The Encroaching Darkness

Guiomer stared at the spectacle that was his mother going through several sword routines.

It wasn't that Heather didn't practice with a sword but she tended to borrow the clunky practice swords provided in the Training courts. Her style, which embodied fluidity and speed, didn't suit well with those swords. Something always felt off, somehow.

The new sword, delivered by Prince Legolas, was thin and light. Heather wielded it like an extension of her arm. Guiomer had only seen such unity when his mother borrowed the sword of Gryffindor from him.

"She looks splendid," Prince Legolas murmured. "Her form is perfect and fast."

Guiomer stifled a smile but it could still be heard in his voice as he said, "Don't say that quite so loudly. Mater could get annoyed. She's usually better than this given that she hasn't practiced those stances in almost a year."

Legolas shot him a perfectly tailored look of incredulity – and really, he finally understood why his mother found his facial expressions unnerving. "How would she look like in her greatest condition?" he finally asked.

He wasn't bragging. Guiomer, as a child, had seen Heather practice and it had inspired him to do right by the Sword he had inherited.

"If she was serious, all you would see is a blur of silver," he said.

Prince Legolas clearly did not believe him. Guiomer did not mind. Not many people could imagine that Heather could move even faster. What they were currently seeing was her warm ups.

"You have my gratitude, though," he continued softly but that didn't matter because of the elvish thing and their incredibly good hearing. "Mater has been receiving more injuries than usual because she misses having her own sword. So I thank you."

The blush that went on Legolas's face was the most real facial expression Guiomer had ever seen on the prince's face. So far. And not the last, if Guiomer could help it. He had heard about his mothers planned 'humanizing' project for Prince Legolas, or as Aunt Enid had said, "Turning-an-elf-into-a-socially-balanced-individual" project.

Merlins arse, what a mouthful!

And to think, his mother wanted to juggle that along with the country's expansion and its establishment? She was either crazy or just really efficient. But she wouldn't do it alone, not if he could help it. Especially since she was busy exchanging owls with Aragorn with the completion of the safehouse project and sending messages back and forth with King Theoden with regards to the establishment of the branch of the Brotherhood.

He didn't know how she did it. The only thing he knew was that she acted like she was on a pepper-up high half the time when he knew that Uncle Hodur didn't let her touch potions unsupervised.

"It was nothing, Lord Guiomer," Legolas said, bringing him out of his musings. The elf still had that light pink dusting his cheeks, making him look adorable. "Elrond Half-elven was merely concerned and I was the convenient messenger."

Guiomer gave him the look that deserved because really, from what Guiomer learned from Aunt Enid, elves were as contrary as cats when the mood struck them and nobody could have convinced Legolas to deliver the new sword (named 'Promise' in English) if he didn't want to.

The new sword was light, elegant and, like all other elvish-made swords, thin and extremely durable. Between Promise and Gryffindors sword, it was a competition on who was sharper. Both of them didn't need to be cleaned either.

Sadly, it wasn't goblin-forged metal that only accepted that which made it stronger.

That small deficiency was swiftly ignored by Heather who, upon opening the long parcel, had jumped up and embraced the daylights out of Legolas. Luckily Guiomer, who had stayed behind due to his curiosity over the parcels contents, was quick to grab the sword in-between them before it impaled either of them.

However awkward the atmosphere had gotten afterwards was completely worth seeing Legolas's face turn that red. Guiomer knew his mother agreed with that point.

"I know Mater invited you, but she is rather busy," he continued before Legolas could get too embarrassed. "So I suppose you will have to stay with me. Saldia is rather large too so the tour might take weeks."

The elf's natural curiosity took over. "Are you not busy as well, Lord Guiomer?" he asked.

Guiomer managed to suppress his wince in time because the elf really hit the nail on the head. He supposed that the only reason his mother could do as many things as she did was because of the growing pile of paperwork on his desk.

"I could shuffle it to the afternoon so I could be with you in the mornings," he said.

Legolas gave a bow (and it truly was so elegant that Guiomer wondered how he did it.) and a child detached itself from the shadows to escort him back to his rooms.

In an absolute absence of professionalism, the child asked the elf a hundred questions without pausing. The baffled look on his face was amusing. It was funny how much at a loss he was when faced with the orphans total and complete fascination.

