"Homework," Eigil said, holding out his hand as Legolas entered the small classroom, his eyes dull and tired.

Legolas swallowed. "F-forgive me but I could not do it for my room caught fire and—and it was destroyed."

Eigil rose to his feet, whip in hand, shaking his head. "What a pity. I am sorry but there is only one reward for your actions."

Legolas pleaded with his eyes, his chest growing tight as he struggled to control his mounting fear and dread of the punishment to come. As the whip came down, slicing through his shirt, he cried out and fell to his knees beneath the savage beating, the dull ache he lived with day-by-day exploding into tears in his eyes.

Eigil stepped away from him and wiped the blood from the coils of the whip. Legolas crawled to his feet, seeing spots before his eyes. He stumbled to his desk and collapsed at the seat. As Eigil stood behind his desk, hands clasped behind his back, he said with a wide smile, "Now for a recitation of the homework from yesterday."

The questions came hard and fast. Legolas's pain wracked mind fought against the misty haze, trying to remember the answers and stammering them out. He knew from the shaking of Eigil's head he had failed more then half the answers. In a dizzy haze of pain, he left his daily lessons with a pile of homework. How could he do it all if he could not study at night? He would have to study during the day. How would he find time to do anything else to lessen the ache in his heart?

Teary-eyed, Legolas dragged his feet to the room he was using in replacement of his burned one and dropped the papers he held on his desk. He sat down and picked up his pen, praying ada would not come in and question him. He remembered the tasteless lunch he had eaten before returning to class. He sniffed as he thought of sitting with his brothers and parents. They seemed so far away even while they sat yards and feet away. He dropped his head onto his desk and sobbed, tears running across his homework, staining the pages.

"Studying, little Prince?"

Legolas's head jerked up and he wiped away his tears. Eigil stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, an insane smirk on his lips, his eyes gleaming. Eigil's smirk turned Legolas's grief into bubbling fury. He could not stand the pain his felt and to be sneered at sent him into a well of anger.

"Yes, I am!" he spat.

"Such a shame your father banned your nighttime lessons," Eigil said. "And such a shame to see you wasted like this. Watch your tone."

Legolas's eyes darkened. Normally the casual warning would have put him on his guard but in his anger, he ignored it. Eigil was taunting him, rubbing in the hurt. A rush of anger ripped away his last shreds of self-control.

"I will tell ada!" he screamed, rising from his seat. "Ada will—will stop this method of punishment!"

"What have you been taught about respect?" Eigil snarled, crossing the floor and producing the whip.

Legolas huddled back against the wall, his arms raised to defy the blows about to fall. "I will tell ada! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

Eigil raised the whip, and then dropped it. He stepped back and smiled, pointing to the door with the whip handle. Legolas dropped his arms and stared at him in confusion, wondering what kind of cruel game this was.

"Very well, Legolas," Eigil said. "Tell your father what I have been doing at your command. Ask him to stop having you punished for something you well deserve. You know how you will be rewarded if you fail to tell your father, as you have said you will for failing would be lying, and lying is punished. We both know, little prince, you are too much of a coward to beg your father from release from justified punishment."

Legolas staggered toward the door. He straightened his shoulders, feeling small and weak, and walked up the hall toward ada's private office. He could do this. He had to. No. He was frightened of what ada would do to him, of what Eigil would do to him. Outside the door to Thranduil's office, he stopped and turned around. He hesitated, not wanting to do what he had so boldly said he would. But the cold look in Eigil's eyes filled him with dread. Eigil would punish him for being a coward and a liar if he could not carry out his threat. The whip would know no mercy. He swallowed and turned, knocking on the door, sheer terror of facing Thranduil making him sick and dizzy.

A small hint of fear came into Eigil's eyes. Surely Legolas would turn back. His courage would fail him. He had been sure Legolas would take the whip over the prospect of facing the father Eigil had led him to believe hated him. If Legolas told Thranduil, he would be in trouble. Big trouble. He stepped forward with more urgency in his strides, and attempted to stop Legolas before it was too late.

"Your father is still angry with you, Legolas," Eigil said. Legolas turned around to face him, his eyes wide. "It was he who set your room on fire to teach you the consequences of being a failure. I know he pretended to care. He saved you before you came to any harm but that is all an illusion. But he may not be so merciful if you ask to be treated as an equal when all you are is nothing." He uttered each word with care, watching them cut into Legolas and make their mark.

Legolas's breath came in gasps and he stepped back against the door, his eyes wide. "No! No! You lie! You lie!"

"I do not lie, Legolas," Eigil said with a pitying smile, coming closer. "I wish I could lie and give you a moment's happiness, but it is all true. Thranduil is a stern father. But I will not be as cruel as your father in punishment for I cannot burn you; melt the very flesh from your bones. Come now and accept you lied to me; that you are a coward, and I will lessen the pain of your punishment. Considerably." He smiled at the cowering elfling.

Tears streamed down Legolas's face. In Eigil's face he saw all the pain that would come his way and he knew he could not turn back now. He had to continue on. But what if ada burned the flesh from his bones?

"Come in!" Thranduil's impatient voice called, causing Legolas to jump in fright. "How many times must I give you permission to enter?"

Legolas turned away from the nightmare lurking behind him and hurled himself through the door, dread burning high within him as he faced a new nightmare, and perhaps an even worst one.

Eigil let out a soft cry, holding out a hand as if he wished to grab Legolas and stop him. "No!" As the door slammed shut, he realized it was all over and he had lost the game. His hands curled into fists and his spat. Legolas had evaded him; behind the doors, with his father, he was safe. And as soon as Thranduil learned of the "punishments" he knew he would be in a bad way. Turning, he strode down the hall, mastering the fury within him as he planned his system of evasion.