Aragorn stared at Legolas face with open scrutiny, knowing that everybody's attention would be on the elf performing at the center of the hall of fire and not on either of them. Legolas allowed this to continue for at least a full minute before blue eyes slid through the crowd to find Aragorn's.
Legolas raised both eyebrows at him subtly, and Aragorn frowned deeper at him in response. So the elf indicated to the doorway closest to Aragorn with a slender chin and fluid movement.
Doing his very best not to disturb the performance, Araogrn began to slip his way through the assembled people and toward the door. He beat Legoals there and so he slipped out into the cool open hallway just beyond the carefully carved doorway.
He was on his third deep breath of the night air when the door opened again, Legolas came out of the hall first quickly followed by Avaleina who practically skipped out into the hall, finishing their silent escape with a light-hearted twirl.
Without a word the three of them fell in step with one another and began walking down the hallway and away from the hall of fire. It didn't take long before Ava began to softly hum a song and half-heartedly dance her way alongside them, arms seemingly doing more of the movements than her legs.
Not waiting for Legolas to prompt him, Aragorn blurted out to both of them, "None of you prayed, not once. The entire time."
Legolas nodded once, as if the statement was near painfully obvious. The humming next to him remained interrupted.
"Why?" Aragorn pressed.
He had been expecting Legolas to answer him, but to his surprise it was Avaleina that did so. Her words still clinging lightly to the melody of the song she had been humming, "The Silvan people of Greenwood the Great do not pray."
Aragorn blinked at her, quickly running through all the prayers he had heard from the residents of Imladris in the last week alone. Which was no small number. Some had been thoughtless, some had been heartfelt, some had been out of habit, but there had been many.
"Never?"
"Never." Legolas and Ava answered together with immediate finality.
"Do you talk to the gods?"
"We do not," Ava answered again.
"Sing to them?"
"No."
"Ask things of them?"
"No, again."
"Not even silently in your minds?"
"I talk to myself in my mind," Avaleina answered, "There's no room in there for anybody else. It's crowded enough as it is."
Aragorn fell silent, allowing the two of them to go down the staircase ahead of him while he mulled this new information over in his mind. With her humming upping in tempo, Avaleina sat side-saddle on the banister and slid down it with ease.
With a loud laugh, Legolas copied her.
Aragorn continued to walk down the stairs two at a time, when he went to the bottom landing and fell into step with the others again Legolas said to him, "We've stunned you into silence; why?"
"I just cannot picture never speaking to the gods. Not even in my mind. And never hearing anybody else do it either."
"It's not that big of a deal," Legolas just shrugged carelessly.
Aragorn ignored him and looked to Avaleina, "Why though?"
Her melody disappeared into the breeze when she met his eyes, her face more serious than Aragorn might have liked, "Because the old gods are dead. A dead tree cannot bear you fruit, and a dead god cannot answer your prayers."
Aragorn blinked at her in surprise again, that was perhaps one of the most surprising things she could have said to him in that moment. "Pardon me?"
Legolas and Avaleina laughed at him, but even then he could not seem to wipe the shock from his face, and so Aragorn continued, "I thought gods could not die? When did the gods die? I feel like that information that might have traveled."
"The gods did not die, Estel." Legolas told him with sligh sympathy, likely at Aragorn's panicked tone, but Avaleina was still fighting giggles to his right.
"But she said-"
Leolgas spoke over him, "The gods are not dead, but they became dead to us long ago."
"Can you-Can you do that?" Aragorn asked, squinting his eyes.
Avaleina smirked, "Just watch us."
He squinted further.
Avaleina finally took pity on him and explained, "If the gods were going to help us, they would have done it by now. There is no benefit in talking to something or someone that does not respond nor care. We've better things to appreciate and rely upon for help than gods who could not care less about us even if they were actually dead."
Aragorn grunted in though and then asked, "So what do you worship then? In their place?"
The other two alternated their list seamlessly, with Legolas starting:
"The trees"
"Our people."
"The stars."
"Our determination."
"The lives around us."
"Our king."
"The trust we have in each other."
"Love."
They lapsed into silence, and Aragorn broke it with grunting in thought, "Huh. Well then."
"We'll be happy to start talking to them again once they start talking to us." Avaleiana said with finality.
They walked in silence for some distance longer, until they were outside under the stars and Aragorn could almost feel the gaze of Varda resting on them when he stated with bemused wonder, "I can't believe you disowned the gods."
Avaleina and Legolas burst out into laughter.
"Told them to say it to the back of your head because your face was disinterested."
Avaleina snorted as they continued to laugh.
Aragorn continued, "You're giving them a timeout."
The laughter grew louder.
"The silent treatment! To the gods!"
Laughter echoed through the valley and likely into the open windows at the hall of fire.
...0.0.0
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