Behind him, he could hear a sword being sheathed. There was light footsteps on the cobbled stones and then his mother's voice said, "It's a good thing he accepted and I am not thinking about the sword he gave me. That one needs to loosen up. He's a hundred years old and he doesn't know how to interact with people outside of a formal setting."

Guiomer turned to look at her, assessing her condition after those set of stances she practiced. Mentally, he noted that she needed a good run to return her stamina to acceptable levels, given that she was hunched over her sheathed sword and using it as a crutch. Covering up for the absence of two people for four months had taken a toll on his mother. Given the number of paperwork Saldia naturally generated and the stupendous amount of side-projects she had, his mother couldn't have had time to go to the Training courts at all.

"I agree," he said, continuing the conversation even as he handed her a towel and a cup of water. "However, you aren't supposed to stop that quickly. Go back in there and do your stretches, Mater."

Heather made a face but obligingly handed over the sword she held. In a whirl of color, she bent and stretched and cooled down from the strenuous exercise.

For Cailyn's weekly pre-natal check-up, she was led by an exhausted Deimos, who was followed by two assistants that wrote down everything he said. It was the sort of atmosphere that would have cowed Cailyn but ever since she was nearing the end of her second trimester, she'd found herself assaulted by strange moods. Sudden bouts of bravery and courage mostly overtook her, and at especially odd times.

"She's a bit serious about this one," Deimos said, stopping the constant stream of instructions he was telling his personal assistants. "I haven't seen my brother since this annoying Shipyard project started."

To punctuate that statement, said with the most angry tone she had ever heard him use, a door was opened and Cailyn had to use sheer will power in order not to gape.

Lady Eilys was sprawled on the floor, parchment covered every available space. Her dress was bunched up at her knees and looking so wrinkled it wasn't even fashionable. An ink bottle hovered by her wrist that occasionally shook itself. That was probably the cause of the ink stains that covered Lady Eilys's hair and fingers. There was even ink on the floor and some splattered on the floors.

It looked like a typhoon had blown in.

The only place that looked even remotely organized was where Phobos was standing in front of a chalkboard.

In contrast to Lady Eilys, who looked like she had war with the ink bottle and lost, Phobos looked like he'd tangled in a barrel of flour. The front of his jacket was liberally covered with white, as was his hair.

The cause of it became evident when, with a nose of frustration, Phobos ran a chalk-covered hand through his hair.

"Er-hem," Deimos said, clearing his throat and grabbing both their attention. His assistants wisely backed away several steps.

Lady Eilys surfaced like a drowned cat, blinking away her concentration, the sharpness of her focus, away until all that was left was her slightly dreamy gaze that landed on Cailyn. She immediately brightened up, launching herself across the space between them in her haste, parchment going every which way.

No, she wasn't angry at being interrupted, but Phobos was and he lashed out at his brother angrily.

"I'm trying to find a mistake in my calculations here. Stop interrupting me, it's not like you can do this!" Phobos growled.

Deimos raised both hands placatingly. "Now, now. It's not good for your health to get that angry. Go back to being my cold-fish of a brother that didn't care."

Phobos exploded and Deimos was drawn into an argument that was probably-? Probably against his will.

It was creepy and almost like both brothers had switched personalities.

"Aunt Eilys," Cailyn said hesitantly. "Shouldn't we stop them?"

Lady Eilys gave a small smile, even as her ink-stained hands patted at Cailyns stomach. Thankfully, the ink was long dried or it would have gone into Cailyn's dress too.

"It's their way of coping, my dear. Phobos is just a bit tired and Deimos misses his brother."

That seemed a little off, somehow and Cailyn wondered at the logic that allowed the twins to look murderously at each other.

Cailyn didn't have long to wonder though because she was led to a spare room and Lady Eilys's wand was in her hand and was prodding at Cailyn's stomach gently. The parchment that was by the table slowly filled itself with symbols and words.

After a moment, when the yelling in the corridors from the twins's argument went louder, Lady Eilys smiled. "You and your baby seem to be in good health, Cailyn. You just lack certain vitamins. More milk and spend more time in the sun and it shouldn't be a problem."

