The rest of that day, and a great deal of the night were dedicated to re-telling the knowledge I had already shared with Elrond, and Glorfindel.

It seemed harder the second time.
I stuttered a lot, having difficulty remembering what I had told them, and what I left out.
Details got mixed up, some would have been left out entirely had it not been for Elrond and Glorfindel jumping in to aide me in the telling.

We'd written notes and tried to hash out a rough timeline, but had agreed that it would be best if we didn't write the major things, in case anyone found out about the notes and tried to steal them.
Elrond and Glorfindel brought up points they had found particularly important, and nudged when I failed to mention things that I had mentioned during the previous telling.

At first, I spoke more to Elrond than I did to Gandalf, nervous of how the wizard would react to some of the things I was claiming.
He was remarkably calm, though I could tell he was growing rather alarmed with every new bit of knowledge I spoke of.
Over the course of the day, and the story, he asked gentle questions, nudging me calmly from each piece of information to the next, until I was speaking to him directly, and my anxiety had faded.

Food was delivered two times, and tea was in constant supply the entire day, accompanied by small finger foods to fill the hours between meals.

Only when everything had finally been told and re-told a few times over, was I sent off to rest.
I hardly remembered the walk back to my room, and a few short hours later when I was awoken by the slippery voice of Saruman, I didn't feel any more rested.

I spent the remainder of the night puzzling over a Sindarin book of herbs by candlelight, fighting through the seductive call of sleep that tried to drag my eyelids down.
I only managed a few paragraphs before I started dozing lightly, just as the sun rose.
I floated there, in a semi aware haze where I could hear the activity of the day starting up outside my room, but couldn't seem to pull together enough energy to rouse myself and start the usual training.

Part of me wanted to force myself up.
It said that there wasn't enough time for lounging in bed.

The rest of me, though, was slack, exhausted, and too relieved at the return of Glorfindel and the hobbits to continue the forceful and rushed schedule I had set for myself before they had arrived.

I floated there, in the restless void, until my void was shaken by a loud knock at my door, though it sounded far away, disconnected.
Gandalf's voice called through the door, loud and clear, pulling me the rest of the way from the void.
"Young lady, it is time to get up. We've much to discuss with the elven lords still. Breakfast has been brought to Lord Elrond's chambers already. It will be cold if you do not hurry."

Blinking blearily, I forced myself up off the floor where I'd had my books and candles set up.
My candle had long since burnt down, and guilt flared in me over wasting a candle like that.
They were not so easy to get here, as they were in my world.

I tugged a dress out of the chest at the foot of my bed, slipping into it quickly and tying the laces haphazardly.
I could fix them later, if it really bothered anyone.

My cloaklette, was added, clearly to hide the mess that was my hair.
It was braided still, from the previous night, but there were little fly-away hairs everywhere.
I was sure I would get some looks from the 'every day is a perfect hair day' elves.

After that came my gloves, a soft, dark blue fabric pair for my non-training days, though I had very few of those.
My hands got cold easily, I reasoned, and it would be better to keep them covered.

I stowed my books and the remains of the candles, as well as the few I hadn't used, under some clothes in the chest, as I had been doing since I started my tradition of wasting away the night with study.
It was very likely that they would disapprove of my extracurricular activities at night.
Better for them to just not find out.

A quick push had the lid to the chest falling shut, and I quickly stepped into my flats before opening the door to find Gandalf with his staff raised to rap at the door again.

"Ah, there you are. Come along, there's still much to discuss."

I dropped a shallow curtsy.
"Of course. I'm sorry if I kept you waiting."

"There's no need for that. T'wasn't but a moment. Breakfast has been brought to Elrond's quarters, and Glorfindel is currently waiting for us. You are the only one unaccounted for. Apparently Elrond did not expect you to sleep quite so late. He says you are usually a rather early riser."

He paused, turning to look at me squarely instead of from the side as we walked, and his voice was very serious when he spoke again.
"I believe what you have told me is the truth, or at the very least, that it is very likely that it once was the truth. However important it is, though, it is not of a greater priority than your well being. It is but a simple matter to call pause to a private council. No one of us would force you to continue past when you are capable. Time is valuable, yes, but ceasing our discussion a few hours earlier so you may gain some rest will not cause the end of the world as we know it."

