Do not forget your place lest I must remind you when we meet again.

Fili crumpled the paper and threw it into the fire. The flask that he had been drinking from had long since gone empty but in his drunken stupor, he had forgotten. He gave a mighty grunt and threw it in the fire as well. It was a shame that his fireplace was so small. With how he was feeling, he would have liked to throw everything in the damned room into the fire, including himself.

It had been a month since they had departed from Erebor, a month in which he had sent caravan after caravan of food and supplies to his kin that were still stuck there. All that he had gotten in return was a scathing note written in his uncle's hand. The man had only descended further into madness. Fili could tell by the rambling nature of the note and the disjointed ink that betrayed a shaking hand. Of course, he should have expected that his uncle wouldn't have been pleased to learn of his oldest nephew's ascent into sovereignty, especially after Fili's tail-between-the-legs betrayal. And yet Thorin's threats and insinuations troubled him deeply. No matter what happened, Fili would always crave his uncle's approval. It was the highest standard to which he held himself.

He massaged his bruised shoulders as he dug around in his desk, searching for more alcohol. His secretive relationship with Khurza had been nothing short of tumultuous, and traumatizing. She derived a sick sense of pleasure from inflicting pain upon him, and he accepted it with a submissive weakness. He couldn't help but feel that he deserved it sometimes, even when she challenged his limits and made him bite his knuckles and dream of mercy. There was so much for him to do - or, rather, so much that he expected himself to do. But he could not do it all, and this, in his eyes, merited her punishment.

He paused and bit down on the skin of his thumb. A wave of delirium was threatening to wash over him again and he mentally willed himself to stay strong and listen to the sounds of the world around him in order to ground himself. The Arkenstone had been placed in a bag that hung from a leather rope around his neck. The thought of it there did not bring him serenity, as he had hoped it would. Instead, it only made him panic. He spent his days obsessively checking to make sure that it was still there, and his sleepless nights were spent fondling the stone and questioning his right to wield it. Nadi was right - he had changed. Whomever he used to be was long gone: weakened by sleep depravity and washed away in the rivers of greed that made up his bloodline. He would have given anything to turn back time and stop it right at Bilbo's doorstep where he had once been a young Dwarve full of brave pipe dreams and blind to the tribulations ahead.

The bottommost drawer of his desk revealed a fancy crystalline wine bottle which he tossed back swiftly. The roof of his mouth smarted as he swallowed uncomfortably and pressed the cork back into its chamber. Luckily, no one in the town seemed to care enough to wonder why their new Master had stayed locked up in his chambers for days. He couldn't bear their scrutiny, not when he was feeling so low.

The door to his room eased open and Nadi stepped in. Her face took on a humbled, questioning look as she closed the door and pressed her back against its surface. The last time that they had spoken had been a few days ago during his party when she had admonished his behavior and turned her back on him. Still, despite all that she had put him through, he found himself comforted by her presence.

"Drinking alone?" She asked in an unusually high-pitched voice. She cleared her throat quickly.

"Well," he said, his tongue heavy and clumsy in his mouth. "I couldn't rightfully ask you to join me. Not in your condition."

She gave a small smile as she pushed herself away from the door and walked toward him. Before he could stop her she took the bottle from his hands, regarded it curiously, and then threw her head back as she took a long pull. But the wine was much too strong and she dropped her head with a twisted grimace.

"I thought that drinking's no good for the baby," he said in a teasing voice as he took the bottle back.

"Oh, please. He won't drown if I have a little taste, now will he? You know, Fili, when my mother was pregnant with me, she used to drink and smoke all the time! She said that the alcohol would fortify my blood and the tobacco smoke would strengthen my little lungs."

"And look at you!" He exclaimed. "You've turned out so well!"

"Hm. I miss the days when your jokes and jabs didn't feel so…" her eyes roamed around the room as she struggled to find the right word. "...multifaceted."

"My jokes are the same as they've always been. You just interpret them differently because the context has changed."

"I see…" she said slowly. "And what is the context for you sitting alone in your room for days on end, drinking wine without a shirt on? And…are those…flushes that I spy along your skin? Have you taken up wrestling?"

"Of sorts," he muttered. He had completely forgotten that he was without a shirt. He quickly pulled a long-sleeved cotton tunic over his arms and rolled it along his chest, covering the bruises that Khurza had inflicted upon him. The welts on his wrists from being tied were ugly and he quickly shifted his cuffs over them as she wandered over to the window.

Without warning, Nadi shoved the heavy curtains open, and harsh rays of sunlight blasted across the room. He quickly turned away and shielded his eyes as she pushed the heavy window open and leaned out with a deep inhale. It was an odd sort of day in which the skies above Lake-town were cloudless, and the ice within the water threw up blinding reflections of sunlight throughout the town. The people along the dock laughed as they bumped into each other and stumbled around like sightless mice. Nadi turned around and pressed her lower back against the jutting windowsill, a look of peaceful contemplation on her face as the slight wind fluttered her hair. He took the moment to observe her and realized, with a sinking stomach, that her cheeks had taken on a slight chubbiness that hadn't been there a month ago. His eyes dropped to her stomach, but he could not tell if the weight that he saw there was from true pregnancy or the baggy nature of her men's clothing.