There was the sound of something breaking even as Lady Eilys gave her a new dietary list. The serene smile on the lady's face suddenly gained a sharp edge to it.

"That's all, my dear. Now, excuse me for a moment. My dear assistants are misbehaving," she said with the same feral smile.

Cailyn held the parchment loosely before coming to her senses and hurrying after her. She didn't want to miss it because Lady Eilys very rarely lost her temper. Cailyn couldn't even recall a time when the sweet-tempered Master Healer yelled.

"Now boys," her voice rang out as Cailyn rounded the corridor. None of the other assistants were in sight and the twins stood as far away from each other as possible. There was a broken vase and a broken window.

And Lady Eilys was still smiling.

"You've grown up and are as far from the angry children I taught," Lady Eilys was saying. "If you wanted to spar, I could have booked you to train with my sister in the mornings. You know she enjoys having company in her stretches."

The simultaneously went white with horror and Cailyn couldn't help but think that it was a bit mean. Lady Gryffon was insane with her trainings. That was the reason her Brotherhood only had a forty-five percent passing rate. Those that failed told horror stories of flying knives, buckets of cold water and being chased by very hungry wolves while lathered with deer meat.

"So have you worked out your differences?" Lady Eilys continued. "I don't like working with both of you when you're both in a temper."

The twins hastily nodded, though their smiles looked constipated. They evidently haven't forgiven each other yet but only made a quick agreement to escape punishment.

Cailyn left quickly, an amused smirk on her face. Meiran often complained to Felicia and Cailyn about the twins. To seem them so thoroughly cowed by a smiling Lady Eilys was something priceless.

Midway towards the bakeshop, Aedan crashed into her legs and she had to pick him up because he looked inches from falling asleep.

"Pater and the important elf went to eat in shop, Mater," Aedan mumbled into her neck. "The small aunty and the mean aunty is also there."

Before Cailyn could correct Aedan that calling Felicia and Meiran names wasn't nice, he fell asleep like drugged.

"Goodness, child," she muttered as she rearranged him to a more comfortable position. "What on Arda have you been doing?"

Felicia and Meiran caught her before she could enter her bakeshop.

"It's insane inside,"Meiran confided. "Everybody is too busy staring at that elvish prince to eat properly."

Felicia admonished Meiran with a gentle look. "Now, don't say it like that. He's just busy answering the questions of children. He's actually being rather nice about it."

Cailyn giggled. "Oh, I see," she said. "I suppose you want to eat somewhere else? Aunt Enid mentioned something about a pie at home." There was a quick agreement from both women and they settled into a slow walk. "And you wouldn't believe what I saw when I had my check-up."

The devious smirk on the normally good-natured face of Cailyn made both girls straighten in interest.

Hermione felt sick to her bones as she looked at the scene in front of her.

Saldia had wards and most people's needs were attended to so depression and anger issues weren't really that big. Poverty wasn't even worth mentioning in meetings anymore. Everybody did their best to keep the country and everybody happy so to see somebody commit homicide and then suicide inside Haven city, was shocking.

"This is terrible," Hermione whispered. "What was the reason the neighbors scrounged up?"

At her side, Draco had a silken handkerchief pressed to his nose. It made his voice come out muffled as he said, "A combination of bad circumstances, terrible luck and anger issues. Oh, and a sister complex blown out of proportion."

Hermione didn't cry – she hadn't properly cried after she came out of being tortured by Bellatrix, but her eyes burned a little.

"We can't allow this," she whispered to Draco. Whispering was all she seemed capable of. The soldiers on patrol who had found the bodies was still behind them. One had lost his breakfast and another looked on the verge of collapsing.

"I may know the catalyst," Draco said. His tone closed the conversation and Hermione knew that he wanted to talk to her privately.

With a nod, they both went to do their duties. Hermione wandlessly cleansed the room of blood and arranged the bodies in a neat row. Draco didn't smile, but he wasn't scowling and it did wonders to making him look approachable. He snapped quick instructions to the three soldiers and they obeyed instantly, looking immensely better at having something to do.

"My lord?" an orphan asked, having watched the proceedings with wide eyes.

