The Storm Begins...
Thranduil pivoted from the nook, heading for the tunnel out of the mountain but Legolas stepped from the shadows before him. His features were set with a grim look.
"She cares for you," the prince said immediately.
Thranduil stilled. "Yes."
"You care for her."
The king's eyes flashed, though his expression remained stony and he didn't quite meet his son's gaze.
Though Legolas knew this affection wasn't within their control, bitterness toyed with him when he thought of his father's condemnation of the fondness he once had for Tauriel.
"Yes," Thranduil finally acknowledged softly. The single word carried a staggering magnitude of meaning.
Legolas's eyes softened. "Father, Tauriel stays in Erebor despite having her banishment lifted because of her affection for Kili. I left home because I could not bear the reminders of her here. We do not form casual bonds. You know better than most how difficult you will find it to deny this."
"You need not fear for me." Thranduil stated flatly. He almost believed it.
"Forgive me, ada… but I will all the same. Few would begrudge you for choosing this path, least of all me, but she is human..."
Thranduil's eyes widened and he stepped back, scowling at the prince. "It cannot be. I will not forsake this kingdom, no matter my personal wishes."
"You speak of the risk as if it is a certainty. Do you value power that much?"
"I value what such power allows me to protect," Thranduil said pointedly.
Legolas blinked and drew in a surprised breath. Bereft of a response, he turned away.
The elvenking watched him go, his heart beating slow and hard, his chest heaving with each heavy inhale, having spoken his heart aloud more than he was prepared to.
Legolas paused. "In my chambers, there is a painting you should see."
Not wanting to delay further, he returned to the tunnel and he didn't stop again to see if the king followed.
Ceridwen stared in awe at Nuineri and Seren, as did the rest of the elves in the ward. None dared speak. The silver luminance that filled the room moments ago had faded, taking with it the Dragon Fire that had plagued the First in Order of the kitchens. Seren stood in place, still as a statue though she blinked and still breathed. Occasionally her eyes tracked something only she could see but there was no recognition of her surroundings.
Nuineri's gaze was fixed upon Seren. "Thank you."
The human's emerald eyes flickered blankly and a faint smile lifted her features for a moment.
With an unnaturally even motion, she turned from them and stared through a window at the sun's rays. In the sudden quiet, the battering ram the Easterlings were using seemed unnaturally loud. Seren no longer flinched from the sound.
Nuineri was surrounded by her friends and her daughter. Cries of joy rose as everyone saw the elf sitting and smiling radiantly. Her gray-hazel eyes were once again clear and the ash of her skin was now a healthy color, pink with life. Amazed, the cook kept looking at herself with wide eyes.
Varis crept into the room and Nuineri spotted her immediately. "Long have you remained from my side, dear friend."
Ceridwen appraised the librarian with a smile, "Your vigil in my hall can come to its end now." She began an assessment of Seren, not expecting much.
Varis blushed. "Forgive me. I hadn't wanted to burden anyone with my discontent during a time their focus would be better spent elsewhere."
"There's nothing to forgive," her friends said in unison.
Varis took hesitant steps until she stood several feet from Seren's right shoulder and gazed upon her with sad eyes. "What has happened to her?"
"I wish I knew," Ceridwen answered, pulling back from the human to simply watch her.
Varis looked to those still in beds suffering in agony and asked Seren, "Could you help the others?"
Seren said nothing. The daylight had her utterly mesmerized as she stared through the glass. She blinked and scowled from time to time but there was no indication she heard her friend.
Halloran glared at them from the center of the room. "The king will hear of this! She is not what she seems! We cannot trust her."
Ceridwen met the warrior's glare. "By all means, tell him."
"She is dangerous," Halloran insisted. "Unintentionally perhaps and thus especially more so."
Abruptly Seren moved, staring at Halloran with unnerving intensity and her features appeared strained. "Set The Heart ablaze with its own flame."
The voice they heard was more than Seren's. It echoed with another tone recognizable to no one. Her eyes shone too bright and her features were too soft and pale, almost glowing.
"It must be found first," Halloran retorted.
"It lives where nothing thrives."
Halloran recoiled as her thoughts erupted in chaos and images. A new recollection fluttered amidst her memories, a picture of a metal cage with a large red organ inside.
Seren returned to staring out the window. The sunlight filtering into the room abruptly dimmed as a cloud passed over the sky. The soft light in Seren's skin became more obvious in the darkened room.
Halloran hurried from the healing ward, unnerved by a sense of something she could not name and an urgent need to speak of it.