"You want to know what I've been thinking about a lot lately?" She said in a dreamy voice. He resolved to stuff her mouth with cotton and bind it shut for the rest of her life if she said anything about his brother. But, to his surprise, she opened her eyes and said, "maple!" with the biggest smile that he had ever seen her wear.

"Maple?" He repeated incredulously and she nodded.

"Mmhm! A sticky, syrupy concoction of maple and sugar! If I had any, I'd pour it right into the snow. Then, I'd put a stick in it and let it freeze for a while. Then, I'd eat it in one bite - just like that, and not share any with you at all."

He couldn't help it. He giggled at her lusting tone. "Since when have you ever cared for maple?"

"But that's just it, isn't it?! I never did before. But now, all I can think about is rich, golden, sweet maple - mmmmm. I can barely think straight anymore. I just want it so badly!"

"I'm sure that can be arranged. If I remember correctly, maple's not that hard to harvest." He walked around his desk and stood in front of her with his arms crossed comfortably and one ankle kicked delicately over the other. "I could send some men out, have them gather it for you, and be back within a few days. I'll just have to convince them that it is a highly important endeavor meant to keep peace within the town."

"Nay, you don't have to do that," she muttered and then just as quickly added, "but if you could…?"

He laughed at this. They held each other's eyes, neither of them really sure where to go from there. The merriness on her face disappeared and he realized that he had let something slip in his expression. He looked away, to the view in the window beyond her shoulder, but knew that it was too late. For so long, Kili had been the only one that could read Fili like a children's book. But it looked as if Nadi was quickly picking up the habit.

"What's wrong?" She asked. The question felt like a heavy-handed blow to his chest and he quickly ran his hand over his chin, forcing himself to keep his sudden anxiety at bay.

"It's nothing."

"You're not one to dwell on nothing…"

"What's it matter to you what I dwell on?" He asked with a bit more venom than he intended. He ran his hand over his face again and reminded himself that there was no reason to be upset with her. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged this away. "I hope my words the other night were not misconstrued. It was never my intention to see you abandoned. You've tested me lately, but I still stand by your side. What is the matter, dear king?"

He was quiet for a long time, simply staring out the window as he wondered whether or not it would be proper to reveal his fears. Despite her intelligence, she was still quite young and not as familiar with politics as he was. But she still cared about him and, in the end, that was all that mattered.

"It's this town," he finally said. "We now live in an isolated economy, with no sustainable contact with the outside world. Back when Lake-town was known as Esgaroth, the people made a living off of trade with the Elves of Mirkwood and the Dwarves of Erebor. But we no longer maintain these bonds, seeing as how our plight has soured relations with both races. I worry that our closed system of currency will bring stagnation upon the land, and our resources will soon run dry. We cannot live this way forever."

"You doubt our self-sufficiency?"

He smiled at her naivety. "This is not a nation that I command, Nadi. It is a town of leftovers. Even if Bard hadn't taken more than half of the population back to Dale, our numbers are not great enough to balance self-sufficiency."

"Well," Nadi said, her brows creased as she thought this over. "If it is a matter of funds, then we do have one more resource. Erebor's treasure horde is large, large enough to spare a few boatfuls of gold. All we'd have to do is negotiate with Thorin. After all, he owes us for all of the food and supplies that we have been sending over-"

"No," Fili said after giving a derisive laugh. "No, no, no. You should know better than to count on Thorin's charity. He sent me a note, you know. The last thing that it said was, 'Do not forget your place lest I must remind you when we meet again.' As much as it pains me to say it, we must simply act as if Erebor - and Thorin, for that matter - will never be our ally."

"Alright," she said with a nod of her head. Poor, sweet thing, he thought to himself as he watched her. He could tell that she was trying her very best to reason it all out and come up with a suitable plan to the best of her capabilities. Having him take over Lake-town had been a fertile seed planted in dead earth. Her initial plan was ambitious but lacked an appropriate follow-through. "And so we move," she finally said. "Away from here. Take our people and travel eastward, towards uncharted lands. If we take the Ironhavers with us, we can build new trade lines and drop Esgaroth's name."

"Agh," he said, massaging the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. There was that feeling again, like he desperately needed a strong drink to hold down his frustration. "You propose that we upend a town full of women, elderly, and brash young men and set them upon a journey through dangerous lands? Getting here in the first place almost killed us, you realize?"

