For all of my readers who are also interested in the Star Trek universe: I have started a new fanfiction that I would like to draw your attention to. I am happy about all new readers! If you are interested, please have a look at my profile. :)
The cell phone dialed.
I waited, nervously running my fingers through my hair. Would someone pick up? Or had the number long since gone out of service?
I heard a crackle, then a woman's voice: "The participant you are trying to reach is not available. Please try again later."
Damn.
I was about to lower the phone, but then there was another crackle on the line, this time more audible. With a furrowed brow, I pressed the phone back to my ear. "You have a new message. Press one to play the message. Press two to delete the message. Press three to archive the message."
Bingo.
After dialing one with trembling fingers, I waited anxiously. But if I had expected instructions to guide our way, or a clear outline of the problem, I was wrong.
At first, I heard nothing. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the jerky gasps of a person running with a phone in hand were heard. The hurried footsteps did not promise anything good and when they broke off all at once, I bit my lip. Not a second later, I heard a man's voice: "They're following me. I don't have time to explain. If you have come this far, my friend, know that you have almost made it. To find what you seek, turn it inwards. Think of the past and seek a place where your destiny should be revealed."
Something dinged in the background and I flinched. The stranger said something more, but I couldn't for the life of me understand what, and the next thing I heard was the electronic announcement again, informing me that the desired participant was unfortunately unavailable. Whether he ever would be again was another thing.
I took a deep breath and turned to Legolas, who was staring at the floor. "You do not need to repeat what he said. I understood."
I nodded, admiring his hearing for a moment. Then it occurred to me that the stranger had probably been a friend of the elf, and it didn't take a psychic to figure out the man's fate.
Cautiously, I reached out and placed my hand on his. I felt terribly awkward and didn't know if I'd better pull it away again. Did he even want to be comforted? Would I want to be?
I felt him squeeze my hand and I shivered. At the same time, I scolded myself for being a fool. This truly was not the time for such emotions. Nevertheless, I couldn't suppress them and only when he stood up and withdrew from my touch it stopped. I took another deep breath and tried to remember what the stranger had said. Legolas seemed to be doing the same, because just as I took a breath to ask him what his friend might have meant, he said, "I wish he had been less cryptic."
I raised an eyebrow. "And that from your mouth."
Immediately, I wanted to bite off my tongue. How could I have been so insensitive? He had just learned that his friend was almost certainly dead, and I was making stupid jokes.
But instead of a crushing look, I was met with a smile. "Hard to believe, isn't it?"
I shrugged my shoulders thoughtlessly, after which the pain from the bullet wound increased again. But I wasn't going to let that stop me now, because I had an idea. "It all seems to point to the past. Your mission, the password to the mausoleum, and now the message."
Legolas had been pacing up and down. Now he stopped. "But so far it has never had anything to do explicitly with my past. He couldn't have known I was coming."
"Obviously he did, though."
"Or he didn't mean me."
I shook my head. "Then we couldn't solve the mystery."
"That's what I was trying to say."
He resumed his pacing, and I pondered. The stranger might actually have meant someone else. But if I was honest, I didn't want to believe that. It would have made my only option of getting home vanish into thin air. No. I wasn't ready to give up yet. "Let's pretend we didn't see the problem: What could he mean? In what place should your fate be revealed?" I tried to resume our train of thought.
Legolas gave me a look that I couldn't interpret before he answered, "You said that you knew the history of the Ring War. If so, then you know of the prophecy as well."
Restlessly I slid back and forth and tried to remember a prophecy of some kind. Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything. "It's been years since I read the books."
"It wouldn't make sense anyway. We should focus on something else."
"What's that?"
"The background noise."
I recalled the message again. At the very end, I hadn't been able to understand anything, and that was because of... "He must have been near the jetties!"
"The what?"
"At the harbor."
Legolas stopped as if rooted to the spot, turned around and was with me in two steps. "This city is by the sea?"
His gaze was so piercing that I flinched. The only thing missing was for him to grab me by the shoulders and shake me. What the hell was going on?
I cleared my throat. "No... Not by the sea, just by the river Elbe."
"Elbe?"
"A big river."
"But the sea is not far from here?" He sounded a bit breathless, and I wondered again what had gotten into him.
"Maybe an hour and a half of driving."
He closed his eyes for a brief moment. "Then my friend knew I was coming."
I didn't understand anything anymore. "Would it be too much to ask you to explain to me how you would know that so suddenly?"
He took a step back and I saw him clasp his hands together. "Believe me, I just know."
Great. This was typical. He had an epiphany and meanwhile left me simmering in my own juices. I braced myself for a response, but before I could get a word past my lips, he cut me off with a wave of his hand. "Tell me how to get to the port."
I rolled my eyes. "At your service, Your Highness."
In the dim light, I saw him frown. If I hadn't known better, I would have assumed that my sharp throw-in actually annoyed him.
"I don't have time for arguments, Ina. Tell me how to get there, or I'll have to find out for myself."
I expelled the air and crossed my arms in front of my chest. "And you wonder why I feel unwanted? Every time we think we've almost solved the mystery, you become aloof."
He said nothing. Instead, he was still staring at me out of narrowed eyes. A shred of the old spirit of resistance stirred in my chest. Yes, I had promised to help him. But I couldn't see myself being relegated to the role of a bystander again. I had assumed that he had understood what I cared about. Obviously I had been wrong.
Silently I counted to ten and then stood up. We were standing so close now that I could feel his very breath. Ignoring the pain in my arm, I said, "If you want to go to the harbor, I'll go with you."