Metal clanged loudly in the air as easterners rushed an offensive to try and break the elves' defense of the southern tunnel entrance. Legolas sent warriors to meet them and they danced over the hardened, cold ground. The Easterlings were no match for the woodland kin but skilled enough that the elves couldn't defeat them with much ease.
Faint points of red firelight drew the prince's gaze to the treeline and dread filled his heart. "Incoming arrows!"
The volley sailed through the air over the gray sky and Legolas frowned at the sunless expanse above. Every shield came up and the dragon blood painted barbs bounced off, pinging like metal rain.
"The sun hides," Thranduil abruptly spoke next to him. "A fortunate development."
The appearance of the king sent a shift through the crowd below. The battle slowed and everyone took their turn to look toward the mountain and gaze upon the forest realm's lord.
The wave of observation passed and the combatants renewed their vigor. The elves moved with greater confidence while the human men darted away to regroup and send furtive glances to one another.
The sky darkened further and the air grew cold. The battering ram, pounding uselessly on the hall's main doors, ceased its clanging as the footing of its operators grew slippery with encroaching frost. The sky turned an ominous shade of grey and the sound of clashing swords died away.
"He's supposed to be dead!" shouted a man seeing Thranduil for the first time.
"Tolvaris said he dealt with Thranduil!" said another.
The elvenking allowed himself a tiny smirk. "You were misinformed."
Many of the men shifted deeper into the trees and only halted their retreat when a new voice laughed across the distance.
"Yes… your executioners were taken by surprise before they could see to their task."
Slowly a tall, dark elf appeared from the trees, dressed in Thranduil's stolen black set of armor though it was large on his slender frame. The silver circlet that was taken from the king's head now rested far too low on Tolvaris' brow and had been haphazardly bent so it wouldn't fall further. He grinned and lazily meandered around the stilled combatants until he stood a few meters from the base of the mountain. In the gloom of the overcast sky he appeared pasty.
"I admit I hadn't counted on Seren to be so resourceful." Tolvaris gestured thoughtfully as if considering his failure trivial. "And I underestimated your resistance to our sleeping draught."
The elvenking raised an eyebrow minutely as he stared down his straight nose at the figure below. "Indeed. What exactly are your plans now? You must know your attack will fail."
Tolvaris laced his hands together. "You will prevail, that is true… but at what cost? Elves don't restore their numbers easily and there are others who would finish what we have started, were they to receive word of your people's weakened state."
Thranduil betrayed nothing of his thoughts, his eyes bright with cold fury. "Any who follow would find it impossible to breach our halls as you have discovered for yourself."
Tolvaris grinned wide, an overly-perfect set of teeth gleaming cruelly. "You cannot hide indefinitely and you cannot forsake this land or you risk your people Fading. You will fight because you must. And you will watch your numbers dwindle into ashes until there's nothing left. And when you can no longer abide the demise of your kin, you will take them from here as you have done in the past."
"This forest will not be yours so easily," Thranduil said silkily. "Not all of your countrymen dare risk this gamble. Even now, your numbers are cut by a third as they wait among the trees."
Tolvaris ground his teeth together. His failures thus far had cost him the support of the minor houses though he couldn't allow the wood elves to be overly-certain of this.
"You said they were waiting for a signal to attack!" Lagdar shuffled through the armored men, looking sweaty with worry.
"They are."
"What signal would that be?" Legolas demanded, raising his drawn bow.
"There will be no signal if you surrender Seren to us. Send her to me and we will leave peacefully."
Thranduil resisted the urge to immediately command the elf be struck down, and even so his hand tightened its hold on his sword and his lips twitched with a word now upon them. "What interest is she to you that you would attack my people?"
Tolvaris affected a solemn air. "She is a traitor to our people, a war criminal. She has much to answer for... and she is my sister."
Elrond's thoughts had become increasingly preoccupied with the past the closer they came to the woodland realm. There was a great deal to discuss and some important decisions would need to be made soon. He only hoped he could help guide them toward the most appropriate course. He had his own convictions to uphold and he knew he would fail if he wasn't careful. The Lady Galadriel was already displeased with him for not divulging all he knew but he had an age old promise to keep, the first such oath he had ever taken in fact. He wouldn't falter now.
Galadriel slipped back to his side, quietly asking by her presence alone for him to speak. Instead he resisted her inquisitive frown and gazed skyward, only to draw his own brows together as a sunless gray hue greeted him.
"Are you doing this?" he asked his companion.
"No." She didn't look up but instead watched the shadows on the ground fade away. "The air grows cold - too cold. The sky foretells of a storm unlike any this forest has ever seen."
"It is good we will reach king Thranduil's halls within a day," Elrond remarked with a hopeful smile.