Hermione and Draco exchanged glances because the boy didn't even look disturbed. Some people were used to violence and its results but to find out that this child was one of them made their blood boil a bit.

"Do you know the siblings living here?" Hermione asked before Draco. She didn't want to risk it, he looked too angry to talk sensibly.

The boy's head bobbed up and down quickly. "Yes, my lady. Them was always arguing. And him was always angry. Her wanted to get married to a Blue robe. Him didn't like it."

Blue robe, the children's slang for the Master Healers in the Order of Healing. Black robes was for the Brotherhood.

Something tightened in Draco's expression and Hermione distracted the boy by correcting his grammar.

The impromptu lesson was cut short when Draco interrupted, saying, "Inform their friends and acquaintances, child." Draco reached for his money pouch but the child stopped him. "No, my lord. The miss was always kind to me. I'll do this without the coin. To spite him too 'coz him didn't like me." To punctuate that, the boy said a really filthy swear word that had Hermione gasping.

"Really!" she exclaimed.

"You pardon, my lady," the child blushed, recalling too late that Hermione was listening. He didn't really look sorry though.

The child scampered off and Hermione had to rub the bridge of her nose to try and stop the headache.

"Children these days," Hermione muttered. She waved her hand in a privacy ward and gave Draco an expectant look. "Well?"

He whipped off his blindfold and Hermione hastily added the visual impairing part of the ward.

"The darkness caused this," he said. "It's leeching into everything and causing the worst to come out of people. Their darkest and most hidden desires are brought out and that's just asking for trouble. It's like removing the filters of people."

Hermione wasn't quite so lost because Heather and Luna had explained to her that Draco could see the darkness that came from the South.

"I thought our wards stopped that?" she demanded.

He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to get the point of it. When she still confused, he looked frustrated enough to bite her or something else drastic. And then the cogs of Hermione's ever-turning brain worked and several facts connected and enlightenment dawned on Hermione.

"Oh!" she cried. "Our wards work on the intangible. Thoughts and feelings of anger are not allowed entry. But those people outside, the people constantly exposed to the darkness will have had it seeped through their hearts or something of that sort. So the wards don't work on them."

And that was the reason why the murder rate was slowly rising, along with the suicide rate. Luna had even commented on the number of anti-depression potions being brewed by her Healers and with how busy Luna was, the number must have been significant for her to notice it.

"We'll have to make new wards," Draco concluded.

Hermione's brain, already three steps ahead, had already found a solution. She shook her head. "No. We need something that purifies. Pillars of cleansing in every entrance in Saldia. Though, with the converting of the darkness, I may need to see how it looks like from your eyes."

Draco didn't look happy at the implication but he nodded because it was for a good cause.

"Let's do this in my office," he said.

Their office had been the closest to the scene and thus, they were the ones approached by the patrol. It was quick work to go back to their work place. Draco nervously locked the door and gave a shaky nod at her Hermione, who had drawn her wand.

"Calm down," she instructed.

He took a deep breath.

"Legilimens!"

Lunch was a somber affair.

Heathers mind tumbled over the fact that somebody had committed the most unforgivable crime in Saldia.

"It wasn't a common case," Guiomer reported, having a closer handle in patrol reports than the rest of them. "That was an exception. If what Uncle Hodur said is true, then it is the cause for the restlessness everybody is feeling."

Hermione's quick mind remembered something else too. "Didn't Prince Theodred write something about most people in Rohan being gloomy?"

Their reassurance that this wasn't something that will regularly happen lightened Heathers mood and everybody, in turn, relaxed.

"You worry too much," Meiran remarked beside Felicia both of them having chosen to stay for lunch.

"Restlessness," Draco mused, glittering silver eyes uncovered for once. "I suppose I can do something about that."

If Luna had been there instead of being holed up in her study, she would have added to the apprehension his words caused.

"Draco, what?" Hermione demanded.

He smirked and warning bells rang in Heathers mind, even as the dare-devil side of her cheered him on.

"Olympics. It lasts for a month or so. Everybody will be too busy to get depressed," he said.

It was actually a very neat solution…with one small problem.

