had no previous knowledge on the absences from her lessons. "I wasn't aware that it was over half your classes Alenor, Erestor had only informed that it was a few..."

Eru, Iluvatar!

"...But that is not what I wanted to speak to you about..."

Praise Elbereth's Stars!

"...It's about your past Alenor."

"Wha...what!" Alenor choked over her own words, her eyes snapping up to meet Elrond's grey ones. "My past?" She was quite sure that her hearing was beginning to fade. Why after sixteen years of inconsiderate silence, despite continuous pestering was the Elf Lord finally telling her? Unconsciously she leaned forward, propping her chin on her fists, looking at him expectantly.

"Yes your past," Elrond said frowning as he gauged her reaction. He softened his tone. "There is no easy way to tell you who are you, and it's going to be a bit of a shock, so don't get too comfortable. Do you remember Erestor's history lessons on Numenor and of the line of my brother?"

Alenor nodded warily leaning back as a trail of unease wormed up her spine, despite the softened tone Elrond's voice frightened her.

"Do you remember the last Kings and Queens of Numenor? And of Elendil?"

"Yes," Alenor replied, straightening her spine, more then a little confused and frightened. "But what does this have to do with my past?"

Elrond took a deep breath, spreading his hands across the desk, looking uncertain on how to continue. "You are related, through direct descent to the last King of Numenor. I'm not speaking of Elendil or Isildur, but of those unfaithful to the Valar and Valinor."

Alenor's back slammed against the yielding fabric of her chair too stunned to speak. It was not what she had been expecting to hear. Haltingly, she managed to get to her feet, the world falling into shades of grey as her mind reeled over with the emotion of what she had just heard. Instant denial raced to the forefront of her mind, trying to protect her from the haunting ring of truth in Elrond's voice. The flimsy defense did little to help.

"Alenor..."

She barely heard the rest of Elrond's words, as she turned around and ran from the room, forgetting to close the door behind her. All she wanted was forget everything she had been told.