"You doubt your people's resilience," she countered quickly. "If migrating is the only viable option, then they will accept it. So you say that this here economy is unstable. Then what? You want to stay here drinking and bemoaning the hand that you were dealt? In your own words, if we try to go on for much longer like this then we will wither and die out. There is no other option."

"There is always another option," he said. "I just have to figure it out."

"We, Fili, we must figure it out! You are not doing this alone."

"Nay," he let his head fall back as he impatiently fluffed his hands through his hair. "I'm just here picking incessantly at my own mind while you and my brother stay out wandering the streets looking for the next party."

There it was.

Like a finger tracing an inky black circle, he had returned to the point of his original frustration. He hadn't meant to say anything on the matter. Now that he had Khurza in his life - or at least in his chambers - he was willing to force himself to let it all go. But he couldn't. The whole matter of Nadi's infatuation with his brother was just as painful as the day that she had made a mockery of him at his own birthday party, so many years ago. Fili could have everything in the world that he desired, but one shared look between Nadi and Kili would always be enough to enrage him. Such was the disposition of a scorned man. Once, it had been so easy for him to maintain his grasp over his jealousy. But now, with all that had happened and was happening, he no longer felt that he had that control. The Arkenstone lay heavy above his breast, shuddering slightly with his every heartbeat - a silent observer to their conversation.

Nadi was still staring at him. But it seemed as if she had curled into herself slightly. Her grip briefly tightened upon the windowsill before she let go and flexed her fingers. "It always comes back to that, doesn't it?" She asked in a strained voice. "Me and Kili, Kili and I. What will it take for you to rid your mind of this odd obsession?"

"You. Marrying me. Like you should have in the beginning."

Nadi's brows shot up on her head. She gasped and tried to say something, but her voice seemed to have stopped working. She put one hand to her throat and pointed a finger at him. "You jest!"

"Am I smiling?"

"But we have been through this before!"

"And nothing came of it! And nothing ever will unless you stop being so mullish about the matter!"

"You…" she gave a toothy, disbelieving grin and tried to back away, but the window ledge stopped her. "You…" she growled, shaking her finger at him. "...dare insinuate…that me denying you…is mulishness?!"

"Let us not forget that you denied me because I would 'treat you too well.' " Oh, how he wanted to put his hands on her shoulders and shake her until her brains were bouncing around her thick skull. That, or push her out the window. His desire to see this last thought come true was so strong that he knew that his anger had won out. But there was no stopping him, not at that point. "Nay, you are right! That's not mulishness, that's pure stupidity."

"You do understand that I do not love you as I do him?" She asked slowly, carefully, observing to see how deeply her words would cut. But in response, he merely sucked his teeth and shook his head.

"But I love you! And that is why I will not see you fall prey to his dangerous charm, not now that you're with child. If marrying you is the only way that I can keep you safe and keep that head of yours on your shoulders, then I will do it!"

"Well, may Mahal bless you for your chivalry, but it is misplaced." She turned away from him and crossed her arms in front of the window. "Fili. I told you no once. I will not tell you again."

"Hm."

There was a silence as he walked up to her. Her shoulders tensed at his approach but still, she did not turn and look at him. He could see her reflection in the frosted window. Oh yes, she was angry. But even though he knew that his next words would anger her even more, he spoke anyway.

"See here," he said in a cool voice as he gently ran his finger up and down her shoulder. "I wasn't exactly asking you. I was telling you."

"You have no right to tell me anything."

"Am I not the town's master?"

She flung herself around and stared up at him with a hatred that was unparalleled in the world. "I placed these cards in your hands," she hissed before striking him in the chest with a closed fist. "Do not wage them against me."

"The game ended the day that you placed the Arkenstone in my hand. You will marry me, and I will raise that child as my own. It's what you both deserve."

"I deserve my freedom."

"And yet you don't know what to do with it. Get yourself together. Tomorrow, we will have a wedding party and you will be in attendance. The town must herald its new queen."

He turned away from her, his mind now set on finding some source of alcohol. She stood there in murderous silence as she watched him. Then, to his surprise, she gave a sudden laugh.

"This mysterious woman that you've been wrestling with," she said. "Has she perhaps knocked you around by your head? Or is this merely the price I must pay for maple syrup?"

He picked up a spare glass and flung it at her as hard as he could. The glass smashed into a million pieces above her head right as she ducked. "What I deserve, indeed!" She yelled at him and he swung his finger around at her.

"Get out! Get out!" He bellowed. "And change your attitude lest I change it for you!"

"Sounds familiar!" She screamed back. "Ever since I gave you the stone, you've become just like your uncle!"

He grabbed the wine bottle and would have flung it at her too had she not suddenly flung the door open and ran outside. He listened to her heavy footsteps on the staircase as his breath struggled to make its way through his lungs.

"AND TELL KILI THAT HE CAN BURN, FOR ALL I CARE!" He screamed at the open doorway. "As of tomorrow you are mine, do you hear me, Nadi!? You are mine!"