I have now tried to edit the chapters regarding the format. Is it better this way? :)
I shook my head. Either the architect had had an extremely wry sense of humor, or... "Your friend left you a message."
"I don't understand what you mean." He was standing so close behind me that a tingle ran down my spine, but I pushed it aside.
"Have you ever seen a tomb that had a door knocker hanging on the gate?"
He stepped up beside me and brushed his fingers over the metal. "No. But I assumed it might be common in your time."
I shrugged. "I'm sure there are other graves like this one. But I haven't seen it particularly often. Besides, we can't forget the necklace."
He nodded in agreement. "I don't see a lock."
"Neither do I. Can you open it anyway?"
"I will try."
While Legolas busied himself with the door, I circled the mausoleum. It was nowhere near as magnificent as the others, rather small and unimpressive. There were also no names of the deceased or Christian quotes on the outside wall, which was unusual. There were windows, but they were stained glass, so I couldn't see inside.
I returned to the front and joined the elf. He looked up as I stood next to him and then pointed to the door. "I sense a magic in her. I can't tell if it can even be opened."
"What kind of spell?"
"A really powerful one."
I remembered the passage from The Lord of the Rings where the companions had been standing outside one of the gates of Moria and Gandalf had been pondering on how to open it until he finally came up with the solution. "Do you need a password, perhaps?"
Legolas looked at me and then his expression brightened as if he too remembered. The only difference was that he had actually experienced it. "That would indeed be possible."
We tried several variations. The most obvious - friend - drew no response from the door.
Above our attempts, the morning passed and merged into noon, until finally the sun slowly approached the horizon. That was the time when it became too much for me to bear. "We need a clue, otherwise we can go through the entire elvish vocabulary and still not come up with a solution. And if I don't get something to eat in a timely manner, I'm going to get grumpy."
Legolas did not respond, but continued to stare at the door. His lips moved in an unintelligible liturgy while his hands played with the chain.
"Would you like something to eat, too?"
He did not acknowledge me with a glance. I took a deep breath and stood up. Whatever. "I'm going to get some."
With that, I turned and walked away toward the exit. If I remembered correctly, there was a kebab store across the street. Once I had walked a few meters, I turned around once more. I half hoped that he would finally show a reaction, but he didn't do me that favor. I sighed.
Since he had found me again, I could not get rid of the feeling that something was wrong. Sometimes he behaved normally and then again as if I had done something unforgivable. In my mind I went through all the situations one more time, but found nothing that would have disqualified me in any way. Unless... I shook my head. He really couldn't hold it against me that I had slept in his arms. After all, he had suggested it. But maybe he had expected me to refuse?
I thought of the feeling that had spread in my stomach this morning and swallowed. Was I starting to like him? Did he sense it and that's why he kept his distance? It wasn't unlikely, and in times of uncertainty I had always been prone to attaching my heart to something or someone that wasn't good for me.
I bit my lip. At least I had caught it in time and could avoid compromising situations in the future.
My goodness, the man was age-old. For that reason alone, it was simply out of the question. I absolutely had to get back to my old argument culture, because I'd rather quarrel with him than constantly feel like I'd offended him. And besides, he was the cliché elf. I wasn't falling for the cliché elf. Ever.
I opened the graveyard gate and pulled out the last of my cash. It wasn't long before I was walking back, kebab in hand.
In the meantime, my thoughts had returned to other topics. At the top of the list was the question of the password. It had to be obvious, but again, not so obvious that it was readily apparent. Perhaps it was a game of words, similar to the one in the Lord of the Rings? Only, unfortunately, there was no saying that could have been interpreted.
I approached the mausoleum. Legolas, meanwhile, was crouching on his heels, but when he heard me, he stood up and turned around. For a moment, I could have sworn I recognized relief in his features. And something else.
I bit down a little too hard on an onion ring, so that a piece of my tongue got caught between them, and winced. While I waited for the pain to subside, I kept repeating inside: too old, too different, too unsafe. Maybe I should make that my mantra.
"You've been gone a long time."
I swallowed my next bite, remembering the decision I had made. "Is that so? I'm surprised you even noticed."
He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.
"Did you at least come up with a solution?", I topped it off. That felt better. Much better. It was really liberating not to think about what I might be doing wrong, but to just do it.
"Not a solution, but a puzzle."
Now it was me who raised an eyebrow. "What kind of puzzle?"
"See for yourself." He pointed behind him and I stepped closer, careful to keep at least two step lengths of distance between us.
The door looked unchanged, at least almost. I leaned forward and saw fine writing wrapped in a circle around the door knocker, almost like a snake. "This is just like Moria!" I gasped.
"You'd think so." His voice was right next to my ear, making me flinch again and put a safe distance between us as quickly as possible. I gave the elf an angry look. "Stop sneaking up on me."
"I wasn't sneaking up on you."
"Oh, and what else do you call it?"
"Ina, what do you intend by this?"
I crumpled up the kebab paper and then crossed my arms in front of my chest. "I'm lashing out, as usual."
My voice sounded a little too bitter, I heard it myself. Legolas did not move. "If you wish to go, then go."
I twisted my lips into a humorless smile. "I can't. Have you forgotten? You made sure of that."
"I thought we'd discussed this plenty."
Slowly, I was actually getting angry. I just had to keep telling that to me long enough. "Forgive me, I just occasionally have one of those little human emotional outbursts. Let's get back to the subject at hand, then you can get out of my world and I can get out of yours as quickly as possible."
I saw him thinking and swallowed. On one hand, the anger gave me strength, but on the other, I felt how unfair my attack on the elf was. He looked at me. "When I have completed my task, I will not be able to stay."
"What makes you think I would want that?"
Inside, I had shrunk to the size of a garden gnome in seconds. No matter what I said, he always hit the nail on the head. It was as if he knew me better than I knew myself. I clenched my hand around the kebab paper into a fist and took one deep breath. "Can you read the inscription?"
He paused for another moment, almost as if he was thinking about whether to respond to my question. Then he answered quietly, "Yes."
"And?"
"Are you sure we shouldn't talk about something else first?"
I gritted my teeth and fixed on the writing on the door. "What does it say?"
Suddenly he was standing so close to me again that all I had to do was lean over to touch him. He put his hands on my shoulders and made me look at him. "Ina, I won't just leave you standing there when the mystery is solved. I promised you that you would come through this unharmed, and I'm going to stick to that. And when I return to my world, you will still be remembered by me."
I looked down at the floor and wished desperately that it would open up. Why did he have such a disarming manner? And why had my anger fizzled out as quickly as it had come? I would have liked to hold on to it now.
With determination I withdrew from his touch and pointed to the door for the second time. "Now can you tell me what that means, or not?"
He glanced at me, but made no further attempt to pursue the subject. Instead, he touched the fading inscription with his fingers so that it flared up again and said, "It says: Morning's courage, noon's enemy, evening's sorrow."
