The pattern of my days became lazy and indulgent. Although elves do not become ill from pregnancy as mortals do, I still had a share of unpleasant experiences. The loss of my flexibility was the first – one morning, I had tried to rise from our bed in my normal fashion but found that lifting my legs made my belly throb and the bodies in it kick back in protest. I fell back to the bed ungracefully, as Thranduil laughed at my flabbergasted face.

"Surely you did not think that your body's abilities would remain the same," he told me, sanctimonious.

"Surely you do not think that I would appreciate such an observation," I said, adjusting myself so that I could rise more comfortably, and much slower.

"But it might be well to remember," he replied mildly, not allowing himself to be baited into an argument.

Despite the embarrassment that my husband was wiser about pregnancy than I was, I made a point to remember - but it did not make the inconveniences any easier to cope with. I ate like a bear fresh from hibernation, and often had to leave councils to gorge myself in the kitchens, where those that cooked for the palace would laugh at me but still indulge their queen. I also found that my waking dreams became vividly real, and most mornings I would wake with a start to find myself not weaving unending tapestries, or running under the golden spring leaves of Lórien.

My sons grew fitfully, and by the next midsummer I was pleasantly round in all the right places. Thranduil loved it – which was thankful, for without his praise of my beauty I might have given in to despair of the loss of my figure, especially before my belly showed that I was truly pregnant.

"You still have a figure," he told me when I expressed my doubts. "But 'tis now the figure of a woman and a mother, not a youngling."

The midsummer celebration that took place that year was rowdier than usual. From the balcony that outreached from our bedroom, I could see lights burning in the forest for miles, as if when the sun had set it had instead taken place within the trees to bless the feasting. Thranduil came up behind me, silent as the sunset, and gently clasped my hand in his. I turned to smile at him, but I was taken aback to see his brow creased with worry.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Something is stirring," he said. "I cannot shake a feeling that the prosperity we have enjoyed the last years are ending."

"And at the hands of what malice will this happen?" I had no reservations of my husband's capabilities as king, but I had had not such premonitions of doom, and surely something so powerful would not go unnoticed.

"I do not know," he replied, but then he adjusted his collar briskly. "But that will not stop our subjects from enjoying the night. Let's temper their merry-making, shall we?" He grinned at me, his eyes looking as young as they had years previously when we drank from life without cares or concerns. I let the matter drop, but worried for what he was concealing.

I took it on myself to train an older female elf in the travelling diplomacy I had been intended for, though rarely done for the king. Her name was Mariel, and I went to great lengths to ensure that she would think past any of Thranduil's policies, which were becoming more isolationist with myself, the voice of reason in favor of strong alliances with other nations, residing near-permanently in the forest instead of strengthening those same alliances.

"Oh, aye, miss," she told me abruptly, after I had skirted delicately around the subject for several minutes. "No disrespect to the king, but I think we would all sleep safer at night with a few more friends to watch our backs."

I was relieved, and very thankful for Mariel's forthrightness. "As long as you ensure strong ties with Imladris and Lórien, your duty will be well done," I said.

"Begging your pardon, but is it true that the envoys to Gondor have been recalled?" she inquired. "I heard a rumor that Malandi was looking to set up in the city because his service was no longer required to the king."

"I have not heard of such a thing," My words were sharp, and Mariel took my now hostility as a dismissal. I sunk back into the plush cushions I had arranged in Thranduil's hard chair as she exited from his study, where I had been coaching her. I did not want to believe that Thranduil was hiding such things from me, but it seemed that now I had no choice.

We ate alone in our rooms that night, and for the first time in several months I only picked at my food. My apprehension would have been apparent, but Thranduil did not seem eager to breech the topic, and so set about our conversation unperturbed.

"You missed a titillating council today," he said. "I had to stop a fistfight – can you believe that such behavior would take place in a king's council!"

"Yes, my love," I said. "And I would not even be surprised if you threw the first blow."

He laughed then, and some of my concern melted away. "You are a jewel, Caradel," Thranduil toasted me with his wineglass, gazing at me with hot eyes.

I flushed, ashamed at both my reaction and my resentment towards him. "I spent some time with Mariel today," I said. He was aware of my tutoring.

"I would not have thought that a student so lazy as you would ever be so committed to learning others," he teased.

"Is it true that you disbanded the envoy to Gondor?" I demanded, finally abandoning my cold meal and staring across the table, unwilling to back down until I had a satisfactory answer.

"An abrupt turn to the conversation," Thranduil said as he set back down his glass.

"I have been wrestling with the idea all day and I cannot fathom how mad you must be to do such a thing! We defeated Sauron with alliances, and now you seek to dissolve them?" My voice had risen, and I I pointed my fork at him in accusation.

"What use is it now?" he asked, not matching my show of temper. "If we are attacked here, there would be no time to call for aid. Evil does not wait! I only seek to protect our borders with our own citizens, and to put the effort into being a self-sustaining people. Is that so terrible a thing?"

I gave him a sour look. "So evil will attack – as you say, and we will fight it and die before news reaches outside the forest. Very wise, o king."

"Perhaps it is a mite wiser than spreading out our very thin resources! I suppose you have failed to notice that we do not have the numbers we did before the Great War!"

"Perhaps you have failed to notice that without alliances, none would have returned from Mordor," I said.

"Caradel," Thranduil covered my hand with his as he spoke gently. "I know you feel passionately about this, and it would seem prudent but for the warning in my heart. Elendil was a great king in his time, but his line is failing and I fear the degradation of their honor. Please: I have considered this much in my mind and this is my decision. I do not ask for you to agree with it, but I do ask that you support me, as your husband and as your king."

My face reddened. "I would not be a proper wife if I did not advise you how I see fit."

"You would not be the same woman I have loved since I was a youth if you were not contrary to me," His eyes were twinkling, and I felt my irritation dissolve.

"Bother," I muttered, and rubbed my aching belly to soothe the frantic movements of the bodies within, and to calm my own thoughts.