Galadriel didn't share his hope. Her face remained placid as she surveyed the forest around them. She breathed deep of the crisp air and her gaze snapped toward an unseen distance in the east. Wonder and disbelief graced her features.
"We must travel this way," she declared.
"South and east?" Elrond frowned. "The only traversable path here leads north. The human city of Esgaroth lies in that direction."
Galadriel gazed upon the menacing sky and then north. "It will soon be impossible to pass that way."
Again her sapphire eyes peered into the distance opposite the way they needed to go and they twinkled merrily. "There is a familiar yet old magic I sense…"
"We should find shelter, my lady" Elrond insisted.
"No." Galadriel walked away from him, down the path that led to the city of men. "We will travel this way."
There was nothing to be done but follow as her retinue fell in line behind her. Elrond released a long suffering sigh, though his curiosity began to take hold of him, and he followed the Noldoran elves away from the encroaching storm.
Menui watched Seren with the kind of innocence only a child could have and gently stroked the human's hand.
"Would you like some music? Or your easel?" Her expression grew sad when Seren continued her silence and she pulled Taliesin's music-playing talisman from her smock. She shook her head, golden tresses whispering around her shoulders and mouth set in a firm line. "I'll get my flute! I want to practice the song you played for me!"
With a purpose in mind, Menui hurried from the healer's ward, heedless of her fear of the empty and dark hallways that had once frightened her so. The long sprint left her breathless as she swept into the chambers she shared with her mother and cast her gaze wildly about before spotting a long wooden case and a wooden acoustic horn. She collected them, having to stuff the music player back into a pocket for safe keeping before heading to the door. Her lesson work lay open on a table by the window and an idea struck her, making her grin. Hurriedly she rolled up a clean parchment around a quill and stoppered her inkwell, securing the items in her smock before dashing back to Seren.
She stood exactly as Menui had left her, much to the child's surprise. She had thought - or hoped - maybe something would change in her absence. She swallowed hard and watched Seren uncertainly as she set her things on a nearby table. The parchment was unfurled and pinned down at the top corners by little glass bottles and left to cascade over the table's edge. The inkwell was set near it and the quill was left waiting on the blank space.
"I don't know how long your brother's medallion will play and I don't want to forget the song you said you liked so much," Menui said as she opened her reed's case. The long instrument's highly polished wooden body and gold inlay gleamed with the firelight of the lit braziers and it almost seemed to twinkle like fireflies.
"Menui?" Nuineri approached her daughter as though she'd been searching for her. "We shouldn't remain here."
"I won't be in the way, mother!" Her eyes shone, pleading. "Please… I want to stay."
Nuineri sighed and stepped over to the table Menui had set up. "You're doing your flute lessons?"
Menui nodded. She pulled the music player from her smock and showed her mother how it turned on. Nuineri gasped when the little screen lit up.
"What is this?"
"Seren gave it to me. It was Taliesin's. I found it -"
"You 'found' it?" Nuineri studied her daughter dubiously.
Menui blushed. "I was curious about Seren and I went into her chambers…" she mumbled. "And I found a satchel, Tal's satchel, and there was this talisman in it. It plays music!"
"Show me."
Menui untangled the long black cords dangling from the player and helped her mother tuck them into her ears.
"What a curious sensation," Nuineri said as her hearing was muffled. Her eyes widened as music suddenly filled the void and she stared at her giggling daughter.
She pulled the plugs from her ears and gawked. "Marvelous!"
"They only work if they're in your ears," Menui told her. "Seren played this melody for me and I want to learn it before it stops playing."
Nuineri put one of the pieces back into her ear and listened. "It's very pretty…" She spotted the wooden horn and understood what her daughter was trying to do. "I'm sure Seren will appreciate it."
She pulled the plug free again and handed the strange little thing back to Menui.
The black cord was removed and the music suddenly played aloud. Menui turned up the volume as far as it would go and tucked the player inside the horn. The wood amplified it enough to be heard faintly but clearly throughout the room. Many turned to her and smiled or stared curiously.
The song ended and Menui touched the face of the talisman so it started again. She picked up her quill and ink, making notes about the opening strains of the tune before pausing to listen to the flute as it entered the piece.
Varis drifted to Nuineri's side, smiling. "Do you think Menui would mind if I gathered our music students to learn this song as well?"
"You can ask her," Nuineri replied serenely. Her daughter stood, concentrating on the notes she heard and replicated them as best she could and marked them down on her parchment when it sounded right.
Seren made no indication she heard the music but Nuineri thought she might have drifted a little closer to the horn from which it played.