He gave me another considering look, then turned to continue walking, adding on at the end, "Especially if you do not think it prudent to share every detail of the future. It is a decision I think quite wise, but it also means that you are the only one who truly knows their way in this dark time."

A frown marred my features at that.
Would I become a compass to them? A map to keep safely hidden away, only to be taken out when needed?

"I mean no disrespect, Gandalf, but I am not so weak that I cannot go a night or two with less sleep than usual."

For a moment, I wondered what they would do if they found out how little I actually slept.
Would they drug me..?
What would happen if they did..?

Would I be gifted full nights of sleep without nightmares or dreams?
Or would I be trapped, unable to escape from the demons that seemed to plague me in this world..?

It would be better not to find out.

"Of course not, my dear, but Elrond told me a bit of the state you were in upon your arrival. I simply wanted to reassure you that you do not have to push yourself so. More than just your knowledge is important."

I stifled a sigh, turning my eyes away from Gandalf and back onto the floor in front of us.
It seemed that they viewed me as a vessel. A container to keep polished and undamaged, so that the information inside would stay safe.
I couldn't see fault in it, I supposed.

The information I had held the potential to save or destroy the world.
It was understandable that they wanted to keep me in good condition.

The remainder of the walk to Elrond's rooms was spent in silence, as I knew that bringing up how unhappy and uncomfortable it made me feel that they seemed to view me as a thing to be protected would probably only make them defensive, and start an argument.

I could feel Gandalf's stare a few times, but kept my eyes resolutely on the ground.
I was not a thing to be kept.
I wanted to help, and they would not stop me.

We arrived at Elrond's rooms to find him and Glorfindel poring over one of the maps we had previously marked with Erestor.
The map wasn't overly large, taking up only about a quarter of the table.
The rest of it was taken up with writing implements, sticks of charcoal, inkwells, a stack of parchment, as well as a tray full of a variety of foods.

The morning was taken up with going back over a few points from the previous night, followed by a retelling of how the journey to get the hobbits went.
It was primarily told by Glorfindel, though Gandalf joined in a bit after Glorfindel got to the part where he was found.

It turned out that the party of elves had come upon Gandalf near the edge of the Shire, which had made collecting the hobbits much smoother.
Gandalf saying they had to go, in addition to a group of elves, was enough incentive for them to quickly pack some traveling necessities and be on their way.

They had received quite a few looks from the rest of the inhabitants in the Shire, but had met no resistance.

Along their way back, they'd stopped outside of Bree so that Gandalf could go in and fetch Aragorn, who had not long before been stationed there to await the hobbits.

That was a surprise, as I hadn't remembered seeing Aragorn with the hobbits upon their arrival in Rivendell.
Elrond answered that particular curiosity, saying that Aragorn had no doubt escaped off to find Arwen upon their arrival.

I hadn't been expecting Gandalf or Aragorn, figuring they would have been in other parts of the world at this time, but it had worked out quite well.
A happy accident. I was sure I wouldn't get many more of those.

We then starting to discuss what should be done with the information provided.
More than once, they agreed on things that I subsequently shot down, due to the knowledge I kept from them.
They wanted to leave now, I said we should really wait until the entire fellowship had arrived, then, because I had no concept of what date the Dwarves would be arriving in Rivendell, they wanted to leave without the Dwarves.

I urged against that, trying to stress that going on the journey without one of the fellowship could prove to be disastrous.

They wanted to send a messenger to Edoras and gather a force to confront Saruman, I declared that maybe it would be best that we prioritized the ring, and deal with Saruman a little later.
They wanted to re-capture Gollum, I tried to find a tactful way of saying that would probably just lead to disaster, and failed.

It went on and on, them thinking of things to do that they just didn't know the full extent of the consequences for, and me shooting their ideas down.

Occasionally, when I didn't want to delve into why an idea was bad, I was forced to just tell them, "I can't tell you why! We just can't do that!"

