Thranduil's POV

I had been discussing matters about the child, no, ellith we found with Elrond. I had been explaining every excruciating detail. Besides the two of us in my throne room, only the murmurs of healers nearby could be heard.

Elrond continued to speak then, eyes a glitter.

" So you are telling me, she chanted a spell in a foreign tongue and then fell into unconsciousness?"

Thranduil growled his annoyance, as he had already been through all the details many times.

He was about to reply heatedly, when screams from the healer's den could be heard.

"By Valar, what now?!"

Thranduil rose from his throne and gave chase after Elrond, who was already moving across the marble floor tile to the healer's.

ScreamWake's POV

I had heard whispers, ones that seemed far away. I felt a tug near my face feeling cold air around it.

NO!

I bolted upright, eyes blaring fear and madness. Screams of shock and horror where heard.

Where!?

I looked at all the ellith that held my mask, it's metallic glint is the only thing I recognize in a room full of screaming elliths. I duck and cover, hiding my face, ensuring that my hair is covering the sides of my face in the shrouded mass. There's no way I'm going to get my mask back.

I shudder and my chest collapses and moves, a ragged harmony.

"What is going on here?!"

I crouch and hiss at the newcomers, who have appeared in a doorway to which I had not accounted for moments earlier.

Trembling, crumpling voices of elleths babble words.

"M-My lords, s-she..."

I stare through my veil of hair at the two newcomers. One face familiar, the other is not. A dark haired elf and the light haired elf have appeared. They seem to be male. The Blondie, I do recognize. I growl and realize, I am perched on a pale marble pillar, my legs wrapped around it, clenched tight. I glare at them from high atop the pillar, hands out delving scratches in the marble.

My mask.. is gone... My mask. Is. Gone.

No. No. NO!

Unaware of it, an animalistic howl ripped through my being.

The darker haired elf stepped forward, closer to the pillar. My fell forth, my face revealed, I jerked and lowered into the pillar.

I let a howl of anger and grief.

Yet, the dark haired one remained in his effort to come closer.

A multitude of intakes breaths passed. I met eyes with them both, gaze flickering between the two elves. The dark haired one reached out to me and I cringed, hands turning whiter than their normal shade of snow.

I felt a hand touch my face.

This action jolted my fear, unearthed a black memory causing me to lose my grip on the pale pillar. I fell with a screech and then curled myself up, expecting the pain from the impact.

It did not come.

I slitted my eyes open and found my gaze upon the stern blonde elf, icy eyes that swam in worry. He's worried?

He.. actually seems worried.

I turn my head into his sleeve, burying it there. This causes my left cheek to be seen. I no longer care.

I technically stopped caring long ago.

Thranduil's POV

I saw her descend to the floor, heard that pitiful shriek and found myself armed with a new burden in my arms. I had in less than a blink, caught her safely.

She opened those starlight white irises at me, and turned rigid, shock rippling through her frame. She met my gaze for a moment then I felt her relax within my arms. Twas then that she snuggled her face in my arm, and her scar was instantly laid bare to scrutinizing eyes.

Elrond's face turned into one of horror and shock and I mirrored those emotions, despite what niggling voices in my head tell me.

What we gazed upon was monstrous in its mention alone, and that comes from one who has faced dragon fire.

From the corner of her lips to the back of her jaw, her one cheek was slit between her jaws.

(Okay people who don't know what I'm talking about, look up a creepypasta called Jeff the Killer, observe the slit and cut jaws. That is how I am trying to explain it.)

-Continuing Thranduil POV-

Elrond had been trying to gently coax information from her about what her name was. No offense, but he should have left that to myself. I have, in my many years as a ruler, learned this skin well. "Come now young lady, surely you have a name?" I saw her star irises gaze over to him, but then they flickered down and were buried again under thick eyelashes.

I could barely resist rolling my eyes at this attempt of his.

Now, she was sitting on the bed she had bolted from, crosslegged. I could hardly hold back a smile at the surprise the healers received.

No smiles where present at the moment however. So I attempted next, mapping carefully the words I would use.

"Little one." Her head lifted slightly to me, good. I tilted my head slightly. "You saved my son's life. Do you know, his name is Legolas? He would love to know the name of his savior. And I as his father cannot say I do not care to know either."

She had, to my amusement, copied me when I had tilted my head.

"My name in this world is Screamwake. In a past world, I was once known as human. Known as Jasylnne." One of her hands scrunched up the pale cotton sheet that covered the cot. "I am known by these names, and so shall I forever be, until fate writes my epitaph."

Well spoken, for a strange one. I can't help but wish to ask more questions. Then I saw her white gaze had come to meet my own.

"Grotiin los fin klov tol lost fin du'ul."

I raise my head slightly, still maintaining her gaze. "What does that mean?" She tilts her head slightly, the other way.

Elrond watches, no, studies silently.

The she-beast before me sighs. "Heavy is the head that has the crown. I can see your questions as one can see their breath in the white of winter's grasp."

I raised a hand, she shifted slightly, breaking her gaze. "You said you came from another world, you also said those words before." To my slight concern, the woman on the bed who sat crosslegged began to chuckle darkly.

I felt a nerve in my head twitch. I had to maintain my calm.

"I said those words the first time we met because I saw you. You as you. You." She gestured her hand into that of a claw, near her cheek and then gestured to me.

My measure to keep my head about my shoulders was slipping, Elrond noticed this. "That is covered by a powerful glamour. How can you see that?"

To Elrond's disappointment, she held up a hand to silence him. "A question has been asked before yours, I would see it answered then as follows." Her hand lowered and then laid limply and unmoving in her lap. I would have grinned smugly, but felt the corners of my mouth tilt up slightly instead.

"Firstly, to your question…" Her head turned my way.

"Yes." That was all she said, to the matter of her being otherworldly.

Then she turned to Elrond. "To your question… Even a dragon knows that not all that glitters is gold." That was the only explanation she would offer.

Elrond asked one more question. "Are you a new Istari?"

Silence hung in the air for a moment. "Years, hours, months, and minutes. I have spent several hundred of all of those here in your world, and not even I know the answers myself. Your question, I cannot truly answer."

Her voice had taken a strange lilt to it. "However, there is something about everything that calls to me. Speaks to me. Be it stone or earth, sand or soil, all pulls to me, calling to me to tell me their tale." I met Elrond's gaze both pointedly and heatedly.

She spoke once more, and what she said floored us. "Especially the land that you once called Mordor."

-Screamwake's/Jaslynne's POV-

The two elves had excused themselves, and I honestly could not be more glad for this. I hated the questions, but I knew they had to ask them. I can't sleep, after all of this.

And that terrifies me. Normally, I can sleep just fine if someone's being murdered.

But if I sleep in say, a place where the sun flows free and the birds annoyingly call my name? Peaceful to some. By some, I mean most. But I am not most. I am far from it.