"Maybe after the Shipyard project," Heather said with a wince. "And maybe a small time after that for some recuperation of funds. That way, the Treasurer won't cry at me or something. The fellow looked like he wanted to scream at me, last I saw him."

Draco pouted, before grinning again. "But we can plan for it, right? I'll just settle Faramir up for it."

Hermione was more rational. "Feather, let's think about this for a moment. We're all rather busy, too busy in fact to even think about tackling this."

Heather shot her a look of disbelief. "Honestly, 'Mione? We organized the Committee for a reason, you know. There's something called delegating. You don't have to do everything. What happened to your faith in your subordinates?" she asked.

That was a very valid question and the group laughed as Hermione went bright red.

Before they could finish lunch, Deimos arrived, interrupting the storytelling of Cailyn's pre-natal check-up.

"What?" he asked suspiciously. Felicia stifled a giggle.

"Nothing," Meiran said sweetly. "Have you had lunch yet?"

The Pillars of Purification was something really important. Usually, when the four of them built something, they did it manually first – because really, if they did everything with magic, their economy would probably suffer. Only the urgency of it made them summon the ivory stones and shape them using magic.

It wasn't like the Bell Tower that stood proud and beautiful like a misplaced lighthouse. Instead, it was small and simple, fitting in with the surroundings. It added a decidedly Grecian feel to their country. Especially since it absorbed the darkness and turned it into light.

"It looks like those muggle lamp posts," Heather remarked. "I hope people don't get too put out that we're replacing the torches."

"I don't know why they would complain," Draco muttered. He looked tired and cranky. Everybody did but only Draco expressed it quite freely in his speech. "Those bloody torches smell and they're a fire-hazard."

The girls stifled their giggles. Heather didn't know why she found that funny.

Merlin, she needed sleep.

"Are we done?" Luna asked, still in her wrinkled dress. "I need to get back to building my boats."

By common, wordless agreement, they all dragged Luna to the showers and then to bed. She protested, quite vehemently, the entire way.

Draco, as he always did, shut her up with a well-placed sentence.

"You're the Master Healer here. Are you telling me it's alright to run on two days without sleep?" he demanded.

Heather found this funny too. Hermione rolled her eyes when she laughed and shoved Heather in the direction of her bed.

DELETED SCENES:

Faramir's Doom

(Or when Faramir did something he shouldn't have and paid for it)

The note said get to Miss Meiran's office after lunch and he was punctual. He did remember that Lord Hodur despised tardiness. One of his first lessons was about time and how to make it efficient. So it stood to reason that his assistant was the same way.

Except nobody was there.

With a sigh, he settled into one of the spare chairs in the room and geared himself for a wait. He hunched down and settled his head on the table for a brief nap.

Wait a minute.

Looking back at him was a form for the approval of opening a certain event in one of the more popular hostels. That was important. He straightened up and started reading all the other papers in Miss Meiran's desk. They were all paperwork. Some important, some not quite so.

Instinctively, he started to organize them. The important pile and the not-quite-so-important file. And there was even the stupid file that didn't need approval at all. He read that and made a brief notation of it in a separate paper, pinning it to the letter.

He didn't know what possessed him. A clearing throat made him realize what he was doing and he turned to see an annoyed Meiran.

"What in Arda are you doing?" she demanded. She didn't wait for an answer and instead marched over to her table see what was going on.

Faramir closed his eyes and waited to get scolded…and waited…and waited. But it didn't come, and Miss Meiran was smiling.

"You'll do this for me and for Felicia," Meiran announced. "By Manwe, she really needs somebody with sense in her office."

Faramir was too relieved he wasn't scolded to understand that he had just sealed himself to the horror that was paperwork.

Lol.

Ya know, my sis read this and asked why I wasn't mentioning Legolas that much. And then I looked at her funny and said, "Hello? This is mainly about the four of them? I never placed Legolas in the main characters…"

Nevermind. Nobody ask me that question for the second time, or I really will lose my mind.

I don't think I can update as regularly as I did when this first came out. I just discovered the joys of nearly graduating: Paperwork! Oh, Heather, I totally have some sympathy for you now.

Twice a month is what I can do. I think.

Please R&R.

~Hallen

P.S. GuestSue, I removed that error. Thanks for pointing it out. Totally did not notice that.