They didn't particularly like that, but after the first few times I was forced to deny their curiosity, they stopped questioning.

I got progressively more bored as I listened to them bounce ideas off eachother, and after almost falling asleep in my chair a few times, started fidgeting in the hopes of keeping myself awake.
Then I started feeling restless.

After one particular use of "I can't tell you why!" I stood from my chair, practically trembling with pent up energy and aggravation.
I had to move. I couldn't just keep sitting still.
My previous weeks had been filled with constant motion and activity.
This 'sitting in a chair all day and talking about stuff' was an uncomfortable break in routine.

So I started walking.
First, I paced in a line parallel to the table they sat at.
Then, when that got boring, I started circling around the table itself.

The movement soothed the feeling of confinement I had begun feeling, and the trembling in my hands and limbs that had become quite pronounced over the past few hours, started to fade.

At some point, amid Elrond and Glorfindel discussing another idea, I realized that Gandalf was no longer at the table.
That's when I noticed the soft thunk of his staff, and paused in my circling, looking behind me to find the wizard following me in my circling.
He stopped when I did, seeming lost in thought, and apparently not noticing that he was following me.

I turned to continue walking, catching Glorfindel's eyes on me, though there was no break in his discussion with Elrond. He looked amused.
Why did they always look at me that way? I wasn't that funny..

I looked away quickly, returning to my circling, and the thunk of Gandalf's staff continued.

The walking didn't feel relaxing anymore now that I had a follower, so I veered away from the table, intent on getting out of the circular path that Gandalf was using.
Of course, that didn't work.

The quiet thunk continued to follow me, and I glanced behind myself to see that Gandalf still followed me, continuing to look lost in thought.

Over the course of the next few hours, I paced the room, altering my path continuously to see how long Gandalf would keep following me, until I couldn't take it anymore.
So, in the hopes of getting him to stop, I did the adult thing.

The mature thing.

I ducked under the table and crawled out the other side, hoping that the physical block would wake him from his thoughts enough to stop following me.

I walked a few paces away, turning back to look at him and reassure myself that he was no longer following me, only to be met with three extremely bemused stares.

Gandalf had stopped at the edge of the table, and was watching me with a surprised kind of amusement.
Elrond and Glorfindel had ceased their conversation entirely and were looking at me as a grown up would to a small child who had just done something incredibly silly.

For a moment, I was frozen in the gaze of probably three of the oldest and wisest inhabitants of Middle Earth.
With those expressions locked on me, I felt the age difference acutely.
That I was simply a child.
That there was nothing I could do here that could ever come close to what they could do.
That I should leave this mess to the grown ups.

Then the rest of my brain kicked in.
Just because I wasn't a billion years old with pointy ears or a white beard, didn't mean I wasn't wise or knowledgable.
I squared my shoulders and gazed steadily back at them, responding to their stares with a shrug, voice surprisingly even when I spoke.
"It worked, didn't it? I wanted him to stop, he stopped."

Gandalf chuckled, "I suppose it did, my dear. Though, had you asked, I would have stopped."

Glorfindel laughed softly, voice warm when he spoke.
"You'll learn that our Alyssa is a woman of few words, Mithrandir. If she can accomplish something without speaking, she does, in all aspects, save musical endeavors."

Gandalf smiled slightly at that.
"Oh, a musician? How wonderful. I do love a good song. Perhaps I may hear you sing some time? After we've discussed everything that needs discussing, of course."

Elrond's voice was dry, and a bit exasperated, as if he was quite used to keeping people on track in conversations of this nature.
"A discussion that perhaps we might return to, if everyone is done climbing under tables and getting off topic?"

Feeling chastened, I whispered out a soft apology and returned quickly to my spot at the table.

Gandalf remained standing, but moved closer to the rest of us, inspecting the map where Elrond and Glorfindel had previously been looking.

Despite feeling mildly scolded for my rather childish method of stopping Gandalf's following, I didn't let the embarrassment simmering under my skin keep me from chipping in with my thoughts or bits of knowledge.

The discussions flowed smoothly after that, and though I did rise to walk or stretch a few other times, Gandalf remained in his spot, and did not follow me again.